SCS Community Newsletter
Week of April 1, 2024
Principals' Message
Dear SCS Families and Caregivers,
On Monday, we turn our calendar pages to April. A quarter of the calendar year will have passed, and we’ll be approaching all the milestones that spring brings in the rhythm of a school year at SCS: more field trips, warmer weather, performances/informances, Jog-a-Thon, step-up day, etc. Our planning process for next year is also in full swing at this time. Next week, you can expect to receive a Family Input Form if you have a student in grades K, 2, 4, or 6. We’ll be using the information you provide to help form our classes for the 2024-25 school year. Also coming up next week, fourth grade families will receive an invitation to a Middle-Level Orientation in May. Eighth grade students and families should be on the lookout for details about graduation, the dance, and events related to the high school transition.
Even though we are still in March as we write this, the end of the year often sneaks up on us. If you have questions that haven’t been answered at family conferences, please don’t hesitate to reach out. There’s so much to celebrate here at school - read on for more information and ways to get involved!
Take care,
Alison, Brett, & Emily
Mark Your Calendars
- 3/29 - 7th/8th Grade Dance (7:00-9:00 pm, Cafeteria & Gym)
4/3 - CVSD Housing Support Drop-In Office Hours (1:00 pm, Conference Room)
4/5 - 8th Grade YELLOW TEAM Field Trip (9:15-12:30, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center)
4/5 - Yearbook orders due
4/6 - PTO 3v3 Basketball Tournament
4/8 - No School (Solar Eclipse)
4/9 - PTO Meeting (6:00 pm, Green Team Common Space)
4/10 - No School (Eid al-Fitr)
4/12 - Cabaret Night (6:30-8:30 pm, Cafeteria)
4/16 - CVSD Board Meeting (6:00-8:00 pm)
4/17 - DEI Community Coffee (8:00-9:00 am, Cafeteria)
4/22-26 - No School - Spring Break
4/29 - School Resumes
2024-2025 CVSD School Year Calendar
The 2024-2025 school year calendar has been approved by the School Board.
Mud Season Reminder
Mud season is upon and we are noticing that students of all grades are coming back from recess with wet and muddy clothes. Please consider sending an extra set of clothes for your student/s to keep in their cubby.
LAST CHANCE! SCS Yearbook Orders Due April 5
REMINDER: The 2023-24 SCS Yearbook is on sale for a few more days! Get your orders in now! They are due April 5th. The cost is $32. All students at SCS are included in the yearbook.
Orders can be submitted to your child's classroom teacher with the order form or you can order online with the following link: Yearbook sales
Extra order forms can be found in the front office.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Nancy Nakhleh at nnakhleh@cvsdvt.org
5th-8th Grade Geo Bee Team
Pictures from the week
27 4th and 5th grade chorus students from SCS joined around 200 other students at the Vermont Music Educator Association’s Children’s Choral Festival on March 22. Students joined together from around the state for a day of rehearsals and camaraderie, culminating in an evening concert for families.
A 7th grader created a lovely birdhouse that now adjoins one of the trees around the playground. With spring on the way, we hope the bleary gray background will be replaced with blue skies and buds in short order!
Elbow & Ricotta have had a great week at SCS!
4th Graders Learn the Art of Crankie Making
Thanks to a generous grant from the PTO, Mr. Caldwell’s and Mrs. Newman’s class spent two weeks with artists in residence, Paul Rocheleau and Rose Diamond, who introduced the fourth graders to the art of crankie making. Crankies are boxes equipped with cranks to advance illustrated scrolls along with live music. Students were treated to a crankie show, and then began learning two songs that were researched and written by Rose, which are steeped in Vermont History. One song, Widow’s Clearing, is based on a poem written by Rose’s great, great great, great uncle, about a woman, Lucina, who lived on a farm in Ripton which is a site on the Robert Frost interpretive trail. Students looked at tools used on the farm during the Civil War era, and saw demonstrations of spinning and examples of weaving. The second song, Ticondera, celebrates the steamboat built in the year 1906. Students learned about the way steam technology transformed transportation and commerce, listened to some oral histories collected by Shelburne museum, and observed some science experiments which demonstrated how the heating and cooling of water molecules can be used to generate power. Under Paul’s guidance, each class illustrated one of the songs on a roll of paper which, when pieced together, is about 50 feet long! This took a great deal of teamwork, including drafting scenes for each panel and coordinating the design and color scheme across panels for continuity and visibility. The scroll was loaded into a borrowed crankie box and shown in a performance for 9 elementary classes. The students were accompanied by Rose on autoharp, and Mike Hartigan on the piano. Special thanks to Jodi Sanders, who lent us her space for the performance, and Sean Murray and Michael Doran for building us our own crankie box, which will be used for future shows at SCS!! Check out these videos!
Congratulations SCS Destination Imagination teams
The SCS Destination Imagination program sent two teams to the Vermont DI tournament at Norwich University on Sunday and the teams won 1st and 2nd place. After months of practice and unique entirely kid made design work, the teams presented some amazing projects.
One team, including Shea S, Parker M, Alex H, Xavier B, and Connor O, created a giant pinball machine that works with a soccer ball as a pinball. They placed 2nd in their category.
The second team, with Elona M, Bell S, Quinn S, Sydney W, and Penelope W, wrote, constructed props for, and performed a play based on a magical adventure at the Shelburne Museum's carousel. They placed 1st in their category.
We had several more students participate in DI earlier in the year who learned some great new skills and made some amazingly creative projects. It has been a fun year!
Thank you to the SCS Sustainability Club
for the great and important work you are doing for our school!
Upcoming Events:
SCS DEI Community Coffee - 4/17
SCS DEI Community Coffee - Wednesday, 4/17, 8:00-9:00 am
Light refreshments served~
Where: SCS Cafeteria
Topic: Outright VT
Will share programming and resources for students, families and schools
Special Presentation
by
SCS SAGA Students
&
Special Guest:
Amelia Schlossberg- Outright VT
Family Engagement Manager
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/hxn-tbnn-sxi
Or dial: (US) +1 929-287-3034 PIN: 665 894 066#
The coffee is open to anyone in the SCS school community.
Last coffee is on:
June 12th
Cabaret Night: April 12, 6:30-8:30 pm
Cabaret night is a very special evening of solo and small group student acts developed by the students. The cafeteria will be transformed into a true cafe and a selection of hors d'oeuvres / small plates will be served. It's all about the FUN but is critical to supporting music enrichment and trips (costs for trips/travel has increased between 20-30% in recent years)
1. Advance In-Person Tickets
- 75 Adult ($11) and 75 Child/Senior ($6) In-Person Tickets Can Be Purchased Here
- Some additional tickets will be available at the door but space is limited.
- Book ASAP if your child is in an Act!
2. LiveStream Tickets ($10)
- This is critical to expand audiences and fundraising!
- The livestream will be professionally recorded and filmed.
- Please invite all your friends, neighbors and relatives to join!
- LiveStream Tickets Can Be Bought Here
All Funds Will Support Music Enrichment and Band/Chorus Trips!
please contact shelburnepto@gmail.com with any questions
3v3 Spring Basketball Tourney: Saturday, April 6
CVSD News
CVSD Budget Vote April 16 or Before
Ballots are now available in town offices for those who would like to vote early. They will not be automatically sent to you if you voted by absentee ballot on Town Meeting Day unless you had previously requested absentee ballots for all elections for calendar year 2024. You may request ballots by phone, email, or stopping in your town offices. You may request ballots for family members who are eligible to vote as well.
Polls will be open on April 16 from 7am-7pm.
Booklets with a budget update will arrive in mailboxes in the next few days. Please see the Budget page of the district's website for additional information.
INTRA-DISTRICT K-8 SCHOOL CHOICE - Deadline April 1
Children entering grades K-8 who live in the towns of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George and Williston may exercise school choice. Our goal is to both allow options for families and also make balanced class sizes to provide a positive learning environment for all of our children. Processes for intra-district choice of school will be guided by the needs of students, space availability, and existing resources. Given this, we will work to meet as many families’ needs as possible. Guidelines and Application
BeSMART
Safety is always an adult responsibility. Kids will be kids, so it’s always an adult’s responsibility to keep children safe. Always assume that curious or impulsive kids may find and touch an unsecured gun, even if they’ve been told not to. If a child handles a gun, a bad decision can quickly become a fatal one. Be SMART adults protect kids by making sure all guns are stored securely, which means they are inaccessible to kids, and by making sure children are never in the presence of unsecured guns. Learn more on this flyer.
Do you need to secure your firearm? Free cable gun locks are available in our school office, the school district's office, the police station, and public libraries. Stop by and pick one up!
Community Events
Upcoming 4-H Events at UVM Extension
We hope you will join us for our next teen science cafe!
When: THIS SATURDAY March 30
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Topic: A “Taste” of Neuroscience: From Fruit Flies to Humans (Learn More Here)
In this café, you will learn about the neuroscience behind the sense of taste and feeding behaviors as we explore this question and demonstrate how we are able to harness powerful genetic tools in fruit flies to study neurobiology that relates back to humans. Our presenter is Molly Stanley, Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Vermont, Interim Associate Director of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, and the faculty advisor for Vermont oSTEM (OUT in STEM). She has been working with animal models to study food-brain connections for over 10 years. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of British Columbia, completed a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis, and received a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Kansas.
Make sure to register ahead of time so we know how much pizza to order.
Howard Center Spring Community Education Series: May 2
May 2, 6:30-8:00 pm - Substance Use and Our Community with Howard Center clinical staff: Moderator Beth Holden, MS, LCMHC, LADC and Panelists John Brooklyn, MD, Dan Hall, LADC, Heidi Melbostad, PhD., and others.
Free and open to the public.
Register here: Spring Community Education Series - Howard Center
SCS Useful Links
CVSD Info
Find information about monthly School Board Meetings, community forums such as the DEI Town Hall, and more on the district website. See the year at a glance on the 2023-2024 K-8 School Year Calendar. See The CVSD Story for the latest blog posts about what's happening across the district.
Let's Talk
Still Need More Information?
Website: https://www.cvsdvt.org/shelburne
Shelburne Community School Administration
Brett Cluff, 5-8 Principal
Emily Cogan, Director of Special Education