Hello:
You may have heard something about a proposed "year-round" school calendar for 2014-15 in Burlington and the rest of the Champlain Valley school districts. Here in Burlington, many families, residents and School Board members have questions about the proposed changes being discussed by the superintendents of the various school districts.
To that end, the Burlington School Board's Curriculum Committee will be discussing the issue at its meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Ira Allen Building Board Room, 150 Colchester Avenue. Public comment on this or any other issue is at 5 p.m. Other issues on the agenda include the one-to-one technology initiative and elementary school Spanish (see the agenda at http://www.boarddocs.com/vt/bsdvt/Board.nsf/Public).
As a single school board, we cannot change the overall regional school calendar; we can only vote to tweak it here and there (by a day or two). Like other school districts, Burlington must follow the regional calendar that is set each year by the Champlain Valley Superintendent's Association. The CVSA is responsible under Vermont law to establish a uniform calendar for the region. School sports, the regional technical center calendars, and transportation all rely on Champlain Valley school districts' conforming to a single calendar.
The superintendents will have the final say on either moving forward with the proposed calendar changes or not. The Burlington School Board could collectively make suggestions to our superintendent, based on what we believe might benefit Burlington school children and on what we are hearing from families, district employees, childcare providers/partners, and others.
I realize there are many, many issues to consider, and I invite everyone to contact me and other school commissioners with concerns and questions: http://bsdweb.bsdvt.org/Board/BoardDirectory.php.
For more information on the proposed changes and for the dates of county-wide public input sessions, see the blog at http://schoolcalendar2.blogspot.com/ . (This blog is maintained by the Champlain Valley Superintendent's Association, which also set the dates, times and locations for the public input sessions.)
Thank you for your input!
Meredith Woodward King
Ward 2 School Commissioner
660-2923, mwking@bsdvt.org
Jan 29, 2025, 3:30 to 4:30 PM
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