Chittenden East Supervisory Union

First day of School Serving the towns of Huntington, Richmond, Jericho, Underhill and Bolton Vermont.

What a fantastic first day!  From Underhill ID, pictured here are faculty and staff members (with four students) taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  From eating homemade mac and cheese for lunch in Huntington to reading, writing and drawing in Underhill, we were able to see active engaged learners in every school in our supervisory union.  Hats off to the facilities personnel who prepared the buildings -- they look great.  Thank you to all the staff and to our teachers who are smiling and ready to help scholars learn!  Most importantly, welcome back to all the young people.  We look forward to a great year!

Convocation

What qualities should teachers possess?  Patience, appreciation, listening, dedication, conflict resolution, interest and humor.  What should the learning environment be?  Kind, enjoyable, creative, inspiring, persistent, and fun.  What should teachers help young learners do? Exceed, connect, improve, persevere.  Ultimately, teachers leave a legacy for young people.  These are the words of our scholars.  Chittenden East Supervisory Union faculty and staff kicked off the 2014-15 school year with our annual Convocation.  Our inspirational speaker this year was a group of students from multiple grades.  Each shared the qualities of teaching that have impacted their learning.  A huge shout out to our group of 5th, 8th, 9th and 12th graders representing every town and every school in CESU.  Their humor, poise, reflection and honesty left all of our faculty and staff inspired for the upcoming school year.

Underhill ID teacher Tracy Lavallee's Blog of her Journey to the Arctic Circle

Underhill ID teacher, Tracy Lavallee journeyed to the Arctic Circle
with the Earthwatch Institute to study climate change
with leading scientists in the field.  You can read her blog here...

Preschool Partnership Slots Available for Jericho and Underhill Residents

The Chittenden East Supervisory Union (CESU), through two grants received from the Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative, is offering eighteen Preschool Partnership slots for three and four year olds of Jericho and Underhill residents, nine for each town. These Preschool Partnerships allow for up to ten hours per week of developmentally appropriate preschool at a program of the parent’s choice. Enrollment must be in an approved preschool. Priority will be given to four year olds in their year before kindergarten. 

A designated tuition amount will be paid directly to the Preschool Partners for the ten hours per week for thirty-five weeks during the school year. If this amount is less than the actual cost of the Preschool program, providers may charge families the difference between the actual cost and the amount they receive from CESU. Actual cost will be determined by Preschool Partners completing a "Template for Calculating Actual Cost of Preschool.”

Parents/guardians of children who will be three or four by September 1, 2014 and who reside in the towns of Jericho or Underhill are eligible to apply. If more applications are received than there is funding to support, a lottery system will be used to determine who receives the funding. 

Letters and applications have been sent to families using school census lists. If families meet the criteria and did not receive an application, one can be obtained by calling the CESU Central Office at 434-2128. All applications must be postmarked by August 11, 2014. Decisions will be made by August 15, 2014 and parents will be informed. 

For more information about these grant opportunities, contact Beverly White, CESU Special Services Director at 434-2128.

Chittenden East Voluntary Merger Committee Update

Dear Community Members, 

The Chittenden East Voluntary Merger Committee has completed a preliminary draft of the Modified Union School District Report.  The draft report includes Articles of Agreement which lay out the potential framework for merging Chittenden East Supervisory Union's seven member school districts into one unified school district as well as rationale for the governance change. The Committee has been studying and discussing the advantages, disadvantages and structure of a unified school system for the past seven months. The preliminary draft report linked below represents their collective work to date.  

There will be a public forum on June 2, 2014, 6:00 p.m. at Camels Hump Middle School to discuss and comment on the preliminary draft report.    To share your feedback you can submit comments to this blog, send input to representatives of the committee and/or attend the public forum on June 2^nd. 

For more details on the work of the Voluntary Merger Committee and contact information for committee members, please click on the following link: CESU Voluntary Merger .

CESU Voluntary Merger Study Preliminary Report