Dear WCUUSD Community Members,
The WCUUSD School Board thanks everyone who joined our February 6th meeting. We heard your concerns, stories, and desire for better communication and transparency regarding student safety. Board members also continue to receive emails and to have conversations with parents and community members. It is truly encouraging to see so many people dedicated to the safety of our schools and the wellbeing of our students and school community.
After listening and considering next steps, the board will take the following actions:
1. To enable continued community involvement in this important issue and to promote transparency of School Board decision-making, a dedicated board meeting will be held February 27 at 6:30pm with public comment and open board discussion.
2. To further enable continued community involvement and information gathering, parents, faculty, and students will be invited to complete a survey about school culture. The School Board will discuss the results to further evaluate the strengths and needs of our schools.
3. To evaluate the effectiveness of our current student behavior policies, school district staff will prepare a report and recommendations to the School Board on the Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) system currently in use in our schools to understand what's working and what needs to be improved.
4. To address student behavioral concerns at WES, school staff will work with the district Finance team to provide a report and recommendations with associated costs for adding a new WES administrator position.
5. To improve communication and transparency to our communities, the School Board Policy Committee will work to draft and adopt new policies regarding emergency response, school safety, and communication.
6. To further improve communication and transparency to our communities, a new page will be added to the WCSU website dedicated to school safety. It will include the policies and procedures that guide decision making and what training is in place for school staff.
The meeting will take place at 6:30pm in the WUHSMS Teagle Library, with the agenda published soon. We invite all parents and community members to come, listen, share your thoughts and concerns, and to continue this important discussion as we work together to improve safety, behavior and education for all of our students. Five new school board members are needed: 1 from Plymouth, 1 from Bridgewater, 1 from Killington and 2 from Woodstock. We invite you to consider joining the School Board as we seek to elevate the importance of education in our communities.
Sincerely,
Keri Bristow, WCUUSD School Board Chair (kbristow@wcsu.net)
Ben Ford, WCUUSD School Board Vice-Chair (bford@wcsu.net)