CCS Newsletter
March 5, 2021
ADMINISTRATION UPDATE
Dear CCS Families and Community Members,
We want to open our newsletter with heartfelt appreciation for the community of Charlotte and their continued support of our school. This is always evident, but the annual passing of our school budget is a great indicator of our school benefitting from a community that is deeply committed to its youngest members.
We hope that this week’s newsletter provides you with some highlights from this week’s learning at CCS.
CCS Morning Show:
Stephanie and Jen start almost every morning doing door duty for the Kindergarteners, fifth and sixth graders. Greeting students and families as they arrive is the highlight of our day. At the start of this week had a great chuckle when a family pulled up, children concerned (maybe a little agitated) that they were late and going to miss the “Morning Show”. Luckily they were right on time and able to hear the morning announcements filled with fun facts and lots of humor. This kick-off to each morning is created by the CCS Student Council and their advisors, Dave Baird and Matt Lutz. This was an endearing reminder of the routines and care that staff and students bring to the school building, and how much our students look forward to the offerings of their schoolmates.
Read Across America:
Tuesday, March 2nd was Read Across America Day, with its primary focus being raising a generation of diverse readers. CCS is spreading this past the designated one-day focus with ongoing book talks, read-alouds and guest readers in various classrooms.
Teachers have been able to book shop in our library and in our teachers’ lounge, where there is a pop-up library of books that demonstrate the diversity of Americans throughout the regions of the US.
Our teachers are rising to the challenge of finding literature to share this week with your students that can provide “windows and mirrors” experiences for all of our students.
Return of our 7th & 8th graders to in-person learning - 4 days:
We look forward to welcoming our entire group of 7th and 8th-grade students back to four days of in-person learning on Monday! Our Omega team has worked very flexibly and creatively to design a schedule and model to do this across a variety of spaces and time frames to accommodate current spacing guidelines.
With the return of our 7/8th graders four days a week, we need to remind all families who drop off and pick up of the following guidelines.
1. Morning drop off 8:00-8:15
- Flagpole- 7/8th graders and siblings
- Front circle- Gr 1-4 and siblings
- Cafeteria Door Gr K, 5/6
- Flagpole- 7/8th graders and siblings
- Front circle- Gr 1-4 and siblings
- Cafeteria Door Gr K, 5/6
3. Please do not pull into the front circle from 7:45-8:00 and 2:30-3:00 - we will have to ask you to park or loop around in order to accommodate bus loading and unloading.
Teacher Learning - Equity:
During the first two weeks of February, our teachers and staff members gathered with our CCS Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Coach, Katie Bedell, to explore the new CVSD DEI website full of resources on Black History Month and Black Lives Matter. Our ongoing professional development includes reading articles, listening to podcasts, watching videos, facilitating conversations with colleagues, and action-planning exit tickets.
Prior professional development in January focused on building increased understanding for teachers related to Gender Identity and Expression, Socioeconomic Status, and Racial Justice.
CCS also has monthly meetings with our “Community Team” - consisting of CCS faculty and staff, our DEI coach and a group of involved parents and community members. Please reach out to administrators or our DEI coach Katie Bedell if you are interested in working with this group. DEI coach Katie Bedell leads bi-monthly meetings with our CCS Internal Equity Team of CCS faculty and staff to direct shared learning and collaboration regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.
We wish you all a wonderful weekend!
Stephanie, Jen and Cassandra
CCS MORNING SHOW
READ ACROSS AMERICA
PERSONAL INTEREST PROJECT (PIP) PRESENTATION FOR OMEGA
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
Wednesday, March 10th
Remote Day for All
Wednesday, March 17th
Remote Day for All
Friday, March 19th
NO SCHOOL - Parent/Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, March 24th
Remote Day for All
Wednesday, March 31st
Remote Day for All
MATHCOUNTS UPDATE
Congratulations to the following mathematicians who competed in the Mathcounts Chapter competition in February:
Deacon Brown
Jennifer Blanshine
Vega Tariyal
Vega advanced to the Vermont state competition on March 25th. Best of luck to you Vega!!
A MESSAGE FROM THE CVSD BOARD FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR
Dear CVSD Community members and voters,
A heartfelt thank you for your continued support of the Champlain Valley School District’s students and schools. The CVSD FY22 Budget passed overwhelmingly. In this year, a year that has tested the creativity, patience, and tenacity of each and every one of us, the community came together in support of public education.
As the CVSD Board moves out of the planning and development phase of the budget cycle and into the implementation, rest assured the Administration and the Board are committed to increasing in-person learning.
While the voting process for this year is complete, I welcome you to continue to engage with us each month at the CVSD monthly board meeting. Meeting details, ZOOM log-in, and agendas can be found: https://www.cvsdvt.org/Page/604 or reach out to me: kbowen@cvsdvt.org.
Wishing you and your families continued good health and happy spring.
Kindly,
Kelly A. Bowen