Greetings All, Recent Staff Accomplishment 12_18_13.p… · Greetings All, This year, we are attempting to build a budget that meets an overall financial goal of 6.9% increase over

Greetings All, This year, we are attempting to build a budget that meets an overall financial goal of 6.9% increase over per equalized pupil spending, as well as meeting program goals identified by the Board.

In September, input was collected via survey from the community, BSD staff, the Administration, and the Board that led to the decisions being made now. This budget is designed on the priorities that were set by the Board following this input (visit www.bsdvt.org – “Budget” link on left side – to review these priorities). Budgets in the past have been presented as line item budgets, where certain positions are cut or added and the Administration had to live within those parameters. In designing a budget set on goals, the administration has room to make adjustments as revenue changes are known along the way. For example, a budget discussion on kindergarten paraeducators meant that those paraeducators could not move to 1st grade with a large class, even though kindergarten might have been smaller the next year. This type of decision-making limits the ability to flex with changing conditions and meet changing needs. As always, there are choices to be made within a set of goals to provide the best outcomes for our students within our means. We cannot afford to add to this budget and have to reanalyze how we use current resources as well as determine what programs or functions we can no longer afford. This budget process gives some time for us to do that in an ever-changing financial environment. In absorbing the current programs with compensation and health increases, we add over $3M to the current budget. We need to make up a $1.2M deficit that stems first from under budgeting a couple of years ago, combined with cost shifts that occurred at the local and federal levels. These expenditures combined put our budget above our financial goal and thus we need to determine what to do differently and what to stop doing. Are these the right program priorities? Is the financial goal one this community can accept? If the answers are yes, they will guide our spending decisions going forward and set us on the path to have a budget that is aligned with our goals, rather than a budget that is volatile and unstable. I hope you choose to participate in tomorrow’s Hearing, 7 p.m. at BHS, and learn more about the goals the District is seeking to achieve. Jeanné

Recent Staff Accomplishment

Congratulations to Michelle D’Agostino (EES) for attaining the level of National Board Certification.

Needs Your Vote We are entered in a contest to win a $2500 grant if we garner the most votes. MVP Health Care is offering this great opportunity and we would love your vote. You can

vote online once a day every day from now until January 27th. Please help us be one of the top 10 vote getters and let all your friends and family know, too.

The website is http://tinyurl.com/nvpsh9f.

Thanks for your support!

Preschoolers Meet the Mayor

During the month of November, the Smith Preschool enjoyed learning about people in our community who help us. Along with people in their own school, they invited others from our community at large to visit their classroom. A highlight from the unit was being invited to City Hall to meet Mayor Miro Weinberger. At City Hall, they learned that Mayor Weinberger works with many different people to help keep Burlington a nice place to live for all.

Volume 6 No. 9 December 18, 2013

Do You Know About Vision Benefits? Vision Service Plan (VSP) is available as part of the District’s VEHI-VHP BC/BS health insurance plan. All employees currently enrolled in VEHI-VHP VT Health Partnership Plan have access to this vision coverage! The contact number for

VSP is 1 (800)-877-7195. The co-pay is only $25 for an eye exam if you use an approved VSP doctor. (There are no benefits towards glasses, lenses, contacts, etc.) You can search for participating doctors at:

https://www.vsp.com/find-eye-doctors.html?id=guest&WT.ac=fad-guest

Student-Led Parent Conferences Pilot During the second half of this school year, eight middle and high school teachers from BSD and five from Winooski will pilot student-led parent conferences. With support and training from Partnership for Change fellow Beth Brodie, these teachers will be able to give students and parents a greater voice in the educational process through the experience of student-led parent conferences. The goals for the pilot include reaching 80% participation within each teacher’s targeted group (i.e. class or learning team) and gathering data from teachers, students, and parents to guide future implementation. Teachers will share their learning this spring with the faculties in both Districts as well as the community and, next year, they will have the opportunity to train their peers. For more information about this pilot or to share your comments and questions, contact Beth Brodie at [email protected]. Bonus: Want to learn more about the school system designed for all learners that our community imagined on November 2nd? View the data report at http://partnershipvt.org/assets/Nov.-2-Data-Report.pdf?f6f2f1.

IAA 2nd Grade Humanitarian Project On November 20th, George Leal's 2nd Grade class had a bake sale and raised an astonishing $300 for Philippine typhoon disaster relief! George wanted to teach the kids about empathy and compassion for others, and so with compassion and drive, this diverse group of friends (a few of whom were once refugees themselves) decided that they would help children in the Philippines who lack even food and water. They came up with the idea of a bake sale, spread the word, manned the cash box, learned a lot about math and money, and now are going to choose an international aid organization to which they'll give the money. In this day and age, to see young children making this kind of effort to help others while learning they can make a difference in the world is a beautiful sight. George is a terrific teacher, and what he's teaching and how he's doing it is impressive - this is a lesson the kids won't forget.

Art News from Horizons Program @ Taft

Art students at Horizons are making hats to provide to others for the holiday season. Under the guidance of art teacher Sandy Hawkes, the students have embraced this art medium and have taken an interest in sharing their talent with others in need. We call the project P.H.A.T. H@ts (Pursuing Honesty and Truth, by Art Students @ Horizons), based upon the core values concepts that our program encourages: Respect, Responsibility, Trust, and Effort. Students have worked all year on understanding and applying the elements of design. When working with art, there needs to be a Plan in mind and a Process to follow to get to a final Product for Presentation. (These P's are key to understanding successful completion of any task and experiencing success.) Many of the students have taken their work home to complete on their own time; one young man holds the record for having made seven hats on his own! When asked what feelings they got taking part in this community service activity, the responses included: “I feel accomplished”, “Grateful”, “Useful”, “Fantastic”, “Helpful, by helping someone stay warm”, and “I feel good knowing I am making sure somebody out there will be warmer”. The hats will be delivered, wrapped and ready for the holiday, to Lund at the end of this week. Great job to ALL!

Tech Byte

Tips for Crafting a Better Presentation Have you seen a bad presentation? You can see one below by BHS Social Studies teacher Dov Stucker to 9th graders on how NOT to present and some tips on how to craft a better presentation:

http://bhselearning.blogspot.com/2013/12/tips-for-crafting-presentations.html

Check out more stories about our students

learning on the BHS eLearning blog:

http://bhselearning.blogspot.com/