Dear Five Sisters and South
End Neighbors,
At the School Board meeting last week, we spent a great deal of time discussing
Head Start, which has been having a tough time finding a stable home in the last
year. They were located at the Boys and Girls Club for a while but were asked
to move out last spring due to increased demand for space. At that time, Lyman
Amsden donated a classroom at Barnes School for one year. The deadline for
letting them know they could not stay was February 1st, and Superintendent
Collins exercised that option, in order to meet increased ESL classroom demands.
Since then, Head Start has been offered an attractive and appropriate space at
Wheeler (the former VNA family room), and negotiations continue. At our
meeting, we reviewed all of the external programs to which we donate space. Due
to budget difficulties, we now are asking our non-profit partners (including
Head Start and the YMCA) to pay modest lease fees to help share the cost of
maintenance, utilities, etc. This may sound cold-hearted, but it is indicative
of the shape of things to come as we attempt to maintain the quality of
education we provide with less revenues and higher expenses – every dollar we
don’t collect is salary we can’t pay. Although the flap over Head Start was
unfortunately upsetting to the fifteen students in the program and their
families and teachers, I do think everything will turn out fine, and that Head
Start will be able to settle in at Wheeler for the long term if they choose to
do so. The district has a long tradition of supporting and working with
preschool programs – everyone understands how important this is for the academic
success of many students (and the success of many working parents as well).
Another smaller issue is the new BHS track. Bids came in well over budget and
the plan is being scaled back in negotiation with the contractors. Despite this
problem, I think there is little doubt that bulldozers will be out on April 1st,
and that meets scheduled for September will be “on track,” with the most
important elements of the project going through.
The Task Force Update:
The Task Force met this Tuesday night and we again engaged in a spirited and
collegial discussion of the current state of the district. Topics this time
included demographic trends and predictions for the city (do we really agree
that enrollment will decline as projections indicate? We know that it already
has), the boundary lines used to assign students to elementary schools (these
shift slightly to give each school enough students in poverty to qualify for
Title I funds), the history of school closings (generally at around 150
students), current transportation methods and travel distances for elementary
students (variable, with lots of kids on neighborhood special busses), and
variance policies. We set up a communications committee to start educating the
public about what we are coming up with, and scheduled our next two meetings to
start discussing educational models in a more focused way. We will meet at
Barnes School on Thursday, March 9th from 6-8:30 to talk about community schools
models, and then at Champlain School on Tuesday, March 21st from 6 to 8:30 to
talk (I think) about the socioeconomic integration-and-magnet-schools concept.
Because there are so many of us and limited time, we have not been holding a
public comment session at these meetings, but if you come and listen in you can
then give us feedback and find out what’s going on. Some people hang around
after and chat . . . and we have a message board for the task force on the
district website: www.bsdvt.org
. The website task force page also has agendas, minutes, a list of members,
copy of the charge, etc. Keep in touch with your questions, concerns, comments
and suggestions.
A brief note from the campaign trail: I had a nice chat with the host of the
planned Ward 5 school commissioner candidate debate on CCTV last week on my own
for fifteen minutes and this discussion is now online as an audio file at: http://www2.cctv.org/rss/index.php
If you do have questions about my candidacy, this is a good place to go, in
addition to my campaign webpage: http://amywerbel.info
See you at the polls (please, please support the school budget!!!!!!!),
Amy Werbel
Ward 5 School Commissioner
12 Catherine Street
awerbel@bsdvt.org