April 4, 2025

Dear Hartford School District Learning Community,

Thank you so much for participating in the Superintendent Search process. While being a candidate experiencing the community through the lens of an applicant, my decision to join the HSD last year was affirmed in such a heartening way- it was wonderful to see all of the participation and how engaged this community is in the education of the young people we serve!

I humbly send this latest district newsletter out to you all as your official Superintendent, which brings me great joy and hope as we weather unchartered and unpredictable waters together.

Please see the content below for more information about the Governor's Education Transformation Plan, and thank you to those of you who took the time to fill out the survey I sent out through last month's newsletter. It is perhaps more important now than ever that you share your perspective and provide input into what is being considered as a model of public education for the young people in our state, who will become our neighbors, business owners, and fellow community members.

Please also enjoy the collage of greatness that is the work of our educators, staff members, and administrators; the intention of these newsletters is to provide you all with helpful information and resources, but most importantly, to give you a glimpse into the vibrant school lives of our students and educators.

As always, please do not ever hesitate to be in touch if you have a question, a concern, or would just like to chat- I welcome the opportunity to hear from you!

Warmly,

Caty Sutton

Superintendent

Hartford School District

suttonc@hartfordschools.net

On March 28, the House Education Committee approved H.454 draft 8.1 on a 7-4-0 vote. H.454 is generally modeled after the VSA’s Timeline and Framework for Incremental Change in Vermont’s Education System, supported by the VSBA.

The House Ways and Means Committee will take up H.454 this week with plans to incorporate its education financing proposal into the bill. House Education Committee Chair Peter Conlon and Legislative Counsel Beth St. James explained H.454 to the Ways and Means Committee in this video, this video and this video.

Senator Bongartz’s counter proposal to H.454 draws district lines this legislative session based on this map and does not address class size, school size, state aid for school construction, or other provisions covered by H.454.

Governor Scott stated last week, “I also want to be upfront with legislators, I will not support adjourning this session without a bill to transition to a new funding system, establish a new governance structure that unlocks transformation, and includes a specific implementation timeline. All these steps are necessary to improve equity, maximize efficiency, achieve educational excellence and be cost effective for taxpayers”. Read the full statement here.

To provide additional information to the community in the HSD, I have invited Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders, and our local legislators to attend a public forum to give us all an opportunity to hear directly about where the state is in implementing any changes to the way in which public education is delivered in the state, as well as to address the Executive Orders coming from Washington and any impact on all of us, as well as to ask any related questions about Act 74 and our situation with regard to PCB remediation and abatement.

Please stay tuned for more details as I learn more about whether everyone can commit to this event!

The Hartford School District takes student safety very seriously and works to ensure that our community is safe and welcoming. Safety teams have been meeting regularly at each building throughout the year to develop plans; these safety teams plan for the safe operation of their buildings.

A key component of these teams is that they debrief after drills and after real incidents so that we can continue to refine our procedures.

District administrators also meet monthly to work on Emergency Operations Planning. Recently, our district director of buildings and grounds, Jonathan Garthwaite, has been doing work to update administrators' radios so that the communication is smooth at the building level and the district level.

Students, families, and community members also have a key part in school safety; timely reporting of safety concerns allows administrators to take action.

For more information, please see the link below to review the VT School Safety Center website, which is where you can review a lot of related information that we reference and draw from for our procedures and protocols.

Meteorologist Marissa Vigevani and the WCAX team broadcasted from Ottauquechee School live from 4:30-8:00am on Friday morning! All students and families were welcomed and encouraged to join in the fun!

White River School: April 3, 2025

HMMS hosted an incredibly successful Marathon Dance, led by Brycen Nardone, Kristen Chapman, and many others. Over 30 HMMS staff volunteered their time to make this event a reality, and our students raised nearly $12,000 to donate to various causes!

Please check out the regularly updated Student Assistance Program newsletter, click here– SAP Newsletter for information on prevention, substance misuse, bullying and wellness

• Vaping in 2025: What’s Changed & What Parents Need to Know

• Host: Operation Parent

• Date: Recorded Webinar (from 2/19 event) | Watch

• Location: online

• Description: The face of vaping has changed significantly since they first emerged about a decade ago: vapes are bigger, stronger, and distributors have developed new methods to appeal to youth and evade FDA regulations. Join Dr. Weiner for an in-depth look at the evolving vaping landscape, the hidden risks to physical and mental health, and practical tips to help you have informed, impactful conversations with your child.

• Hartford Parks & Recreation is looking for ideas for the future possibilities of Lyman Point Park, including how to make it more accessible. If you have a chance, please fill out the survey

Please check out the Hartford Parks and Recreation offerings for the Summer and Fall: https://hartfordvt.myrec.com/info/default.aspx

Please use this link to access the HMMS Athletics page.

4 Seniors (Harper Fallon, Simon Nichols, Matthew Tsouknakis, and Adrian Layne) served on a Vison of a Graduate Panel during the District Inservice Day, sharing their stories about their lived experiences as students in the Hartford School District.

Several students deserve recognition for their accomplishments through the VT Allstate Music Festival:

Molly Fournier-Stephens recently prepared and performed a memorized 7-minute trombone solo for a panel of judges in competition for a VT Allstate Music Festival Scholarship. She has been awarded the top honor, a Performance Scholarship, for the Brass category. This recognizes the state's top scoring brass performer and Molly will now perform her solo in front of the entire Allstate Music Festival in May in addition to receiving a scholarship. Congratulations Molly!

We also had 11 students accepted into the VT Allstate Music Festival this year!

Students accepted into Allstate Band:

Daniel Beaulieu

Molly Fournier-Stephens

Dexter Maxell-Crosby

Larkyn Moodie-Hamilton

Cooper Warren

Students accepted into Allstate Chorus:

Jaidin Bennett

Quinn Chartier

Jaxon DalPra

Maddie Moore

Arlo Philip

Cora Winslow

Hartford High Lites: March 28, 2025

Students recently competed at events for their Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competitions. 12 FBLA students qualified to go to Nationals and 5 HOSA students qualified to go to nationals. Additionally, the FBLA Chapter won a prestigious award for work the student executive committee did.

During a beautiful ceremony featuring Princess Goldey (an alumnus of HACTC) as guest speaker, 39 Upper Valley students were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society on Thursday March 27th. Family and friends then enjoyed a reception catered by the Culinary Arts program.

Highlights from the HACTC: March 24, 2025

Students and staff at The Wilder School celebrated reading during the week of March 25th. Some of the events that occurred are below:

• Students and staff decorated their classroom doors and bulletin boards in their rooms and in the hallway to celebrate their favorite books.

• Students explored books in the library and then used resources to create and color maps of where the stories in the books they read took place.

• Students participated in the Reading Badge Challenge by seeing how many badges they could fill in during the Wilder is Wilder About Reading Week.

• Students created and designed book covers.

• Students listened to an interactive read aloud book:

Storylineonline.net

Read Out Loud Archives - KidLit TV

Story Time From Space

Julie's Library | Julie's Library

PBS KIDS Read-Alongs | PBS KIDS for Parents

PBS Books Storytime - PBS Book

Please enjoy the Equity Newsletter for March!

A link is here for your convenience!

Hartford Athletics

Jeff Moreno, CAA

Athletic Director

morenoj@hartfordschools.net

They did it again! Hartford girls ice hockey captured their 2nd consecutive state championship on March 9th at UVM when they defeated #3 Middlebury in a thriller! Junior goaltender Nella Bowen pitched a shutout in the 2-0 win. Goals were scored by seniors Emma Bazin and Madison Barwood as they capped off their stellar ice hockey careers in style. Hartford was the first school in the state to offer varsity girls ice hockey (early 90s) and came close to winning state titles so many times in the program’s first decade but this latest group of Hurricanes has found the winning touch with the programs 1st state title (last year) and a back-to-back title this winter. Congratulations to Coach Gramling and the entire team!

Junior Charlotte Jasmin earned two accolades since the last monthly newsletter…she surpassed Bill Vielleux (HHS ‘93) as the all-time leading scorer in Hartford basketball history. She accomplished this with a pair of free throws in the first round of the playoffs against Harwood a few weeks ago. Last week Charlotte was named the Vermont Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year! She is Hartford’s 8th Gatorade Player of the Year and first for girls basketball since Sarah Illingworth was named in 2012. Quite the season Charlotte has had! Congratulations…well deserved honors for sure!

Fall sports registration will be open in a few weeks! Once open, families may go on Infinite Campus to register for field hockey, football, girls volleyball, soccer, cross-country, Unified soccer, and bass fishing (if we have enough interest). Information and instructions can be found on the athletic webpage (https://hhsvt.com/athletics-2). Pre-season starts on August 11th (football) and 14th (everyone else). Please contact Burke Farrell (farrellb@hartfordschools.net) if you have any questions about your child’s physical. There will be a parent meeting in June. (Date TBD)

Hartford Athletics partners with Special Olympics Vermont and several local programs to make sure there are more opportunities for our community members to participate. In addition to our Unified teams (soccer, basketball, bocce) we also host snowshoeing events each winter for the Upper Valley Hawks. You might have seen the course on our athletic fields when driving around campus this winter. We are proud to partner with these amazing community organizations!

We are excited to announce the hiring of Blake Lopes as our next varsity girls soccer coach! Blake grew up in California and played soccer at Chico State University. She has served as an assistant coach for the Hartford girls soccer team the past two seasons. Blake brings an infectious and extremely positive energy to the sideline and the girls are very excited to continue working with Blake.

Please join us!

As the community is aware, we have been carefully monitoring the level of PCBs throughout the district and very recently have discovered that the PCB levels at the high school require more attention, and the scope of the project has significantly increased.

Based on the information that was provided by Buildings & Grounds Director Jonathan Garthwaite at a special board meeting held on February 27 at 7 PM, and again on March 3, at the Hartford School and Town meeting, at which time the Director presented the latest findings in the developments of the PCB remediation and abatement analysis, the board has directed that the following actions be taken:

• District Building & Grounds Director will work with contractors to conduct an in-depth and thorough bulk sampling of affected areas, which will help to fully understand the depth and scope of this project and assist the board in making timely and critical decisions concerning the direction and costs that will be involved in this project.

• District Director of Finance, Jacob Vezina, will investigate funding sources that will look beyond what might be recovered through a litigation process.

• Interim Superintendent, Caty Sutton, will confer with legal counsel to discuss other pending litigation action against Monsanto to help determine how the district will proceed and will explore how the Administration will move forward with planning academic and co-curricular programming.

Our guiding priority is that our teaching and learning community is safe and that we maintain our students’ academic and co-curricular programming with minimal disruption. This is an ever-evolving situation that we are assessing and planning for in real time. We will continue to update the community with the latest developments in this evolving situation.

HSD budget materials and resources can be found here!

Vermont Public Radio provides a good explanation of how Vermont schools are funded in THIS piece. The article and the video work well to bring clarity to a confusing system.