Education section
NOTICE OF MEETING
The Windham Southeast School District Climate Crisis Task Force will meet at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 23 in the Community Room at the Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro.
The Windham Southeast School District Communications Council will meet at 12:00 Noon on Thursday, October 17 at the Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro.
NOTICE OF BOARD MEETING
The Windham Southeast School District Board will meet at 6:00 p.m. on
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at the Dummerston School.
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER – 6:00 p.m. – Kristina Naylor
On Wednesday, October 16th at Dummerston School at 6:00 p.m., the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) School Board is scheduled to discuss the resurfacing of Brattleboro Union High School’s (BUHS) Natowich Field. The focus of the field portion of the meeting will be on BUHS’s proposal to resurface the field using artificial turf.
HatchSpace woodworking shop and school in Brattleboro, VT welcomes Gail Grycel to their teaching staff and board of directors.
Gail Grycel, owner of Twin Birch Woodworking in Westminster West, Vermont, has been a custom cabinetmaker since 1984. The balance of beauty and function exists in her cabinetry and furniture throughout New England. For over twenty five years, and in three states, Gail has empowered women and girls through her class offerings in adult learning programs, woodworking courses in her studio, Rosie’s Girls summer camp sessions, mixed gender workshops, and one on one tutoring. She is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and experience to all who want to explore the love of making things out of wood.
Because of school district consolidation under Act 46, the Brattleboro Town School District’s five-member school board was dissolved on June 30th. As of July 1st, the board of the merged district, the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD), will make policy and budget planning decisions for Academy School, Green Street School, Oak Grove School and Early Education Services, as well as the five other schools of the merged district.
Information about times and locations of WSESD meetings, along with contact information for board members, is available on WSESD Board’s page on the Supervisory Union (WSESU) website at http://www.wsesu.org under the school boards menu. Meetings will rotate between schools. The next WSESD meeting is at 6pm on July 24 at Putney Central School. The next WSESD meeting taking place in Brattleboro is scheduled for August 7 at 6pm at Academy School.
By Helen Wachtel
Twenty years ago when my eldest daughter started college, the cost of tuition, fees and room and board at a non-profit private university was $31,590 per year, or $126,360 for four years. The cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public non-profit college was $5,020 per year or $20,080 if the student finished in four years. These sums seemed astronomical then, as they still do now. We worried about how we’d be able to afford this on our modest Vermont incomes since our youngest was to begin the following year as well. Both girls wanted to go to school in Boston and had been accepted to the colleges of their choice. This was a new experience for us, sending our children away to college.
The Brattleboro Rotary Club Gateway Foundation is hosting its “Dining for a Cause” fundraiser at the 99 Restaurant on Putney Road in Brattleboro.
The Brattleboro Rotary Club is an active community service club of about 70 members. Its members engage in community and human service projects locally and internationally. Since 1985, Gateway Foundation has awarded close to $500,000 in scholarships.
Residents of Putney, Brattleboro, Dummerston and Guilford are invited to join the new merged school board, Windham Southeast School District Board, for our 2019-2020 Budget Process.
The first annual meeting of the new merged board will be held on Tuesday, June 25th. Voters present at the WSESD annual meeting will vote on the new merged budget. This budget is a compilation of the five independent district budgets developed by the Guilford, Dummerston, Putney and Brattleboro Town School Boards and the BUHS District #6 School Board (Brattleboro Union High School, Brattleboro Area Middle School, Windham Regional Career Center).
Below is information that might be helpful to know for May 21stspecial elections.
Attached is a sample ballot for all four towns – Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford and Putney. All towns’ ballots are the same, and voters from each town can vote on all races. Absentee ballots are currently available at the Town Clerk’s Office and may be requested until 5:00 pm on Monday, May 20. Sample ballots can also be found on our website atwww.brattleboro.org under Elections.
Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) (Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney) Current Timeline for Merger (without legislative or court action)
Merged Board Elections
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Election for representatives to the WSESD School Board, by Australian ballot. Polls open in each Town 8am-7pm. Registered voters in each of the four towns will cast ballots to select school board members for all four towns. Each town will have two voting members on the merged board. Merged board members from the four towns will represent everyone in the merged district. Early voting begins May 1, 2019.
Join us at 1 pm on Thursday, April 25th, at Brooks Memorial Library, as Richard Wizansky of Bold Moves Consulting joins our own Jeanne Walsh for a FREE public program about foundation fundraising…
Wheelhouse Clay Center recently opened at 48 Harmony Place in downtown Brattleboro. It’s the vision of two local potters and former members of Brattleboro Clayworks, Shari Zabriskie and Teta Hilsdon.
Wheelhouse’s four basic offerings are rentals for potters, classes, special events, and a gallery. As classes begin to roll out, Teta Hilsdon is offering one scholarship to her Beginner Wheel Throwing class, an 8-week course covering the basics of wheel throwing technique, trimming, decorating, and glazing.
To Brattleboro Town Meeting Reps & those who have expressed a special concern about education:
I write to officially inform you all that I am resigning my position on the board, effective immediately.
My primary concern is—as always—our students’ education. I have grave concerns about the actions taken at last week’s attempt at the transitional board meeting. I do not see how it is possible to serve our students, and to continue to be in full compliance with the law.
Good evening. Still sending out information from me personally, not as chair… As of late today, Judge Mello issued a ruling; see link:
https://vtdigger.org/2019/03/04/judge-denies-request-delay-mergers-act-46-case/?is_wppwa=true&wpappninja_cache=friendly
As before, please feel free to contact me with any questions, and if I can find answers, I will.
The Spring 2019 Landmark College Academic Speaker Series continues with a talk by Marcos Del Hierro, entitled “The Use of Hip-hop Rhetoric to Combat the Criminalization of Black, Brown, and Red Youth” on Tuesday, March 5, at 7 p.m. in the Brooks M. O’Brien Auditorium, located in the East Academic Building.
During the talk, Del Hierro will provide insights into how hip-hoppers produce sustainable models for recycling knowledge and technology to produce art, criticism, and pleasure, allowing these artists to respond to social discourses that represent young people of color as inferior and deviant.
Greetings, Brattleboro! My name is Jill Stahl Tyler, and while I am the chair of the Brattleboro Town School Board, I send this information out personally. It’s a broad update on the status of our budget/Act 46/delays in moving forward.
Our Brattleboro Town School Board has always tried to “prepare for every eventuality” while going through almost four years of Act 46 discussion. In the hopes that you will feel more informed about the process, I have gathered this information. Feel free to share widely!
I am taking the time to clarify one thing about the choice voters face for the three-year seat on the Brattleboro Town School Board on Tuesday, March 5.
This vote is NOT a referendum on Act 46. The group that I have worked with – in Brattleboro,
across our county and the state – has consistently fought for provisions in the Act 46 law itself
known as “Section 9: Alternative Governance.” This section was put in the law because of
concerns in the legislature that there would be some form of off-ramp for communities that would
not be well served by the so-called “preferred merger” with a mega-board.
After taking my seat on the Brattleboro Town School Board for the first time I took up as an early task the reading of the responsibilities of a school board member. Not surprisingly number one was to see to the education of the children. That suggested that I learn something about education. I remembered my father writing a paper on John Dewey in the 50’s when, after two and a half decades, he had the motivation to finish his Masters in education. So I read a teeny bit about Dewey, and a smattering of Piaget, Montessori, Bruner, Skinner and a few others.
We are excited to host a Brattleboro Town School Board Candidates’ Forum on Monday, February 25th from 7-8:30 pm, downstairs in the Main reading Room!
Prospective candidates include Emily Murphy Kaur, Jill Stahl Tyler, Spoon Agave, Andy Davis, and Robin Morgan.
