Wildcat Buzz

1. WCS Drama Presents: Matilda Jr, April 9-11 @Al Myers Theatre

2. Tuesday is Walk or Roll to School Day, April 14

3. Registration open: SPARK Session 5 (open to grades 5-8)

04/10 - Little to Middles Art Show @DAML, now through April - artists listed below

04/10 - WCS Spring Musical, Matilda Jr. @6:30pm

04/11 - WCS Spring Musical, Matilda Jr. @2:00pm

04/14 - Walk or Roll to School Day

04/16 - Improving Child-Caregiver Communication, details below

04/17 - Martial Arts Residency Final Performance, 6-7pm @ABS Gym

04/20 - 04/24 - SPRING BREAK / NO SCHOOL

05/12 - Walk or Roll to School Day

05/19 - WCS Middle School Chorus Concert

05/20 - WCS Middle School Band Concerts

05/25 - Memorial Day / NO SCHOOL

06/03 - Beginner Band Concert

visit the CVSD food service page on our website for additional information and resources

by Jacqueline Parks, Williston Central School Principal

As we roll into springtime, it is time to start thinking about the final stretch of the school year and preparing for next year. Families that have students at transition points in their education (grades kindergarten, grade two, grade four and grade six) have already received their placement input form. This information is critical to the placement team as we use it to inform placements of students as we work to create balanced classrooms and teams. Often parents and guardians wonder what the placement process looks like and how we use all the relevant information to make decisions. One goal of this message is to bring a level of transparency to the process, as well as to illustrate the complexity of the process.

Although placement team members can vary, it always includes the school counselors, principal and special education director. At WCS, the school counselors create a balance sheet that looks at the total number of students to place and mathematically determine what balance would look like in a variety of areas. These areas that we balance include: overall number of students, gender, behavior, students on learning plans (IEPs, 504 and EST), ELL students, academic levels and more. The special education director reviews the number of students on various learning plans on each team and works to balance the number of incoming students on plans with the students.

As we sit in the placement committee meeting, each member of the team takes one set of the data to report out on as we consider the placement of each student. For example, one person has the parent input forms pulled up on their computer and someone else has the teacher input. As each student is discussed, this information is read aloud and considered, before a placement is made. Sometimes the information matches up, but other times it does not and the placement team has to prioritize what we believe is most important for this student’s success. For example, there are times when a student has a peer connection that works well outside of the classroom learning community, but does not work as well within the learning community. Sometimes the concern is high enough to warrant placing them on separate teams, but other times we make a note for the receiving team that the students should be placed in separate core, academic and essential arts groupings.

Ultimately, some of the things that we value beyond overall balance for our students and community include:

• Sending each student with at least one identified positive learning peer

• Giving students the opportunity to meet and connect new peers

• Avoiding placing students together that have an extensive negative history

• Understanding that it is often helpful for siblings to be on the same team

After all students have been placed, the placement team checks each area that we are balancing to be sure the numbers are aligned. At this point, we invite the sending teachers in to review the confidential lists, along with Planning Room staff, to provide the placement team with feedback. This generally results in a few changes that often relate to peer relationships.

Placement is certainly an important and time consuming process with lots of factors to consider. We appreciate the input that parents provide to the process, along with our teachers and placement team.

We are excited to offer your child an opportunity to participate in Spark Enrichment, an after-school applied learning program for students in grades 5-8. Session 5 will run for 5 weeks on the following dates: April 30, May 7, 14, 21, 28.

When registering, students will be able to rank their choices for better placement! Every effort is taken to place students in their first choice as well as ensuring that students do not repeat workshops unless there are open spots. Please use this registration form and a list of workshop descriptions.

Contact Julie Rogers (jrogers@cvsdvt.org) with any questions.

No need to register!

Join the session by CLICKING HERE

Meeting ID: 835 1861 4607

Passcode: 760486

Get alerted about emergencies and other important community news by signing up for the State of Vermont VT-Alert program. This system enables state and local agencies to provide you with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, such as severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons, or evacuations, for locations and towns/cities you are interested in.

Click here to register for this service.

Create an account and add your contact and location information into the Mass Notification system. All information you provide will be kept strictly confidential.

Click the photo above to learn more about CVU summer camp for rising 9th graders. This experience has been highly regarded by our graduates and families in past years, and we encourage all 8th graders to take advantage.

The Annual Littles to Middles Art Show at the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library is now on view through April... come and see a wonderful variety of two-dimensional works by our K-2 students from Allen Brook School and three-dimensional letter sculptures by our 5-8 students from Williston Central School.

Williston Central School Athletics are open to all students grades 6th-8th. All practices start at 2:50 and end around 4:20. Students can be picked up at the rear entrance to the school, or take the activity bus.

Visit the athletics website for everything you need to know about playing on a sports team at WCS. WCS Athletics

The WCS Drama program is open to grades 6, 7, and 8 and currently includes a Fall Play and a Spring Musical.

Visit the drama webpage to learn more about upcoming productions and the WCS Drama program.

In the event that weather and/or road conditions make it unsafe for our buses to travel hill roads, we will notify parents and/or caregivers of students on those routes with as much notice as possible.

When hills are closed for afternoon bus runs, if no one arrives to meet younger students, they will be brought back to school until arrangements are made for them to be picked up. Please talk with your bus drivers to let them know if you are comfortable letting your child walk home from the drop off location.

We will use the automated SchoolMessenger system to notify families on the hill roads.

• First Call - 488-7777: phone support, crisis intervention, assessment and referrals
• In Crisis: 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) (National Hopeline Network: USA)
• National Suicide Prevention Life line- 1-800-273-TALK (8255), call or chat online
• Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741 (24 hours a day, seven days a week)
• Outright Vermont - support for LGBTQ+ community
• Vermont 211 -Vermont database of resources and services
• Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide - Website where you can find information to help yourself or a friend who may be having thoughts of suicide.
• Trevor Lifeline - 1-866- 488-7386 - provides suicide prevention and crisis intervention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people. It offers free, 24/7, confidential counseling. TrevorText—text START to 678-678; TrevorChat—instant messaging at TheTrevorProject.org/help. It also runs TrevorSpace, an affirming social networking site for LGBTQ youth at TrevorSpace.