EMS Newsletter

About a month ago Community Time groups were invited to participate in the Community Care Challenge. Mrs. Botte, Ms. Pawlikowski, and Mr. Schoembs Community Time groups joined forces to clean up the bathrooms at EMS. Students in grades 6th-8th worked side by side to organize the project, secure painting, and cleaning supplies, and coordinate a campaign to address the damage that has been done to our restrooms. A quick meeting with the BSD head of maintenance, Dean Williams yielded all of the painting and cleaning supplies that we would need to complete the project along with the installation of new hinges on the stall doors that had been ripped off. One of the highlights of the project was that the students got to take a tour of all four of our bathrooms to assess the scope of work.

The students were clear that simply repairing the bathrooms would not solve the problem. They decided to form a third group (led by Belise Umutoniwase and Britta Fitzgerald) that would create signage reminding their peers that we all need to care for our restroom facilities. Over the past few weeks, we have used the 50-minute community time meeting to complete work in all four restrooms and also created a messaging campaign to encourage students to take better care of our bathrooms. Many hands have made light work!

Thank you to all of the students who graciously volunteered to complete this important work!

The eclipse was absolutely beautiful, and so were our eclipse paintings! Sixth graders learned about African American artist Alma Thomas, and then painted eclipses after being inspired by her eclipse painting and her unique, dotted style.

Your students have begun the process of choosing their elective classes for the 2024-2025 school year. We’ve asked them to share this planning sheet with you. Here is a slideshow that explains more about our elective courses. Students should bring their completed planning sheets to their Community Time teachers.

There was much anticipation leading up to the March 23 Mathcounts State Championship... which was then canceled and rescheduled due the biggest snowstorm we saw in northern Vermont all winter!

Thankfully, students, parents, coaches, and competition organizers rallied, and the event was held Saturday, March 30, 2024, at UVM. The Edmunds Middle School team, which placed first at the Northwest Chapter Mathcounts Competition in February, won second place overall at States this year. Congratulations to the EMS team of Bernadette Caldwell, Xavier "Tank" Chandler, Britta Fitzgerald and Maelyn Slavik, on an outstanding performance!

In the Countdown Round—which is where the highest-scoring individuals from the day go head-to-head to solve complex problems in 45 seconds or less—Tank Chandler, Kaz Skalka, and Maelyn Slavik all competed, with Tank taking second place overall. Way to go, Tank!

The top four finishers in the Individual competition qualify to go to the national Mathcounts competition, which will be held this year in Washington, D.C. from May 10-14. Both Tank (1st place Individual) and Kaz (3rd place Individual) will be representing Vermont this year at Nationals. Congratulations, Tank and Kaz! We're rooting for you!

All of this would not be possible without the expertise and support of Coach Alan Matson, who has been a volunteer with Mathcounts since his own kids were in middle school. Thank you, Coach Matson!

Notes from the Nurse:

Happy Spring! For families with students transitioning from 6th to 7th grade next year, please be aware that your student is required to have a TDap immunization prior to the start of 7th grade. Please check with your student’s pediatrician and schedule that appointment if needed.

With appreciation,

Nurse Carla

The Journey and Nia scholars visited New Farms for New Americans in the Intervale last Wednesday as a part of a unit focused on “Food Systems, Community, and Place”. The unit is anchored in two overarching questions: How does joy and connection show up in our local food systems? How does challenge and injustice show up in our local food systems? And what do we do to overcome it? Despite the cooler weather, the greenhouse was warm and inviting.

Hello Everyone,

I hope this email finds you well and having had a great holiday weekend filled with loved ones and sports! Mother Nature seems to be having an internal struggle with whether to move onward to spring or to give us a very late winter. Please be mindful of lots of moving parts in the early going. It was a great first week of practices for the high school, and we will be transitioning from middle school volleyball season into practices for middle school spring sports.

Hey Everyone, check out this week’s This Week in Sports from our Athletic Director Quaron Pinckney: Week of 4/15-4/20

Quaron "Q" Pinckney (he/him/his)

Head of Athletics, Burlington School District

qpinckne@bsdvt.org

Hi Seahawk Nation,

What a wild first couple of weeks, I hope you were all able to enjoy the eclipse! As we get back to it, there are a few updates and reminders. First off, there are no athletics afterschool today in observance of Eid al-Fitr. We will resume baseball, softball, and track and field tomorrow. Please see the schedule below;

Baseball (Lower Calahan Park)

Monday No practice due to eclipse

Tuesday No practice due to Eid Al-Fitr

Wednesday 3:00-5:00

Thursday 4:00-5:30

Friday 4:00-5:30

Softball (Smalley Park)

Monday No practice due to eclipse

Tuesday No practice due to Eid Al-Fitr

Wednesday 2:30-4:00

Thursday 3:40-5:00

Friday 3:40-5:00

Track & Field (On Campus and BHS Turf)

Monday No practice due to eclipse

Tuesday No practice due to Eid Al-Fitr

Wednesday 3:15-4:30

Thursday 3:15-4:30

Friday 3:15-4:30

UPDATE to the Ultimate Frisbee PRACTICE LOCATION:

Roosevelt Park is proving too crowded so we are moving! We will continue to practice on M, T, Th, and Fri (3:30-5:00).

On Mondays and Tuesdays, practice will be at Hunt Middle School on the soccer fields. We will need to practice on the track out back on 4/29 as they have a baseball game.

On Thursdays and Fridays, we will practice on the upper field at EMS. This is also known as the “field hockey field.”

**Tennis** Starts April 29th - Tennis will be at Roosevelt Park in the Old North End of Burlington. It is directly across from the Boys and Girls Club. This is a combined group from Edmunds and Hunt. Students will hop on the city bus from Edmunds and make their way to the courts! Please make sure that you are commuting together as a team. Tennis will be on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The bus typically gets to Roosevelt Park by 3:45pm. Coaches will be at the court to meet our athletes! Practice concludes at 5pm. We will be beginning Tennis on Monday, April 29th after April vacation when the weather is consistently better given that April “Showers” happen making the outdoor courts unavailable for play. Please reach out to Clare Wool or Ryan Hayes with any additional questions.

BLUE FORMS

Many of you were able to get your blue forms turned in on time last week. However, we still have a bunch of missing forms. While we may not have "games" or "meets" this week, we do next and they still need to be completed. Blue forms need to be turned in weekly, even if you do not have a game or meet. Please remember to pick up your form tomorrow and have it filled out and turned back in by the end of the day on Thursday.

Please reach out to your coach or myself with any team questions!

Best,

Ryan Hayes