EWSD News
News for EWSD Families and Community Members
February 14, 2019
In This Issue ...
From the Desk of Superintendent Cobb
District Updates
EWSD FY20 Budget Information
Prekindergarten Lottery Now Open
Drop Off and Pick Up Safety Reminders
School Photo Survey
CTE Students Taking Part in the Main Exhibit of the Vermont Flower Show
EWSD Fine Arts Night - Save the Date!
Community Members Help Prioritize Equity Actions Ideas
EWSD In the News
- Essex Westford School District Open Board Seats
Happenings
Upcoming Events
EWSD Job Opportunities
Important Links
Dear EWSD Family and Friends,
As I write this, the snow is accumulating outside my office window. The Vermonters tell me this is a good old fashioned winter. As a kid, I remember playing outside in the winter and it always seemed to be snowing. Playing and building snow forts on a snow day was always so much fun. I hope our students are enjoying the winter weather - sliding, skiing, building snow forts, and creating lots of memories.
Thank you to Bruce Murdough and our maintenance crew for spending so much time shoveling, plowing, and sanding. They get up in the wee hours of the morning to make our parking lots and walkways safe for students and staff.
As we plan for next year and create our 2019-20 budget, we will continue our commitment to Professional Learning Communities as a way to improve achievement for all students. We are also adding additional time and resources toward social and emotional learning (SEL). Our leadership team has a task force that has created a draft SEL strategic plan, and we look to bring it to the full leadership team to share it with staff for input.
This spring our team is committed to reading the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s new book, All Learning is Social and Emotional: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for the Classroom and Beyond, by N Frey, D Fisher, and D Smith (2019).
We are currently in the midst of budget season and our school board will finalize the budget in early March. Brian Donahue, EWSD COO, is great at creating presentations and explaining the budget. Check out each of the budget presentations at EWSD.org. Come out and vote on the school budget on Tuesday, April 9!
District Updates
Prekindergarten Lottery Now Open
Please complete this form to request that your child is entered into the EWSD school-based pre-Kindergarten lottery drawing for the 2019-2020 school year. Eligible students reside in Essex Junction, Essex Town, or Westford and are at least three years old on 9/1/19.
All requests for school-based programs must be submitted by Friday, March 1, 2019.
SCHOOL-BASED PRE-K PROGRAMS
This refers to prekindergarten classrooms in the District's elementary schools. This includes Essex Elementary School, Hiawatha Elementary School, Summit Street School, and Westford School.
By completing and submitting this form, you can REQUEST that your child is provided a school-based prekindergarten slot through the Essex Westford School District for fall 2019. This form does NOT register your child for a school-based prekindergarten program. Eligible registrants will be selected for the school-based programs by random drawing in March 2019. The District will respond to all requests in April 2019.
UNIVERSAL PRE-K/ACT 166 PROGRAMS
This refers to 10 hours/week of tuition reimbursement for qualified, community-based, private prekindergarten programs.
Please do not use this form to request Universal Pre-K/Act 166 registration. Enrollment for Act 166 funds for the 2019-2020 school year is open and ongoing. Paperwork is available to download or to pick up in person from our District Office - East Campus (58 Founders Road in Essex). To request a copy of the paperwork via mail, please call or email Clara Moreno.
Questions regarding all EWSD preK programs can be directed to Clara Moreno, Administrative Assistant at cmoreno@ewsd.org or (802) 857-2013.
Drop Off and Pick Up Safety Reminders
In order to ensure student and staff safety, we wanted to share some safety reminders related to school drop off and pick up times. Thank you for your attention and support!
- Please park only in designated family/visitor parking lots and spots.
- Parking in unauthorized lots, roadways, snowbanks, and along streets narrowed by winter snow banks, causes hazards for other motorists and buses.
- Give buses the space they need to maneuver. They take more room to turn and have a tail-swing. Nobody wants a collision.
- Follow designated traffic patterns. It may seem quick to take a shortcut, but if an accident results it's going to take a LOT longer.
- Keep your eyes open for pedestrian walkways and the unexpected.
- Remember snowbanks can block the view of a child walking where they're not supposed to.
- Talk to your kids about safe choices around vehicles: Stay on sidewalks and in crosswalks. Don't play on snowbanks or near travel lanes. Don't walk in the road.
- We try hard to keep pathways clear, but snow and ice may still be present. Exercise caution when walking. Walk like a penguin with your weight over your front leg. Avoid running or skipping.
- When in doubt, wait and let them go first. Safety is not a race.
School Photo Survey
CTE Students Taking Part in the Main Exhibit of the Vermont Flower Show
EWSD Fine Arts Night - Save the Date!
Save the date, as on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 (5:30-8:30 p.m.) the annual EWSD Fine Arts Night (Celebrating Creative Minds) will be held at Essex High School.
This extraordinary production will feature visual art, music, theatre, and film created and performed by talented youth from the District's 10 schools.
There will be a K-12 exhibition of 2-D and 3-D visual art in the library and the main hallways, film presentations will be shown in the AV space, and there will be musical buskers, an undersea visual art installation, vocal and instrumental performers, refreshments, and more.
Please join us to share the immense talent and creative output of our students.
Sincerely,
EWSD K-12 Arts Educators
Community Members Help Prioritize Equity Actions Ideas
Nearly 50 community members came out to take part in a Voices for Education celebration on Monday night. The event, which was co-facilitated by a pair of EHS students, was a follow up to the community summit that VFE hosted (It Takes A Village: Voices for Equity & Belonging) in December, as participants were presented with the key themes and recommendations.
At the summit in December, VFE received over 250 individual and community action ideas! Learn more about the celebration by visiting EWSD.org.
EWSD In the News
- Essex's Folsom tabbed as Vermont Gatorade Volleyball Player of the Year
- ADL Students learn how to build snow survival shelters
- EHS students spread a message through clothing
- EWSD adopts new transportation policy
- Agency of Education awards 30 Presidential Scholar nominees
- School board begins prelim budget work
- Essex High School student wins Sanders essay contest
- Essex High School freshman wins annual State of the Union essay contest
- Walk the Talk (or Ride It) - Wrenegade Sports becomes a community partner with EHS
- Henry Farrington of Essex named Vermont's top runner
Essex Westford School District Open Board Seats
Petitions for a seat on the Essex Westford School District Board are now available. Board members to be elected include:
- One Essex Junction Resident: Three-year term
- Two Essex Town Residents (outside the Village): Three-year terms
All petitions may be picked up at the Essex Town Clerk's Office (81 Main Street) between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Completed petitions (containing at least 1% of the voters in that community or 30 qualified signatures, whichever is less) must be returned to the Essex Town Clerk's Office by Monday, March 4, 2019 at 5 p.m. in order to have a name placed on the ballot.
The EWSD Annual meeting will be held on Monday, April 8, 2019, at 7 p.m. at Essex High School.
Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, April 9. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. (Essex Junction residents vote at Essex High School, Essex Town residents vote at Essex Middle School, and Westford residents will vote at Westford School).
Happenings
Learning About Different Cultures
Third graders have been learning about the different cultures represented at Founders. Parents and community members joined the students to share their own cultural backgrounds or experiences living in other places. The third graders also held a food tasting with Farm to School, helping to make sushi which was served at lunch.
Trout in the Classroom
Math Through Art
Building Snow Huts for Science
Geography Guessing Game
Winter Exercise
Speech Contest Winner
Congrats to EHS freshman Fatima Khan, who won the Rotary Club of Essex Annual Speech Contest with her speech about “Service Over Self.” Khan won $100 and will represent Rotary at the next level in March while competing against the Colchester/Milton winner.
Coding Using Robots
Young Vermont Entrepreneurship
EWSD Social Media
Upcoming Events
EWSD Board Meeting
Tuesday, Feb 19, 2019, 06:30 PM
Essex High School, Educational Drive, Essex Junction, VT, USA
Essex Has Talent
ADL Set to Host 49th Annual Invitational Basketball Tournament
The 49th annual Albert D. Lawton Invitational Basketball Tournament will take place February 20-23 at ADL in Essex Junction.
The tournament is the oldest middle school basketball tournament in Vermont and is one of the oldest in the nation! Many of the top college players in the area received their start dribbling for glory at the ADL Tournament. This year there will be six Chittenden County middle school teams (boys and girls) competing for the title.
Essex Middle School, Camel’s Hump Middle School, Edmunds Middle School, Colchester Middle School, Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, and ADL will all be competing this year. The Tuttle Middle School Girls team and the Edmunds Middle School Boys team will each look to defend their 2018 titles.
Entertaining the audience at the tournament this year will be the Lawton Pep Band led by Adam Sawyer on February 21, and students singing the National Anthem on Saturday night.
There will be three games each day starting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and then starting at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets will cost $3 each day, while children fourth grade and under will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Refreshments will also be available in the cafeteria during each game.
EWSD Job Opportunities
Important Links
About Us
Email: bdickie@ewsd.org
Website: www.ewsd.org
Location: 58 Founders Road, Essex Junction, VT, USA
Phone: 802-878-8168
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/essexwestford/
Twitter: @EssexWestford