CVU Celebrations

Dear CVU Community: Happy Friday, all! This week I am turning the mic over to Rahn Fleming. One of Rahn's many hats at CVU is Coordinator of the Learning Center--a GREAT resource for all of our students (Rahn is modeling a Penguin Plunge hat and can even help with AP Music Theory as he is in the photo below!).

The Learning Center is an inclusive academic and social environment that serves students of all abilities, with all varieties of need, and from very nearly every class offered at CVU. The students we serve may be referred by teachers, support staff, fellow students, or themselves; our support is available both by appointment and on a drop-in basis. In addition to the professional adult tutors on staff, we are also home to dedicated, highly skilled student-volunteers who provide math assistance at all levels. The openness of the space lends itself to both quiet individual study and small group work. The time we have to spend (full 75 minute blocks) allows us to develop relationships based on shared endeavor, success, and trust. Among the beauties of The Learning Center are the diversity of humans, learning, and mutual support that takes place here every day. Folks arrive carrying the weight of homework that they don’t understand (yet). Ah, but when they leave, it’s no longer homework – it’s “done work” that they can march confidently into their next class having completed. We’re focused on more than grade-point averages; we’re focused on helping our students discover and express their best selves.”

Tuesday, January 24: The Center for Technology - Essex and The Burlington Technical Center will be coming to CVU for C3 time on Tuesday, January 24th (CTE) and Wednesday, January 25th (BTC). These meetings will be held in the Auditorium.HERE is all the information about the CVU visit, technical center and program videos, opportunities to visit both centers, family open houses, permission forms, assessing readiness and the on-line applications and priority deadline. This is a lot of information! If you or your students have any questions, please direct them to Susie Moakley at smoakley@cvsdvt.org.

Saturday, February 4: Students, if you'd like to join the CVU Penguin Plunge team and raise money for Special Olympics, here are the links you'll need (or you can scan the QR code on the flyers) Do not let the fundraising be a barrier to not participating, we can help you with this part!

Join team CVU --> https://give.specialolympicsvermont.org/team/453760

Cool Schools Penguin Plunge Waiver (Under 18) – https://www.jotform.com/sign/223174838458062/invite/01ghvmqw2pc3405cd72b8c6457

Cool Schools Penguin Plunge Waiver (Over 18) – https://www.jotform.com/sign/223183836975064/invite/01ghxttf2v6d0eb4ba173bca68 Also HERE is a presentation I will be doing in the cores, it has information about fundraising incentives and spirit week details!

Wednesday, February 8: Join us for Eighth Grade Family Night. Read more, here.

GRADUATION TASK: Seniors in preparation for graduation on June 16, 2023, please stop by the Direction Center as soon as possible to check the spelling of your name and how you want it to appear on your diploma. It is important that your name appears just the way you want it! Families, please encourage your graduating senior to verify the spelling of their name as soon as possible. If you prefer, you can email the appropriate spelling directly to our Registrar, Colleen McSweeney at cmcsweeney@cvsdvt.org. The deadline for making changes is Thursday, January 26th. Once the order is placed with the printer, changes can only be made at your expense.

March 16: College and Career Pathways at Saint Michael's College Event is on March 16th. Information can be found here.

Direction Center Podcast: Here is this weeks CVU School Counselor Podcast spectacular. This week is all about the technical centers. Spotify Apple

Thank you to the hundreds of students and to our Equitable Practices Group for the powerful community forum this afternoon. I appreciate the willingness of our community to walk towards difficult conversations.

Students in Spanish learn salsa dancing with guest teacher Jon Bacon!

From Karen Kirkland: No snow day? No problem! We're celebrating full attendance and fully engaged seniors in R1 Calculus class. Students are working together to solve a variety of differentiation problems.

ROC (rooted organizing community) is doing a product drive for new Americans in our community, bring in anything such as: soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, etc. All products will be collected by February 17th (the Friday before February break).

From Magali Simon-Martin: French II and French V classes enjoyed eating the traditional Bûche de Noël to celebrate the holidays. One class made delicious madeleines and after a vote one team won the best madeleines contest! Thank you to Eleanor Marsh for letting us use the kitchen.

Here are some scenes from our messy Spanish 3 classes this week. One class created a painting from a video in Spanish, while the other class, got a lesson on empanada making from Las Hermanas Veracruzanas and their 2 year old assistant, Victoria. A special shout out to Elizabeth and Catalina for sharing their talented cooking skills, and to Katie Nickitas and Kari Hoose for keeping the chaos at a minimum.

The final round of Chronicle articles cover a huge range of topics, from study methods, Christmas tree sales, a student's visit to Qatar, fitness tips, an update about the ceramics studio, and much much more. Enjoy. http://press.cvuhs.org/cvc/

The Alpine Ski Team continued their winning streak at Monday’s CVU Slalom Race at Middlebury Snow Bowl. The team won the Team Points Score with CVU women placing five in the top 10, and the men placing six in the top 10. Congratulations to Ella Lisle (1st Place) and Dicey Manning (3rd Place) for their podium finishes, and Sebastian Bronk (2nd Place) and George Francisco (3rd Place) for their podium finishes. The next race is at Cochran’s on Monday, January 16th at 1:00pm.

From Carly Brown: Snelling students are exploring our solar system by building “recycled rovers” to match the conditions of a specific planet, moon, or asteroid in Core Time.

The Indigenous Heritage and Culture Alliance had a guest tanner, Coleen Butler, come to share her trade with our club. We learned about tanning and how to make pouches from deer and beaver hide.

Chloe and Zach being honored at the All American ceremony!

AP English students contemplate a hallway poem.

Diantha Francis introduced some new kids this week (sweet, dad joke!).

Director of Special Services Jess Hoskins kicks off our month long focus on inclusion.

From Jim Clapp: Corinna Hussey and students in Life dig into math learning!

From Brad Miller: Adrian and Marie take a spare minute to assess their own flexibility courtesy of the NYTimes’ 5-point flexibility test. To their great delight, they both passed.

As you all are aware, CVSD recently completed a district Equity Audit in the fall of 2022. One of the first recommendations from the audit is for CVSD to create a shared vision/ understanding for Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work at CVSD. In order to create this shared understanding, district DEI coaches have gathered input from faculty and staff at each school. This input, along with the equity audit results, will be used by the DEI team to create a draft document of a shared vision for DEI work in our district. The shared vision draft will explain the focus of CVSD DEI work and provide collective definitions. We would like to form a district wide community committee to give us additional input and feedback on the shared vision draft. We hope to have 17-20 members on this committee, including teachers, students, parents, community members, support staff, and administrators. We are planning on forming the committee by the end of January, sharing the draft document with the committee by February 1 and then holding a 2 hour, hybrid meeting in mid February for committee members to share feedback. We will try to provide childcare during this meeting. If you are interested in participating on the committee, please contact CVU DEI coaches Christina Deeley (cdeeley@cvsdvt.org) or Bageshree Blasius (bblasius@cvsdvt.org.)."

New Spring Course Offerings From Access CVU: Wow! Don't miss the new offerings from Access CVU. Access CVU is pleased to announce the Winter/Spring 2023 Catalog is now open for registration! With over 170 classes and 80 instructors, there is something of interest for everyone and all ages. There are 63 in February alone! Get information about the courses, how to sign up, and more on this CVSD Story blog post.

CVSD Strategic Planning - We Welcome Your Input!

The CVSD Strategic Planning committee has drafted some elements of the plan and is seeking input from all community members. That includes parents/caregivers, those without children in our schools, faculty/staff, and students.

Please view this set of slides, which were shared at last week's virtual Town Hall, and then use this form to share your thoughts. These links are also available on the Strategic Planning page of the district's website. Please contribute your input by February 15. Thank you!