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Superintendent's Message

Violet Nichols

Superintendent'sMessageViolet Nichols

December 12, 2024

Dear Parents/Guardians and Staff,

Last week, Washington DC hosted the National Tree Lighting, which included 56 smaller trees representing all 50 states and US territories. Gertrude Chamberlin School was chosen to represent Vermont. Art teacher Jenny Goodrich had been working with students on their designs since the school year began. Congratulations to all the students who contributed to this amazing project. And a huge thank you to Mrs. Goodrich for highlighting the diverse voices of Chamberlin.


You can see more information about the tree lighting here and the MYNBC story where they visited Chamberlin and spoke to Mrs. Goodrich and two students whose artwork is now on display. If your Winter Break plans include a trip to DC, be sure to stop by and see the tree!


Mrs. Goodrich and a few students and their families attended the tree lighting in person and shared these photos:

Exciting news for an SBHS Alumni! Class of 2012 graduate Brad Cole is the Associate Head Coach for UVM Men’s Soccer. The team is in the final four of the NCAA tournament against Denver this Friday at 5 pm. Go Catamounts and go Wolves!

On Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing SBHS students volunteering at the Polar Express, which is a tradition that has happened for approximately 15 years. Many of the students complete these 5 hours of community service for their service requirement in Health class. Other students volunteer through Coalition for Community Service, one of our service clubs at the high school. Thank you to Erin Randall, SBHS Health Educator, for organizing these volunteer efforts!

Household Income Form

The district is requesting your assistance in supporting both our schools and local property taxes by completing the Household Income Form (HIF). This information determines funding that our schools get and as well as impacting property tax rates. The form takes less than five minutes to complete. Both FAQs and the form in various languages are available at the the link above.

FY26 Budget

We have received information from the state earlier than anticipated which will have an impact on our budget. The property yield is the amount $1.00 of tax will raise per pupil statewide. Last year it was $9,893 and this year it is $8,553. The Common Level of Appraisal adjusts for any difference between the town's assessed property value and its current fair market value. Last year it was 82.5% and this year it is 75%. These decreases will help with the tax rate but we still have a large hill to climb.


Local legislators recently held a forum regarding school budgets at the South Burlington library. I was glad to be a part of this community conversation. I am grateful for their work and for their efforts to support our community through education funding conversations.

This video offers a good explainer on how Vermont funds school budgets:

How does Vermont fund its schools? Vermont Public explains

Here is the schedule for board meetings in the coming months and when the budget will be presented:


December 18: Second presentation of FY26 Budget


January 8: Third presentation of FY26 Budget/ Final date for school board to adopt FY26 budget


January 22: Steering Committee Meeting at 4pm (Prior to board meeting at 577 Dorset)

Budget discussions at board meeting


February 5: Budget discussions


February 19: Budget discussions


March 3: Pre-Town Meeting and Public Hearing of City and School District Budget (This meeting will be at City Hall)


March 4: TOWN MEETING DAY


Please continue to visit the Budget FY26 page on our website for additional budget information as we will update regularly over the coming months.


Thank you to all who attended the AOE Educator Session last week. The AOE just concluded their last scheduled session earlier this week and we are grateful to them for offering these sessions. They will release summary reports toward the end of the year and I will share them here and on our budget page once they are available.

New School Board Member

Karen Van Gilder will join the school board on December 18th. Karen is attending Vermont State University to receive her master's in Mental Health Counseling. She has a background as a community planner and experience with Policy Governance that will benefit her as a board member. She also teaches yoga. Her children attend the district, two of whom are currently at SBHS, and one of whom graduated last year. Welcome, Karen!


Transportation Update from Operations Director, Jean-Marie Clark

Like all the departments in the school district, we are always looking for the most efficient ways to use our resources, our buses and drivers, as well as be wise with our budgets. One change we will be making to honor those guiding principles is to compress our late activity bus runs into just one run. Beginning on January 2, 2025, we will run only one late activity bus. It will depart the school grounds at 6 pm daily, and make stops in Georgia and the Islands. There are no changes to the stops; it will just be one run. Compressing to one run will potentially change the times of the drop-offs. One challenge with the late activity runs is that the students on the bus change every day. So not knowing who will be on the bus, makes it difficult to predict what the drop-off times will be.


We appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we make this change. Not only will it be impactful to our resources, but it will also help ease the burden on our hard-working drivers!



Visit our Transportation Update page for up to date information.


For questions and concerns about transportation, please contact Stephanie Hyatt, Transportation Dispatcher. Stephanie is the point of contact for families with questions about transportation in-the-moment. She can be reached at 802-233-0673. You can also call the bus garage at 802-652-7479. For general questions, please reach out to Jean-Marie Clark, Operations Director, at jclark@sbschools.net.


For information about Safe Routes to School, including minutes from their recent meetings, visit this page.

Employment Opportunities

The district is hiring! Please follow the links to read the full descriptions for these roles.


Senior Director of Human Resources


Benefits Manager


Grant Coordinator and Administrative Assistant for Educational Support Systems


Interventionists


Bus Drivers (and Bus Aides)

Training available obtain Commercial Driver's Licenses to eligible candidates, full and part time positions available as well as van drivers and bus monitors


Traffic Monitors


Full job descriptions are available on School Spring. If you have questions on hiring processes or on employment, please contact Alanah Rockwell, Employee Specialist (arockwell@sbchools.net) at (802) 652-7247.

District Calendar

Thank you for reading!


Violet

For information about each school please visit our website or download our app. If you are new to the district or haven’t had a chance to explore, the website is the best place to find all the information on the district and your students' schools. You can also follow us on social media: @SBSchoolsVT on Twitter, @southburlingtonschoolDistrict on Instagram and on Facebook.

SBSD App

Along with the website, the dedicated app will be your best resource for updated menus, schedules and other important information in the event of school closures and delays.


  • Download the SBSD app (Apple and Google) to stay up to date on events and announcements (or scan the QR code )!


Stay in the loop with our Live Feed


  • Access breakfast and lunch menus
  • Get your daily dose of news
  • Stay updated with the events calendar
  • Connect with our staff directory
  • Receive important notifications, like school closures

The South Burlington School District is on Social Media! Please follow us for updates and District happenings:

South Burlington School District

@SBSchoolsVT

@southburlingtonschooldistrict

South Burlington School District
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