Hartford School District Newsletter

January 9, 2026

Dear Hartford School District Learning Community,

Oh, how I love a good story! The figurative language, the sensory detail, the comparisons, the references, the dialogue! What a luxurious joy, throughout these dark, cold, cozy months, to sink down into the billowy depths of our couch cushions to fully absorb and engage in the artful expression of a wizard of wordsmith!

While a beautifully realized collection of words and language can transport us into different worlds and realities and allow for the escape and knowledge we may need to quench our literary thirst, we also rely on our own ability and that of others just to comprehend the informational text that is ubiquitous and demands that we prepare our young people to have the skills they need to navigate an increasingly complex world.

We see this as our charge; our students will leave our school buildings and transition toward whatever is next for them with the skills and ability to communicate well. For some, this will allow them to comprehend and revise manuals and handbooks and apply that knowledge to high stakes work, like rewiring a home or repairing a braking system. For others, a well written email and resume could be the difference between being hired for a competitive position, or being accepted into a specialized program.

Regardless of application, our students need to write well, and to write well, they need to write a lot and for a lot of different purposes and for a lot of different audiences!

Below, please enjoy the kaleidoscope of writing, learning, and instruction that occurs on a daily basis in our schools, and the intentional and purposeful ways we approach and scaffold writing to encourage a lifelong skill, and dare I say, a lifelong joy, among our students.

Happy New Year!

Warmly,

Caty Sutton

Superintendent

Hartford School District

suttonc@hartfordschools.net

January 9, 2026

Dear HSD Learning Community,

As many of you know by now, with Mr. Fogg’s well-earned retirement announced, we will be searching for candidates for the next Principal at Hartford High School, and to fill the permanent school leadership roles at Dothan Brook Elementary School, and at The Wilder School.

Please see the timeline below, which is an approximate timeline that may be subject to change but will give you all an idea of what we are hoping to accomplish throughout the next few months, allowing for an opportunity to focus on the hiring of these critically important roles in the district. Please note that we will do our best to accommodate everyone's schedules, which will most likely mean that we will be meeting during after school hours.

You will also see in the timeline that there are different district leaders that are chairing each committee, so if you have any questions, please contact the chairs of the committee you are interested in serving on to receive the most relevant and helpful information.

To get the hiring work underway, the first step is for us to put together hiring committees for each position, which will be composed thoughtfully, purposefully, and with diversity of perspective at the forefront of this process.

If you are interested in participating on a hiring committee, please fill out this survey (also linked below) by Friday, January 16. Please note that everyone who is interested should fill out the survey: teachers, staff, administrators, community members, etc., so we have all of this information in one place to review.

The following week we will be putting together our committees and will be in touch with you if you submitted your interest through our survey.

Thank you all so much for your consideration- we strive to be inclusive and representative of all of our community members in these processes, and very much appreciate how dedicated and committed you all are to collaborating with us and for so generously donating your time to a variety of the important aspects of our district, and most importantly, of caring for and supporting our students.

Warmly,

Caty

In his "State of the State" address on Tuesday, 1/6, Governor Scott spent the duration of his speech encouraging legislators to move forward with implementing Act 73, formerly H454, which would dramatically change the way in which education is governed and delivered in VT.

At the forefront of this legislation is the creation of new district maps that would significantly consolidate the current 119 districts across the state. As mentioned in a previous newsletter, the "Redistricting Taskforce" charged by the legislature to create these maps over the summer moved forward with a recommendation for voluntary district mergers and the creation of BOCES, or Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, to allow for cost-sharing of expensive services that districts now absorb into their own distinct budgets, causing an increase in tax rates. To see their full report and recommendations, please use this link.

At the last board meeting on Wednesday, 1/7, Superintendent Caty Sutton shared a presentation that captured the recent news coverage on Governor' Scott's address, as well as where many of the leaders in the legislature stand on Act 73 and some of the related actions they may take throughout this session. Linked throughout the presentation below are links to relevant local news coverage.

Check it out!

Throughout the last several board meetings, Director of Finance, Jacob Vezina, and HSD Superintendent, Caty Sutton, have been presenting a variety of information to the board and to the public to better inform their understanding of the current budgetary climate in the state, given the push toward education reform, the external factors, such as healthcare, inflation, and cost of living adjustments.

What does that mean for the HSD? Well, much of this is still unknown and may be answered throughout the legislative session that just commenced!

Please check out the presentations below for more information, and please do not hesitate to be in touch with Jacob and Caty if you have any additional questions!

As previously mentioned, our focus is to continue to fully realize the "Vision of a Graduate" work that we began in earnest throughout the last school year.

This year, we are continuing to refine our "Vision of a Graduate" draft by inspecting different aspects of our work and how it connects to what we envision for our students through the VoG.

In the last newsletter, you read about how we are instructing our students in "Mathematical Thinking," and in this edition, we share with you the work we do with our students on "Writing," and the planning, thinking, and purposeful scaffolding that must be done to effectively instruct this critical element of student learning in our district.

To support these efforts, some exciting learning is happening across our school district!

In our November Newsletter, we shared that many teachers are taking part in professional learning using a research-based approach called "The Writing Revolution." This work helps teachers strengthen students’ thinking, speaking, and writing skills in all subjects.

Through this learning, teachers are using simple and effective strategies to help students share their ideas clearly, write stronger sentences, and better understand what they read and learn in class. These strategies are used in subjects like reading, science, social studies, and math. This helps students understand their lessons more deeply while also building strong communication skills.

Teachers are especially focusing on:

• Helping students organize their thinking

• Supporting speaking and listening through classroom discussions

• Using short writing activities to check understanding and help students learn more

Teachers are using these strategies in their classrooms and working together to share ideas that best support their students. This ongoing learning shows our district’s commitment to high-quality teaching and helping students grow as learners and communicators.

Enjoy!

We are so proud of the amazing writing happening across all grade levels at Dothan Brook. Below are a few examples that highlight the hard work, creativity, and growth of our students!

In Kindergarten, students are hard at work writing creative snowman stories inspired by the Snowmen at Night book series. In their stories, snowmen travel to places with different types of weather, and students decide what their snowmen should wear and what items they need to bring along for each adventure.

To begin this writing project, students brainstormed ideas using what they learned from their weather journals and meteorologist notebooks completed in December. This engaging activity serves as a wonderful culminating writing project, allowing students to apply and showcase the skills they have learned and practiced throughout the year.

In Fourth Grade, students are working on informative writing as they learn how to research and teach others through their writing. Currently, students are gathering information to write an informative essay about the physical and behavioral adaptations of an animal of their choice.

Each student selects an animal, researches its physical and behavioral adaptations, and then uses their findings to write an informative essay that explains how these adaptations help the animal survive. This project began with research to build background knowledge and supports students in developing strong research, writing, and informational text skills.

In Fifth grade, students are learning how to write an organized essay using a version of the Painted Essay format. The fifth graders plan and write a multi-paragraph essay with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each body paragraph focuses on a different element of the planet Mars, such as its surface features, similarities to Earth, and exploration history. By “painting” their essays, students are able to visually see how ideas connect and flow, helping them organize information, stay on topic, and support their main idea with facts. This approach strengthens students’ ability to make meaningful connections between scientific content about Mars and structured writing skills.

"You Otter Know": January 9, 2026

In PreK and kindergarten, writing begins with illustrating and labelling based on authentic experiences in the world. When students were curious about construction around the school earlier this fall, teachers followed their curiosity to do some imaginative and playful class-wide investigative writing.

Students also write for authentic purposes, including thank you notes to the cafeteria staff and cheerful holiday cards for residents in long term care.

Throughout the grades, teachers assist students in developing their writing voice by starting off with supports, such as sentence stems and paragraph outlines. Gradually, as students learn to structure sentences and paragraphs, these supports are removed, and students write with increasing independence.

In 4th grade, students have been writing informative essays about animal defense mechanisms, after extensive study of the topic through a variety of texts.

The Howler: December 19, 2025

One of the coolest things about writing in elementary school is to see how it grows and expands through the grades. In these samples from White River School, you can see how 1/2 grades start by expanding a “kernel” sentence, using their deep content knowledge from studying to add details and quotes to their writing. As students progress into 3/4 they begin to work on paragraphs – stringing together multiple complex thoughts. You can see how starting at the sentence level, working to revise thoughts and concepts, leads to very strong paragraph-level work. As 5th graders, the work begins to shift into multi-paragraph essays (shown here, admiring the sentence expansion work of 1/2). But at the heart of it all is a strong understanding of a sentence. One complete thought.

Weekly Review: January 8, 2026

Before school on Wednesdays and Thursdays, HMMS staff are hard at work launching a revolution! Or rather, a Writing Revolution. Staff meet weekly in the library to collaboratively plan writing instruction across all teams, grades, and subject areas to improve students’ reading and writing proficiency. Teachers get help and feedback from each other, interventionists, and instructional coaches during this time, leading to incredible conversations and deepened learning for students. Some activities teachers have created this year include:

• Making math assessments that ask students to explain their thinking

• Standardizing lab reports with a paragraph outline

• Responding to art through sentence combining

• Supporting students in ELA who are not yet ready for full essays by creating transition outlines

• Getting students up and moving when responding in ALL classes because movement is good for our brains!

To assess the effectiveness of an increased focus on writing instruction, we had students respond to a beginning-of-year writing prompt to help their teachers understand what students knew so far about writing. Using this data, teachers have been able to focus instruction on sentence-level strategies. At the end of the year, students will again respond to a prompt so that teachers can chart students’ growth and plan next steps for the 2026-2027 school year.

Here is the work above after it has been formed into a full paragraph:

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — On a Friday morning in November, 11 or so boys trickled into the dean of students’ office at Hartford Memorial Middle School.

They filled the mismatched chairs that school dean Patrick Lincoln had pushed into a loose circle, and helped themselves to the donuts, clementines, and cheese and crackers he’d laid out on a side table.

Seventh grader Ben Schaffer, 12, listens to a discussion about video games, sports, and the difference between work and play during a Boys Group meeting at Hartford Memorial Middle School in White River Junction, Vt., on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. Play, said Dean of Students Patrick Lincoln, is not focused on outcomes, and added that video games can feel more like work. “Would you have a good time even if you failed?” he asked the group. JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News

It was time for Boys Group, a weekly open-invitation meeting Lincoln has been hosting at the middle school, which serves grades six through eight, since 2024. The goal is to create a place for boys to share what’s on their minds and untangle complicated topics around boyhood and masculinity.

A licensed clinical mental health counselor with over a decade’s experience working with children and families, Lincoln views instilling boys with a healthier mindset as paramount to creating a safer society for women.

“If we honestly want to end the kind of gender-based violence that men perpetuate or the harm caused by men in our society, I think we have to attend to the wounds caused by rigid expectations around manhood and masculinity,” he said in an interview. Read the full story at vnews.com.

Article by Marion Umpleby

December 12, 2025

Hartford Memorial Middle School is hosting its second annual Marathon Dance on Friday, March 20th, 2026 from 7:00pm to 9:00am, Saturday. This Dance Marathon is a 12-hour charity dance fundraiser to raise money for a local charity, build community throughout the school, connect the school to the larger community, and create a sense of belonging for the students of our community.

Last year students raised $11,777, all of which they donated to The Upper Valley Haven, Dartmouth Health Children’s, and the Sieglinger Family. This year the students have chosen to donate funds to The Upper Valley Haven.

The Hartford Memorial Marathon Dance organizers have partnered with Positive Tracks, a national nonprofit that teaches young people how to build and lead athletic events to support causes they care about. In addition to helping organize the dance marathon, Positive Tracks is offering a matching donation and providing their fundraising site for free. All funds raised here will go to The Upper Valley Haven.

More information is available at: https://hmmsvt.com/extracurriculars/hmmd

Starting in August teams have studied problems facing archaeologists and crafted solutions to these problems while also building, coding, and refining robots to complete missions in a head to head robot game.

HMMS Newsletter: December 8, 2025

Writing at HHS is present in many forms - expressive, creative writing - including poetry and student-created anthologies, and AP students writing in response to practice prompts in preparation for the AP exam. We write to detail our observations during a science lab or to share one’s learning journey (our Student Created Independent Projects Exhibition Night presentations, for example). Some students develop their resumes and cover letters in preparation for careers. Our musicians embed written pieces in our concert programs. We write to describe, convince, and reflect. From a sonnet to the “5-paragraph essay” and lab report our students are writing to provide evidence of their understanding of their learning as well as to process their thinking, emotions, and life experiences. Hartford students are writing throughout the curriculum.

This year the high school English department has recommitted to more explicitly teaching grammar - this supports both student writing and reading. Reading and writing are linked - students reading memoirs like Night, The Boy on the Wooden Box, and A Long Way Gone (as well as many other texts) in their Social Studies classes find inspiration for reflection and they express themselves through writing.

This semester, some 9th and 10th graders participated in the first Independent Reading Program through their English classes. This was an optional program designed to encourage reading for pleasure and the exchange of opinions and ideas about those books. Mr. Richardson and Mr. Watson identified reading for pleasure as an important and dwindling component of academics and American life, and want to expand the program as time goes on. Students spent time outside of class reading and then created book reviews that were shared during a pizza party on Friday to celebrate their shared joy for reading and will be displayed in the library next semester.

At our high school writing is a tool of expression in response to a variety of questions, prompts, or observations.

HARTFORD, Vt. (WCAX) - High school can be a big source of stress and anxiety for adolescents, especially for students new to the school. But at Hartford High School, a new mentoring program means freshmen do not have to tackle the challenges alone.

At Hartford High School, upperclassmen and freshmen are often seen hanging out together, which isn’t always the case elsewhere. Ninth grader Nellie Kuban said that is by design.

“If we have a question, they help us and guide us through what we can do,” Kuban said.

The regular meetings among younger and older students are part of a national program called Link Crew. The purpose is to build in additional support for those who likely need it the most.

Watch the video and read the full story at wcax.com.

Hartford High School will host a free community screening of the award-winning documentary Gone Guys on Thursday, January 22, from 6-8 PM (doors open at 5:45 PM). The film will be followed by a moderated panel discussion with community leaders & educators, and an audience Q&A.

The film explores how boys and young men in Vermont are navigating school, mental health, relationships, and purpose, and how those experiences affect families and communities more broadly. The screening is intended to start a conversation. It invites audiences to consider the data, stories, and reflections explored in the film to better understand what many young people and families are navigating today, and to appreciate the work already happening in our community to support them.

Admission is FREE, but seating is limited and REGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED! Please RSVP here - https://tinyurl.com/4bh2rctu

Hartford High Lites: January 9, 2026

At the HACTC, building communication skills is a vital part of preparing students for careers and continued education. One project that every student completes during their programs is developing a professional resume targeted to their goal careers, with the knowledge needed to update and refocus as they continue their journeys. Some other projects from around the center include:

• A Professional Writing module in Building Trades in which students learn and practice how to write effective emails to clients, vendors, and banks.

• Regular reflections in Natural Resources to help students make connections between field work and future application in careers of interest.

• Public health brochures in Health and Human Sciences, with students learning how to identify the most important information and deliver it in a publicly-accessible form.

• Article reaction essays in Cosmetology - students learn how to stay current in the field by reading an article about trends or issues, and then they practice summarizing and using evidence to support an opinion on those articles.

Highlights from the HACTC: December 19, 2025

In this fast-food-media world in which our students are navigating, rarely do they pause and ponder, but that is exactly what the middle school students are doing at The Wilder School.

A text which features mythical Egyptian characters, illustrated in vivid, colorful depictions of these ancient beings, has inspired students to stop, analyze, focus, think, discuss and write.

The pantheon of Greek characters they are studying and discussing were not a forgiving lot. They demonstrated at the very least apathy at the plight of the mortals over whom they ruled, and most often a level of vengeance when their people erred or strayed from their worship and obedience.

It turns out that this has triggered the students’ protective instincts as they place themselves into the role of the Egyptian Commoners. Indignant at the treatment they received

How do people connect, and what are the different stages of friendship? (Acquaintance, Friend, Closest Friend, Intimate Friend)

What is Loyalty, and how does one know when to forgive when trust is broken and when to move on?

How do we deal with Loss in life? When is it okay to move on?

Writing in the middle school program is based on real-life experiences, and inspired by myth. Most importantly, given how much research shows that putting pen to paper is far more potent in accelerating positive, healthy adolescent brain development than fingers to keys, the writing is carried out in “analogue” fashion.

Parents are enjoying–and are impressed by–the writing and art that students are bringing home as their charges continue the journey through Egyptian myths all the way to their present homes at The WIlder School and the world around them.

And, as always at The Wilder School, stress-relief, physical activities and fresh air make for a fun, community building activity in between the rigorous academic sessions in the classrooms!

Please see the latest Equity Updates in the December 2025 Equity Newsletter!

Julia recently facilitated a workshop with the VT-HEC about how the Hartford School District (HSD) builds and sustains equity work. It was a great opportunity for her to reflect on all the things we have built here in the HSD - from our Equity Policies (Anti-racism and Gender Inclusivity) to our Affinity Groups (BIPOC/Multicultural, LGBTQ+, Boys, Neurodivergent). None of this can be done without the people who sustain this work - Building Equity Leaders who serve as a resource to others, educators participating in equity-centered professional development, families who value diversity, community members and consultants who provide their expertise and experiences. The HSD is an incredible place where equity is valued and the core of what we do!

A link is here for your convenience!

Hartford Athletics

Jeff Moreno, CAA

Athletic Director

morenoj@hartfordschools.net

The basketball teams are off to red-hot starts and the action in Hanley Gymnasium has been very exciting! The girls are currently 5-0 and are finding their groove both offensively and defensively as they put on quite a show on gamenight. Charlotte Jasmin leads the way in scoring but don’t overlook Hailey Vanasse or Sylvia Johnson who both add a two-way effort that makes a huge difference. Then there’s the freshman duo of Lucy Crowley and Natalie Clark who have both made a big splash in their first year on the big club. On the boys side the team is 8-0 and has averaged a whopping 80 points per game while only giving up 40. The veteran-heavy group is relentless with their press and turns those steals into points in a hurry. Come catch the action at Hanley this January!

Sophomore ice hockey goalie Kaleb Sanderson has broken onto the scene in a big way, highlighting a truly unique time in the history of Hartford ice hockey goaltending. This past week Kaleb recorded over 100 saves in a two-game span. That is virtually unheard of for ice hockey but the stellar sophomore was more than up to the task with multiple highlight reel saves in both games. Kaleb splits time in net with junior Nunu Mayer…himself an all-state caliber netminder who, as you might recall, recorded a championship game victory as a freshman(!!!) two years ago at UVM. Nunu became only the 2nd freshman netminder to win a state title for the program. And not to be outdone…the boys have a 3rd goalie who would likely start for any other program in Vermont! Sophomore Isaac Tane has come up through the youth program splitting time with Sanderson and even helped Vermont win an international championship in Quebec City a few years ago. On the girls side senior goalie Nella Bowen and 8th grade back-up Aubree Gramling have only allowed 1 goal all season! They have served up 4 shutouts in the first 5 games to help the girls start the season 5-0. They have made scoring a goal against Hartford very difficult. Incredible depth at the goaltending position at HHS right now with 5 all-state caliber goalies suiting up for the Canes.

The indoor track team will take place in the state championship meets this weekend! The throwers will compete on Friday and the runners and jumpers will head to UVM on Saturday. Top 6 finishers score points for the team totals and we expect both teams to put up some points this weekend! Good luck Hurricanes!

New banners have been added to the north wall of Hanley Gymnasium to display Hartford’s 6 basketball players who have eclipsed the 1000 point mark. A ceremony was held to honor the players and we were thrilled to have many in attendance.

Howard “Butch” Lovering was a teacher, administrator, and coach at Hartford for many years. He passed away recently and left behind a generational legacy of kindness, caring, compassion, and the best tough-love an educator could possibly display. He served on the football and boys ice hockey staff including a long tenure as head boys ice hockey coach through the 1989 season. At that time Hartford had made an appearance in the finals in 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1989 including winning the state title in 1985. Mr. Lovering grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts and attended Norwich University. He came to Hartford in 1977-78 and taught in the english department before moving to the assistant principal role in 1990. He retired in 2001 and had been living in Florida with his wife and longtime HSD educator Judy Lovering.

We will return to meeting on the first and third Wednesdays of each month after next week, with the next meeting taking place on the third Wednesday of this month, January 21.

If you would like to contact the school board, please access their page on our website.

To watch recordings of past meetings, including our last meeting on January 7, please access this link.

To reach all members of the school board collectively, email schoolboard@hartfordschools.net

The Hartford School District is looking for a second shift custodian.

Full time benefits eligible position available at Hartford High School starting at $20.hr.

We welcome applicants who want to contribute to our educational community by ensuring a clean, safe environment for our students and staff.

For more information please contact Jonathan Garthwaite, Director of Facilities, at 802-359-4610 or garthwaitej@hartfordschools.net.

Here is the link to apply: www.gobeacon.com/careers

http://www.gobeacon.com/careers

To subscribe to be on our list of newsletter recipients, please access this link (the link is also on the front page of our website)!