CVU Celebrations

Dear CVU Community,

This week has been challenging as we engage in hard conversations about reductions in the school budget. I deeply appreciate the grace and professionalism of our faculty and staff as we strive to balance the need for high-quality programming with our community’s concerns about costs. Their conduct exemplifies for our students how to navigate complexity and disagreement with respect and unity, not divisiveness.

12/19 - Nexhibition Night, 5:30 Library

12/23-1/1 - Early Winter Break, no school

1/3 - End of Snapshot 2, Semester 1

1/6-1/9 Wrap-Up/Assessment Week

1/9 - Celebrate the Arts

Hello CVU - Mira here! This week we started our meeting by talking about the budget cuts discussed in the school board meeting this week. The biggest takeaway from this conversation was how high the stakes are for each vote on the budget. Last year, when the first budget was not passed our school had to make significant changes: programs were cut, faculty had to have their positions cut in half, etc. Student Council hopes to build awareness around the budget vote and inform our community about what is at stake. After this discussion we got into our ongoing projects: Anti-Bullying Campaign, House Challenge/Winter Carnival Planning, planning for 8th Grade Parent Night, and of course Talent Show planning. Make sure to sign up for the Talent Show here. CVU commends vulnerability and so does Student Council! That’s it for this week, have a great weekend Hawks!

From Amy Wardwell: Students in the Volunteer Outreach Club (and a few extra friends!) got into the holiday spirit volunteering as "elves" at the Polar Express on Sunday, December 8th. Their energy and enthusiasm as they greeted four trains of families made a magical afternoon for lots of local kids!

From Jess LaPlante: Challenge accepted! Snelling health students took on a 15 minute challenge to build the tallest unsupported paper tower (they were allowed 4 pieces of printer paper and 1 teacher wingspan of tape). Their towers needed to support a tennis ball for a minimum of 8 seconds.

The Hoskins/MacDonald Advisories conducted their annual paper chain making competition. After some fierce debate and triple checking of the rulebook, sophomores won by a loop this year! Seniors won the award for "most aesthetically pleasing" chain.

From Mara Gitlin: Essentials students did a deep dive into a learning about the differences between a human heart and animal hearts. They got to explore what it really feels like and to see how connected we are to all animals.

CVU XC - National Championship

From Dave Baird: Last Thursday, we went to Nike World Headquarters and at the opening ceremony they shared that to get to nationals 25,000 of the top XC athletes competed, and 408 made it to nationals. 204 were young women including the seven on our team. In the championship races there would be 70 individual state champions (outright winners of the state championship races) and 32 state championship teams (we were one of them). Just getting there was an achievement of the highest level. We also heard from recent 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker and I ended up finding him later and getting him to record a pre-race message directly to our Champlain Valley girls (included in the link below). Of the 22 teams in the championship race, we were ranked 21st by most rankings. On race day, it was in the 40's and pouring rain. The girls all ran incredibly hard and ended up earning 19th place (CVU has placed 21st, 21st, and 19th in 3 previous appearances there). During the race, Alice ran through a bloody nose, Lydia ran through a decent cut from taking a spike to the shin at the start, and everyone ran through a muddy, water drenched course. We also had a team with 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders which is not generally the case for most teams out there. And aside from the incredible accomplishment of being in the race, I was most impressed with how our seven athletes conducted themselves during the entire trip. They were polite and respectful, they reached out to other teams and runners to connect, they were always positive, they never complained, they were always prepared and ready mentally, they showed integrity during and after their race, and they were really grateful the entire time.

NXN Pics/Video

From Lianna Reed: French 2 students played French scrabble today in class! Some creative rules to make it all work but fun was had by all.

French 4 students had a wonderful mini lesson from AcLC TA Tia Natale as she taught students a creative acronym for remembering the 9 countries that are candidates for the European Union! We love having Tia in class helping out all French students with her wonderful and creative strategies! Merci mille fois Tia.

From the Bellerose/Bickel-Hayes Advisory: As part of our annual tradition, over the last week students in our advisory have been working on building & decorating various gingerbread houses & a treehouse. We always enjoy seeing groups of students working together and celebrating the season!

From Rae Bronenkant: I ran into one of my students at the Beta Holiday Craft Fair! It was such a lovely surprise to see the outside of the science classroom talents of Solveig!

From Emily McLean: More than 50 educators attended the CVSD School Board meeting on Tuesday, December 10 to share their concerns about the reductions to staffing in our district with the proposed school budget.

Thank you to Anthony Spagnolo for providing treats to the Core Program teachers. They were much appreciated!

From Julie Mincar: Thanks for the sweet poem, Maureen!

Let's show our APPRECIATION for CVU teachers and staff with a SWEET SEND OFF to winter break! Donate a sweet treat pre-break pick me up (cookies, cupcakes, fudge, candy, etc.) for staff on Thursday, December 19th. Please note if the food item includes nuts or other common allergens.
Sign up here!

DROP OFF items at the CVU Main Office on Wednesday, December 18th…the day before the event from 8-3. If you need to make alternate drop off plans, contact friendsofcvu@cvsdvt.org

Don’t have time to bake but still want to show SUPPORT for the mission of FRIENDS of CVU? Send your VENMO donation to: @friendsofcvu

THANK YOU in advance for your support!

VSAC Forms Night at CVU

Join us for a free Financial Aid Forms workshop on Thursday, January 9th at 5:15 pm and 6:30 pm. At this informal workshop, we will assist you as you file your FAFSA and Vermont state grant application. Space is limited.

Due to space limitations: ONE spot per family (One slot includes the student and one adult) Parent name can go in the comment section.

Very important! Students and at least one parent, need to sign up for an FSA ID in advance of forms night – in the past, people could apply for an FSA ID the day/night of the workshop and still file a FAFSA. This year, the FSA ID has to be applied for and verified by both the social security administration and homeland security before being able to be used, which takes at least 3-5 business days. Yes, our handout says 5-7, largely because we are uncertain – with so many people needing to sign up in a condensed amount of time, we are uncertain if the heavy use will cause delays.

What this means is that people really cannot sign up for Forms Night and expect to get the FAFSA done if they sign up the day of or day before the event. At that point, if they believe they still need help, they will need to schedule help through our VSAC Resource Center in Winooski – they will be offering in-person and virtual meetings after the start of the new year.
VSAC Forms Night Sign Up
Location: Room 152

If you are interested in learning more about the technical programs at Burlington Technical Center (BTC) and Center for Technology - Essex (CTE), please note the following dates below:

• BTC and CTE will have an informational table set up at CVU during all lunches on Friday, December 13th
• Please sign up for C3 to get more specific information
• BTC - Tuesday, 12/17 in the Auditorium
• CTE - Wednesday, 12/18 in the Auditorium
• Pre-Tech presentations in the Cores on Wednesday, 1/29 and Friday, 1/31
• CTE program visits on Tuesday, 1/21 and Tuesday, 2/4
• BTC program visits on Thursday, January 23rd

***Please check the Burlington Technical Center and Center for Technology - Essex websites for more information on Open House. Applications open in early January.

Questions? Please contact Susie Moakley at smoakley@cvsdvt.org or 802-482-7128.

• CVU Community Cares program helps students & families meet basic needs, enrich their lives, and help support around food insecurity during school closures. Some examples of past support include: buying groceries, providing for basics like clothing and winter gear, and offsetting transportation expenses.

• Most importantly, The CVU Community Cares program is in need of DONATIONS! Your contributions now will be available to families right away, helping us take care of each other through holidays and economic hardships that are unfolding as we speak. The community support that we have received over the years has been most generous and 100% of donations go directly to recipients. This is a meaningful way you personally can help make a difference right now in the lives of our CVU community.

• When/if you are able to make a donation, it is easy: You can send a monetary donation either by check (made out to CVU Community Cares) or cash (specify that it is for CVU/CC), delivered to the Main office or Direction Center office. The most effective way to help support this program is to donate grocery or gas gift cards that can go directly to students and families in need.

• If you have further questions, please contact Laurie Berryman, CVU Social Worker (lberryman@cvsdvt.org) Thank you in advance for your generosity!