School Newsletter
Quarter I - Fall 2018
Exploring Sports Management at an Ivy League: Dartmouth College
Elks Lodge Honors Lydia Brown for Her Service Work
Empowering Our Young Ladies: Women Can Do Conference
Message from the Supervisory Union
From the Desk of the Superintendent
With winter weather approaching us rapidly, it is time again to prepare for school cancellation and delay decisions. This page provides an outline of the process we follow for making school cancellation/delay decisions for weather events.
1. Prior to a “weather event” and early in the morning of an event, we gather information from a variety of sources:
- We look at forecasts from a variety of sources well in advance.
- We contract with Roger Hill to provide regular updates and consultation, both prior to and on the morning of events. We receive consultation and advice from NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) as well.
- We communicate, as appropriate, with the road crews and/or police departments for
both Barre Town and Barre City, as well as our contracted transportation company and
our own staff who are on the roads early.
- We communicate with other school superintendents in the region to coordinate
closing/delay decisions when it makes sense, realizing localized conditions and other
factors may necessitate different decisions for different supervisory unions and districts.
2. Our goal is to have a decision made by 5:30am.
- This is not always possible, as there are many things happening quickly.
- Most often, Roger Hill and NOAA make a recommendation and we follow it, as they get
automatic input from many sources and have expertise that we do not. They consider
what has happened, what is happening currently and what is most likely to happen as the day goes on. It is rare that our own information does not align with their recommendation.
- If the recommendations have not come out by 5:30am, we wait a little longer.
- If we feel like we have information and circumstances that requires a different decision
than the experts’ recommendations, we review everything again carefully before making that decision.
3. Once a decision is made to delay or close, we communicate in the following ways:
- We initiate a “Call Em All” through the phone system.
- We contact the media.
- We send out an email to all staff.
- We post on Facebook, Twitter, web pages, and phone greetings.
- We contact the police and road crews.
- We contact the food and transportation companies.
The decision to delay or cancel is extremely important for everyone’s safety. We take it very seriously. There is no guarantee that we can make the correct decision every time, but we do our absolute best. Please help us by being patient and understanding, and providing appropriate and constructive feedback.
Sincerely,
John Pandolfo
Superintendent of Schools
Save the Date: General Election
Voters in Barre Town and Barre City will soon be deciding – for the third time in Barre Town and the second in Barre City – whether to merge their school boards.
The vote on November 6 comes just weeks before the Vermont State Board of Education’s November 30th deadline; if the Barre Town and Barre City do not both vote for a merger, then the State Board of Education will be compelled to make a decision on whether to merge the Barre districts as part of the final Statewide Plan of Act 46.
Tuesday, Nov 6, 2018, 07:00 AM
Barre, Vermont
STUDENT and PARENT RESOURCES
SAVE the DATE: Senior Class Meeting
Please spread the word and encourage your fellow classmates to attend.
Tuesday, Nov 6, 2018, 12:00 PM
Spaulding High School, Ayers Street, Barre, VT, USA
SPOTLIGHT on STUDENTS
When Atypical meets Typical
Dig a little deeper and one discovers an unusual back story to his “typicalness.”
For much of his pre-teen years Ezra and his two brothers lived in a cabin on the side of Hardscrabble Mountain in the Northeast Kingdom village of Sheffield.
“Most of my time I was outside in the woods reading,” he said, “because my parents didn’t want us inside watching TV.”
By the time his family moved back to Barre Town, he was, if nothing else, well-versed in woodcraft and a love of reading.
His innate curiosity, honed on Hardscrabble Mountain, has served him well at Spaulding. He’s happily lodged in several honors and AP classes, with history being what he calls his “most entertaining” class.
He’s also immersed in all things music, from ensemble singing to playing tenor sax in Jazz Band. His newest challenge is guitar. “Over the summer,” he said, “I taught myself how to play and I’m actually getting pretty good at it.” The Drama Club also grabs his attention. He’s the guy up in the booth, in charge of mikes and lights.
As noted, Ezra is one fully engaged dude. Other activities include leadership positions with the student council and Math Club. It also includes first time forays with the school’s Ultimate Frisbee team and indoor track.
Ezra, wise beyond his years in the woods, has learned a few things about staying afloat in high school. His three top rules:
1. “Be honest with your teacher. That’s the biggest thing I learned so far. Be straight out with teachers, don’t come up with dumb excuses.”
2. “Avoid problems with other people. Just be nice. It works like a charm.”
3. “Stay on top of work.”
Despite Ezra’s atypical love of reading, he still reveals a streak of typical when he proclaims his general philosophy of reading: “If a book interests me (such as Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, which he’s reading in English class) I’ll happily read it. But if a book is for school and it doesn’t really interest me, I’ll only read it if I have to.”
Well, some things never change. -Jim Higgins
Learning about Herself
Ella’s “looking back” observations carry that senior depth.
One such pearl concerns her early struggles in Algebra 11. “That taught me so much about myself,” she recalls. “Such that’s it’s okay to be bad at math, but it’s also okay to ask for help when you’re failing and that it’s okay to fail. I didn’t, but if I had given up I would have. Failing happens to everyone, it’s not something to be embarrassed about, which is why so many people neglect to ask for help. But I figured it out and had to get through it.”
Ella also recalls how she “laid low” as a freshman. (Except for soccer, where she played varsity all four years.)
“That slow start meant I missed out on making friends earlier than if I had joined some clubs and got more involved in other activities.” She did add, however, that she made up for it during the last few years.
Did she ever.
Her community service projects with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, with the Interact Club, with Lincoln House, and with independent fundraisers for cancer research put her in the legendary pantheon of exemplary Spaulding students who have had huge impacts in Barre and beyond.
Within the confines of Spaulding her recent work with the Crimson Crazies has impacted the school culture, such as, among other projects, helping establish the popular athlete-student-staffer “Persons of the Week” program.
Ella, is also an enthusiastic supporter of the Work Based Learning program at Spaulding. Her first placement was with the local Head Start program.
“It really opened my eyes,” she said. “My first 18 years of life were full of love and never worrying about my next meal or where my next shower would be. At Head Start, I saw for the first time all the kids that have to worry about those exact same things.”
While it didn’t change her outlook about children born into well-off families, she said, “It did change my outlook on kids who have less. We fall victim to thinking those kids as they grow older are somehow not deserving of our compassion. But in Head Start I saw how at the very beginning of their lives they couldn’t even lift a spoon, much less know anything about potty training.”
Work Based Learning also led her to the Central Vermont Montessori School with its 76 kids, from Pre-K to 6th grade. After starting small, now she co-runs the after-school program.
All of which has steered Ella into a professional dream of becoming a kindergarten teacher. UVM is her first choice for earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in early childhood education, although Boston University, Temple, and the University of Rhode Island, among other schools, are still in the mix.
Ironically, Ella’s passion for working with little people emerges from the context of another job she has, working as a sales associate at Lenny’s Shoe and Apparel. Although she likes her job working at her family’s business, she is not shy about admitting that, along with not wanting to be a mathematician, “being in retail is not where I see myself down the road.” -JH
For the Love of Football
First, the freshman realized he loves contact. “Well actually,” he says, “I don’t like to be hit that hard but that’s all part of it.” Positioned at guard, tackle, and special teams, Jonathan’s game is all about collision and so far he’s lovin’ it.
Second, Jonathan learned he doesn’t own a Quit Button. “I found out this season that I don’t ever give up,” he said. “Once I got hit pretty hard, got pretty beat up, but I just lifted myself off the ground and was even more fired up.”
Third, he believes football has steered him into a future career path. “I want to be a chiropractor.” He traces that decision back to when he was injured during a game.“ I was playing the line and I overextended my back, ”he recalls, “It caused pain in my upper back, neck, and hips. Then I went to see a chiropractor in town, Dr. Borowske, and he fixed me right up. I thought that was pretty cool.”
That daunting medical track is getting off to a good start. Presently his favorite subject is math and next semester he’ll begin an honors history class.
“History is important to me,” he said. “I grew up watching the news, my grandfather was in the Korean War, and I love reading about American history. I especially love reading about Lincoln. You know he lost two elections, but even after losing he supported his opponents, never gave them a bad name. He was an honorable man.”
However, Jonathan’s aforementioned “no quit” attitude does face one serious challenge. It has to do with his impressive mechanical aptitude.
“I can pretty much fix anything,” he said, “cars, lawnmowers, even my Dad’s old Austin Chalmers D-3 bulldozer from the 1950s.” That bulldozer was a big deal, he said, because that’s what they use to log their own land.
But alas, there is the small matter of what he calls “the coolest thing I own.” That would be his go-kart, a present he received in third grade. “It seems like it’s never really fixed. It’s always breaking. Now it sits in the shop needing a throttle and brakes.”
Ahh, a little humble pie.
When he’s not playing football, reading history, or fixing things,
Jonathan has a few other interests.
These include playing trombone with the school band, preparing to wrestle for the school, working for his contractor dad on Saturday, and helping with altar duties at St. Monica’s. “I have only missed Mass one or two times,” he states.
“That’s a main part of my growing up, my staple.” -JH
ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS
A New Vision for PE
That might be the response of many Spaulding alums from the 1950s and ‘60s if they revisited the school gym and watched a modern PE class.
Oh, there’s still plenty of sports action with laughing, happy-to-be-moving-around students, but second-year PE teacher Nick Ross, working alongside six-year veteran David Ball, have re-envisioned “gym class” to embrace what Nick calls “multiple learning opportunities.”
For example, the closing segment of a class now could include a video presentation by a student who filmed his track and field meets. Alongside Nick, he will discuss to the class how the skills were demonstrated, what game strategies were employed, and why certain tactical decisions were made during the meet, among other topics.
For another example, there are often segments (many technology-aided) during the 75-minute classes that teach students how to breakdown a motor skill, how to analyze game play, how to work with others in a group setting, how to set and implement personal fitness goals, how to avoid injury, among many other health and fitness subjects.
“Dave and I collaborate almost daily,” Nick said, “on how to incorporate new technologies to improve our instruction and provide different ways of learning. Students are videotaping themselves playing a particular sport and then – with our and their classmates’ help -- analyzing their various motor skills, decision making, etc. both to improve their game, and later to demonstrate a certain level of mastery.”
Among the dozen or more sports that students can choose to play throughout a semester, Nick says the most popular one is badminton. In PE terminology this is called a “net wall” game, as in volleyball or pickle ball. Other game categories include “invasion,” (floor hockey, soccer, basketball); “striking,” (wiffle ball, cricket, kickball); and “target,” (golf, bocce, and kanjam).
“I think badminton is so popular because it’s seen as more of a lifetime sport that doesn’t require highly organized teams and leagues to continue playing it as you age,” Nick said. “It’s still competitive though and fun for all participants the way we organize our classes which provides a pretty level playing field for all.”
Nick, a former player for Spaulding’s soccer, golf, and hockey teams (and still playing hockey in a local men’s league), presently coaches the Spaulding golf team, which has seen a spike in players from last year’s lone golfer, to eleven this year.
“I think the Barre youth program got a lot of kids interested,” he said. “The kids are realizing golf is a great sport to learn to play. Golf is a game that teaches players a lot of valuable life lessons.”
Nick earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Castleton University in Physical Education (Pre-K--12). He is also enrolled in the Master’s program in Education at Southern New Hampshire University. What’s second-year teacher Nick have to say about Spaulding students? “I find that most students are respectful, inclusive, and helpful.”
So maybe those visiting alums from the Fifties and Sixties wouldn’t feel entirely like someone dropped them into Oz after all. Once they get past some of the high tech teaching tools and unfamiliar games, they’d likely see modern students as pleasing echoes of themselves back in the day. -Jim Higgins
SAVE the DATE: Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
Clark Amadon, our VSAC representative, will be available to provide guidance on how to complete the FAFSA and Vermont State Grant Application. The meeting will be held upstairs in the Computer Lab from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM. Students and parents are encouraged to attend.
For more information, please check out
Tuesday, Nov 6, 2018, 05:30 PM
Spaulding High School, Ayers Street, Barre, VT, USA
SPREADING TIDE PRIDE
Inching Closer for a Good Cause: Make A Wish
Embracing the 50s on Spirit Days
Quarter I - Crimson Crazy for Life
Gotta Pep It Up
Whether it's spreading the word for a good cause, such as Make A Wish, dressing up for a particular Spirit Day, or taking a risk for the overall good, Mr. Ferland wants to hear about it.
Proudly joining his efforts are students, staff and teachers who nominate each week an athlete, staff member, or student for doing good work. For some, they want to recognize an individual for their academic accomplishments or service work for the community whereas for some, they want to acknowledge an unique trait or interest.
For instance, Mr. Willard nominated Samantha Donahue, a freshman who is competing in the National Barrel Racing Championships in Georgia. According to Mr. Ferland, "Sam's taking the greatest leap of faith and competing at the national level"; this in itself is impressive as a freshman.
Thus, eponymous activities like the Pep Rally are no longer the main factor that unites a school and promotes school spirit, but the people within our community.
Despite the different classes and backgrounds of each individual, Mr. Ferland's vision is promoting an inclusive culture that is not only supportive of sports teams, but performances and individual achievement. He appreciates the weekly nominees and working collaboratively with the Crimson Crazies to determine the pick of the week. Each Friday, members of the Crimson Crazies take the time out and converse as a group on why certain individuals deserve the recognition.
As noted by Mr. Ferland, "they take it seriously and have some great discussion about why they feel certain people are deserving. It says a lot about who these kids are. We have new students come almost on a weekly basis and, even, if they can't join us every week, it shows that they want to be part of something bigger than themselves."
They believe recognizing individuals for their integrity, good work, and just being human matters.
Like his students, Mr. Ferland has such strong convictions on this, he's even willing to now bleed crimson rather than Raider Blue, his alma mater of U32. Just take a look at his right shoulder as he avoids itching it and join his cause...
SAVE the DATE: Production of Pride & Prejudice
Filled with witty repartee, romance, and some serious life lessons, this period drama follows Elizabeth Bennett and her four sisters in their pursuit to secure their futures. Alumnus Alison Norcross directs her fifth production for SHSDC; script is by Robert Stoddard.
Performances run November 8, 9, and 10 at 7:30.
Tickets are available at the door or online.
Email: sbrenshs@u61.net
Website: http://shsu61.org/joomla/
Location: 155 Ayers Street, Barre, VT, USA
Phone: 802-476-4811
HONORING OUR COMMUNITY
Examining Healthy Choices
Changemakers at the Vermont Foodbank
Reading Between the Lines
Tackling Obstacles
Members from Spaulding High School's Key Club and National Honor Society and United Way's Director of Funding & Program Development, Carrie Stahler spent time learning about hunger.
For most individuals, they are only thinking of purchasing a product that can be contributed to the drive, but Manager of Youth & Family Initiatives, Jessie Carpenter from the Vermont Foodbank, wants you "to walk in someone else’s shoes and experience what it is like to struggle with poverty and hunger." She wants you be aware of daily issues facing someone, but more importantly, how one must manage his/her resources and provide enough food to feed his/her family.
Through their vicarious experience, they ascertained not only donating money to a cause is helpful, but being aware of how food donations can not always create a sustainable meal for someone.
This was also driven to heart for MJ Chouinard whose role was to qualify for assistance during the role play and obtain food products that were nutritious.
According to Emma Poirier and Makayla Boisvert, along with Carrie Stahler, we need to be more mindful in terms of the donation. This was apparent when the ladies finished the simulation and spent an hour volunteering in the center where they packaged donations to be served as a meal.
These meals included a can of pasta, a can of vegetables, a can of fruit, a single serving of milk in an UHT package, along with a serving of Cheerios and apple sauce. They saw first hand that Ramen noodles was not a viable option or just spaghetti without the sauce. Both were no longer contenders in providing a sustainable meal for a family.
And so as the season of giving begins, please be more conscientious with your food donations and join the efforts in battling hunger.
For more information on the Vermont Foodbank, click on the link provided:
SAVE the DATE: Winter Sports - Pre Season Information Night
Wednesday, Nov 7, 2018, 06:30 PM
Spaulding High School, Ayers Street, Barre, VT, USA
CONGRATULATIONS
Recognizing One of Our Own
She is a terrific teacher, leader, advisor and coach. She is a member of the Science Department and the Department Head.
Sam cares deeply for students and goes to extensive measures to work with the students to help them be successful. Her classroom is always a hub of activity - whether case managing students on EST plans, assisting students struggling with science, strategizing with students on the next Key Club activity or providing a safe place for students to be.
She is continously creating and refining curriculum and tools to engage students in critical thinking, hands on learning and meeting high standards. Sam strives for excellence in all that she does.