EMES School Newsletter

I realize it's a short turn-around from my newsletter last Friday. A lot has happened in the last week and I want to make sure to capture it all in a newsletter form in addition to the emails I've sent you this week.

Winter Wellness: We are so excited to offer three weeks of Winter Wellness to our students again this February. Please see below for more details, and please make sure to sign your child up by the end of the day today! We need to give numbers to Bolton and Craftsbury as soon as possible, and with the long weekend, we are hoping to tackle this on Tuesday of next week.

Community Connections Offering on Tuesday, Jan 20: Please see the flyer below if you'd like your child to participate in Community Connections next Tuesday for our inservice day.

Open House for Calais Community: Next Thursday, EMES will have a special Open House and dinner for the Calais community. We are hoping to show interested families/individuals around our school and give them some time to explore our building before their vote on February 10th. Thank you for understanding that EMES families will not participate in this evening.

Bake Sale during the Coffee House on January 30th: We are hoping to collect baked goods to sell at the Coffee House on Friday, January 30th. If you are willing to donate a baked good for this event, please fill out this Google form by Wednesday, January 28th. We need all baked goods dropped off at school during the day on Friday the 30th.

A few more budget implications: I will share a few more implications of the 3-school model vs. the contingency plan below. I know many of you will be meeting with Calais families later this evening and want to share some more specifics about the arts and interventions in the two budget scenarios. My hope is to give you as much information as I can as you prepare for the budget vote in March.

Enjoy the long holiday weekend and we look forward to welcoming your children back on Wednesday of next week!
Alicia

January 19: MLK Day - no school

January 20: Inservice - no school

January 21: WCUUSD Board Meeting at U-32 - Final Budget Discussions

January 22: Calais Community at EMES for Dinner and Open House 5:30 - 7
January 30: Report Cards Mailed Home

January 30: First EMES Coffee House - EMES Gym 6 pm

February 5, 12, 19: Winter Wellness!

February 6: 100th Day of School

February 14: Blood Drive at EMES 9:00 - 1:30 (see below)

February 23 - March 3: Winter break - no school

I am very excited to announce that we will be bringing back three weeks of Winter Wellness in February! Please take a few moments to read through the attached document that describes the activities. Once you know what your child would like to do, please fill out this Google Form. We need a separate Google Form for each child in your house, K-6. These are due back this Friday, January 16th.

Please note that EMES will cover the cost of lift tickets but cannot cover the cost of rentals or lessons for all students. If you would like assistance with the cost for these, please reach out directly to Michael Sherwin at msherwin@u32.org. We have scholarship money available.

If you are planning to volunteer, please make sure you have filled out Level 1 paperwork for this year. If you have not completed your paperwork or volunteered this year, please submit This form by Friday, January 23, 2026.

Last newsletter, I shared the total number of staffing in the 3-school model where Calais and East Montpelier are joined vs. the contingency model where Calais and East Montpelier continue to operate as two schools. Here, I will share a bit about programmatic differences in the two budget models.

To give a little context, EMES made significant cuts in personnel the last two budget seasons (2023-24 school year and 2024-25 school year). We reduced two classroom teachers, a special educator, part of a speech-language pathologist, .8 FTE (or four days a week) of our administrative assistant, and a total of 1.0 FTE in the Arts - .2, of each of the following: Art, Guidance, Library, Music, and PE. Because our enrollment did not decrease as much as we had predicted last budget season, the implications of these FTE reductions have been felt building-wide this year.

While EMES will not make significant cuts in personnel in the contingency model, it will affect programming. The total reductions in this budget are a .2 reduction in music and a .2 reduction in library. Our students in K-6 currently participate in 40 minutes of library instruction a week plus technology integration with our librarian and their classroom teacher. With a .2 reduction next year, tech integration will be impacted. Likely, it will also reduce our ability to provide after school book clubs that are co-facilitated by our librarian. In music, students will continue to have 40 minutes of music instruction each week. Currently, our fourth through sixth graders also have a weekly block of chorus, and students in grades five and six also have two weekly band classes as well as instrumental lessons. Band and chorus will no longer be a part of EMES, for the first time in decades. For the first time since we cut Spanish in the 2015-16 budget, programs will be cut at EMES in the contingency model. If we Calais and EM combine, all of these programs will continue as they are now.

Finally, EMES currently has two math interventionists and two literacy interventionists that provide our students across all seven grades with targeted interventions in math and literacy. In both the 3-school model and the contingency model, these positions will stay at EMES. The difference in the two models will be the addition of a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) interventionist (provided by a school counselor). This person will be able to provide targeted interventions to students across the grades in social emotional learning and functional skills like executive functioning. This position will not exist in the contingency model and is one we have needed for years.

EMES is hosting a blood drive on Valentine's Day! Please click on the link below to see all the details. We hope you consider stopping by to donate some blood on this day!

Ice on Fire: Come One, Come All to Central VT’s Winter Festival!

When: Sunday February 1, 2026, 2 - 5pm

Where: Montpelier Country Club, 203 Country Club Road

What: Hot drinks and snacks, Storytelling, games, performances, and activities for all! Please bring mugs for hot drinks. Admission/suggested donation: $10/person, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Get Involved and Volunteer!

1. Join the park crew to help set up the festival village.

Tasks will include setting up the festival area with Christmas trees, building igloos, setting up winter games, and much more. We will provide all tools and direction. Dress warmly and wear good winter boots and gloves. An indoor area with bathrooms will be available. Open volunteer times will be 10am-12pm and 1-3pm on the following dates, feel free to show up for any length of time:

● Friday 1/16

● Friday 1/23

● Friday 1/30

2. Dance with Lucada Mélange from NYC.

Saturday Workshop & Sunday Performance in the East Village - all are welcome Click here for more details!

3. Be a part of the Festivities!

Help with parking, sing a song, carry a puppet- any help is appreciated! Interested? Email us at info@alltogethernowvt.org