Superintendent's Message
April 1, 2009

I give a heartfelt thanks to you. The voter support for our schools at the ballot box in this tough economy is a testament to what we can achieve together.

With this support, our community will maintain quality schools with reasonable class sizes, strong academic, arts and sports programs. We will continue to develop the educational programs our students need in the 21st century and undertake critical safety and health repairs in our school buildings.

You can get more information on the facility repairs in Commissioner Lane’s update this month. Reviewing our budget is an ongoing process. This spring, I plan to convene a citizen’s advisory group, to ensure that more of your voices are included in our preliminary work.

In this month’s update, I’d like to share information with you about testing and our afterschool program.

We are on the right track! The majority of our students, in every school, met the academic standards set under (NCLB) No Child Left Behind. NCLB sets a standard for the average student to progress, assuming that every child has an equal playing field. It is this "Adequate Yearly Progress" standard which most our schools did not make.
We continue to face challenges in supporting our students in poverty and non-English speaking students. These students "have a longer race to run" to meet the "finish line" or standard. Our students have made tremendous individual progress, often beyond a year’s growth. Many students who were below standard moved to nearly meets the standard. Overall, our scores went up. However, as the bar also went up, we did not meet the standard.

Over the past few years, we have put in place a number of supports. We have literacy coaches in Kindergarten – 8th grade and have added a math coach. Many of our schools have math labs where students can get assistance. We also upgraded our elementary school math program, and will upgrade math in our middle schools next year. We have increased options for math and literacy in after school programs. We are looking at a science coach model to improve the focus on science.
These tests are one measure of how we view our student’s progress. We have a variety of assessments to help provide the information we need to ensure that we appropriately support every child. Teacher teams review individual student performance to monitor progress and tweak programs. Our schools offer a rich learning environment for all students. We work to continually improve our schools with the support of many community partners and residents.

After School

We have merged our elementary after school programs with City Kids based on a pilot this year at Flynn School. There will be no change in the program fees. This partnership will allow us to provide more spots for kids, to combine our resources, to better use the space in our schools, and to provide more program options. We offer consistent after school care, recreation, academic support and enrichment opportunities. We are offering the best of both these programs to better support families.

There will be a single registration process. Burlington Parks and Recreation plays a lead role in overall program management, fees, childcare subsidy, registration and recreation. Burlington Schools leads in coordinating school resources for academic and enrichment offerings. This combined program will be available at Flynn, Champlain, Edmunds, and CP Smith. Wheeler will retain their longstanding and successful partnership with the Boys & Girls Club, and Barnes will maintain their strong independent program.

To learn more about this program, please contact Dan Cahill at 865-7091 or dcahill@ci.burlington.vt.us or Jeffrey Fournier at 540-0285 or jfournie@bsdvt.org