SCS Community Newsletter

Dear SCS Families and Caregivers,

What a beautiful week it was here at school! We've been fortunate to have perfect fall weather for recess, after-school athletics, and making connections through team walks and other outdoor activities. While not technically a community-builder, our first evacuation practice (AKA fire drill) was also a great shared experience for the entire PK-8. We know how important it is to prioritize our safety exercises throughout the year, and we are proud of our students and staff for getting us off to a good start with yesterday's drill.

On the theme of staying active, we want to give a huge shout-out to our Morning Movement coordinator, Christine Haines, and the team of volunteers helping our students start the day off with some physical activity. It’s been great to see the gym alive and buzzing with energy from the first day of school. Any students being dropped off for Morning Movement should go to the School Street doors. Please DO NOT drop students in the gym parking lot - that area needs to be kept clear for staff and buses. If students are walking to Morning Movement, Alice Brown will start letting them through the doors at School Street at 7:25. If they’re walking or biking to school from the east (i.e. McCabe Circle, Village Vale, Rt. 7), they can buzz in at the main entrance.

For those who drop students off at the School Street entrance, we’re getting reports that Davis Circle is particularly crowded in the morning so far. It’s gotten to the point where some staff members can’t find parking! We ask that you either A) use the School Street dropoff loop, even if there is a line of cars or B) park on a diagonal in Davis Park and move on as quickly as you can to make sure everyone can get in the building quickly and safely. Hopefully some of this is the usual beginning-of-year adjustment to the dropoff routine.

We have a few finishing touches left for the construction project, which will include replacing some sidewalk sections on School Street and around the bus circle. We hope to have these completed (tentatively) on Monday 9/9. They should not impact your (or your child’s) ability to get into the building, as all visitors should come to the main entrance during the school day.

There are tons of things to look forward to in this first full month of school.

• Our runners have their first cross-country meet today! You may see them behind the post office running in the LaPlatte Nature Park.

• Our first PTO meeting is Tuesday, 9/10, at 6:00 here at school. Pizza and childcare are provided. We hope you can make it!

• For our younger athletes, the first Shelburne rec soccer games take place tomorrow, which means the countdown to the Newberry Cup is on

• The middle school has its curriculum night on Thursday, 9/19. We’re looking forward to sharing all about what your kids will be learning across subjects this year.

• The following week, on Thursday 9/26, the PK-4 community hosts its Open House. More details to come on that. We hope that running two separate events will make parking and moving throughout the building easier than when we do a single night.

Thanks for your support in sending us well-rested, ready-to-learn kids in these first two weeks. Have a great weekend, all!

Take care,

Alison, Brett, & Emily

Clarisse harvested between 30-40 potatoes from the SCS gardens this week. Students in the Multilingual Learner Program will have a group cooking project together using our bountiful harvest. ML students at SCS have been using our summer and fall harvests to create dishes from their home countries.

Ms. Alysia's Kindergarten PE class playing scooter tag. It was a rolling and keeping fit challenge on Friday! Classes have really been enjoying the new air handling system in the gym. During the one hot day last week, it was the coolest room in the building.

Middle school students making the most of a visit from a dog that got loose during recess. This one came through the woods and was quickly reunited with its owner, happily, after some tummy rubs. Please remember that the walking path and playground are off limits to the public during the school day.

September is National Attendance Month, and it's a great time to get the message out to our community that attendance matters! Student absences in September is a strong predictor of student absenteeism. The Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins School of Education found that, in the 2011-2012 school year, students who missed 2 to 4 days of school in September were 5 times more likely to be chronically absent than those who missed fewer than 2 days. Attendance Works has some great social media posts you can access as part of their #BePresentBePowerful 2024 campaign.

We at the Burlington District Office of the Vermont Department of Health understand the importance of school attendance to the long-term health of our youth, and we are sharing a different attendance awareness message every school day in September on our Facebook page. While the larger VT Department of Health has pages on Twitter and Instagram as well, we do not. Today's post can be found here, and a new post will be shared every school day at 9 am in the month of September.

• 9/10 - PTO Meeting (6:00 PM, Green Team)

• 9/16, 17, 18 - School photos (more details to come)

• 9/19 - 2nd Grade Field Trip (Hansen & Stevens)

• 9/19 - SCS Middle Level Curriculum Night 5:00 - 6:30pm

• 9/20 - 2nd Grade Field Trip (Maynard Jacob & Elia)

• 9/21 - SCS Outdoor Classroom Cleanup (all are welcome!)

• 9/26 - SCS PreK-4 Open House 5:00 - 6:30pm

• 9/28 - SCS Outdoor Classroom Cleanup (all are welcome!) Rain date!

• 10/15 - PTO Meeting 6:00 PM

• 10/9 - DEI Community Coffee 8:00 am

• 10/10 - No School - K-12 Inservice/Conferences

CVSD K-12 Calendar

We are excited to welcome two newly hired general non-intensive paras to our K-4 team!

We are looking for a certified elementary teacher to fill a vacancy from the winter break to the summer break of the 2024-2025 school year. If interested, please reach out to Alison Celmer at acelmer@cvsdvt.org.

Our SCS Food Service Team is looking to fill 2 positions in our kitchen. If you know of someone who might be interested in learning more, please reach out to Becky Mashak at rmashak@cvsdvt.org.

Thank you!

We are always looking for reliable, flexible, and fun guest teachers to support our school throughout the year. If you would like to learn more about how to get on our sub list, please contact Louise Michaels at lmichaels@cvsdvt.org. Thank you!

Have you thought about being a youth mentor?

Connecting Youth CVSD is seeking interested adult community members to join our amazing team of volunteer youth mentors. Not only will your mentoring relationship provide support, encouragement, trust, and guidance for a young person in your community, you’ll find substantial reward in being a person who is making a difference in someone’s life. Learn more here!

Why Mentor?

• Build empathy and understanding for today’s young people

• Contribute to the connectedness of your community

• Experience joyful purpose from impacting a young person’s life

• Be a trusted adult who cares and shows up

• Explore new activities, experiences, and passions!

The Commitment

• One hour a week during the school year

• We work around your schedule

• Continuous training and support provided

Middle school mentors connect over fun activities like cooking, crafts and games, while high school mentors help guide students through goal-setting, resilience building, and career exploration.

If you’re fun, caring, and trustworthy, your simple presence can make a difference.

Learn More Today and contact a CVSD Mentor Coordinator.

Kate Rooney, krooney@cvsdvt.org, 802-425-6682

Livy Bulger, lbulger@cvsdvt.org, 802-482-6248

Alice Brown, abrown@cvsdvt.org, 802-734-9845

Becky Martell, bmartell@cvsdtvt.org, 802-871-6046

Alison Duback, aduback@cvsdvt.org 802-482-8921

The Shelburne Community School has wonderful opportunities for volunteers in two different mentoring programs. Which program is best for you?

The Everybody Wins! (EW!) Mentoring Program is literacy-based and matches elementary students with adult mentors for a “power hour” of lunch and reading together. Pairs meet on Tuesdays or Wednesdays during the student lunch hour. The goal is to share a love of books and create a warm relationship.

The Connecting Youth (CY) Mentoring Program is relationship-based and matches mentors with 5th - 8th grade students who would benefit from the friendship of an additional adult in their life. Pairs meet for about 45 minutes, at a time that works around the mentor’s schedule. The goal is for each adolescent to grow a strong relationship with a caring adult.

In both programs, each mentor meets weekly with their mentee at the school, during the school day. Adult mentors are provided with training and continual support. The commitment is for one school year.

This volunteer opportunity is an excellent way to be engaged with our school community and to truly make a difference in the life of one great kid!

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us:

Sarah Wannop, EW! Mentor Coordinator at: shelburne@everybodywinsvermont.org

Alice Brown, CY Mentor Coordinator at: abrown@cvsdvt.org.

CY is also actively recruiting mentors for middle school students in each of our CVSD schools. If you live/work in Williston, Hinesburg, or Charlotte, and are interested in mentoring there, please reach out to abrown@cvsdvt.org and Alice will share your info.

Nearby Nature is seeking new volunteers for the 2024-2025 school year! This fantastic program brings place-based natural science lessons into our K-2 classrooms. Every month volunteers attend a training, do a bit of lesson prep, and lead a lesson alongside other volunteers. It's a great way to be part of the classroom community, explore the world around us, and have fun together. For more information or to sign up please email wendy.eberhart@gmail.com. You can also read about the program at https://nearbynature.fwni.org

Morning Movement is seeking volunteers!

Our early drop-off program gives kids a chance to get out some energy or just hang out for a bit before school starts. We're always looking for parent volunteers to come join us! The time commitment is just 20 minutes, from 7:25 to 7:45, and you can come as often or as little as your schedule allows. For more information about volunteering, or for general questions about Morning Movement, contact Christine Haines at chaines@cvsdvt.org.

If you are interested in joining a class/grade level on a fall field trip, please contact your child's classroom teacher to learn more about the process. It can take a few weeks to go through the volunteer/background check process, so you'll want to go through that process as early as possible.

Would you like to volunteer to support our PE Teacher, Ms. Alysia, and our Kindergarten teachers with Action Based Learning this year? Please reach out to Alysia Kroese at akroese@cvsdvt.org to learn more!

The CVSD HR Department is instituting "Drop-In Hours" this year. During these times, HR will be available for any and all individuals that need to support and to finish their onboarding paperwork. If these times do not work for individuals, we are happy to schedule a time for them to come to the office. The office will remain open for all of our standard hours. The drop-in hours are subject to change if we find it isn't working and open additional time during busier times.

• HR Drop-in Hours: Tuesdays from 10 to 2 and Thursday from 9 to Noon.
• If you have new hires, volunteers, chaperones, subs that need HR support, please direct them to reach out and/or stop in during those drop-in hours. Email is best or they can call the main line.
• Please be clear with anyone you are sending our way that if they cannot come during the drop-in hours to reach out to schedule time with us.

Please continue to reach out to HR via the CVSDHR@cvsdvt.org email address so we can timely respond to your needs.

The South End ART Hop (SEABA) takes place this weekend. " A mile of choose-your-own adventure exploring and shopping at more than 100 locations in the South End Arts District in Burlington."

FRIDAY, SEP. 6, 5 P.M.-10 P.M.

SATURDAY, SEP. 7, 10 A.M.-10P.M.

SUNDAY, SEP.8, 11 A.M. - 4 P.M.

Come support our following SCS staff members who will be there presenting as well:

Pete Boardman & Cassandra Frances - Displaying art in the Innovation Center

Leah Joly & Julia Costes - Saturday at the vending at the Artist Market

Lauren Gianullo - Showing art at the Space Gallery

For more information and a great map of the event, checkout the the Official ART HOP program

Find upcoming events, library resources, athletics information, the monthly lunch menu, teacher teams, curriculum information, CY Mentoring, School Counselors, transportation, and more on the SCS website.

Website: https://www.cvsdvt.org/shelburne

Alison Celmer, PreK-4 Principal

Brett Cluff, 5-8 Principal

Emily Cogan, Director of Special Education