Education

When I said last year that I was going to try to figure out what was going on in public education, I had no idea what a gigantic project that would turn out to be. Not only is it complex, it’s also political, making it that much harder to unravel the claims of groups both for and against. In short, despite hours of research, I still have questions. But our own Brattleboro Town School Board says it wants to do outreach on education, and I think we should take the opportunity to reach out to them so we’ll get our questions answered and our concerns allayed (or not). To get the ball rolling, I have a list of questions I’d like to see addressed by local education officials. Even if no public discussion ensues, at least we’ll know what’s going on.

Enrollment is now open for Marlboro Continuing Education courses that can be taken on a per-class basis. The trimester begins Friday, January 3rd. Register using the : http://gradschool.marlboro.edu/admissions/application/cep?d=CEP

Also, if you know someone you think would be right for a Marlboro graduate degree, this is a great time for them to contact admissions to find out more information. 

Open to all area youth: The Power of Discovery @ The Grammar School, Session II

Sign up deadlines coming soon.

Don’t miss out on these amazing afterschool opportunities for your children in grades K-8!

All area children welcome.

BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The BAMS Committee will meet at 7:45 a.m. on Monday, December 16 in BAMS Conference Room.

Kurn Hattin Homes for Children’s Music Director, Lisa Bianconi, got the thrill of a lifetime last week when she learned that she is one of only 10 finalists for the inaugural Grammy Music Educator award. Bianconi received the call from the Grammy Foundation while at work at on Friday, letting her know the good news and telling her to tune in to the televised Grammy Nomination Concert to watch the official announcement live on CBS Friday night. The 10 finalists, from 10 cities across eight states receive $1,000 and a matching honorarium for their schools. One winner will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 56th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014.

Children come to Kurn Hattin Homes from all kinds of backgrounds and for all kinds of reasons. Recently a group of five 2012 graduates shared their moving stories of transformation. These candid interviews are now available for viewing on Kurn Hattin’s website. Each one is completely different, and some may surprise you.

BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The BUHS #6 Finance Committee will meet at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 25 in the WSESU Central Office Conference Room, 53 Green Street (Warrants).

The BUHS #6 Budget Committee will meet at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 25 in the WSESU Central Office Conference Room, 53 Green Street.

The Town School Board discussed their public outreach efforts again on Tuesday night and found that even deciding on topics was more complicated than they’d expected.  A small group of citizens attended the meeting to participate in that discussion and what emerged was that the issues raised at the first meeting, held in October at the Brattleboro Co-op, needed to be clarified and expanded on before focus topics could be decided.  In short, the board might have to do more outreach before they can properly do outreach.

After the October meeting, the School Board assigned the outreach issue to a subcommittee consisting of David Schoales and Jill Stahl-Tyler who were tasked with determining an outreach process.  Schoales and Stahl-Tyler looked at issues raised at the first meeting, listed and categorized them, and brought them back to the board to decide on next steps.  After nearly an hour of  discussion, it was decided that the subcommittee would need to be expanded and topics decided.  Public meetings centered around the topics are expected to begin in January.

Brooks Memorial Library is one of fourteen Vermont libraries across the state that now is offering videoconferencing, thanks to a grant from Google. The Library will be offering monthly orientation sessions on the new equipment beginning on Wednesday, November 20, at 7 PM in the Library’s Meeting Room.

It will be taught by the library’s e Vermont computer intern, Justin Polnack. There is no registration necessary and the workshop is free and open to the public. The 90 minute session will demonstrate steps on setting up the equipment and using Google hangout. There is no charge to use the equipment, but people wanting to reserve the equipment must register for a Google+ account, attend a workshop, or schedule a one-on-one session with the trainer.

Kurn Hattin Homes for Children’s School Principal, Scott Tabachnick, recently wrote an op-ed piece for the local paper, the Brattleboro Reformer (published Friday, November 8), to share a few of the reasons why he feels thankful to be a part of the Kurn Hattin community. In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, we thought we’d share Scott’s letter with you!

Kurn Hattin Homes for Children: Getting it Right for Kids

by Scott Tabachnick

BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The BAMS Committee will meet at 7:45 a.m. on Monday, November 4 in the Middle School Conference Room.

The BUHS #6 Finance Committee will meet at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 6 in the WSESU Central Office Conference Room, 53 Green Street.

NOTICE OF MEETING

The BUHS #6 Board of Directors will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, November 4 in the WRCC Cusick Conference Room.

The Brattleboro Town School Board has three budget meetings scheduled for Wednesday, October 30, 2013.

First meeting 10/30/13 – 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday, October 30th: 8:30 a.m. The Brattleboro Town School Board’s Energy Committee will meet at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 30 in the WSESU Central Office Conference Room, 53 Green Street. 

Escuelita Spanish School is offering a weekend Spanish Immersion Course November 9th-10th at Hilltop Montessori School in Brattleboro. These courses make learning Spanish feel effortless, fun, and truly effective. Many of us have had frustrating experiences learning a second language. The way we were taught in school might have taught us the rules of the language but, in most cases, we did not learn how to speak the language.

Escuelita’s approach is based on brain and language acquisition research and it gets students understanding and speaking the language quickly and with a lot of laughter and fun along the way. After our weekend immersion course last June, one of our students wrote:

Over 30 people crammed into a tiny conference room at the Brattleboro Food Co-op Tuesday night with another 25 or so out in the hall outside to participate in a School Board planning session for future “public outreach” meetings that the board plans to hold. The meeting began with an hour long open session during which people were allowed to speak for two minutes each.

A number of parents and teachers spoke with criticism of the schools including over-reliance on data and standardized tests, changes in teaching methods and management style, treatment of experienced teachers, and other issues.

 is an anonymous statewide survey of licensed school-based educators. This includes full and part-time teachers, administrators, media coordinators, counselors, classroom assistants, and clerical support staff. Sponsored by the Vermont Agency of Education and Vermont NEA, the goal is to assess teaching conditions at the school, district and state level.

The 2013 survey was taken in March and April. A VEA representative in each school was to receive instructions to work with administrators to set up a faculty meeting to distribute letters with anonymous survey access codes. Teachers were allowed to switch letters in the same school to further randomize their response codes. Anyone not in attendance was to have been met with personally to explain the process.

On Friday, October 25th, Kurn Hattin Homes for Children will hold its 22nd Annual Mental Health Conference, Treating Trauma and Attachment Issues in Children and Families. This full-day workshop offers support, practical training, and continuing education credits for counselors and therapists, social workers, educators, medical and legal professionals, caregivers, therapeutic parents, and anyone involved in the field of child welfare or family services.

Over 30 people, many of them teachers, turned out to observe a special Town School Board meeting this week, which was held to hear a grievance from Academy School teacher Lauren Ashley. Ashley, a veteran of 27 years, filed the grievance after a disputed process involving her performance evaluations earlier this year. Usually hearings that involve personnel matters are held behind closed doors, but Ashley opted to have hers in open session.

School Board Chair Margaret Atkinson acted quickly to quell any off-topic discussion by members of the public, saying that due to open meeting law, no comment from the public would be accepted. “These are perilous times for public schools,” she said, but that the time to talk about it was not this hearing. “Please remain respectful,” she warned the audience.

Got Teens?

Do you want to learn how to problem-solve with your teen, encourage cooperation, how to listen and be heard, and to develop fair and effective discipline skills? On Monday, March 3rd from 6 to 9 PM a FREE Parenting Teens Wisely class will be offered by the Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition at the Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro.

This free 3 hour workshop teaches parents skills and techniques to help them better understand and deal with their children ages 10 to 19.

To the Editor:
 
Sometime last spring before school ended, a letter was written to the Reformer regarding the lack of respect for teachers, the lack of appreciation for long years of service and teachers’ fear of speaking up in some schools. With the new school year, the disrespect is continuing. Some teachers are being asked to perform certain tasks while others are not. Some teachers are favored over others. Comments about one teacher are being shared with others. Ideas by staff members are ignored if they even dare to express them. This is not how a collaborative learning environment is fostered.
 

BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The BUHS Teacher Curriculum Committee will meet at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, October 21 in the Cusick Conference Room.

The BUHS #6 Finance Committee will meet at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 in the WSESU Central Office Conference Room, 53 Green Street.