Three Colchester High School students have been recognized for their contributions to climate change research as a result of their extensive and impressive work with the University of Vermont’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR): Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (RACC) project!

CHS students Denir Djozic, Grace Yasewicz, and Andrew Pike and teacher Kara Lenorovitz at the 2013 symposium

As a result of the warming global climate, scientists anticipate that Vermont will experience more frequent and more intense storm events, potentially resulting in increased phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain.

The CHS RACC team—CHS seniors Denir Djozic and Grace Yasewicz and sophomore Andrew Pike—focused their efforts on understanding how storm events impact phosphorus levels in streams in various areas of different land uses. Under the tutelage of science teacher Kara Lenorovitz, the student team worked with EPSCoR—a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded collaborative research effort between university researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and high school teams throughout New England, New York, and Puerto Rico—beginning in July 2012 to better understand how climate change will impact the Lake Champlain Basin. Specifically, the researchers hoped to better understand the impact of global climate change upon Vermont and how we can best prepare for it.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

At the April 4 fifth-annual VT EPSCoR Center for Workforce Development and Diversity (CWDD) 2013 Vermont EPSCoR Student Research Symposium in South Burlington, a panel of post-doctorate judges deemed the CHS team as having created and presented the best scientific poster! (To view the poster, please click here.)

CHS has been involved with the EPSCoR RACC and Streams projects for more than five years. Next year, Andrew Pike and rising juniors Hannah Rogers and Maddy Powell will continue in the RACC research effort.

Congratulations, Denir, Grace, and Andrew!

For more information, please call CHS at (802) 264-5700, or e-mail CHS science teacher Kara Lenorovitz (lenorovitzk@csdvt.org).

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The Caring Cougars (formerly Advocates for All) at Colchester Middle School recently reached out to offer support to an important area organization.

CMS Caring Cougars at the Ronald McDonald House

The Caring Cougars, a group that aligns closely with CHS Cares at Colchester High School, are students who work hard to make a difference in our community. The group’s overall philosophy is akin to the concept of paying it forward, whereby good deeds are repaid by passing them along to others who need them.

Under CMS faculty advisor Patty Ward, the Caring Cougars do a considerable amount of community service and volunteerism, regularly meeting to brainstorm ideas for how to make a positive impact in our community—everything from raising funds to support the Toys for Kids initiative to coordinating food drives to support the Colchester Community Food Shelf.

Most recently, the group got together after school to make a meal for the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington. On the menu? Homemade lasagna using a tasty spaghetti sauce made from scratch, as well as freshly baked cookies and cupcakes for dessert.

Parent, Community, and School Partnerships Among Lifelong Learners is one of the pathways in the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017, and the school community works hard to that end. If you would like to learn about just some of the many other examples of our students serving our community, please click here (spoiler alert: our students step up and make a positive impact again and again!).

There is a lot of good that goes on in our community. This is a great place to be!

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Mark Houle, Audry Houle, Molly Dickin, Jordyn Thayer, Ashley O’Kane, and Hannah Spence in front of the Ticonderoga at the Shelburne Museum

Colchester High School tenth-grade students recently made a pilgrimage to Shelburne Museum as part of their American Experience classwork.

CHS sophomores Kiera Mulcahy, Alex Richard, Mikayla Racine, Miranda Scorsome, and Annie Meadows

Students in the CHS American Experience class—which combines the study of US history and American literature in three historical periods—participate in the annual Shelburne Museum visits as a way to gain a hands-on perspective of what they learn in the classroom.

Roz Calderon
Paige Shepard, Jenn McNall, Hannah Echo, Anna Senft-Miller, and Haley Mock at Shelburne Museum

Shelburne Museum’s vast collection boasts an impressive assortment of primary-source documents and interesting artifacts that directly relate to the historical and literary topics the students study as part of the class. Making real-world connections to abstract classroom learning is important because doing so often piques student engagement and attention—thus encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and enhancing learning.

Sophomores Dakota Loring, Alex Corrigan, and Tony Spillane

Field trips often serve to strengthen students’ observational skills and allow them to become more actively engaged in their learning, providing additional sensory activities and expanding their curiosity.

Cady Dubuque and Gabrielle Rancoud-Guillon

They also create an extension of the classroom—and that speaks directly to Pathway C of the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017, which states:

“We wish to ensure an academic environment in which real-world relevancy meets the classroom. This environment must:

• be experiential;
• provide internships and community service within the building and the community;
• complement and enrich classroom learning; and
• move beyond physical and structural confines.”

Lori Brunelle and Jennifer Butler with sophomores Sam Brunelle, Mychaela White, and Brooke Walton

For more information about the American Experience curriculum, please contact Colchester High School at (802) 264-5700, or e-mail CHS teacher Katie Lenox (lenoxk@csdvt.org).

Steven Sonntag, Zoe Ladensack, Morgan Bayko, and Sophie Joyce

Allison Davis, Tim Lewis, Maggie McNeil, Megan Severance, and Sarah Campbell

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For the eighth consecutive year, a number of Colchester High School employees recently ran in the thirtieth-annual Vermont Corporate Cup Challenge and State Agency Race in Montpelier. The five-kilometer event benefits programs and events of the Vermont Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Colchester High School’s faculty and staff Zach Kramer, Morgan Samler, Sean MacArdle, Steve Fiske, Beth Albright, Maureen Gillard, Chris Lang, Andrea Boehmcke, and Danielle Grise at the Vermont Corporate Cup race in Montpelier on May 16.

Colchester School District takes wellness efforts seriously. Our vision and strategic plan speaks to it, and we are responding in kind both in and out of the classroom. We are committed to health and wellness for our students and community members every day. Please join us!

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It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
—Mahatma Gandhi

Students in a Colchester High School health class recently prepared fresh tomato salsa and peach-pineapple salsa and then teamed up with students at Malletts Bay School to conduct taste tests. Fun!

The results? Out of 324 MBS Ospreys surveyed, 195 of them liked the fresh tomato salsa, and 118 liked the peach-pineapple salsa.

This MBS Osprey approves of this salsa sample

(The CHS health class also recently spent time at Shelburne Farms as part of their study; if you missed that article, you can read it here. And you can find a comprehensive discussion about this health class and its objectives here.)

CHS students Devan Chambers and Brona Kilburn serving up the salsa samples with a smile

(To see more pictures of the students, please visit Ms. Laquerre’s “Food: From Soil to Stomach” class blog here.)

CSD’s food service team collaborated with our students, and not for the first time. Students in this class have been invited to work alongside the CHS kitchen staff in the past, and MBS students have conducted taste tests in past years, as well. All five schools work to build upon the existing positive momentum and to implement additional improvements; students’ voices are heard, and our personnel demonstrate that they respect input from people of all ages and welcome partnerships in the true spirit of progress.

This exploration and discovery speaks directly to some of the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017′s pathways, including Pathway A: High Standards, Expectations, and Individual Engagement for All Learners; Pathway C: Learning Outside Our Four Walls; Pathway E: Parent, Community, and School Partnerships Among Lifelong Learners; and Pathway F: Wellness-Oriented, Balanced, and Healthy Learners.

For more information, please contact CHS at 264-5700 or e-mail Melanie Laquerre (laquerrem@csdvt.org).

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Twenty Colchester High School students in Jim Price’s International Politics/UN class journeyed to the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus to participate in the Maine Model United Nations Conference 2013 (MeMUNC) May 14–16.

CHS delegates to the Maine Model United Nations Conference 2013

The Model UN at the University of Southern Maine is the largest of its kind in New England, supporting approximately six hundred students from more than twenty-five different schools. The event is developed and organized by International Studies scholars at the University of Southern Maine as part of their final projects. This was CHS’s tenth year of participation in this MeMUNC event. CHS’s student government and the local Rotary Club provided financial support, and students raised more than $500 to facilitate their attendance at the event, as well. The students in the International Politics/UN class acquire significant knowledge about twentieth-century wars as well as the wars’ resulting complexities, which is helpful for their involvement with MeMUNC.

Preparing for all aspects of the event required a great deal of work; students researched not only the current issues of their assigned countries but also those countries’ positions on those issues. They also learned conflict resolution skills, debating rules and procedures, how to write resolutions, how to write position papers, proper parliamentary procedure, and much more. At the conference, delegates were divided up and dispersed into different committees across the campus representing their assigned countries’ interests and debating relevant issues.

In an effort to promote ecological sustainability, the University of Southern Maine powered the conference—including the electricity required for the dorms, dining facilities, and meeting spaces—with wind power generated on a Maine farm. They also purchased energy credits in order to offset the carbon used by students traveling to attend the conference.

For more information about CHS’s involvement in Model UN, please contact Jim Price at (802) 264-5700 or by e-mail at pricej@csdvt.org.

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As in years past, Colchester High School students in Jim Price’s AP European History class recently met with honored guests.

Holocaust survivors Gabe Hartstein, Simon Barenbaum, and Manny Gurowski were recent guest speakers in the class.

Mr. Hartstein—a native of Budapest, Hungary, who was seven years old when the Nazis invaded his homeland in 1944—has been sharing his personal story and historical accounts of his experience in schools, churches, and synagogues throughout Vermont for more than fifteen years as a way to remember all who were affected by the Holocaust—the many millions of those persecuted as well as all of those who rescued others even at great peril to themselves.

Mr. Barenbaum has been sharing his experiences at Colchester High School for more than twelve years. He was fourteen years old when the Nazis invaded and occupied his native France. His incredible story includes—among other things—becoming the first French underground contact for the American forces (eventually resulting in a monument in his honor).

CHS student Ian Flores and Mr. Barenbaum

CHS student Mariah Noth and Mr. Barenbaum.

Stories about the guests have been published in The Holocaust Personal Accounts by the Center of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont.

“These are incredibly important visits,” Mr. Price said. “Our current students are the last ones to hear stories from that generation.”

Such opportunities are not unusual for our students. In April 2012, students in CHS teacher Erin Brady’s Advanced Placement US History class met with two area residents to learn about the residents’ experiences during World War II (if you missed our CSD Spotlight article about it, you can read it here).

Creating opportunities for students to meet people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds allows them to develop appreciation, insight, and understanding of others, encouraging respect for differences and building positive connections. It also often helps students to gain a greater appreciation for their own opportunities; many see the importance of their education in a new light, and this has a lasting and meaningful impact not only upon the students but upon society. Community engagement, collaboration, and multigenerational learning partnerships of this nature foster the vision our community members created and affirmed through the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017.

If you would like more information about these guest speakers’ presentations, please call CHS at (802) 264-5700.

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Continuing a long and proud tradition honoring students who have maintained academic excellence throughout their high school careers, Colchester High School applauded forty-six top-honors students at a celebratory banquet in South Burlington on May 29.

CHS students celebrate their academic achievement at the 2013 Honors Banquet

The forty-six students, celebrated for graduating magna and summa cum laude, were distinguished guests for the special evening. Keynote speaker Principal Amy Minor praised the honors scholars, and students celebrated with a sit-down dinner. Each honored student was recognized for his or her accomplishments, and all received honor cords to wear during their upcoming graduation ceremony.

The students honored at this special event for their outstanding academic achievements are as follows:

CHS teachers Jim Price, Aimee deLaricheliere, and Pat Schiller coordinated the event. Many members of the Colchester School District contributed financially in order to make the event possible, along with many generous members of the community who also sponsored students in honor of academic excellence. To view the program and to see the list of sponsors who funded this event, please click here.

Congratulations, honors scholars!

Lake Champlain Access Television (LCATV) will provide coverage of Colchester Middle School’s Eighth-Grade Recognition Ceremony, which will take place on Thursday, June 13 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Colchester High School gymnasium.

A total of 188 eighth-grade students will be recognized at the ceremony, and CMS Harbor House social studies teacher Marc Gagne will address those assembled. A number of awards will be presented to students, including the Presidential Academic Excellence and Achievement Awards, the PTO Positive Impact Award, the PTO Student Leadership and Cooperation Award, the Lloyd Button Memorial Sportsmanship Award, the Friends of Colchester Music Award, and an art award.

LCATV anticipates that the schedule for the program, which will run on LCATV Channel 16, will be available on the website sometime during the week of June 17. To view the schedule, please click here.

For questions, or to speak with someone at CMS about the filmed and broadcasted coverage of the event, please call (802) 264-5800.

Best wishes to our students for their continued success!

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Today is the last day of school for the 2012/2013 year!

It has been a great year in Colchester School District, and the hard work in preparing for the upcoming school year is already well under way. We will keep you posted throughout the summer with what is going on behind the scenes with your schools. And please remember that we always welcome your comments, questions, and engagement; please call our administrative offices at any time at (802) 264-5999.

Wishing you all an amazing summer!

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Colchester Middle School music teacher Emily Desautels will conduct the Colchester Community Band in the forty-fourth annual Colchester Independence Day Parade on Thursday, July 4—and everyone is invited!

In addition to the exceptional musicianship within Colchester School District, alumni and citizens of all ages participate in the community band, which is directed by Colchester High School band teacher Evan Peltier. It offers free performances for the Colchester community throughout the summer season (click here to view a video clip of a performance at the Colchester Farmers’ Market last summer).

The community band has been rehearsing traditional Sousa marches for the parade for several weeks, and more participants are still needed and welcomed! This year’s band will perform from a flatbed truck (which will also bring participants back to the starting point at the parade’s conclusion), so marching is not required. (To participate, please arrive with an instrument at Colchester Middle School on Monday, July 1 at 7:00 p.m. Rehearsal will be held in the band room and will run until 8:30 p.m. Stands, chairs, and music will be provided.) For more information about the community band, please e-mail colchesterconcertband@gmail.com or call (802) 734-2686.

Participants in the community band are requested to wear red, white, and/or blue and arrive at 10:30 a.m. on July 4 at Creek Farm Plaza. It is recommended that participants also bring water, sunscreen, and sunglasses and/or hats.

Anyone interested in supporting the Colchester Community Food Shelf can donate items at boxes located at Colchester Creek Plaza, Burnham Memorial Library, and the Colchester Community Food Shelf—which will be open to welcome visitors—located at the old fire station next door to Claussen’s Florist and Greenhouse.

The parade will begin promptly at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 4 at Creek Farm Plaza and will proceed down Main Street, finishing at Burnham Memorial Library. The parade is expected to last approximately one hour.

Important note: Because of unusually high water levels this year, the fireworks will be launched from Bayside Softball Field; spectator seating will be available at Colchester High School’s practice fields and at Upper Bayside Park. Accordingly, the Town of Colchester’s Parks and Recreation Department admonishes that it may be difficult to obtain an optimal view of the fireworks from boats. For questions relating to the parade and the fireworks, please contact Glen Cuttitta at gcuttitta@colchestervt.gov or call (802) 264-5641.

We are proud to be a part of this community! Please join us!

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Colchester High School students Ben Seaman and Tate Hamblett teamed up and came in third place in the Bass Federation State High School Fishing Championship on June 30 on Lake Champlain near Shoreham, Vermont.

Ben and Tate caught their limit of five fish with their lunker bass weighing in at 3.75 pounds. After being weighed, all fish caught at the tournament, which were maintained in live wells, were released back into the lake. “Catch and release” is in keeping with the philosophy of the program and its mission of being good stewards of the lake and its ecosystem.

Ben Seaman and Tate Hamblett at the Bass Federation State High School Fishing Championship on June 30

Ben also took third place in last year’s Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) Federation Nation Eastern Division Championship on the Mystic and Charles rivers—which included competitors from as far away as Spain! (BASS is an international fishing organization with more than a half million members worldwide.) He has fished on a national level representing Vermont and on a regional level representing the high school, earning college scholarship funds as a result of his impressive angling skills.

On a similar note, CHS has a new fishing club currently consisting of twenty-one student members who began meeting officially in the spring of 2013. During meetings, the club members have discussed what they would like to learn as a club member, learned knot-tying techniques, and had a casting seminar.

Congratulations, Ben and Tate!

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As we’d proudly announced in our May 6 article, Principal Amy Minor of Colchester High School was named the 2013/2014 Vermont Principal of the Year by the Vermont Principals’ Association!

Ms. Minor accepted her award in a July 30 ceremony in Killington. Expressing her appreciation for her colleagues and faculty, she offered some perspective on building effective and meaningful relationships with students and the immense benefits those relationships so often have.

CHS Principal Amy Minor and her husband at the July 30 award ceremony in Killington

Candidates for the award must exemplify personal excellence and collaborative leadership. Ms. Minor’s numerous nominations for the honor were based upon her steadfast demonstration of a multitude of qualities, including but not limited to:

• continuous professional growth
• values, beliefs, and attitudes that encourage others to higher levels of performance
• an instructional focus in managing administrative tasks
• recognizing, appreciating, and serving the needs of diverse constituencies in the school community
• involving teachers, staff members, parents, students, and the community in creating and fostering a shared vision for the school
• providing focus and direction to ensure alignment of practices, programs, and initiatives with the school’s vision, mission, and goals
• utilizing available technology tools for school management and operation
• improving teaching, learning, and assessment by implementing practices, programs, and improvement efforts on the basis of multiple sources of data
• knowledge of learning, teaching, assessment practices, research, and programs that maximize student performance
• developing and maintaining cocurricular programs that complement the curriculum while fostering students’ academic success
• ensuring that each student has the best possible chance of realizing success by providing a customized plan that takes into account the needs of individual learners in relation to learning time, setting, methods, and course sequence
• leading in the use of available technology for management and delivery of instruction and assessment as well as the advancement of learning, invention, and creativity.
• creating a school climate that is warm, inviting, safe, and secure
• organizing the school so that all social, economic, and racial/ethnic groups have equal access to all school programs and providing the support needed for student success
• leading in the use of available technology to meet the unique learning needs of each student

Powerful leadership in our schools—including an engaging, creative, proactive mind-set—is fundamental and paramount to quality educational experiences for our students. Congratulations, and well done, Principal Minor!

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

As we mentioned in our July 19 article, public forums to discuss proposed revisions to the regional school calendar—called Calendar 2.0—are scheduled across Chittenden County for October 2, 3, 9, and 10, and we urge everyone who is impacted by the school calendar—parents, teachers, students, day care providers, business representatives, and even commuters—to weigh in on them.

The proposed Calendar 2.0 distributes 175 school days over 11 months—only July would not involve any classroom time (for a slide show about School Calendar 2.0 and to see a .pdf of what the proposed calendar looks like, please click here). Essentially, the revised calendar would mean that students would return to school a week earlier in August, leave a school a week later in June, and have additional vacation time—with optional remedial instruction in some districts—scheduled throughout the year. More specifically, the proposed 2014/2015 regional school calendar would include the following:

• First day of school of August 20 (rather than in late August)
• No school for a week in October (rather than a one- or two-day recess)
• No school for two weeks in December
• No school for two weeks in winter (last week of February and first week of March)
• No school for two weeks of spring (last week of April and first week of May)
• Last day of school of June 19 (rather than earlier in June)

The extended recesses built into the proposed school calendar are suggested as possible “intersession” opportunities for students; such intercessions under consideration in some districts include, among others, remedial instruction and possible enrichment opportunities. Colchester School District will determine the amount of funding required for such intersession opportunities; from preliminary discussions with the Town of Colchester’s Parks and Recreation department, there is a possibility that parent-paid programming can be designed to coordinate child supervision and enrichment during the proposed Calendar 2.0′s intercession periods.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, under Vermont law, the Champlain Valley Superintendents Association—part of the Vermont Superintendents Association (VSA)—is responsible for establishing a uniform school calendar for the region. At this time, Colchester School District does not have a formal position on School Calendar 2.0. We encourage our community members to e-mail Superintendent Waters at watersl@csdvt.org to share thoughts and opinions and to ask questions about the proposed calendar. We also encourage our community members to attend a public forum on one or more of the above-mentioned dates to express opinions.

We are listening! Please share your thoughts!

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

Are you new to Colchester with school-age children?

And/or do you have a child who will be five years old before September 1, 2013?

If you have not already done so, please call your child’s school to schedule a registration appointment.

Porters Point School (grades K–2): (802) 264-5920
Union Memorial School (grades K–2): (802) 264-5959
Malletts Bay School (grades 3–5): (802) 264-5900
Colchester Middle School (grades 6–8): (802) 264-5800
Colchester High School (grades 9–12): (802) 264-5700

Colchester School District requires the following items at the time of registration:

• Birth certificate
• Immunization record, required by the Vermont Department of Health
• Proof of residency
• Any available school report cards

Students already enrolled in Colchester School District do not need to re-enroll; registration and enrollment applies only to those we are welcoming to our district for the first time.

Please feel free to call our administrative offices at (802) 264-5999 with any questions!

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

This just in!

Join us for the annual Student, Teacher, Alumni, and Parents Cross-Country Running Race!

When: Thursday August 22, 2013, at 3:45 p.m.
Where: The start line is on the Colchester High School softball field
How Long: 5 kilometers (3.1 miles)

Toe the line and race against current Colchester Cross-Country Running Team members after a great first day of work! You might also set a personal record for a five-kilometer race. The course is on fields and trails. Extremely flat and fast!

(Last year’s event was a record breaker! Please click here for the Spotlight article—and to see a fun video!—from that great day.)

The annual event partners well with Colchester School District’s wellness initiatives, too. And it will be the same evening as the annual MBS & CMS Back-to-School Barbecue, so it’s another reason to come on out and celebrate the start of the new school year with your friends and family.

If you are interested, please click here to sign up by August 21 at 4:00 p.m.

Please e-mail CHS physical educator Morgan Samler at samlerm@csdvt.org if you have any questions.

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

In a concerted and ongoing effort to bolster the safety of students and staff, included in the FY 2014 school budget were funds to support improved building security and monitoring, including:

• main and secondary entry systems;
• replacement of unsecured doors;
• upgraded door locking systems; and
• improved monitoring systems.

Since the passing of the budget (many, many thanks again to the voters), these enhanced safety and security features have gotten well under way in every school in the district.

What does this mean for you?

In addition to added cameras and keyless entry systems in our schools, school doors will be locked during the day. During school hours, keyless swipe identification cards will be used by district employees, and guests to the building will be asked to identify themselves before receiving access.

Camera and speaker system at the main entrances of the buildings

Monitoring screens inside the buildings interact with the cameras and intercoms outside the buildings

The purpose of these enhancements and additional procedures is to help ensure the health, welfare, and safety of our school community.

Please note: As training, testing, and final preparations for the new system to go live are scheduled, we will inform the community when the keyless entry process is operational.

The improved building security features bolster your district’s long-standing and ongoing efforts to provide safe instructional environments for our students and staff members. Our two-part primer “Law Enforcement Presence in Our Schools and Why It Is Important” explains Colchester Police Department’s regular involvement with your school district since 1989, which includes comprehensive Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) training (please click here to see an article and a video of DARE training in action at Union Memorial School) as well as officers’ participation in a vast array of ongoing in-school and community outreach efforts, including but not limited to:

• reading aloud to students
• participating in Red Ribbon Week
• attending PTO meetings when appropriate
• liaising with a number of mentoring programs, including the Town of Colchester’s ACE Before- and After-School Program
• attending student games and other extracurricular functions
• assisting with bus dismissal
• introducing CPD’s dog, Tazor, to students at special presentations
• assisting with instruction about forensics
• partnering with CSD in conducting drug searches at Colchester Middle School and Colchester High School

CPD officers also collaborate closely with teachers and administration, actively participating in the schools’ crisis management teams and working closely with administration to develop and expand crime-prevention efforts. They assist with the evacuation and lock-down drills, help to develop and coordinate incident response plans, and provide feedback and strategize methods for improved school safety. CPD officers also work closely with the district around other difficult issues like child safety protocols and restraining orders, and they partner with the state attorney’s office to ensure our schools’ compliance with state regulations.

School safety is a top priority. Please partner with us in making our schools even safer; become part of the conversation and share your thoughts and ideas. We are listening!

Please stay tuned for Part II of this article, which will announce when the new features are fully operational.

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

(Newsflash! This is our 600th article!)

Please join us in welcoming four faculty members to Colchester High School!

Lawrence (“Joe”) Romano, having recently relocated to Burlington from Washington, DC, is joining CHS as a Special Educator. He worked in situational awareness and business continuity before recognizing his true passion for education through his experience with Big Brothers Big Sisters. After completing the DC Teaching Fellows, an alternative pathway to education, he served as a Special Education and social studies teacher within DC public high schools. He is very excited to be in Vermont and to be working with such an experienced and welcoming group of educators. Joe graduated from Virginia Tech where he studied political science and sociology.

Joe Romano will teach Special Education at CHS

Andrew Judge will teach Spanish I & II. Raised in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, where he attended grammar school in Spanish and spoke English at home, he later earned a master’s degrees in Fine Arts from the University of Southern California while living in Los Angeles. He also received a certificate from the Spanish Interpreter Program at the Southern California School of Interpretation. He worked as a professional Spanish interpreter and translator for Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and helped launch a successful federal pilot program, translating over three hundred specialized medical documents in Spanish.

Andrew also spent time teaching Spanish in Prague and has experience teaching several different grade levels in the Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union as an after-school teacher. His philosophy is that a foreign language classroom should never be quiet and that the joy of learning a new language is being able to speak it.

Andrew Judge will teach Spanish I & II at CHS

Courtney Goetz, who lives in Waterbury Center, will teach physical education at CHS. She taught physical education at Essex High School last year—as well as coaching girls’ soccer, basketball, and lacrosse—and for six years prior to that, she taught and coached in New Jersey. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Springfield College and a master’s degree from Emporia State University. This year, she will coach girls’ JV soccer coach and hopes to get involved with winter and spring coaching, as well. In her free time, she enjoys running, having completed a number of marathons and half marathons.

Phil Gulizio will be joining the team at the Colchester Alternative Program (CAP) this year. He has been in alternative education for the past sixteen years. Coming to us from Georgia Elementary & Middle School, he has a master’s degree as a consulting teacher and a master’s degree in educational leadership. Currently residing in Jericho with his wife and two children, he attributes his success in education to developing mutually respectful relationships with his students and his coworkers. He is an avid outdoorsman and all-around adventure enthusiast. He enjoys live music, good friends, and any local art he can find.

Phil Gulizio will teach at CAP

If you would like more information about Colchester High School’s incoming faculty, please contact Principal Amy Minor at (802) 264-5700 or by e-mail (minora@csdvt.org).

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

If you would like to know what time school starts in each of your schools and/or about this year’s bus schedules, this article is for you!

At Porters Point School, the school day will start at 8:10 a.m., and dismissal will be at 2:45 p.m.

Porters Point School

At Union Memorial School, the school day will start at 8:30 a.m., and dismissal will be at 3:00 p.m.

Union Memorial School

At Malletts Bay School, the school day will start at 8:30 a.m., and dismissal will be at 3:00 p.m.

Malletts Bay School

At Colchester Middle School, the school day will start at 7:25 a.m., and dismissal will be at 2:10 p.m.

Colchester Middle School

At Colchester High School, the school day will start at 7:45 a.m., and dismissal will be at 2:20 p.m.

Colchester High School

For the bus schedules for Colchester, please click here.

For the bus schedules for the Champlain Islands (for islands students attending Colchester Middle School and Colchester High School), please click here.

Other Important Dates:

On Monday, August 26 at 9:30 a.m., Union Memorial School will host its annual kindergarten orientation event to introduce new kindergarteners to school. Incoming students and their parents will attend a meeting in the classrooms, and then students will enjoy an introductory bus ride to familiarize them with the process. (Please note: the introductory bus ride is part of the orientation; students will not be bussed to and from the orientation; parents are responsible for transporting their children.) The orientation lasts approximately one hour.

Tuesday, August 27 is a big day; the following events will take place:

• Colchester High School will host its Smart Start orientation program for incoming ninth graders. Members of the freshman class should arrive at CHS between 7:00 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., and dismissal will be at 2:20 p.m. There will also be a free barbecue lunch. CHS students participating in Smart Start will be bused (this is the same bus schedule as a regular school day; please see the bus schedule below).
• Colchester High School will also host its mandatory Senior Privilege Night beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the community theater at CHS. This meeting, at which senior privilege contracts will be distributed and may be signed and returned, is for students and their parents.
• Colchester Middle School will also host its Smart Start orientation. This is the first day of school for sixth graders as well as new seventh and eighth graders. The sixth-grade Smart Start day begins at 7:25 a.m. and ends at 2:10 p.m., and buses will run for these students. For new seventh and eighth graders attending the day, the Smart Start orientation begins at 10:00 a.m. and ends at 12:00 p.m. Please arrange for transportation accordingly. School lunch will be available for all students.
• Porters Point School will also host its annual kindergarten Smart Start event to introduce new kindergarteners to school from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This is a three-hour mini-school day and lunch to help transition incoming students to the daily routine at school, to include an introductory bus ride to familiarize them with the process. (Please note: the introductory bus ride is part of the orientation; students will not be bussed to and from the orientation; parents are responsible for transporting their children.)
• Union Memorial School will host an open house from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. for first- and second-grade students and their parents.

Remember, the first day of school is Wednesday, August 28, 2013.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of your schools, or call our administrative offices at (802) 264-5999. We are here to help!

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!

Federal regulations under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (you can read our two-part primer about NCLB here) require school districts and supervisory unions to notify parents when any of their schools have been identified for not meeting the requirements for student performance. Accordingly, we inform you that Malletts Bay School, Colchester Middle School, and Colchester High School have been identified in one or more subgroups for not making the necessary progress, or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), in reading and/or math.

Accordingly, a plan for improvement in each school that is unique, represents fundamental reform, and raises student achievement is being developed.

It is important to note that 73 percent of schools in Vermont did not make AYP this year. In fact, based upon NECAP results and local data, many of our schools exceed the state average in reading, math, writing, and science as well as those of other schools in Chittenden County.

Please click here to read a letter from Superintendent Waters concerning our schools and AYP.

If you have any questions regarding the status of our schools or the process for improvement, please contact Superintendent Waters at (802) 264-5999, or contact the building principals.

Your schools and your town are working hard to engage our community. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe to The Spotlight. When we’re all informed, we make a stronger community!