SCS Community Newsletter
Week of September 26, 2023
Principals' Message
Dear SCS Families and Caregivers,
What a week! As if anything could top the excitement of the Leaf People returning to Shelburne, an unexpected water main break threw a wrench in everyone's Thursday plan. Fortunately, our students and staff members demonstrated incredible flexibility in evacuating the building, relocating to the Shelburne Field House, and being patient while we made sure everyone got home safely yesterday. We know it requires equal flexibility on your parts to leave work, appointments, or other commitments to pivot on a dime, so we appreciate everyone going the extra mile to ensure a positive outcome.
The feedback we've received so far about yesterday's experience has been overwhelmingly positive. That said, if you have ideas on how we can do better should we find ourselves in a similar situation in the future, please feel free to send your thoughts our way. A few people have reported not receiving the voicemail or text notifications that went out yesterday morning. If that is true for you, please check Powerschool to make sure we have your correct contact number and that you have SMS messaging enabled. Our registrar, Katie Schut, can help troubleshoot as needed. The Shelburne Field House is our default relocation site for any future relocations. If there were a wider-scale emergency (for example, a hazardous materials accident at the train crossing on Harbor Road), we have a few different options and will communicate those plans as quickly as possible. Wherever we end up, we will always wait to dismiss individual kids until we have all arrived at the relocation site and accounted for every student.
In related news, our full-school open house is rescheduled to next Wednesday, September 27 from 5-7pm. Read below for more details - we hope to see you there! We're happy to report that morning dropoff and afternoon pickup have been going much smoother from a traffic management perspective. Thank you all for being patient to make sure we have an orderly start to each day. We have a lead on a morning movement coordinator, so we hope to get that program up and running in the coming days. That should also help limit the congestion at the School Street doors each morning - stay tuned for more information as soon as the plan is confirmed.
With no school on Monday due to Yom Kippur, we look forward to seeing your kids back at SCS on Tuesday, September 26. Enjoy the weekend ahead, everyone!
Take care,
Alison, Brett, & Emily
Mark Your Calendars!
Here are a few of the upcoming events that we'd like to highlight for your September Calendars:
- 9/25 - Yom Kippur - No School
- 9/27 - SCS Open House, 5-7pm
- 9/28 - Shelburne Forward Together, 6:30-9:00pm
- 10/1 - Goats come back to SCS!
- 10/6 - Conference Flex Day - No School
Open House - rescheduled to Wed. 9/27
Due to the water main break last week, the SCS Open House is rescheduled to Wednesday, September 27 from 5-7pm. Please see below for more details.
We are so excited to open our doors to you all! In an effort to reduce the parking lot and hallway congestion, we are asking that families with last names starting in A-L join us between 5-6pm, and families with last names starting in M-Z join us from 6-7pm, if possible.
Your child/children will lead you on a tour of our full school building - you'll get to check out our Art, Music, Band/Chorus, PE, Library, Computer Science, World Language spaces as well as classroom spaces. You'll want to stop by the cafeteria to grab a cookie from our Food Service Team - and you'll get to stop by a variety of tables (either out at the pavilion or in the cafeteria) full of information about some of the incredible SCS opportunities available for students and families (ie PTO, DEI, PBiS, SKAT, SCS FoodSmart, etc.). We'll explain all the acronyms to you 😉. There will be some SCS swag to purchase at our PTO table as well :)
It'll be a long day for our faculty, staff, and students. We'll be wrapping up the fun a few minutes before 7pm so we can all get home and have a restful night before we come back to school/work Thursday morning. We're looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Check out the middle-level fall visual art newsletter by clicking the image above.
Please remind all students to leave personal items at home
SCS will provide ALL equipment/materials needed for the school day - there is no reason to bring any toys/tools from home, unless it is part of a specific plan with an SCS adult. We would hate to have a child experience a personal item be lost, broken, or stolen, and this is an equity issue. Thank you for your support with keeping personal items at home.
NEW Bus Safety Agreement - please sign and return by October 2nd!
We are looking for your help and support in keeping our bus riders and drivers happy, healthy, and safe.
Your K-4 child will be coming home with a NEW Bus Use Guidelines for Students (BUGS) agreement that we are asking you to review with them, sign, and return to the school by October 2nd. (Please review this with your child even if they do not typically ride the bus - they may ride the bus in the future for field trips, relocation plans, etc.)
In the next few weeks, all of our students will watch a short video (during lunch) that clearly explains what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to be safe, respectful, and responsible on the bus. Our classroom teachers and bus drivers will also continue to review our Bus Expectations throughout the school year. For our middle-level students, it is particularly important to remember that technology on the bus should be limited to personal use. Phones should be used to read or watch something with headphones, never to take pictures or videos of other students.
The B.U.G.S. agreements helps explain how we acknowledge and positively reinforce expected behaviors, as well as what happens when students are not yet demonstrating how to be safe, respectful, and/or responsible on the bus. If a student continues to be unsafe or disruptive with a plan in place, we will ask for the family to find an alternative transportation plan (# of days will depend on the situation).
This aligns with the policy of the Champlain Valley School District board to provide a safe environment on school buses transporting students to and from school and school activities and to maintain student discipline policies. Bus drivers are authorized and expected to maintain appropriate student behavior on the bus. Riding the bus is a privilege. Students who engage in inappropriate conduct may lose this privilege. In the event a student is denied transportation privileges by the principal or designee as a result of disciplinary action or consequences, the parent/caregiver will be notified.
We appreciate your help in keeping our rides running smoothly for all! Thank you.
School Photo Details
School Photo Days went smoothly last week! We couldn't have asked for better weather. In the next two weeks or so, your child will bring home a personally customized order form envelope. This will allow you to get to see and choose what picture(s) you are ordering if you so choose.
For more information, please review this flyer. If you have any questions, please reach out to cs@amvphotography.com 802-877-6999
Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program (VTCAP) Update
Student Individual Reports for the VTCAP assessments administered in the Spring of 2023 were scheduled to be released on September 19, 2023. CVSD received notification from the Vermont Agency of Education that the release has been delayed. We will continue to keep you updated as we learn more from the AOE. The district plans to send the Individual Student Reports home along with an Interpretation Guide for families as soon as we are able.
Click the link above to visit the SKAT website. There are lots of great offerings again this fall, starting the week of October 2!
CVSD Fall Family and Caregiver Survey
CVSD values your feedback and we want to know what you think!
We are currently surveying our families and caregivers to gain insight into your perception of our school and district's effectiveness. To ensure that we continue to provide high-quality, rigorous learning experiences that meet the needs of our learners and prepare them for college, career, and the future, we would love to learn your opinion on the progress towards those ends.
To administer these surveys, we have partnered with Panorama Education to conduct our Fall 2023 Family Survey. Panorama safeguards your privacy, keeping your responses confidential and anonymous. The survey will be a valuable source of information for us as we work to make our schools and our district exemplary.
You may complete the survey online between September 22 and October 13 using a computer, tablet, or smartphone. If you have children in more than one of our schools, we'd appreciate you sharing your thoughts about each separately. Please note: we are not certain that the survey saves if you have to step away while completing it. Please try to fill it out in one sitting.
We thank you in advance for your thoughtful responses. If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact us using Let's Talk and selecting the General Questions topic.
Thank you,
Rene Sanchez, Superintendent
Champlain Valley School District
ParentIN Survey
ParentIN CVSD is working with our district to better understand the perspectives and needs of caregivers. Your honest answers are appreciated and are completely anonymous and will not be used to identify individual respondents in any way. Results help us evaluate current programs and plan new ways to support youth and families in our area. If you have questions about this survey, reach out to Amy Sayre at asayre@cvsdvt.org.
At the end of the survey is a link to be entered in a raffle for a chance to win one of three $50 gift cards to a grocery store of your choice! The contact information you provide for the raffle is kept separate from the survey response and cannot be tied to your survey answers.
Check Out Our Upcoming Programs!!
On October 5th we'll host a convenient, virtual event that is a collaboration between ParentIN and UMatter. Kathleen Kilbourne of the Center for Health and Learning will help us identify risk and protective factors connected to supporting youth mental health and with share ways to strengthen wellbeing and reduce suicide risk. Save 7:00-8:00pm for Kathleen's presentation and 8:00-8:30pm if you want to stay for questions.
You told us you wanted to be better informed on social media’s impact on youth.On November 16th, we are bringing back an amazing speaker, Erin Walsh of the Spark and Stitch Institute, for a virtual presentation from 7-8:30pm on Teens, Social Media & Mental Health and how we can help the young people in our lives navigate the digital world. This will not be recorded so mark your calendar now! Erin Walsh and the Spark and Stitch Institute that she runs with her father Dr. David Walsh is an amazing wealth of information and support. We will link to them a lot in our ParentIN communications - we encourage you to check them out online.
Connecting Youth
Whether you're already familiar with what we do, or this is the first time you’ve heard about us, Connecting Youth is excited to announce the launch of our new website. Consider this website a gateway to learning about our work and mission: promoting a culture that develops in our youth the power and conviction to make healthy choices. From our successful mentoring programs, to prevention education, our mission thrives when all community segments, including YOU, play a role. Designed with you in mind, we invite you to explore this digital hub and discover the impact we have on CVSD youth.
Interested in becoming a mentor, or connecting your child to one of our four Student Assistance Professionals? Or maybe you’re interested in understanding more about how prevention education is integrated into your child’s learning. We hope this site will inform and inspire you and open the door to our support and expertise.
Communications
Community/Family Engagement
SCS PTO
Members:
Co-Chairs: Mark Monaghan (monaghan77@gmail.com) and Devin Beringer (devin@consultap.com)
Treasurer: Ken Scott (kenscottvt@gmail.com)
Secretary: Amanda Broder (abroder14@gmail.com)
Social Media Coordinator: Hayley Cimler (hayley.cimler@gmail.com)
Teacher Reps: Katie Birkett, Alysia Wakeman, and Megan Maynard-Jacob
Additional Members & Volunteer Opportunities
EVENTS:
Sept 27th PTO Grant Proposal Presentations 3pm in the SCS Library
Safe Routes to School - NEW Committee - Need Volunteer Leads!
This group is working on sidewalk enhancements, monitoring traffic incident areas, planning out safe routes to walk/bike to school, buddy systems, and much more!
The broader team includes teachers, town committee reps, and Local Motion.
We would love to have 1-2 PTO leads to join this group. If you are interested please Sign Up Here.
Reminder Every Wed. is Walk/Roll to School. Folks will meet at Pierson Library at 7:30 AM.
Nearby Nature - Needs Volunteers!
Nearby Nature engages K-2 students in place-based science learning in their own classroom and schoolyard. It relies on volunteers to operate and is a great opportunity for family members to be part of the classroom experience. Volunteers have a monthly training on the first Thursday of every month, do a bit of lesson prep, and lead a monthly lesson. Read more: https://nearbynature.fwni.org. If interested, please email Wendy Eberhart at wendy.eberhart@gmail.com.
Attend a PTO Meeting
The next PTO meeting will be on Tuesday, 10/10 at 6 PM. There is free pizza and babysitting for school-age kids! For all other dates: Click Here
Looking for Volunteers in the SCS Library
We would love to see some community volunteers helping out in our library. If you're interested, please email Fiona Kovacik at fkovacik@cvsdvt.org. Thanks!
Everybody Wins! needs a Shelburne Community School coordinator!
This part-time position helps to bring mentors together with children from grades 2-4 each week for friendship, conversation, and reading. Work at SCS and remotely in a supportive environment, with flexibility and autonomy. Love of both books and people is critical, good communication and computer skills are necessary.
For more information, see the Everybody Wins! website: https://everybodywinsvermont.org/about-us/openings/ or contact Beth Wallace, director: beth@everybodywinsvermont.org
Looking to help out SCS, and make some money? We've got a solution for you!
Shelburne Community School is in need of Guest Teachers for the 2023 / 2024 school year. If you're interested in subbing for us, please contact Louise Michaels at SCS at 802-985-3331 x122, or lmichaels@cvsdvt.org and ask to set up an appointment for an interview.
SCS is a vibrant, caring community school with fantastic support staff to aid a guest teacher with transitioning to the classroom environment. Thank you.
Celebrations!
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. The CVSD Mission is to develop citizens who learn, think, live, contribute, and pursue excellence. See The CVSD Story for the latest blog posts about what's happening across the district.
Let's Talk
Get Involved
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