Shelburne Community School
Weekly Newsletter
September 24, 2021
Principal's Message
SCS Families,
Our school community is coming off of yet another full and successful 5-day week. While it was not one without its challenges, we have come out stronger on the other side.
On Monday, we had our first learning group commence remote learning due to a COVID positive. We are pleased to report that not only was that transition executed smoothly but we were able to get the class back into in-person learning by Thursday. That is less than a one-week turnaround from the original shutdown of that learning group (Friday). A huge thank you needs to go out to the teachers, staff, and our health office for making this possible. But, this swift return would not have been possible without the SCS families that cooperated with the quarantine and testing expectations, which helped us keep students safe and get back on track so quickly.
On Thursday, we were down a bus driver due to absence, which under normal circumstances should not be newsletter worthy. But, due to labor shortages, the impacts ran deep and started a day-long scramble that commenced at 4:45 AM. While it was messy and imperfect we were able to adjust, both in the morning, and the afternoon to make sure that all students on the bus route were able to get to and from school safely. Communicating this type of major shift to families in a timely fashion is not an easy task. Thanks need to go out to Lead Bus Driver Pam Weber, all of our bus drivers, and Garrath Higgins who all flexed and adjusted throughout the day to get both the communication and execution of this plan right. It is hard enough to communicate effectively when you know what is coming, it is a far greater challenge to do so in a crisis when the clock is ticking.
Improving both our emergency and proactive communication with families has been a focus for SCS over the past five school years. This newsletter, our social media presence, and the advent of SeeSaw and the JumpRope Parent Portal (5-8) are just a few examples. But, a quality school-family partnership is much more than just a series of online communications. Last year, a representative advisory group of SCS educators known as our Program Council did a year's worth the work in pursuit of improving the home-family connection in different ways. All of their efforts focused on improving communication and relationships between school and family. Below, you will find some of the elements, which are coming to fruition this year, that they helped to develop and finetune:
All School Open House
SCS families received confirmation of the disappointing news that our All School Open House was canceled due to COVID precautions. This was an emotional blow for those of us who developed plans for the event.
While SCS has traditionally held curriculum nights and parent evenings on a team by team basis, our goal this year was to pull off an all-school event. We imagined all faculty and staff present in the school together for the evening. It would have given us the opportunity to break bread together and deepen the bonds within our professional community. We planned to have each student receive a passport or scavenger hunt that would have had them lead their families to see each space and meet each person who teaches and supports them each day. This would have engaged our support staff and EA teachers with families in a way that was previously impossible.
We really value the idea of a night where our entire community comes together as one. It is a difficult task with a community as large as ours, but I believe we will get there. While this event was not "in the cards" for this year, it is something we will try again when the public health environment allows.
Consistent K-8 Conference Practices
When the calendar moves from September to October, it is time to think about conferences at SCS. The days of holding one day or evening of parent-teacher conferences are long past. Our teachers work to accommodate the diverse needs of the families we serve by flexing conference schedules for each family. This means that while we still have two specific days off of school for conferences (October 8th and March 18th), these days are rarely used to house the conferences themselves. These days are trade days that give our teachers the flexibility to make conferences work for all families before and after school hours.
Last year we looked to come up with some common expectations across the school that would create a "conference window" at SCS. This window will be a flexible 4-5 weeks period where teams and teachers could offer conferences to families. The October window is October 8th - Thanksgiving Break (Nov. 19). The March window runs from March 18th - Spring Break (April 15th). These windows will be utilized across the K-8 and each teacher or team will reach out to families with their specific plan.
Conferences will change over the K-8 experience as students move from the elementary level to the middle level. Older students will be asked to engage in and eventually lead their own conferences as we teach skills around goal setting, self-reflection, and adjustment. Some middle-level families get understandably frustrated by the fact that they do not meet with every teacher on a student's team. But, it is a logistical impossibility to have the entire team attend 80-90 conferences for all students in their classes. Please remember that your ability to meet with teachers is not confined to this conference period and you can always reach out by phone or email to set up a conversation with a specific educator.
This October, our default setting for conferences will be to hold remote meetings via either Google Meet or Zoom. This will limit health risks for our students by limiting visitors to the school building. We hope we can change this practice by March, but we will make decisions based on the health conditions at that time.
K-8 SeeSaw Adoption
We are expanding our use of Seesaw this year across all of our PreK-8 classrooms! Seesaw is both a digital learning journal for students and a powerful tool that connects families with student and classroom learning. Seesaw also provides your child with creative tools to capture and reflect on their learning - in real-time. The students’ Seesaw portfolios will collect evidence of students’ involvement in learning, which is designed to demonstrate success, growth, higher-order thinking, creativity, assessment strategies, and reflection.
Here’s a video introduction to Seesaw for families and additional resources.
As we roll this out and connect with you on Seesaw, we need your help. You can download the “Seesaw Parent & Family” app for iOS, Android, or you can use the web to view your student’s learning artifacts. When your child adds new work, you will receive a notification to see, hear and respond to your child’s post. You will only have access to your own child’s work and all of the content is stored securely.
If you have not already, over the next month, you will receive either an email to connect with your child’s Seesaw class or a handout with directions to connect with it. Our school-wide goal is to have all classes connected with families by October 15th. Classes have been staggered because while some classrooms have used SeeSaw for upwards of two years, other classrooms are just adopting the tool for the first time.
We really look forward to using Seesaw across SCS as a way to document and share learning between teachers, students, and families.
So, that's what we have for this week. I hope you find these updates informative and engaging, but as always, don't stop here. We always have important announcements and news items below. We thank you for taking the time to stay informed about all that is happening at SCS. We thank you for doing your part in always strengthening the school-family partnership that is so vital to your student's success.
Have a wonderful week!
Keeping Students Home When Ill (A Message from Our Health Office)
SCS Families,
We are so happy to have students back in our school 5 days a week! We have several strategies to keep our schools safe and healthy but need your help to keep illness out of our classrooms.
Please do not send your child to school if they are sick with any symptoms (ie: cough, runny nose, headache, nausea, diarrhea, stomach ache, sore throat, fever, fatigue, etc.). If your child has any signs of illness, you will need to check in with your child's doctor and have them tested with a PCR test before returning to school. They should not return until you have the results of their test and you have shared those with the Health Office. If you have questions, please reach out to Kelly (kmarcus@cvsdvt.org) or Jocelyn (jbouyea@cvsdvt.org) at 383-1108.
September Updates from Ms. Celmer
The month of September is filled with exploration, guided discovery, interactive modeling, building relationships, establishing positive learning communities, and practicing daily routines. We'll start to work on some baseline assessments with students to get to know where each student is at, so we can use this information to inform our instruction in the months ahead. We'll have family conferences before the November break, so you'll get a chance to connect with teachers in just a few months.
On Wednesdays (early-release days), during the month of September, our PreK-8 faculty and staff will be diving into our DEI Book Club discussions. Each adult in the building selected one (of six options) book with themes on Racial Equity. We're looking forward to connecting with adults throughout the building, continuing this reflective work, and starting the conversations around ways to improve our practice and systems to be more inclusive of all learners.
Things to Remember:
- Complete ALL forms in PowerSchool for each child at SCS
- Complete the Free & Reduced Lunch form (see below in this newsletter for details)
- Label everything - especially water bottles
- Pack multiple clean face masks for your child every day.
- It's helpful if students have sneakers for PE days (we're outdoors and indoors)
- Don't forget to return library books each week.
I will be writing a monthly PreK-4 update in this newsletter. If you have any questions about upcoming events, please feel free to email me at acelmer@cvsdvt.org.
Here's to a happy, healthy, and fun 2021-2022 school year!
Alison Celmer
PreK-4 Principal
SCS News
PowerSchool - Creating Parent Accounts AND Updating Forms
We'd like to thank everyone again who has created their Powerschool Parent Portal account. Unfortunately, we are not seeing a substantial completion rate on the forms.
- Some folks created their account, but didn't fill out the forms yet. Log in and look on the left for the Forms link. Please fill out all of the forms! It doesn't take long; you know the information needed about your child(ren).
- If you haven't created your portal account yet, please do and then complete the forms.
- CVSD set a goal of having everyone complete these forms by the end of September and they're watching to see which school will reach 100% first!
It is very important that we have the most current and up-to-date information to support your child and reach you. Thank you for your help. Reach out to Patty Spagnolo if you need assistance.
September is National Self-Care Awareness Month! This month we are all about making self-care a part of our daily routine! Self-care is much more than getting massages and putting cucumbers over our eyes… although these can certainly be a part it. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as: “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”
The International Self-Care Foundation identifies 7 pillars of self-care: health literacy, mental wellbeing, physical activity, healthy eating, risk avoidance and mitigation, hygiene, and rational use of products and services. Self-care in action could look like annual wellness checks with a physician for you and your family, creating and sticking to a routine, spending time with people who fill up your emotional cup, getting 8-10 hours of sleep, brushing and flossing your teeth, having conversations with your students about abstaining from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, talking to a professional or trusted adult when you notice changes in mood and behaviors, and proper storage and discarding of prescription medications.
As we transition into fall, it might be a good time to sit down with the family and identify ways to add self-care to your day, week, or month. Some of you may find that you already have a wide range of self-care activities sprinkled throughout your days and weeks, and some of you may want to brainstorm items to add into your routine. To learn more about self-care click on the links in this blurb, or contact Heather Bedell, SCS Student Assistance Program (SAP) Counselor.
Heather Bedell, MS (She/Her)
Student Assistance Program (SAP) Counselor
AMV Photography was at SCS during the week of September 13th, taking multiple outdoor shots of every student. In early October, order forms with up to six full color proofs will arrive at school and be sent home with your student(s). The order form will have a URL and student-specific code printed on it so that you'll be able to view the photos online as well.
For those students who missed photo days, as well as those who desire a re-take, AMV Photography will return to SCS on Tuesday, October 12th. The intended schedule for that day was sent to all families, via School Messenger, on Thursday September 23rd.
If you have questions, please contact Garrath Higgins.
CVSD News
CVSD's COVID Recovery Plan
CVSD schools have re-opened for the 2021-2022 school year following the guidelines provided by the Vermont Agency of Education. Vermont school districts are working to meet the needs of all students, especially after a pandemic year. We were required to create a Recovery Plan for the Vermont Agency of Education for approval. CVSD is calling this our Strategic Response Plan. Learn more about the plan and provide feedback at this link. Click here to view Superintendent Sanchez's message about CVSD's COVID Response Plan.
Voluntary Student Vaccine Status Information Requested
CVSD is requesting that families voluntarily share the COVID vaccination status of their child, if they are age 12 and up and therefore eligible for the vaccine. At this time, we will use this information in the event of contact tracing to determine whether or not your child must quarantine if they are identified as a close contact. Individuals who are fully vaccinated are not required to quarantine in the event they are exposed to a positive case. In the future, it may be used to calculate the vaccination rate for our school. If you have more than one child in our school who is eligible, please fill the form out separately for each child.
If your child is eligible for the COVID vaccine (age 12 and up) please fill out this form as soon as possible.
Child Find Notice
Champlain Valley School District is required by federal law to locate, identify and
evaluate all children with disabilities. The process of locating, identifying and
evaluating children with disabilities is known as child find.
Champlain Valley School District schools conduct Kindergarten screening each
spring, but parents may call to make an appointment to discuss their concerns at
any time. As the school district of residence, CVSD has the responsibility to
identify and provide services to any child with special needs who may require
special education and related services in order to access and benefit from public
education.
If you have, or know of any CVSD resident who has a child with a disability under
the age of 21 or a child who attends a private school located in Charlotte,
Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George or Williston, Vermont, we would like to hear
from you. Sometimes parents are unaware that special education services are
available to their children.
Please contact the School Principal (Charlotte Central School – 425-2771,
Hinesburg Community School – 482-2106, Shelburne Community School – 985-
3331, Williston Central/Allen Brook Schools – 878-2762) or the Director of
Student Support Services, Meagan Roy at 383-1234 or mroy@cvsdvt.org.
Important Update About Free and Reduced Meals
With school breakfast and lunch free for all students this year you may be wondering why you should bother to apply to the Free and Reduced Meal Program. Learn why at this link.
Important Upcoming Dates
(A complete calendar can be found on the SCS website)
Oct 4th - Dynamic Dates ticket submission deadline
Oct 7th - Dynamic Dates results announced
Oct 8th - No School, Professional Development
Oct 11th - No School, Indigenous Peoples Day
Oct 12th - Student Portraits Make-Up / Re-Take Day
Oct 12th - SCS PTO Meeting, Green Commons (6:00-7:30pm)
Oct 26th - Music Boosters & Curriculum Meeting, details TBA
Oct 28th - DEI Community Meeting (6:00-7:00pm)
Shelburne Community School
Scott Sivo - Lead Principal (5-8)
Email: ssivo@cvsdvt.org
Website: https://www.cvsdvt.org/shelburne
Location: Shelburne, VT, USA
Phone: 802-985-3331
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShelburneCommunitySchool/
Twitter: @SCSLearns