Gertrude Chamberlin School

See information below on our Music in Movement Residency!

See the information below about a new event for kindergarten!

You can celebrate by walking or rolling to school with your family and friends from your neighborhood!

See information below in Movement to Music section to find out times for our dress rehearsal trip to the high school!

Here is information about what your child should wear for the performance:

Black or dark bottoms and secure footwear (sneakers).

Kindergarten: Orange

1st: Purple

2nd: Green

3rd Blue

4th: Yellow/White

5th: Red

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View this calendar for in-school dates, early dismissal dates, and school vacations.

Dear Families,

I will be attending a family wedding in Ireland next week, and will not be at GCS. Stuart Weiss, a former South Burlington administrator who subs for me when I am absent, will be here Monday through Thursday, and Mrs. Tan will be filling in on Friday. I will miss seeing you all at the Movement to Music Performance and I'm also looking forward to a fun family event...it's not every day that you get invited to a castle wedding in Ireland!

Thank you,

Mrs. Russell, GCS Principal

On Friday, October 2, we are inviting all kindergarten students from Orchard, Chamberlin, and Marcotte, along with their families, to join us for Kindergarten Night as the Seawolves football team takes on Rutland.

Kindergarteners and their families will be admitted for free. Please meet our Physical Education Teacher, Riggs, by the flagpole at 6:30 p.m. Before the 7:00 p.m. game, our kindergarten students and their families will be announced and invited to march across the field as we officially welcome the South Burlington Class of 2039.

Every kindergarten student will also receive a free Seawolves T-shirt!

We hope this becomes a special annual tradition that connects our youngest students with the larger South Burlington school community from the very beginning.

Friday, October 2
Meet at the flagpole: 6:30 p.m.
Seawolves vs. Rutland: 7:00 p.m.

Welcome to South Burlington, Class of 2039!

Orders are DUE WED, OCT 7TH

Envelopes will NOT be accepted after this date.

• You can purchase prints or packages of multiple poses; no need to pick just one!

• Order envelopes are the most economical way to purchase portraits.

• Cash or check payment only are accepted for order envelopes.

• Envelope orders will be delivered back to the school for distribution to families.

Online Ordering

• Online ordering offers the same print package and price options as the order

envelope.

• Credit card only payments are accepted online.

• There are additional tax and shipping costs when ordering online.

• Online orders are mailed directly to your home.

• You can log into your child’s gallery using their student ID number, which can be

found on their order form.

Go to https://v2.myproimages.com/amv-photography-2120 and sign in with your student’s

ID number to start ordering online. Bulk ordering is available until Wednesday, October 7th.

Bulk orders will be delivered to the school for pickup along with envelope orders.

Make Up & Sibling Days

• Make up day for Chamberlin is scheduled on Friday, October 2nd

• South Burlington Sibling Portraits are offered at:

o RMCS on Thursday, November 12th from 3pm - 4:30pm

o Orchard School on Sunday, November15th from 12pm - 1:30pm

Questions? Email us cs@amvphotography.com or call 802-877-699

We hope you were able to join us for a fun afternoon at the GCS Harvest Festival last Sunday! Our awesome PTO sponsored a 50/50 raffle, silent auction, games, two bounce houses, face painting and food vendors at our annual Harvest Festival. Despite the rain, families enjoyed indoor fun in the gymnasium and cafeteria. Special thanks to Melanie Daniels for her work in getting more than 60 donations for our Silent Auction to support fundraising for field trips and supplies for our students and teachers! Here are some photos from this wonderful event!

Join us on Wednesday October 7th for the annual Walk and Roll To School Day!

October 7th is National Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day! We encourage families that live near the school to walk, bike or scooter to school whenever they are able...here are some great reasons to participate:

Creating Healthy Habits:

Active trips to school enable children to incorporate the regular physical activity they need each day while also forming healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Regular physical activity helps children build strong bones, muscles and joints, and it decreases the risk of obesity. In contrast, insufficient physical activity can contribute to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and stroke. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children and adolescents get one hour or more of physical activity each day. Research suggests that physically active kids are more likely to become healthy, physically active adults, underscoring the importance of developing the habit of regular physical activity early.

Cleaner Environment

When families decide to lace up their sneakers or strap on their helmets to get to school instead of riding in a car, they help reduce the amount of air pollutants emitted by automobiles.

Vehicles emit a variety of air pollutants, resulting in increases in ground-level ozone, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter such as particles of dust, soot, smoke, dirt and liquid droplets. To learn more about the health risks of pollution, visit www.epa.gov/urban-air-toxics.

Community Benefits

The whole community benefits from efforts to enable and encourage more children to walk, bike or roll to school safely. Benefits include:

• Less traffic congestion. According to the 2011 National Center for Safe Routes to School report, personal vehicles taking students to school accounted for 10 to 14 percent of all personal vehicle trips made during the morning peak commute times (based on National Household Travel Survey Data, 2009). Reducing the number of private vehicles commuting to school can reduce morning traffic around the school. Less traffic congestion also improves conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists, creating a positive cycle—as the community sees more people walking and rolling, more people feel comfortable walking and rolling.
• Stronger sense of community. The common goal of improving conditions for walking and bicycling brings families, neighbors, school officials and community leaders together. The sense of community also builds as children and parents develop walking and rolling buddies and chat with neighbors on the sidewalk or path.
• Safer streets. Communities with higher rates of walking and rolling tend to have lower crash rates for all travel modes. One reason may be that motorists drive more cautiously when they expect to encounter walkers and rollers. More walkers and rollers can also improve personal security by providing more “eyes on the street.”
• Lower costs. Encouraging and enabling active trips reduces costs for the family, community and school district. Families save on gas, communities spend less on building and maintaining roads and school districts spend less on busing. In fact, one school district calculated $237,000 in annual savings.
• Improved accessibility. Enabling students of all abilities to walk and roll to school makes it easier for everyone in the community to get around, including parents with strollers, senior citizens, residents without cars and residents with temporary or permanent mobility impairments.
• Economic gains. Sidewalks, paths and other investments in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure can increase home values and direct additional traffic to local businesses.

Here is a map of our school with walking routes (the picture of the school is facing White Street, with Jaycee Park to the left of the school).

Dear South Burlington School District Families,

Thank you for being our partners in supporting student wellness and social-emotional skills. To better understand the school experiences and needs of your family, we are asking you to complete the following survey between now and October 9th, 2026. It will take 15-20 minutes to complete online.

The information collected from the survey will be used to better understand the needs and experiences of students, staff and families within our district. This data will help the district:

• Identify strengths and areas for improvement across the schools, and collectively as a District.

• Develop targeted strategies to support the social-emotional needs of students, staff and families.

• Inform planning at both the district and individual school levels.

• Support the professional development of staff in order to best support students, families and staff.

This is internal data that will be reviewed with staff and will guide our efforts to create a more supportive and inclusive school environment for all students, staff and families.

Take the Survey → Click Here

If you have students in more than one SBSD school: Please complete one survey per school to help us understand the unique experiences in each building

The survey is anonymous. Your individual responses are anonymous, and cannot be linked back to you.

Questions? Please reach out to Kat Yun, Director of Equity, Belonging and Family Engagement, (kyun@sbschools.net) or the building Principal at your student’s school.

We will be using the Pick-a-Time Conference scheduling tool for our October 2026 Family Teacher Conferences. You will need your student(s) id as your student’s FirstLastName. The security code is your child’s birthday in the following form MMDDYYYY.

Here is a link to the Pick-a-Time tool. Or use the QR code

Pick-a-Time will be open from 8 am on October 2nd, 2026, until October 19th, 2026 at 5 pm.

Here are directions for Parents on signing up for Pick-a-Time.

We will be offering both Virtual and In-Person conferences. Virtual links can be found in the Pick-a-Time scheduling tool or from your student’s teacher.

Please schedule your conference with your student’s HOMEROOM teacher.

You can also schedule time with our Integrated Arts team teachers: Mrs. Chandler(library), Mr. Riegler (PE), Mrs. Post (Music), and Mrs. Goodrich (Art).

At GCS, we believe that explicitly teaching social emotional learning skills (SEL) fosters a positive school culture. All of our grades will be using the Second Step program to explicitly teach social skills twice a month on Wednesdays. Second Step promotes school success, school connectedness and a safe and respectful school climate. This focus on social skills will strengthen your child’s ability to learn, have empathy, manage emotions and solve problems. For the months of September and into October, the focus will be on Skills for Learning. This month, our school-wide theme is our school as a welcoming place where every student feels like he or she belongs. In our morning announcements, we’ll be reminding students to welcome others and act and speak in safe, kind, and responsible ways. In addition, we’ll be teaching students about expectations and routines in a variety of school settings. Support your child at home in welcoming others and acting and speaking in safe, kind, and responsible ways. To learn more about this program, visit www.secondstep.org. When we teach our Second Step lessons, we call this Wolf Den.

We also use Restorative Practices, including our Wolf Pack Time. Restorative Practices allow us to strengthen relationships, as well as connectedness to our school community. When students have challenges at school, we also use Restorative Practices to problem solve and repair harm. We will have K-2 and 3-5 multiage groups for this morning circle time once a month. Our first Wolf Pack was on Wednesday this week. We introduced the common themes of a circle - having a centerpiece, a talking stick and agreements on how we will be together during circle time. Wolf Packs created their agreements together, creating a hive centerpiece. We are excited to have a new group of mixed grade friends and another trusted adult in our Wolf Pack! These small groups will stay together beyond one year...so if your child was here last year, they may have the same adult as their Wolf Pack Leader.

Rose Bedard joined us this week as our Movement to Music Teaching Artist! Each grade level has a block of movement learning every day to learn movement skills. Her residency will end with a movement to music performance by your children to showcase the skills they learn, at the South Burlington High School gymnasium on Thursday, October 8th at 6:00 PM. Additionally, the entire school will travel to the high school for a dress rehearsal during the day on Thursday, October 8th. Grades 3-5 will depart by busses at 8:45 and grades K-2 will depart by busses at 9:15. Grades 3-5 will return back to school by 10:30 and grades K-2 will return back to school by 11:00.

Here is information about what your child should wear for the performance:

Black or dark bottoms and secure footwear (sneakers).

Kindergarten: Orange

1st: Purple

2nd: Green

3rd: Blue

4th: Yellow/White

5th: Red

Benjamin Clark, a former GCS student, is working on his Eagle Scout Project. He will be building a shed for our recess and outdoor equipment. He is in the fundraising stages and will be hosting another bottle drive on Saturday, October 3rd from 10:00-2:00, so please save your cans and bottles. He also has an upcoming fundraiser on October 9th at Dave's Hot Chicken. Just scan the code below at the register or order online with the code "give" and he will receive a percentage of the sales!

The PTO has an awesome vendor for all of your SB gear needs! There are a variety of logos (see photo below) and items to choose from - you go online and pick your items and the logos you want on them, and then they will be shipped to your home for a flat fee of $4.95...and sometimes they run specials for free shipping! The PTO earns a portion of all sales which goes to support our school. This link will be open all year long, so you can order whenever you want! Click on the link below and get ready for our next spirit wear day!

As a Title I school, we have a School/Family Compact with agreements on how we will support all of our students at home and at school, to have positive learning outcomes. You can find the School/Family Compact in our Family Handbook, on the website and linked below.

We are hiring for a few support positions for this year! Training will be provided for all new hires. Please contact me at hrussell@sbschools.net, (802)652-7403.

Interventionists - Working with one or two students who have Individualized Education Plans with support from our Special Educators. This position comes with a comprehensive benefit package. Starting pay is $21.86/hour. We are currently looking for a full time interventionist, and a long term substitute interventionist to cover a maternity leave at the end of September.

Please go to https://www.schoolspring.com/ and search South Burlington School District or call 802-652-7403 if you are interested!

During the SMC Ski Tri, young athletes (ages 6 to 13) will take on our kid-friendly course. On the beautiful Saint Michael’s campus, participants will swim, pedal, and run to the finish line. Racers are organized by age, and the distances are age appropriate. No experience is necessary! There are participation medals for all finishers and awards for the top 3 in each category.

REGISTER NOW

Thank you!

Saint Mike’s Nordic Ski Team

Community Movie Night: Join us on Friday, October 2nd at 7pm for a FREE Community Movie Night with the South Burlington Recreation and Parks department, sponsored by Four Seasons Realty at The Overlook at Underwood Park! We will be watching Minions and Monsters, and complimentary snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Link: https://secure.rec1.com/VT/south-burlington-vt-recreation-parks/catalog?filter=c2VhcmNoPTQ0NjM2NDk=

South Burlington Block Party: 🎉 Join us for our Community Block Party on October 3 from 8:30–11:30 AM at the Burlington Airport Green Space (1223 Airport Drive)! Bring the family and enjoy a morning of fun, food, music, and community. Parking is available in the airport parking garage, Vermont Federal Credit Union lower lot, or limited street parking.

Link: https://secure.rec1.com/VT/south-burlington-vt-recreation-parks/catalog?filter=c2VhcmNoPTQxNTMyNjU=

Email: hrussell@sbschools.net
Website: https://vt01819219.schoolwires.net/Domain/10
Location: Chamberlin School, White Street, South Burlington, VT, USA
Phone: 802 652 7403