THE SCHOOL BELL
Williston Schools /March 20, 2019
NO SCHOOL Friday, March 22
Art Transforms ABS
by Lead Principal Greg Marino
The Picture below cannot possibly do justice to the way the ABS cafeteria has been transformed by the new student-created mural that was installed yesterday. I encourage all of you to stop by ABS and take it in personally so that you can see first hand what was accomplished in just one short week with the expert help of our Artist in residence, Sally Duback, and Art teacher, Sara Beeken. This collaborative residency was made possible from a grant from our FAP group. I would once again like to thank our FAP for supporting innovative and creative ideas of Williston teachers with the goal of enriching our students’ learning through the education mini-grants that are available to teachers every year. I would also like to thank Art teacher, Sara Beeken, for bringing another amazing artist in residence experience to our ABS community and, of course, our guest Artist, Sally Duback, for facilitating this incredible collaborative project. My understanding is that every image you see in this mural started as an original drawing by a student and that every single ABS student has contributed to the mural in some material way. I can’t wait to sit with some ABS students for lunch in the coming days and hear their thoughts about the project and the transformation of their lunch room. When you do see the piece in person, I encourage you to experience both from a distance and up close. When you get nice and close you get to see the diversity of objects that were donated and used to make the images come to life. You can spend quite a while moving along the mural discovering objects that you would likely never guess would be part of the mural when you see it from a distance. This Mural is just another example of how amazing things can happen when we enlist the powers of collaboration, Art, a little support from the our FAP, and of course, the limitless imagination of our students!!
The Master Schedule Matters
One of the outcomes of last year’s Williston Schools Program Council work was the decision to form a committee to create a new and improved Master Schedule for both ABS and WCS. By “Master Schedule”, we mean the combined collection of school schedules, both student and staff, across grade levels and subject matter, which are intentionally designed to work together in coordinated fashion and through which students access their learning. Though the schedules for our two schools differ greatly, they are also strongly linked because of shared staff who teach in both buildings and across both schedules. It is clear from the Program Council recommendations that we expect this work will go way beyond “tweaking” the scheduling system we currently have and will likely take on more of a blank-slate, ground-up approach to organizing the school day for Williston students, faculty, and staff. We are not discussing the school calendar but rather what happens between the time that students arrive and leave each day, and what that looks and feels like for learning and teaching.
The committee has met for 5.5 hours so far and has two more meetings scheduled between now and April break. The work is complex and ambitious but we know the outcomes will be worth our efforts. The committee has taken care to gather the input of faculty, staff, and students so that we are starting our work with a clear understanding about what the priorities will be for a new and improved master schedule in both schools. We have also taken the opportunity to work with educator and consultant, Scott Thompson, from the UVM Tarrant Institute. Mr. Thompson has extensive experience with this type of systems work and is eager to work alongside the committee to support its efforts. The committee’s next two meeting are scheduled for Wednesday, March 27, and Tuesday, April 9.
7th and 8th Grade March Concert
The March concert is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20 at 7pm. Call time is 6 pm. Please note that the snow date is Wednesday, March 27. This is a special 7th and 8th grade concert that celebrates a different theme each year. In preparation, students have been empowered to choose their music, rehearse collaboratively, create a narrated story to connect to our music, and make costume and choreography decisions.
All musicians need:
Black pants , black shirt and our blue WCS Performing Arts t-shirt
See you at the concert!
lunch and Recess Aide
Allen Brook School is seeking an energetic, child-centered adult to assist with supervision to our elementary students during lunch and recess. We are looking for candidates who love to work as part of a team, will provide positive reinforcement and redirection, and follow established protocols to keep children safe. This position is Monday through Friday 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM when school is in session.
Interested candidates should submit an application or contact Cindy Pavlik, cpavlik@cvsdvt.org, 871-6203.
Meet & Greet (for children entering Kindergarten in the fall)
Allen Brook School has scheduled a Meet & Greet (previously referred to as Registration/Screening) for families with children who will be in kindergarten this fall.
There are six sessions on three days in April. Please select a day and time on April 3, 4, or 5 (10 - 10:45 am or 1:15 - 2:00 pm).
During each session small groups of children will visit kindergarten classrooms while parents meet with staff and learn about the upcoming year.
Please follow the steps below to select a date and time for your Meet & Greet.
1) Click this link to see our SignUp on SignUp.com: http://signup.com/go/JVUWqow
2) Review the options listed and choose the date and time you like.
3) You will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on SignUp.com.
Contact Laura Gigliotti (871-6200 or lgigliotti@cvsdvt.org) or Cindy Pavlik (871-6203 or cpavlik@cvsdvt.org) with questions.
Camp Ta-Kum-Ta Donations
My name is Sawyer Falkenbush and for my 8th grade challenge I am working with Camp Ta-Kum-Ta. I am collecting items that the camp would have to go get on their own time with their own money.
Camp Ta-Kum-Ta is a non-profit organization where kids who have or had cancer can go to camp and be a normal kid. ALL FOR FREE!!! They stay for a week or weekend.
Any items you can donate will be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much for your time and support. Drop of will be near the front office in WCS. You can drop it off anytime in between March 13- March 27.
ABS Art News
Thank you to all Allen Brook Artists and Williston community members for your valuable contributions to the success of our Artist-in-Residence week. A remarkable amount of items have been given new life in this creative endeavor and our 24’ long Gardens Mosaic is sparkling in our cafeteria for all to enjoy. This has been a highly engaging project. The children are excited to recognize images from their sketches and the parts of the mural that they and their peers created. This has been an opportunity to experience the value of up-cycling our trash and the power of collaboration and teamwork. Also, the children viewed mosaic works by American artists Sally Duback and Simon Sparrow.
Special thanks to our artist, Sally Duback for her generous spirit and her masterful work with young people, to Andy Duback for his multi-talented contributions throughout the process and to parent extraordinaire, Arulveni Periyasamy for her hours of help. Thanks to Scott Wagner for encouraging a fresh coat of paint in our cafeteria and the creation of new artworks there. In addition, a sincere thanks to Matt Ries, Kyle Andresen, Wayne Reed and Lyall Smith for their input and help in hanging this work. Last but not least, thank you FAP for your continued support of these special art opportunities for our children!
Sara Beeken, ABS and WCS Art
CAMP ROCK
WCS Drama Club is pleased to announce the upcoming presentation of Camp Rock!
Performances Friday April 5th at 7pm
Saturday April 6th at 2pm and 7pm
Tickets available through http://willistoncentral.seatyourself.biz
Enjoy the Show!!
Grazers Restaurant Benefit Day for Voyager – March 20, 2019
Doing some Spring Cleaning?
The WCS Library is looking for gently used, hard cover books from the following series:
Warriors by Erin Hunter (Any/All Series)
Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce
DK Eyewitness Books
Lego, I Spy, and Minecraft Books
Books can be brought to the WCS Library. Thank you!
FAP Speaker Series Presents Appreciative Parenting
Wednesday, April 17th from 6:30-8pm
WCS Communy Room
This is a date change from April 9th, same time.
Intro to Appreciative Parenting
Join us for this interactive session where we will begin to explore your personal character strengths and how you can leverage them as a parent. We will also discuss key questions to help identify and develop your child’s individual strengths and help you both have a conversation worth having.
Shelly Masson Bio: Shelly is currently part of the faculty of practice at the David Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College and also teaches in the Positive Organizational Development certificate program. She has been working with the concepts of Appreciative Inquiry and Parenting for the past 7 years.
Nicole Morris Bio: Nicole has been a faculty member at the Stiller School of Business at Champlain College, teaching in disciplines of accounting and management, for the last decade. Nicole holds a Appreciative Inquiry Certificate in Positive Business and Society Change from Case Western University and has taught Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry.
Seeking Indoor Garage Sale Donations
Voyager House is holding its annual Indoor Garage Sale Saturday, March 30th in WCS's cafeteria 8:00am - 2:00pm! It's a giant indoor Reuse/Resale that raises money to benefit Voyager House.
If you have any quality, sell-able items to donate to this sale we'd be most appreciative!! We are looking for furniture, household items, athletic equipment, working electronics, artwork, toys, rugs or anything that could be a treasure to someone new!
We are asking for items that can be sold! If the things you have to donate are really worn out, please bring them to Goodwill instead of our sale. The trips to Goodwill at the end of our garage sales have been really big! Just do you best to consider the shape of the products you donate.
Goodwill does not take the following items. Please refrain from bringing them to our sale, as we will not be able to dispose of them, if they do not sell. Click for list
Drop off donated items from 6:30pm - 8:30pm Friday, March 29th in the WCS cafeteria. Students will be available to help unload your donations. Contact Ted Milks at Tmilks@cvsdvt.org with questions. And THANK YOU for your support!
CVU summer camp - Class of 2023
The CVU summer camp is a great experience for any student who will be joining CVU as a ninth grader or transfer student in the Fall of 2019. We pride ourselves on providing a welcoming and fun camp to help ease the transition to CVU while making new friends. Upper-class students are counselors of the camp and help to promote team building and grow social bonds between campers while have a blast during the summer. CVU camp T-shirt, lunch and snack provided!
The camp offers two sessions:
Session A July 8 - 11, July 15 - 18
and
Session B July 22 - 25, July 29 - Aug 1
You can find more information about the daily schedule, registration and tuition on our website: cvusummercamp.cvuhs.org
Contact us at: Email: cvusummercamp@cvsdvt.org
Scholarships and financial assistance available.
PBIS News from WCS
The WCS committee that facilitates our Positive Behavioral Intervention System (PBIS) has worked hard this year on the action plan that was written last summer based on survey data from staff. Since our faculty and staff were recently updated on our progress, we thought it would be good to let parents know about the work.
The PBIS committee set seven goals for the year and has made excellent progress on six of them.
Our first need was to grow our committee, so that staff from all aspects of the school were represented. I am pleased that we have been able to double the size of our committee.
The committee has used some of our Tuesday professional time to provide staff differentiated trainings with a focus of social-emotional learning. Some of the trainings included: Restorative Circles, Zones of Regulation, Classroom Engagement, Mindfulness, Trauma Informed Instruction, Verbal De-escalation skills and Anxiety.
A subset group of the PBIS committee is dedicated to reviewing our Planning Room discipline data on a monthly basis and takes action steps, as needed. We expanded our group that reviews the data each month, so that more educators are involved in problem solving the challenges.
Based on staff feedback, we wanted to improve communication between the Planning Room and teams. We began the year by looking at the potential Planning Room responses to minor and major behavior and then met with teams to be sure there was agreement on practices. This has resulted in increased communication flow and problem solving around student behavior.
Getting our older middle school students to buy-in to using SMART cells has always been a challenge. One of the goal this year was to increase middle school student voice in PBIS. We have surveyed students several times this year to get their input on things such as dances and celebrations. We also asked classrooms to take over the bi-monthly cell collections in the front lobby. A little mascot, called Einstein, is passed around from teacher to teacher. When a teacher gets Einstein, their class hosts the cell collection. This has resulted in some wonderful school spirit!
Finally, the committee wanted to establish a monthly presence in the School Bell in order to inform parents of the work. This is one of the monthly articles.
If you have any feedback or ideas related to our PBIS practices, please don’t hesitate to reach out to a committee member. Committee members you can contact include: Jackie Parks (jparks@cvsdvt.org), Cris Milks (cmilks@cvsdvt.org), Tara Weegar (tweegar@cvsdvt.org), Debbie Donnelly (ddonnelly@cvsdvt.org) and Matt Glass (mglass@cvsdvt.org)
K-8 IntraDistrict School Choice
Mobile App
Download the WSD App and get notifications for groups, sports teams, 3-4 Chorus, etc. to keep informed.
Open App, tap on the 3 horizontal bars in the top right and select Notifications. Tap on the group boxes for those you want.
Families as Partners
Tuesday Early Dismissal
Dismissal at ABS is 1:35 pm.
Dismissal at WCS is 1:55 pm.
The Tuesday schedule for morning Preschool is 8:00 to 10:15 am. Afternoon preschool is 11:15 am to 1:30 pm.
Four Winds Nature News
School Lunch Menus
Please make payment checks out to 'CVSD - ABS' or 'CVSD-WCS'
Monthly Fitness Fun
More Links, More information
Upcoming Events
Wed. March 20 / gr. 7-8 Concerts / WCS Auditorium / 7 pm
Fri. March 22 / NO SCHOOL / teacher conferences
April 3-5 / Incoming Kind. Meet & Greets / ABS / am & pm sessions
Fri. April 5 / Camp Rock / WCS Auditorium / 7 pm
Sat. April 6 / Camp Rock / WCS Auditorium / 2 pm & 7 pm
Wed. April 10 / Four Winds/ WCS Community Rm / 8:30-10:30 am
Thurs. April 11 / FAP / WCS Community Rm / 8-10 am
Sat. April 13 / Big Basket Raffle & Fun Night / WCS / 6-8 pm
Tues. April 16 / CVSD School Board Mtg. / CVUHS rm. 160 / 6 pm
Wed. April 17 / Synergy Family Event / 5:30 - 7 pm
Tues. April 17 / FAP Speaker Series / WCS Community Rm. / 6:30 - 8 pm
Thurs. April 18 / Horizon Reading Restaurant / 6 - 8 pm
April 22-26 NO SCHOOL
Fri. May 3 / School Dance / WCS / 6:30-8:30 pm
Thurs. May 9 / FAP Mtg. / WCS Community Rm / 8-10 am
Upcoming Events on the School Web CalendarDAML Programs
Click here to access the DAML web site listing of events.
Recreation & Parks Offerings
Williston Schools
Email: cpavlik@cvsdvt.org
Website: https://www.cvsdvt.org
Location: 195 Central School Drive, Williston
Phone: (802) 878-2762
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Williston-School-District-1483758238612170/timeline/
Twitter: @wsdvt