Sunday, June 16, 2019

Time to finish one journey and start the next...

June is when the school year is coming to an end, and we think about graduations!  We spent a few minutes at our June 5th meeting figuring out which Board members were going to attend each graduation.  For me, it’s one of the best things that I get to do as a Board member.  This year I will be at the Fairfield Promotion Ceremony and the BFA graduation.  Every year I will try to go to a different 8th grade graduation.  I wish I could go to them all!


Fairfield Center School Promotion Ceremony
I’m writing this now on June 12, after handing out Promotion Certificates to Fairfield 8th graders.  What a great event!  The gym was full to capacity with families and staff.  One thing that I loved about the ceremony was that students were very involved in it.  All of the student speakers were excellent, and they showed obvious pride in their school. 

They do something really cool there, called the “Gifts from the Class”.  All of the graduating students get flowers and walk through the audience, giving them to people that are special to them.  I have never seen that before, but it was great!

Thanks to Principal O’Dell and all of the staff who helped make this event possible.  I can’t wait to be there again!


Change in Cell Phone Use
The three pre-K-8 schools have agreed on a new common procedure for dealing with cell phone use.  The reason for this is that they have found that, more and more, cell phone use is interfering with student learning, and they have been struggling with how to deal with it. 

Starting next year, parents will be encouraged to have their students leave their phones at home.  If students bring their phones to school, they will have to turn them in to their teachers at the beginning of the day, and they will be stored in a secure place until the end of the day, when they will get them back.  During the day, if students need to call home, they will be allowed to use a school phone. 

The SATEC 7th grade team started using the new rules this spring, after April vacation. They have had positive results, with no parental complaints.

Sounds like a good idea to me.


What is Executive Session?
We had an executive session this meeting, which means that the Board went into a private meeting within our public meeting.  This is allowed, per Vermont’s Open Meeting Law, for very specific reasons only.  We do everything that we can to conduct as much of our business as possible in public, where visitors or viewers on TV can see what we talk about and what decisions we make. 

If we are going to move an item to executive session, I will cite the statute that allows us to do so.  For example, at this meeting, we moved an update on an employee’s work performance to executive session.  This is allowed by law, per Vermont statute 1 V.S.A. § 313 (a) 3, the evaluation of a public employee.

An important point: we cannot hold any votes in executive session.  So if we do decide in executive session to take action on a matter, we do have to make the motion and vote in open session, which will be part of the official minutes.  Again, we do everything we can to do all of our business in public.


Final Word
I know that I started this post on June 12, after the Fairfield graduation, but I’m ending it now on June 15, after the BFA graduation ceremony.  What can I say?  It was windy, but warm and sunny off and on, so there was plenty of time for families and friends to take pictures. We had just under 2000 seats setup at Collins Perley, and very few were empty.

Mr. Berthiaume was the speaker chosen by the graduating class.  He gave an excellent speech, encouraging the graduates to find something that they are passionate about and pursuing that.  He also encouraged them to be part of a generation of kindness - “We always have more room for kindness.”   He said that people might not remember what you said, but they will always remember the way you made them feel.

So true.