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Directory of Burlington Vermont
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Education :
k 12
Kindergarden Thru 12th Grade
There are 240 Education links for you to choose from!
Some parents in Burlington's New North End are unhappy
with school district plans to transfer a teacher from J.J. Flynn Elementary School to Edmunds Elementary on Main Street in August.
The move, approved by the Burlington School Board on Tuesday night over the objections of Flynn parents, would bring the average number of students per classroom to about 19.3 at Edmunds and 19.5 at Flynn. Edmunds has an average class size of 20.6 students compared with 18.5 at Flynn, according to school district numbers.
Despite what the averages say, some parents fear the transfer will leave Flynn with more than 20 students in some classrooms. Brooks Elder, parent of a first-grader at Flynn and a child who will start kindergarten there in the fall, would like the school district to reconsider its decision.
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Vermont high school students participated in a battle of the bakers
of the bakers Saturday.
Students from nine Vermont tech centers spent the morning cooking up a storm at an annual culinary competition in Essex Junction. The students could compete in one of three categories: cooking, baking, or service. Competitors were judged according to presentation, safety, sanitation, use of product and taste.
...
Top finishers received scholarships to the New England Culinary Institute. Gold medal winners will also go on to compete at a national competition in Kansas City.
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"Act 60 is in Trouble And Somebody's Gonna Have To Pay."
That was the message at the annual meeting of the Vermont Coalition of Municipalites (VCM) in Rutland on Wednesday when legislative leaders and economists spoke about the fate of the education funding law. It was an afternoon of gloomy statistics probably best summed up by Speaker Walter Freed's (R-Dorset) comments: "We told you so."
When Act 60 was passed, opponents predicted that it would not be sustainable. Now, those predictions are backed up by a report compiled for VCM by Northern Economic Consulting (NEC, publishers of the Vermont Economy Newsletter: http://www.vteconomy.com/. The NEC study found that taxes have soared while education expenses have outstripped inflation, despite a drop in enrollment.
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After a year of negotiations and a cooling period
the South Burlington Educator's Association are close to a strike.
Teachers rallied in front of the High School this morning to raise awareness on contract negotiations.
Legally they could have walked out today.
... Teachers are asking for a 16.75% pay hike over the next three years.
The School Board is offering 11.25%.
But a fact finder determined that 11.25% over the next three years is the right figure.
According to Joel McNeil, the lawyer representing the School Board, the school budget has bottomed out .
... Also at issue is health care.
The School Board wants to convert from a flat pay to a percentage.
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At least 29 school budgets have gone down to defeat in Town
Meeting Day votes across the state. With the outcome not known in numerous communities, the number of defeats has surpassed last year's and perhaps be the most since the Act 60 education financing law was enacted in 1997.
Last year 23 school budgets were defeated at Town Meeting Day votes, with three more budgets defeated later in the year.
Burlington voters rejected their proposed .19 million school budget, 3,928-3,733. The budget reflected an increase of 7 percent.
... Among other defeated school budgets were: Barre Town, BarreCity, Brandon, Bridport, Cambridge, Charleston, Georgia, Hartland, Leland and Gray Union, Leicester, Mill River Union, Milton, Montpelier, Morristown, Mount Holly, Mount Mansfield Union, Otter Valley Union, Panton, Proctor, Reading, Rutland Town, Swanton, Underhill, Vergennes, Williston and Winooski.
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Because of the young families who lived in South Burlington,
schools were (and are) a priority. An April 1997 report published by the school district states that 81 percent of new residents with children say they chose South Burlington "primarily because of the reputation of the schools." South Burlington students consistently perform above state and national averages in both reading and math. In addition to the high school and middle school, South Burlington has three elementary schools: Central, which is on Corporate Way; Chamberlin on White Street; and Orchard, on Shelburne Road.
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Burlington High School
offers a comprehensive curriculum, including advanced placement, and a large variety of programs to a diverse student body of 1075 students in grades 9-12. Among a certified staff of seventy-one, most have pursued graduate study and almost 75% hold master's degrees or higher. The Burlington Technical Center, where many Burlington High School students take classes, is located at the high school. The continuing education program, also located at the high school, offers evening and summer school courses to high school students and adults for high school credit.
Co-curricular activities offered at Burlington High School include music competition at the district, state and national level, language clubs, , the International Students Club, interscholastic sports, a state mathematics league, the National Honor Society, a drama club, the Natural Helpers program, Future Business Leaders of America, the Outing Club, Oread (yearbook), Detour (literary magazine)....
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Burlington School District
is comprised of 10 schools: 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 1 high school, and 1 technical center. The district has an articulated K-12 curriculum for all areas, including health and physical education at every grade level, as well as art and music. ... The average teacher in Burlington has a Master's Degree and 15 years of experience.
The Burlington Board of School Commissioners is a 14 member board with two representatives from each ward in the city of Burlington. The Commissioners are elected for two year terms.
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Edmunds Elementary School
serves a diverse group of students including many language groups from around the world...including Tibet, Bosnia, Spain, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Vietnam, India, China, Egypt and the Czech Republic. Our student population of about 300 students includes students from around Burlington who choose to participate in a non-graded primary program for 5 - 7 year olds. This past year, the focus has been on insuring the Edmunds school community a safe and inviting learning environment.
Teachers continue to work with the larger business community and the local colleges and universities to help students appreciate their roll in the larger community and to see how rich a resource it is. We believe the by working with parents and community members collaboratively, we can provide the best possible education for our students. By establishing partnerships today, we are preparing for a better, more sustainable society.
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Rice Memorial High School
is a Catholic high school, operated by Diocese of Burlington, Vermont. Rice is home to nearly 500 students in grades 9-12 from more than 50 communities throughout northwest and central Vermont. A member of the NCEA, Rice is accredited by the NEASC and the State of Vermont.
Our mission is rooted in the gospel message of Jesus Christ and in the historical tradition of the Catholic Church. In light of this message and tradition, Rice endeavors to nurture its students in a personal commitment to intellectual, physical, moral, and spiritual development, a respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life, and a Christian responsibility for the welfare of others.
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1025 Airport Drive is third Centerpoint school.
... The new facility opened at the end of August. It's the third site and new headquarters for Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment Services, a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 by three local mental health providers.
... Centerpoint serves 600 teens and families annually out of offices in Burlington, Winooski and now South Burlington. Some kids come in the door with just one problem, such as mental illness. Others have more than one issue and need integrated services.
... The Centerpoint expansion is driven by broader public recognition of the harms of substance abuse and need for services targeted to youth with emotional and mental health problems, Barron said.
... The expansion comes at a time when heroin use in Vermont is rising. Centerpoint is not designed to serve active heroin users. It does offer counseling and drug testing to youths who have completed detox at other facilities.
A Federal law brings school choice to Vermont.
Schoolchildren in six Vermont schools will be able to attend another school in their district starting this year, thanks to the federal education-reform law signed by President Bush this year.
Students at Wheeler Elementary School and Edmunds Middle School in Burlington will be able to attend other schools in the city. ... Under the new law, students at schools deemed as needing improvement may move to another school in their district. The only schools that qualify are those receiving federal money to help economically disadvantaged students.
There are 28 such schools in Vermont, but only six have other schools at the same grade level in their districts. Students at all 28 schools can receive tutoring paid for by the federal government. Those schools performed below standards on statewide tests, putting them on the list of schools needing improvement.
Superintendents say they've heard from few parents who want to send their children to another school.
All Burlington schools are going solar.
Champlain School is the first in the city to install solar panels on its roof. The panels cost about ,000 and were paid for with contributions from Burlington Power rate payers and local businesses.
"The power that's being generated by the solar panels will be consumed right in the school building," says Loren Doe of the Burlington Electric Department. "It's a small fraction of what the school uses, it's about 1,000 watts, so 10 100 watt light bulbs."
Luckily, electric generation is not the sole purpose of the new solar panels. The city is beginning a Solar on Schools program that will teach students about renewable energy. The panels at Champlain are the first to be installed, but they are already being heralded by the students, and their teachers.
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An empty field in South Burlington is one of two possible sights
for a regional technical high school in Chittenden County. Currently, students in the area attend the Center for Technology in Essex or the Technical Center in Burlington.
"There have been a variety of structural issues that have risen over time, " said Charlie Smith, who heads up a board of business members and local educators who believe its time to update the technical opportunities for area students.
Unlike the current model the schools follow a new regional technical academy would integrate technical courses with other academics.
"The way a school day is structured right now kids come in, take classes, go back to their host school," said Smith. "So there's a lot of lost time just in the logistics of the day."
"We are looking at new model," said Burlington Schools Superintendent Lyman Amsden. "This model gives students twice as much time."
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An initial study of a proposed new technical school shows
some to towns will likely benefit from cost savings while others face small tax rate increases.
The new regional school would replace the technical centers attached to Burlington and Essex high schools.
The study was made at the request of the group heading up the initiative, a consortium of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Burlington and Essex high school boards. The group hired consultants Tom Kavet and Deborah Brighton, who aired their findings at the first of three information meetings Monday night at Essex High School. The pair were slated to speak in Milton Tuesday and will present the same information 7 p.m. tonight at South Burlington High School.
Kavet and Brighton's figures showed that by the fifth year of the academy's existence, there would be a variety of likely tax impacts on the 25 towns in the region.
An overflow crowd of South Burlington residents,
schoolchildren and teachers packed the Middle School library to tell the teachers union what they thought about the current contract impasse between teachers and the district.
What many said is that they support and admire the teachers for their dedication and ability -- but are apprehensive about pay increases.
... Teachers also want to limit the increases on their health care contribution. But many residents failed to see their point of view after they found out that teachers pay about a week ... or a year for a family health policy.
... Others cautioned teachers not to let that one issue break down talks.
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At least three Chittenden County school districts
are hearing demands to reopen teachers' contracts and seek cuts in pay and benefits.
Requests to reopen contracts that guarantee fixed pay increases have surfaced this year in Essex, Burlington and Colchester.
But teachers' unions in those districts have already given that plan a resounding "no".
At least 49 school budgets have been voted down in Vermont this year, and districts are looking at cutting sports, foreign languages and teaching jobs to meet residents' demands for tax relief. .
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Burlington High School Scholars' Bowl
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Burlington high school students will help their school save money
by taking part in a "Green Schools" program.
In physics class, students will learn how to generate electricity by experimenting with things like steam power.
They will also evaluate their own school and make suggestions to the school board about how to conserve energy.
Amy Mellancamp, Burlington high school principal, said, "This will be a chance for students to really see how concepts and skills they read about and see in physics really look in practice."
The school is getting ,000 for its "Green Schools" program.
Burlington is being asked to Consider School Consolidation.
At the end of every school day in Burlington most students don't have to travel far to get home and most parents tend to know one another when they arrive to pick up their children. ... But it may soon be harder to know all the faces on the playground in the Burlington district. The school board is reviewing a proposal from Superintendent Lyman Amsden that calls for consolidating the 10 schools in the district. Amsden, along with school board chair Michael Green, revealed the details of the plan Tuesday.
The schools that would close under the plan are CP Smith ,Wheeler, Lawrence Barnes and Edmunds Schools. Those which remain open would be used as Pre K through Grade four schools. The current Burlington high school would be a middle school for all students grades 5 through 8.
Burlington is considering fewer, larger, newer schools.
The Burlington School District would close one of its two middle schools and several elementary schools under a building plan
the School Board is considering.
The proposal would also turn the current Burlington High School into a middle school for grades 5 through 8. The consolidation
would help pay for a new high school, estimated at million.
Burlington would have five schools instead of the nine it now has, under the plan.
Superintendent Lyman Amsden and the School Board will discuss the plan May 14. The building proposal could stir emotions in a city that many say takes pride in its
community schools. ... School Board chairman Michael Green said that if the board supports the plan it will be studied further and the public will be involved.
"It is at the most preliminary stage," he said.
Burlington is expanding from half-day to full-day kindergarten,
a schedule used by about a third of Vermont elementary schools. The district is paying for the extra ,000 with federal Medicaid money it was owed for special education.
Kindergartners in Burlington used to arrive at 8:10 a.m. and leave at 11 a.m., or arrive at 11:45 a.m. and leave at 2:30 p.m. Now they'll start at 8:10 a.m. and stay until 2:30 p.m.
Amsden said full-day kindergarten gives students the math and reading basics they need for later success in school, no matter their socio-economic background. ... It used to be that Vermont didn't require students to start school until they were almost 7; many parents didn't send their children to kindergarten. The state now requires children to start school at age 6.
... Burlington's move to full-day kindergarten appears to have caught the interest of parents. The number of children enrolled in kindergarten jumped from 210 last year to 268 this year.
Burlington is moving closer to establishing Vermont's first
magnet schools.
The city School Board voted Tuesday on a plan that would transform two neighborhood schools in the city's Old North End into magnets with a special emphasis on the arts or another discipline. Students from across the city could apply to enroll in the two schools under a limited public school choice system that would be new for Burlington.
The magnet schools could open as early as fall 2009, pending voter approval of school budgets likely to contain new dollars for program changes and building improvements at the two schools identified to become magnets, H.O. Wheeler and Lawrence Barnes.
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Burlington school administrators have dragged their feet on addressing
an indoor air-quality problem at the high school, and the city School Board needs to step in and push for a solution, the president of the city teachers union said Monday.
Smith plans to go before the School Board tonight to present a Burlington Education Association statement to the board imploring it to put pressure on school district officials to confront the problem at the school before it gets worse.
The air-quality issue at Burlington High School was first raised in 2002 after three teachers were hospitalized at Fletcher Allen Health Care with heart-related illnesses that were blamed on poor air circulation at the school.
In 2004 and 2005, the school performed a test that concluded the building had no significant air-quality problem. In January, Burlington school officials announced a plan to fumigate the school's "E" building and then canceled it after concluding it was unclear what the fumigation would address.
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Burlington schools are looking for more money, a dependable,
automatic source of cash to maintain the district's buildings. A proposal unveiled on Thursday would require a new tax.
The school district resorted to a bond issue earlier this year when Burlington High School needed money for repairs to the roof. "It's like any other property," Superintendent Lyman Amsden explains. "You need to put money in consistently every single year. You don't wait till it gets so bad."
Amsden proposed a permanent capital improvements tax for schools, the same as the city has for streets and sidewalks, that would generate half a million dollars a year for maintenance. "I'd rather do ,000 every year," Amsden says. "And obviously (unlike a bond issue) you don't have to pay interest because you're paying as you go."
He outlined the proposal at a meeting of the city council's charter committee.
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Burlington Technical Center
serves approximately 310 high school students and 35 adult students residing in Chitten County by offering half-day technical programs.
Twelve Programs are offered at BTC including Accounting/Business Management, Auto Body Repair, Automotive Technology, Aviation
Technology, Careers in Design and Illustration, Careers in Travel/Tourism/Marketing, Computer Office Systems, Construction Technologies, Culinary/Professional Foods, Human Services/Child Care, Media Productions, and Welding/Metal Fabrication.
C. P. Smith Elementary School
is located in Burlington, Vermont. Serving approximately 335 students in grades K through 5 elementary school in the 'New North End' of Burlington. C. P. Smith is a community-centered school whose primary purpose lies in the welfare and education of children.
They take pride in fostering an environment where all adults and children can learn from and with one another. ... CP Smith School is fortunate to have a very active PTO that sponsors many enrichment activities for students, including a family and school-wide reading incentive program, performances during the school day and French classes and a chess group for students after school. Our computer lab is open after school for student use two days a week, November through April each year. The students, parents and staff are proud of their school and work closely together to create an environment where learning can thrive. Come visit us anytime!
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Central Elementary School,
of 10 Market Street in South Burlington,
believes that "Everybody is Somebody." We are an elementary school comprised of kindergarten through fifth grades. At Central School we are committed to developing the potential of each child to become a lifelong learner and a productive member of the family, local and global community. ... We believe in nurturing the cooperatives responsibility of staff, parents and community to educate the whole child academically, socially, physically and emotionally.
... We believe in reaching for mastery of basic skills and developing strategies for learning and problem-solving with enrichments that encourages creativity, active learning and risk-taking. We also believe in fostering the enjoyment of learning where children construct their own knowledge through curiosity and discovery.
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Champlain Elementary School
is a Kindergarden through fifth grade elementary school located on Pine Street down near Home Avenue in Burlington Vermont.
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E-Guidance Comes To BHS
Burlington High School students have a new research tool at their fingertips tonight: The "E-Guidance Center." Its basically a program that allows students to explore their college and career options online. ... Researching the athletic training programs at those schools was easy for Jaime, because of the E-Guidance Center. ... There's also a career finder section, to guide students who don't know what they want yet.
But online counseling still doesn't outweigh the need for face-to-face guidance. ... Burlington High School is the only school in Vermont to pilot test this program.
If its successful, they will purchase it for the coming school year.
Edmunds Middle School
is located at the corner of South Union and Main Street in Burlington, Vermont. Burlington is the largest city in Vermont, and Edmunds is one of two middle schools that meet the needs of the city's diverse population. Over three hundred and fifty students attend Edmunds Middle School and are greeted each day by teams of teachers, administrators and other faculty devoted to inspiring students to become lifelong learners.
On May 2, 1900, Edmunds High School, now Edmunds Middle School, was opened at the corner of Main and South Union Streets.
The school came into existence because of the generosity of the Honorable George Franklin Edmunds. The school board was needed and had allocated a sum of money for that purpose. However, additional money to purchase the land was not in the budget. At that point, Mayor Peck contacted Mr. Edmunds about the property on the corner of South Union and Main Streets, which was the Edmunds family farm.
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Education funding got a focus from the four leading candidates
for governor Tuesday and they split on how much change there should be to Act 60.
All but Democrat Doug Racine had harsh words for the five-year-old law that sought to even out the sometimes broad disparities in towns' abilities to raise money for their elementary and high schools.
And even Racine said that the law needed to be simplified and improved.
... He and Republican James Douglas essentially endorsed the Act 60 modification plans that each of their parties tried unsuccessfully to push through the Legislature this year.
... Independent Cornelius "Con" Hogan also said the sharing pool needed to go, but he was dismissive of the law for what's happened since 1997.
Escalating property taxes under Act 60, Vermont's statewide
school funding system, have left many tax payers and town officials astonished at how fast their taxes have shot up. Up to now most of the arguments over Act 60 have centered on the sharing pool which a growing number of sending towns are required to pay into. But that's not the part with the biggest bite for taxpayers. When governor Howard Dean signed Act 60 into law six years ago not even many school officials fully understood all of its implications for the future.
... Six years later officials in towns all over the state are trying to explain to the voters why school taxes are soaring. Burlington faces a tax increase of over 25 cents, a lot of it driven by a certain part of Act 60 called the Common Level of Appraisal, or CLA, the state's method of equalizing the amount of taxes paid on equivalent property values.
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Essential Early Ed. Center
offers early intervention services for children birth to 5 years of age with disabilities/ developmental delays, provided at no cost to eligible children in homes, community preschool and child care settings, as well as school classroom at the Ira Allen Administration Center.
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Essex High School has taken a relatively liberal approach
to student use of cell phones. New rules this year allow students to use their phones during school in the lobbies, some hallways and the cafeteria. Use of the devices is still banned in classrooms, but by officially allowing cell-gabbing in certain common areas, Essex has taken a relatively liberal approach to the devices. Many high schools try to enforce blanket prohibitions on student cell phone use during the school day, throughout school buildings.
Broad prohibitions are difficult to enforce, though, given that teens often view mobiles as essential to their social well-being. The rate of teen cell-phone ownership more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, and for many youths the notes of ring tones are as familiar as the sound of their parents carping at them to fold laundry or finish their homework.
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Every year, members of the Colchester High School Cares/Red Cross
Club volunteer to assemble Thanksgiving dinners for families in town. More food came in this year than in previous years, students said, due to a lot of advertising and friendly competition within the school, and some outreach to the town at large.
Twenty-five families were due to receive all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner. The students who organized the gift boxes delivered them Saturday.
The food drive literally brings home the point that poverty is not always something distant, said Liz Yasewicz, 17, a senior at Colchester High School.
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Few students applied to participate in fledgling choice program.
Five of about 6,000 eligible Chittenden County students have applied to participate in a public high school choice program
scheduled to debut in the fall.
Three students, two from Winooski, and one from Charlotte, have applied to attend Burlington High School; ... and a South Burlington student has applied to attend Essex High School.
Schools started promoting the programs in the fall with mailings and Web site postings. Essex and Colchester hosted open
houses. The deadline to apply to those schools was March 1. Several other schools in the county, including Burlington, Winooski ... are accepting applications and have not set a deadline to apply. Educators and leaders in Vermont's school choice debate are not surprised by the small response to the program. Research on choice programs in other parts of Vermont and the United States shows small percentages of students decide to leave their home schools, they said.
For most high school students, stormwater pollution is not a
pressing issue. At Vermont Commons School in South Burlington -- as in much of Chittenden County -- it's a hot topic.
One reason for the concern is that this pollution winds up in Lake Champlain. Lawn and garden fertilizers, pesticides, motor oil, waste from car washing, pets, and automotive fluid leaks find their way into streams and eventually flow into the lake. High levels of phosphorus, in particular, promote overgrowths in lake weed and algae. The problem is exacerbated by development that paves over land that otherwise could filter out contaminants.
Students at Vermont Commons School are tuned into these conditions. During chemistry and "research and service" courses, they have learned about water quality and the ecology of wetlands and streams. They studied the problems of erosion and poor water quality. Then they went outside to do something about it.
Their school is located in the Bartlett Brook watershed.
For nearly two decades, Gary Audette has helped raise money at Essex High
School football games, track meets, wrestling matches and cheerleading competitions. Occasionally, he even gets to see some of the action.
Audette, 64 of Essex Junction, has been part of the Essex Boosters Club since 1989. His daughter Nicole and son Brad graduated from Essex High in the mid-'90s, yet Audette continues to staff the concession stand.
During a recent cheerleading competition, the coaches requested that Audette set up a separate concession stand with healthy food for the cheerleaders. Audette obliged.
Audette graduated from Albert D. Lawton -- the high school in Essex at the time -- in 1961. He played first and third base in baseball, and forward in soccer for the Hornets. Student-athletes have improved over the past 40 years, Audette said.
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Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School,
of South Burlington, are dedicated to providing a comfortable environment where we can learn together, and where, together, we can make a difference in the world.
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Free lunches help local school budgets
More than 2,000 of 4,400 Burlington and Winooski public school students are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches, a program that reimburses schools with high poverty levels and affects federal school funding.
The lunch numbers are significant beyond the cost of the food itself: The number of students receiving subsidized meals is
used as a baseline that helps determine federal financial aid. Locally, that translated into more than .6 million for Burlington and Winooski schools combined for reading and math programs this school year.
Leaders at Burlington and Winooski schools say they could see even more help as federal dollars increasingly are funneled to school districts serving a high percentage of children in need.
Schools with more than 40 percent of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunches are considered "high-need," said Ned Caron, superintendent of Winooski schools.
H.O. Wheeler Elementary School
is located on Archibald Street in Burlington, Vermont .
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High school supporters admit defeat
Talk of divorce is dying down in Williston.
Leading supporters of a Williston-only high school said Wednesday they would abandon their effort to break away from Champlain Valley Union High School because they do not have voter support.
The 1,387 to 615 defeat Tuesday of an article authorizing money to study construction of a Williston secondary school resolves the issue for Matthew Clear. He's a father of three who argued for a Williston high on a committee that explored the matter this winter. ... He and like-minded committee member Ruth Painter both said they were disappointed with the vote but will change course.
They'll work to expand crowded Champlain Valley Union in Hinesburg, a four-town school that has educated Williston teens since the 1960s.
Hunt Middle School
is located on North Avenue in Burlington, Vermont. They structure the school so that students make a transition from the Elementary (k-5 in Burlington) schools to High School (9-12). We are organized into teaching teams. Sixth grade students are members of a team which offers students a transition yar from an elementary setting. Students spend most of their day with a homeroom teacher and leave that classroom for exploratory, physical education and elective classes.
Seventh and eighth graders are on multi-year, multi-age teams. Seventh graders are assigned to one of four teams and remain with that team for two years. One of the goals of this design is to offer continuity for students, parents and teachers. Using an interdisciplinary approach, teachers from different subject areas work together to design curriculum units and activities which are often interrelated. Students leave their team for foreign language, exploratory, physical education, and elective classes.
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It seems peer pressure, so often to blame for teens' bad behavior,
also inspires.
Last fall, the Career Development Center at South Burlington High School piloted the 1:1 Peer Tutoring Program to streamline the process of pairing students working toward better grades in math, science and language with those who already have high marks.
Coordinator Nancy La- Varnway said she got the idea after spending hours fielding calls from teachers and parents looking for tutors, then trying to coordinate a time and place for everyone involved. Instead, LaVarnway organized her tutoring applications into a binder for public use.
The result is not only more efficient, she says, it's more effective.
According to LaVarnway, the 1:1 Program motivates students to act more responsibly.
"They're not just being plunked in front of somebody. There's a sense of ownership," she said of the program.
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John Barrows, a former school board member,
...took issue with Amsden's suggestion that Act 60 is responsible for most of the prospective school tax hike. He said the school budget ... accounts for roughly half of the 21 cents.
Criticism over the teachers' contract stems from the agreement last fall, which averted a possible strike. Critics called the pact too generous and suggested that the pay raises might have kicked off a bidding war with other Chittenden county school districts which have struggled over teachers contracts.
Amsden said several factors contributed to the escalating expenses, including the teachers contract. He pointed to soaring insurance rates -- liability coverage up 125%, Burlington's premium for workmen's compensation up 85% and Blue Cross health insurance up 19%. To make matters worse, Amsden said growing numbers of school department employees' spouses are signing up for the district's health coverage.
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John J. Flynn Elementary School
The property on which Flynn School now sits was formerly a hayfield belonging to Starr Farm, but was seized by the city by the power of eminent domain in 1952. The trust raised no objections, and after construction the school opened in 1953. Opening ceremonies were presided over by Mayor Moran and School Board Chairman Floyd Moore. Designed by architect William Freeman, the original building cost ,000 and had 7 classrooms. Three additions have been built since then, and the school now has 21 classrooms, a library, computer lab, art room, music room, gymnasium, and multi-use area. A city park was also recently added behind the school.
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Judge is ready to decide on School Board vote.
Two weeks ago, Whaples Scully appealed the results of a March 8 recount that gave Kane the victory, 431-424. The count on Town Meeting Day had Whaples Scully defeating Kane, 417-415. A third count, conducted by the court, found Kane to be the winner, this time 430-426. ... The work was done in an effort to sort out a discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and the number of residents who were recorded as voting on Town Meeting Day. In the process, numerous missteps were uncovered such as clerical errors and missing information.
In Winooski, residents enter the polling place and give their name to a volunteer, who then checks it against a print-out of registered voters. Residents then sign in on a separate tablet and receive a ballot. Residents fill out the ballot in polling booths by filling in the black arrow to indicate their choice. After voting, residents proceed to another table and again give their name. The volunteer checks the person off and the voter inserts the ballot into the voting machine.
Court employees Thursday counted 901 names marked off the checklist. Friday, they tallied 902 signatures on the sign-in sheet. Later, the judge counted 903 names on the checklist. All the counts were below the number of ballots cast, 904.
Lawrence Barnes Elementary School
located in the heart of Burlington's Old North End and serves a diverse population of approximately 180 students from Kindergarten through 5th Grade.
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Lunchroom Brawl Injures First Graders
Winooski, Vermont - March 7, 2002
"She's a trooper, just a little hurt arm.," Mike Antoniak says about his six year old daughter.
Police say the girl was injured in her school lunchroom, when two high school kids tried to settle a score. The brawl got so out of hand that the teens knocked into the first graders eating lunch, hurting two and sending others screaming and running for cover.
Fights are typically handled by the school, but this time there are criminal charges. 17-year-old Kyle Crete now faces simple assault charges. He pled not guilty in court Thursday.
Mike Antoniak says he wants the school to change policy, and not have little kids eating lunch at the same time seniors do. "People fighting. People rolling down. Police officer putting someone in handcuffs. I mean, that's not appropriate for first graders," Antoniak said.
School officials declined to comment.
Main Street Academy
is an alternative educational program of the Winooski School District and been serving Winooski students since 1997. The purpose of the program is to serve students who have not been successful in the mainstream environment, and are at risk for dropping out of school. The program is based off-site, at 327 Main Street in Winooski.
Students enrolled in the program have had a variety of difficulties in the mainstream setting. These difficulties include an inability to: work productively with peers or adults, work in a group setting, maintain appropriate behavior, communicate needs appropriately, work independently, complete assignments, and attend regularly. Main Street Academy works to provide opportunities for social and educational learning that will empower students to improve both their behavior and their academic skills, and keep them invested in their education.
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Many Chittenden County schools posted scores above state averages
on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) standardized tests that were released this week by the Vermont Department of Education.
The trend was consistent with previous years. Among the high marks: 87 percent of students at Frederick Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington were at or above standard in reading, while at Essex Middle the figure was 89 percent. The state average across all grades tested was 70 percent.
About 40,000 public school students in grades three to eight were tested in reading and math. Fifth- and eighth-graders were also tested in writing.
Many schools posted large achievement gaps between low-income students and those from middle- or upper-income families. Brewster Pierce Elementary School in Huntington posted one of the largest achievement gaps in the county: only 18 percent of students receiving free and reduced-cost lunch met or exceeded the standard on reading, compared with 91 percent of students not on free or reduced-cost lunch.
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Mater Christi School
is a private, Catholic school, sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy.
We welcome students from families of all denominations in Pre-School through Grade 8.
... We, the educators at Mater Christi School, recognize the child's
elementary school years to be of the greatest importance to
complete development of the whole person. Motivation for
maximum learning is supported in a creative and caring
environment.
Education at Mater Christi is provided for the intellectual, spiritual,
emotional and physical growth of the child in an atmosphere
conducive to social responsibility and knowledge of self-worth.
It is our expectation that each child will develop a respect for life,
and, by our joint efforts and support, formulate a value system true
to himself/herself, to others around him/her, and to his/her Creator.
Mr. Michael Pearo of Rice Memorial High School,
South Burlington, Vermont, for the following recruitment tips and words of wisdom about his unique educational travel programs.
Pearo has traveled under the auspices of passports staff for many, many years. His tours are always specially-designed with his Rice Memorial students in mind, offering a true immersion into the European cultures they've chosen to visit together. Mr. Pearo himself has visited 78 countries, including the South Seas, Mongolia, Russia, Tahiti, Venezuela -- in fact, he has visited every continent on Earth!
Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington, Vermont has a long tradition of summer travel with students. Its beginnings extend back into the mid-1960s when we offered a trip every year. These were 42-day immersions, using a base city approach from which day excursions were operated.
Nutrition promoted at school lunch time
In her 30 years behind the lunch counter at Central School in South Burlington, Shirley Menard has seen big changes. ... South Burlington Schools held a nutritional awareness day Wednesday as part of National Nutrition Month. The goal was to get children to eat healthful meals, cut down on sugar and fat, and maintain better eating habits, such as eating more fruits and drinking more milk.
Each school in the district focused on a different aspect of nutrition, food-service director Mark Podgwaite said. ... This year the Chamberlin School focused on produce and had a display with four types of apples the children could try, Podgwaite said. He said the Orchard School focused on the entree selection, and had a poultry farmer on hand to give a presentation.
At Central School, milk was the issue at hand, and New England Dairy Council nutrition specialist Kathy Backes was handing out samples in various flavors, such as cherry, strawberry and vanilla.
Of the 242 school budgets up for a vote on Town Meeting Day
, 198 were approved, but 42 were defeated.
That's compared to 32, defeated last year.
Among those that lost are Burlington, Williston, Colchester, Montpelier, Barre Town, and City.
Two budgets were deferred.
Many blame Act 60, the law that was supposed to equalize education funds.
(In Burlington area high teachers pay was also blamed.)
Governor Jim Douglas says, Vermonters are frustrated with high property taxes.
He says it's high time to change the way education is funded.
Edith Miller of the Vermont School Board Association agrees that Act 60 needs some sharpening, but that it has been beneficial to Vermont students.
She says it provides resources to schools, that would other wise not be able to afford them.
Communities that turned down the budget will now have to return to the drawing board.
Wednesday, 3/5/03
Ontop
is an alternative middle and high school for students who need a specialized education program as a result of emotional and behavioral difficulties. The primary goal of the program is to help students graduate from high school and become better prepared for both employment and independent living. ONTOP was established in 1980 as part of Vermont's increased efforts to provide services for at risk youth.
Orchard School,
is one of three K-5 elementary schools in the city of South Burlington. It is located on Baldwin Avenue, off of Shelburne Road. Orchard is a neighborhood school, and while most students are bused to the site, this is for safety reasons rather than distance. The school is the focal point of this section of the city and can boast of tremendous community involvement. It is a school where parents, teachers and students are proud of the school environment they have developed together.
Orchard School is a one story brick building which was built in three phases. The original part was erected in 1956. In 1970, the library media center wing was added. New construction and remodeling in 1996 added ten classroom spaces and included a project room at the end of each wing.
Click here to read more.
Outside John F Kennedy Elementary School in Winooski,
all was quiet Monday night. But inside the school's library was a heated debate.
... The school board proposed eliminating the Curriculum Coordinator job at the elementary school. It's basically the number two job under the principal.
Mary O'Rourke listened as her job was put on the line.
... Fearing declining enrollment, the school board proposed the job cut as a cost-saving move. The board said O'Rourke was only serving K-5 students, where other school districts use Curriculum Coordinators for all twelve grades.
... The idea didn't sit well with the standing-room-only crowd.
... Parents, the principal, teachers and taxpayers all cried foul. Many testified that O'Rourke has led to improved student test scores, higher morale and professional development among the faculty and .2 million in grant money for the school. The school board was criticized for not knowing what the job entailed before putting it on the chopping block.
Click here to read more.
Parents, teachers and Williston School District food service workers agreed
Monday night that the school food program should offer nutritional and affordable lunches and should be consistent with what is taught in the classrooms and reflect the school philosophy.
"If we are teaching the children that pizza is good in moderation, we should serve pizza in the cafeteria in moderation," said Esther Palmer, a mother of two at Allen Brook Elementary School during a forum organized by Chittenden South Supervisory Union and Williston School District officials to gather community comments about the future of the food program.
The meeting, the first of two, was scheduled after parents brought concerns to the School Board in January about the quality of the food and the deficit the program has run for a number of years, which was followed by the resignation of the Williston School District food service director. Supervisory union officials did not confirm whether the director's resignation was related to the concerns of parents.
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Pecor, who greeted his incoming students at an open house
Tuesday, is ready to begin his ninth year today teaching second grade at Orchard School in South Burlington. He remains among a minority in Vermont as one of the few men teaching elementary school.
Those who work in elementary education say men have few male role models to follow into the field. Many men remain the top breadwinner in the family, and starting salaries in education can't compete with those in industry.
Men are more likely to be drawn to science and math than language skills, which are emphasized in elementary school. Social stigmas persist, including the perception of elementary teaching as women's work and whispers of presumed impropriety looming over men who want to work with children.
Educators say men who teach elementary school broaden the diversity of a teaching staff and give students a strong male figure they might otherwise lack.
Plans to install a wood-chip system to help heat South Burlington
's middle and high schools are moving forward after a 3-2 vote by the School Board to proceed with the proposal.
The .9 million project was stalled by public opposition in the fall after residents, including many neighbors of the school, complained the system would pollute the air and sully school grounds with a 65-foot-tall smokestack.
Supporters of the project say it will reduce the school's carbon footprint, make use of a renewable Vermont fuel and eventually save money. They also point to a consultant's report that says fine particulate emissions from the system will be within air quality standards.
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Repubican candidate for Governor Con Hogan supports the concept
of Act 60. But he believes it's flawed.
"I believe Act 60 is pushing us to the brink of civic and financial train wreck" said Hogan at at Montpelier news conference outlining his education intiatives.
In the good times, there is enough money to go around, but the Plainfield Republican says that's about to change and the property taxpayer is going to take notice "now they are going to feel it and feel it bigtime" said Hogan. Hogan wasn't ready to detail how he would fund changes to Act 60. But he says the sharing pool---the mechanism--where property rich towns share their wealth with poorer towns--should disappear.
He could support an increase in the statewide property tax--if the sharing pool would go away. And Hogan wants the state to take a closer look at how students are enrolled in special education. He believes such a review could save the state money.
Hogan's education intiatives go deeper than dollars. The former Human Services Secretary supports school choice.
Rice Memorial High School class of 1974 directory listing
is the directory listing of the classmates of the
1974 class of Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington,VT.
Hopefully, this will help us stay in touch with
each other and make getting together a little easier. Many of the addresses below are from our 1994 reunion so
please send updates, especially email addresses and your own website url's, to Ron Bissonnette. Put RICEHS74
in the subject line so that I know that it's not junk mail and delete it by accident.
Click here to read more.
Rice Memorial High School's Class of 2002
Click here to read more.
Rising property values in Vermont could have a severe impact
on school taxes, especially in the so-called gold towns that must share their wealth under the Act 60 school funding system. That impact hit like a brick in Burlington Friday as school officials learned for the first time just how high their taxes are headed.
... Under Act 60 the city is required to share more of that wealth. Last year Burlington contributed .7 million to the Act 60 sharing pool.
... Under last year's common level of appraisal (which was set at 83.43) Amsden says a tax rate increase of just under three-and-a-half cents would have raised enough extra money to cover next year's school budget. But with the new common level of appraisal (set at 75.46) he says the city will need a tax increase of 20.9 cents to cover the same budget.
... Barrows took issue with Amsden's suggestion that Act 60 is responsible for most of the prospective school tax hike. He said the school budget accounts for roughly half of the 21 cents.
Click here to read more.
Rock Point School
is a coeducational boarding school serving 40 students in grades 9 through 12.
The entire Rock Point community is a kind of large family, with all the accompanying love and frustrations. Faculty and staff challenge students to understand and embody responsibility, honesty, generosity, and respect for others.
Teachers and dorm staff are here to help students learn, grow, and succeed. They meet with students in one-one-one and small group settings, recognizing and encouraging students in their inquiries and endeavors. Thanks to Rock Point's small size and high faculty-to-student ratio, teachers can work with each student at a pace that is consistently challenging and supportive.
Rock Point offers small classrooms and individualized attention.
Rock Point's teacher-student ratio is approximately 1 to 10 in English, history, science, and art classrooms, and 1 to 4 in math classrooms.
Rock Point has helped young people grow into their best selves for over 70 years.
Click here to read more.
Saint Francis Xavier School
is a special place where the pursuit of lifelong learning is nurtured by the active participation of students, parents and teachers; where Catholic-values, caring and concern for one another foster responsible citizenship; where everyone is encouraged to be a part of a warm, supportive, growing Christian community.
The philosophy of St. Francis Xavier School embraces the four-fold dimension of Catholic education: Message, Service, Community, and Worship. St. Francis Xavier School has a Gospel-oriented mission to give each student a foundation in the Catholic faith and to provide opportunities to practice that faith in an atmosphere of freedom and charity rooted in moral values. Through the gradual development of the whole person, each student prepares spiritually, morally, and academically to function as a responsible and integrated member of church and society.
Click here to read more.
South Burlington High School
is a public 9-12 institution serving the communities of South Burlington, Vermont and many nearby towns. Ours is a comprehensive high school, offering a wide variety of educational programs which are open to all enrolled students. Our website is in transition and will soon appear at the new address http://sbhs.sbschools.net
Click here to read more.
South Burlington School District
Click here to read more.
Speakers at The Governor's Youth Leadership Conference
used research, rap music and pep rally tactics to energize students to return to their home schools and spread a simple message -- be strong and be safe.
The 21st annual conference took place at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center. It was a teach-in on safe behavior, from steering clear of drugs and alcohol to buckling up the seatbelt. Students watched fellow students act out a mock drunken driving crash and observed a mock "roll-over." In this demonstration, police use dummies and a real car to illustrate how passengers get tossed through windshields when they aren't buckled up.
Most of the conference-goers are members of prevention groups at their high schools. They make posters against drug and alcohol use and do surveys on seat belt use in their own school parking lots. Sometimes, the students feel they are in the minority at their schools.
Click here to read more.
Students presented work at annual Schoolhouse science fair.
Following a brainstorming session of possibilities for study six weeks ago, the 54 students in grades kindergarten through six each chose a topic to research and present through written work, visual art and a 3-D model at the fair.
Because it's a co-op, each parent has also committed to teach, or arrange for someone else to teach, one five-week course during the school year. Courses designed to complement the science theme of world ecosystems were presented as children conducted their own research.
At The Schoolhouse, students are grouped into four classes -- called Alphas, Omegas, Taus and Sages -- based on their developmental ability rather than age. Older children are encouraged to help younger ones whenever possible, and problem-solving is a skill that children are encouraged to practice on their own.
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Teachers Union and Dean seem Quid Pro Quo.
The March 4 Burlington Free Press contained an insightful article about the gubernatorial race and the teacher union's endorsement of Governor Dean. For eight years, the VT NEA refused to endorse the governor. Then, in 2000, they did. Why? Free Press writer Tom Zolper lays out a row of dots easily connected - a week before the election, a union newsletter went out in which Dean promised to pay more for retired teachers' health insurance. Dean is now making good on that promise. No wonder the VT NEA brags on its web site that if it weren't for them, Ruth Dwyer would be governor.
-- end --
Teams from two local high schools have achieved distinction
in state contests in Montpelier.
The South Burlington High School speech team won the state forensics tournament at the Statehouse on Saturday. This yearly event, held by the Vermont Debate and Forensics League, gives high school students the opportunity to display their oral communication skills in seven speaking events.
In a previous competition at the Statehouse, the Essex High School modern American citizen class placed second in the Vermont finals of "We the People --The Citizen and the Constitution." The event was modeled on a congressional hearing, in which students testified for four hours before rotating panels of three judges who assessed the students' understanding, knowledge and ability to apply the U.S. Constitution to events and concepts from history and current situations.
The 6-pound bundle of bolts cries, screams, scares pets
and is the scourge of fathers throughout town.
Last year, students in Molly Mara's child development class at Essex High School took home and cared for hard-boiled eggs, used to simulate the delicacy of a new-born. This semester they have a baby robot that looks and sounds a bit more like the real thing.
"The eggs would have been a lot easier because they don't cry at night," Mara said.
Her students agree. Mara requires each of them to spend a couple of days with the baby-bot, which cries every few hours and will continue to cry until one of its pre-programmed bodily needs is met. The baby-bot has sensors that respond to its bottle, diapers, a pat on the back and being rocked. Mara, a mother of two, demonstrates by swaying in place with the baby-bot over her shoulder.
Click here to read more.
The Burlington School Budget
went through some rocky road a few years back, with budget rejections and recounts. In fact, several towns started to have recounts on their school budgets.
Click here to read more.
The Burlington School District announced Monday
that it has received a .4 million federal grant to make its nine schools safer.
The grant was announced by Superintendent Lyman Amsden, Mayor Peter Clavelle and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Burlington was one of 46 communities to receive the grant from among 300 applications. The money comes from the U.S. departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services.
... The money will pay for a range of items, including training for police officers who work in the schools; security lighting for the buildings and video cameras for buses; identification cards for school staff; programs to train parents how to strengthen families; six specialists who will work with students at risk of behavioral problems; and support for after-school and bullying-prevention programs.
Many of the programs exist in the district and will be augmented by the federal money, Amsden said.
The Dean administration is committed to building a technical
academy in Chittenden County even in difficult financial times and will budget seed money for the project next year. ... The Chittenden academy, which would consolidate the technical centers in Burlington and Essex, would be open to students in ninth through 12th grades and would be organized around four "career academies:" science and applied science; business and information technology; health, human services and public service; and arts and applied arts.
The 330,000-square-foot academy, which would be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., could serve 1,200 full-time high school students at one time and ease the space crunch high schools might be facing.
The Dean administration is trying to hold down the state's share
of next year's local education spending, warning that the weak economy probably will force another tight budget.
That's prompting protests from advocates for towns and schools, who argue that it amounts to the state once again trying to balance its own budget on the backs of local property taxpayers.
The debate is playing out against the backdrop of a flush state education fund and the uncertainty about who's going to be governor in January and therefore responsible for the final recommendation.
The administration persuaded Education Commissioner Raymond McNulty to tell school superintendents across the state that the Legislature might have to dispense with some of the funding increase that a formula in the Act 60 education law authorizes.
The discussion is heating up around the table at Edmunds Middle school
about what works, and what doesn't work when it comes to education.
Cate has been visiting schools across the state to gather input from students about the education system. He says kids are telling him they need new ways to learn.
Cate says he's heard that comment from students at every school he visits, especially from boys.
Students are also saying they need longer breaks between classes, more community service projects, and more interactive learning with fellow students.
Recent test scores show Vermont students are struggling in math and writing. Only 39% of Vermont 11th graders proficient in writing. Math was even worse. Only 30% of students were proficient there. But many teachers say test scores aren't telling the whole story.
Click here to read more.
The high school is working to be reaccredited
and residents are being encouraged to participate in the process.
Winooski High School is one of 46 public secondary schools in Vermont that are members of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, a voluntary accrediting agency based in Bedford, Mass. The association's Commission on Public Secondary Schools works with schools in the region to help them improve.
Accreditation from the commission signifies that a school meets seven educational standards set by the association as well as a school's own standards. The association's standards focus on teaching, learning and support.
Colleges like to see applicants who have graduated from an accredited school. The review process also assures residents that their tax dollars are being spent on worthwhile programs that reflect the schools' standards and goals.
The man who introduced a school-consolidation proposal
to the Burlington School Board in April says the plan is all but dead.
Several residents had approached Amsden with the idea of constructing a new high school. He proposed closing Edmunds Middle School, and Barnes, Edmunds, Smith and Wheeler elementary schools to help pay for construction of a million high school.
More than 350 city residents, mostly in the Old North End neighborhoods that include Wheeler and Barnes elementary schools, signed petitions opposing consolidation. The City Council approved a resolution last month voicing opposition to the proposal. City attorney Joe McNeil said the Edmunds schools and the former Taft School, which is used for alternative programs and was also on the chopping block, have deed restrictions that could prevent their sale.
The question seems easy. Should parents be able to choose
which school their children can attend? But many educators say the answer is anything but easy. Vermont state officials have now stalled a school choice program to untangle a complicated law that continues to stir up controversy.
It's a choice every parent has to make. How and where to educate their children.
"Vermont has acknowledged the need for choice," says Commissioner for Standards and Assessment Bud Meyers.
But how to manage that choice is under the microscope.
State education officials have stalled a new federal law, to take a closer look at how it works.
It's called school choice.
The law allows parents to pull their kids out of so-called "failing" schools and transfer them to another in the same district.
A group called Vermonters for Better Education says stopping the process is wrong.
Executive Director Libby Sternberg says this roadblock has "slammed the door in the face of low-income parents."
The Republicans can't count on Jeffords, anymore.
President Bush's education agenda cleared a hurdle in the U.S. Senate last week when it was approved unanimously in committee. Missing from the bill, however, is the voucher component which would have allowed low-income children the opportunity to use federal funds at other schools if their own public schools continued to fail year after year.
While he wasn't the only one responsible for the elimination of this provision, Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vermont) has never been a fan of vouchers. A March 3 email from his staffer Erik Smulson put it this way: "Senator Jeffords does not support private school vouchers; the Committee bill does include public school choice and charter school proposals. The voucher issue is expected to be considered by the full Senate when the bill moves to the Senate floor." -- end --
The South Burlington school budget will increase 5.67 percent,
if the School Board adopts recommendations made by school superintendent Bruce Chattman.
The board votes Wednesday on a proposed ,615,456 budget that does not require voter approval under the terms of the city's charter. If adopted by the board, the city's school tax rate would increase from .94 cents per of assessed value to a projected .14. Of that 20-cent increase, 11 cents is due to the "common level of appraisal" -- a state calculation used to compensate for out-of-date property assessments. Under Act 60, the state school finance law, a state property tax is imposed on property valued at its fair-market price.
Chattman also recommended the district defer until next year about ,468 in school repairs and school safety measures. In a sluggish economy, it would be difficult to persuade the voters to approve a bond for that expense in May, Chattman said.
The state's system for determining how much each town owes
in the statewide property tax -- and by extension how much each taxpayer must pay -- is unreliable and must be recalculated, a Superior Court judge has ruled.
Rutland Superior Court Judge William D. Cohen said his ruling applied specifically to Killington and to the 1997 tax year, and he ordered the state to recalculate the town's appraisal.
Still, he condemned the state's entire system of calculating real estate values on which tax bills are based and suggested the state might consider revamping the system.
... There were different interpretations about the significance of the ruling. Opponents of the Act 60 education funding law said it was an important win. But state officials said it was an isolated case that might be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The University of Vermont's Asian studies program has received
more than ,000 in grants to help children and adults learn about China and Japan.
The U.S.-Japan Foundation will contribute more than ,000 over three years to enhance the study of Japan in kindergarten through grade 12 in Vermont schools.
The Freeman Foundation has contributed more than ,000 for Asian studies faculty to create an educational game that promotes learning about China. The game will be distributed worldwide by Mamopalire Inc., a family business based in Warren.
A ,000 grant from the Paramitas Foundation will fund faculty research and programs in Asian Studies for the UVM community and the general public.
This team is working just as hard as any sports squad.
The Burlington High School Debate team is getting ready for its next competition, with practice sessions six days a week.
"You have to constantly be looking for new information and get information and just constantly reading and you work with your partner on strategy and just practice practice practice," says Sarah Hasazi, a member of the Burlington High School Debate Team.
And that preparation has paid off in spades this year, as Hasazi, along with Lindsay Boutin and Joshua Kernoff have been on a winning streak never seen in Vermont.
... The Tournament of Champions is the national championship of High School debating. The team will compete later this school year ... with an eye on winning it all.
... And while they hope their winning streak can continue, the kids also recognize the experience as an invaluable educational experience.
Click here to read more.
Three more schools are coming off the state's need-help list,
and Winooski High is one of them.
Winooski showed significant gains in student performance, which means it will no longer be identified as needing help to improve under new federal education law, the state Education Department announced Wednesday. ... five, including Winooski, were designated to receive further review, said Kathy Blanchard, the department's school improvement coordinator. The department looked at other data to determine whether those five schools should come off the list.
In Winooski's case, student performance results from last spring's New Standards Reference Exam tests combined with results of Terra Nova tests averaged over two years put the school back in the state's good graces. The strongest growth was in reading and language arts.
... Six schools remain on the list, including Bellows Falls Middle School and Hazen Union High School in Hardwick, which also received additional reviews.
Transportation costs would not change greatly
if Burlington consolidates its elementary and middle schools, according to Superintendent Lyman Amsden. ...
Amsden has proposed closing and selling Barnes, Edmunds and Wheeler elementary schools and Edmunds Middle School, which would allow the district to pay for a possible new million high school. ... The district has closed schools in the past, including the Taft, Thayer and Adams schools. ... Burlington does not have school-bus routes, so with fewer schools students would have to walk longer distances or take Chittenden County Transportation Authority buses. The district pays about ,000 a year for some students to ride CCTA buses, Amsden said. He estimated it could cost another ,000 a year for additional students to take public transit.
"Busing potentially becomes a problem," Amsden said.
Vermont Education Department on Friday posted a Web site
listing of teachers who have been disciplined for misconduct since 2000.
The move came in response to criticism that the public is often unaware of teacher misconduct even though the final paperwork on educator license sanctions are a matter of public record.
Richard Cross, a retired teacher and administrator who lives in Johnson, was among taxpayers who pushed the state to make teacher sanction information more accessible. He called the new Web listing a "very, very, very" good thing.
Cross started following the issue this summer. That's when it came to light that a teacher at Lamoille Union High School in Hyde Park had been given a 20-day license suspension last winter for having consensual sex with a teacher's assistant in the classroom.
Few people in the community initially knew of the suspension. Cross and others believed that was wrong. The teacher, Wayne Nadeau, was subsequently fired and has filed a grievance seeking reinstatement.
Click here to read more.
Vermont has Ended any official Homosexual Funding
MONTPELIER - The state Education Department has decided not to pay ,000 to Outright Vermont to work with gay and lesbian youth in the state's schools, opting to do the outreach itself. Outright Vermont will be relied upon by the state to help with teacher training, while Education Department staff members go into schools to work with students on issues related to a "safe schools" initiative that is not limited just to gay and lesbian youth. But Outright Vermont will not receive ,000 that the Legislature appropriated to the Education Department for work on preventing HIV and AIDS among youth, money that was intended for the Burlington-based group.
-- end --
Vermont police said they had to remove a 15-year-old
from a basketball game in Essex after witnesses said the student had a gun hidden in his sweatshirt.
Police said the Essex student brought a rifle-type B.B. Gun into the game. Someone in the crowd saw the gun in the shirt and called police.
Police said the student was escorted from the building and the gun was taken away.
Click here to read more.
Vermont released the 2002 student assessment scores
on Thursday, Sept. 19. Here, you can search by Town or School and receive grade-by-grade results for the years 1999 - 2002.
Click here to read more.
Vermont voters noticed the benefits of reforms
to the state's school funding law when they passed all but six school budgets on town meeting day this week. But there IS a flip side to the tax system, and businesses in Burlington especially will soon take a heavy hit.
Burlington has a lot of non-residential property, including the retail-heavy Church Street Marketplace. The owners of properties like those will see a 30% increase in their education property taxes under the revised statewide school funding system known as Act 68.
... City-wide property reappraisal, due to take effect next year, is expected to take some of the burden off commercial properties, which have not risen in value as rapidly as residential property, as a whole. But the burden must fall somewhere. And local officials are quick to point out that the school tax portion is now an entirely state tax, out of their control.
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Vermont's state-wide property tax has been illegally computed
since 1997, according to a judge's court ruling.
Killington officials filed suit against the state in 1997 claiming the town paid too much into the education fund because state tax officials used an assessment methodology that overinflated the town's grand list.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, Rutland Superior Court Judge William Cohen agreed, writing that the state's methodologies "resulted in disproportionate and inequitable taxation among Vermont's municipalities in violation of the constitutional requirement of proportional contribution."
Cohen ordered the tax commissioner to recompute Killington's Act 60 tax computation for 1997 , suggesting that it would be the job of the legislature to redesign an assessment methodology for other communities.
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Voters in three dozen Vermont towns have faced special
elections on failed school budgets this year. Burlington schools promised that only one more vote would be held, and that's on Tuesday.
Three days before the special election, Kids Day in downtown Burlington provided the theme for school budget supporters. Their parade float hammered home the message: "Vote Yes!" they chanted.
A yes vote would authorize spending of just over .5 million during the year that begins in July, and cover higher salaries and benefits, insurance premiums and Burlington's rising obligation to Act 60, the statewide school funding system. A no vote would force spending at this year's level, requiring .5 million worth of cuts in teachers and programs.
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Weeks after a gunman walked into Essex Elementary School
in August 2006, workers installed an electronic locking system at the school's main entrance.
More than a year after the shooting spree that killed second-grade teacher Alicia Shanks and wounded first-grade teacher Jenky Snedeker, Essex Superintendent Jim Fitzpatrick announced the school would cease using the system, beginning after the holiday break.
Under the system during school hours, staff had to punch in a code to open the school's front doors. The other two schools in the district -- Founders Memorial School and Essex Middle School -- lacked the system. Fitzpatrick said he did not consider installing similar systems at other schools to achieve consistency. The school didn't pay to maintain the system, he said.
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Williston school works to improve lunch menu.
Chittenden South Supervisory Union and Williston School District officials are taking action to change the school lunch program at Williston elementary and middle schools after the recent resignation of food service program director Lydia King and concerns raised by parents about the quality of the program.
A community forum will take place Feb. 18 at Williston Central School to give parents and community members the chance to voice their expectations and help shape the future of the program, said CSSU business office head Bob Mason, whose office runs the school lunch program.
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Winooski Has Set April 23 For A Court-Ordered Election.
It's rare when a judge throws out the results of an election and orders a new one. But that's what happened in Winooski after voting irregularities could not be resolved. The new election for a seat on the Winooski school board has been set for Tuesday, April 23rd.
The recount of ballots cast in the race between incumbent Tom Kane and challenger Wendy Waples Scully would not resolve the election. A two-vote margin of victory for Scully turned into a seven-vote margin for Kane. But when Scully appealed to superior court, the judge found unexplained discrepancies between the number of voters and the number of ballots -- and ordered a new election.
Scully says a new election is the best way to resolve the matter, expecting that it will go smoothly this time. "I believe that the city clerk's office will do everything it meant to do the first time around, this time correctly," she said.
Winooski residents have a reputation of rejecting school
and municipal budgets on occasion, but the city officials say their proposals this year contain the magic words: No tax increase.
The proposed school budget is .7 million, up a bit less than 2 percent from the current spending plan. Because of the way the state calculates property assessment levels and counts the number of children in the school system, members of the School Board think school property taxes will decline a little for most residents.
The school budget is increasing at a pace slower than inflation because school administrators and members of the School Board said they decided to avoid increasing spending on most items. The city's schools also have rejiggered the administrative staff, saving ,000. The schools would have two fewer teachers under the proposed budget. Past efforts to improve technology and fortify energy saving programs are beginning to pay off.
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Winooski School Board race reversed on recount
WINOOSKI -- The surprising outcome of a close School Board race was reversed on a recount Friday -- in favor of the incumbent.
After a hand count of the 904 ballots cast, board member Thomas Kane Jr. defeated challenger Wendy Whaples-Scully, 431-424,
for a two-year seat on the board. The new winning margin was almost as narrow as the first from Tuesday's election, which had Whaples-Scully winning by two votes, 417-415.
The new tally came after the Board of Civil Authority examined all the ballots, including 25 that had been counted as blank by the vote-counting machine. When those 25 ballots were inspected Friday, 23 were found to show identifiable votes, and two were deemed invalid. Of those 23 votes, Kane received 16, Whaples-Scully 7, giving Kane the edge.
The new result surprised both candidates, who watched the recount at the City Hall.
Winooski School District
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Winooski schools have two new tools this year
to help ensure that students attend school and that they are not disruptive when they are in class.
The City Council passed two ordinances this summer that went into effect Sept. 1 to address problem students. The disturbing schools law makes it a misdemeanor to disrupt students or teachers. The day-time curfew law created a misdemeanor violation for students who are caught out of class during school hours.
Students who run afoul of the laws are referred to the city's reparative board. The board members decide on an appropriate punishment for the student, often some form of community service. If students complete the board's requirements, they don't have to pay a fine and their criminal records are not affected.
This year, five students have been cited for disturbing school and three for cutting classes. Some of the students, who are middle and high schoolers, have multiple citations.
Winooski voters will head back to the polls
to pick a member of the School Board after a Chittenden Superior Court ruling that ordered a new election.
The number of voters did not jibe with the number of ballots cast in the Town Meeting Day election for a two-year seat on the board, Judge Mary Miles Teachout wrote in a Tuesday ruling. That mismatch prompted the call for a new election, the judge said.
Incumbent board President Thomas Kane apparently lost to Wendy Whaples Scully on Town Meeting Day, but a recount showed Kane with the victory, which Whaples Scully challenged in court.
The court found discrepancies in the number of voters. Teachout said she could only verify that 897 voters cast valid ballots in the election, but 904 ballots were counted. The margin of victory in the race was only four votes.
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