EMES School Newsletter

It has been wonderful welcoming everyone back to school this week! We hope you all had a fantastic holiday break and I imagine many of you were ready to send your little ones back to school on Monday. I remember when my kids were little and the December break always felt especially busy. Coming back in January felt like we had just finished running a marathon of entertaining house guests, cleaning the house after having house guests, and cleaning and getting the house ready for more house guests to arrive. Now that my kids are grown, they have become our house guests and I've given up cleaning or caring :).

As you all know, we are in the throes of a particularly uneasy budget season. Having heard from so many of you at the recent board meetings, I want to thank you for your engagement and participation in these important conversations. While we know that East Montpelier won't be participating in the vote on February 10th, I am so appreciative of you and your support of our schools, the children, and your neighboring communities. My heart goes out to all, and I, like many of you, am eager to learn what will come after February 10th. Although East Montpelier voters won't vote for what's next for our schools, I have prepared a little something below that I'm hoping will help you understand the differences in what our building will look like in a 3-school configuration vs. if EMES were to operate as it currently is.

I am excited to announce that we will be bringing EMES Winter Wellness back after a several-year hiatus after Covid. There will be several weeks of offerings of winter activities like downhill skiing/snowboarding, skating, sledding, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. Stay tuned for more information to come home early next week!

Enjoy the weekend with your kiddos!
Alicia

January 19: MLK Day - no school

January 20: Inservice - no school

January 21: WCUUSD Board Meeting - Final Budget Discussions
January 30: Report Cards Mailed Home

January 30: First EMES Coffee House - EMES Gym 6pm (more details below)

February 6: 100th Day of School

February 23 - March 3: Winter break - no school

Our Fresh Fruits and Veggies Program was so popular last spring that we applied for the grant again this year! Starting on Monday, and running three days a week for the remainder of the school year, students will have the opportunity to try out often unique fresh fruits and vegetables. To kick off the program this year, students had edible orchids. These beautiful flowers add color and a fresh, subtle flavor to salads, desserts, etc. Thank you, Annie and Jen, for bringing FFVP back to EMES!

On Tuesday, December 23rd, EMES students received several special treats, including an early release to kick off the December break!

New local store owners at the Gunnerbrook Store and Deli on Route 14 in Barre, provided all EMES students with FREE delicious pizza from their store for their lunch on this day. Gunnerbrook is now serving pizza and would love your business! I've linked their menu below. Also on that day, Sara Garland, EMES alumni parent, came in and provided all students with cotton candy for dessert, as a celebration for filling up our wood chip tree. Thank you to Sara and Mike for providing such treats to our students!

Many of you have been following the budget conversations this year. We are at a point now where we have two budget possibilities: a 3-school model where Calais and East Montpelier are joined together, and a contingency model where EMES and Calais continue to operate as two schools. Below, you'll see a description of what each of those scenarios will look like.

In the scenario where Calais and East Montpelier are joined together, we will have a total of 15 classrooms that look like the following: one Pre-K classroom with Pre-K being offered in morning and afternoon sessions from Monday - Friday (an increase in a day a week from our current configuration). We will also have two classrooms at each of the other grade levels K - 6, with straight grades at each grade level. Class sizes will range from roughly 12 students in Kindergarten to 24 students in Grade 6 this configuration. We will continue to offer Art, Music, PE, Library/Tech, and Health for all students, and Band and Chorus for students in Grades 5 and 6. Additionally, we will have (5) total interventionists in math and literacy, (4) special educators, a full-time school nurse, and (2) full-time school counselors - one to provide lessons in classrooms, and small group instruction, and one to provide interventions to students in Functional Skills (this additional counselor will be an add that we have not had before yet have needed for many years). Finally, there will be an Assistant Principal as we will have roughly 65 staff to supervise.

In the scenario where Calais voters vote to keep Calais open and EMES continues to serve only East Montpelier students, we will have a total of 10 classroom teachers that will look like the following: one Pre-K classroom with Pre-K being offered in morning and afternoon sessions from Monday - Friday (an increase in a day a week from our current configuration). We will have one Kindergarten, one Grade 1, one Grade 2, three Grades 3/4, and three Grades 5/6 classrooms. Class sizes will range from 17 students in Grades 3/4 to 22 students in our K-2 classrooms in this configuration. We will continue to offer Art, Music, PE, Library/Tech, and Health to all students. We will no longer offer Band or Chorus. We will have a total of (4) interventionists in math and literacy, (3) special educators, a full-time nurse, and a .8 school counselor. We will continue to have a Behavior Coach and no Assistant Principal.

Berlin Elementary School and Doty Memorial School are served with Title I federal funds this school year. The purpose of Title I is “to provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close the achievement gaps” (Vermont Agency of Education). Title I funds supplement local funds, and schools are eligible based on poverty rates. The measure that we use in Washington Central is eligibility for free or reduced meals.

We are required to hold a Title I meeting each year. This year we will host a virtual Title I meeting. We will explain the purpose of the funds and how we use them in Washington Central, and we will welcome your questions and thoughts. We will also share information about Title II and Title IV funds and seek input regarding our district's Title I school compact.

The meeting will be facilitated by Jen Miller-Arsenault, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. It will take place on Thursday, January 15 from 4:30-5:30 p.m. via Google Meet, and a recording will be posted on our district website.

Here is the Google Meet link:

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/xqy-mago-ebf
Or dial: ‪(US) +1 475-441-4834‬ PIN: ‪979 964 543‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/xqy-mago-ebf?pin=2637969762166

Please reach out to Jen Miller-Arsenault at jmillerarsenault@u32.org or (802) 229-0553 if you have any questions. We hope to see you there!