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Amy Werbel Thank you for visiting my school commissioner webpage, and for your interest in the public schools and school board in Burlington, Vermont. For more information, please visit the Burlington school district homepage: www.bsdvt.org Comments expressed on this website are mine alone, and do not constitute official Board policies or statements. |
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Last Post on this Website!
North Avenue News Column. June 20, 2011
Summer is a great time for everyone in the Burlington School District to take some deep breaths and reflect on the work behind us and ahead. Our last flurry of Board meetings before the quieter summer schedule was intense and productive. We ratified a new three-year teacher’s contract and five-year food service worker’s contract, approved dozens of hires – including two new principals at the Sustainability Academy and Edmunds Elementary, and passed a revised student assignment policy for first reading that squares with the way we have been doing things for the past three years. Whew!
For me personally, this intense productivity was a great way to wrap up six years of service on the Board. A special election will be held for my Ward 5 seat on August 2nd, as I am headed to Guangzhou, China with my family for the upcoming year. I will teach American Studies at Guangdong Foreign Studies University as a Fulbright Scholar, Graham will continue his study of Mandarin Chinese as a “gap year” before attending New York University, Emmett will attend the American International School in Guangzhou, and Fred will write two more books in his Cybertraps series. In fact, stopping off at the polls to vote for my replacement on our way to the airport will be the last thing we do in town!
This has been a fitting time to wrap things up on the Board for me also because I had the great privilege of watching Graham graduate from Burlington High School last week, with a huge smile on his face. To my mind, ringing the Seahorse bell was the last official act of his childhood, and the first of his adult life. If any of you ever wonder what purpose your education taxes serve, I would recommend that you attend a BHS graduation – or watch it on RETN. There is no better space to experience the reality of our community than that packed gymnasium, filled with families who speak dozens of languages, dressed in every variety of clothing from shorts and flip flops, to formal suits and loafers, to saris and hijab headscarves. In that gymnasium, there can be no doubt that we are one neighborhood, one community, and indeed one world. No matter our amazing differences, we are all there, filled with joy at the prospect of our children’s success. With that great vision in mind, I take my leave of Burlington, the School Board, and the North Avenue News, with many thanks to Cliff and Ellen, and all the good people in our community who devote themselves to the success of all our children. Zai Jian!
Wishing you all a healthy and happy summer,
Amy Werbel
Interim School Commissioner, Ward 5
awerbel@bsdvt.org
12 Catherine Street
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About my service on the school board: I served on the Burlington School Board from 2005 to 2011 as Ward 5 Representative. As Chair of the Curriculum Committee, I advocated for the creation of magnet schools, socio-economic integration, enriched arts education, and all initiatives that inspire children by nurturing their creativity, curiosity, idealism and cultural competence. I am honored that the Burlington Education Association awarded me the 2006 People's Choice Award for Outstanding School Commissioner.
Brief Bio: I grew up in New York City, where I attended my neighborhood elementary school and then a magnet public middle and high school. After graduation from Harvard in 1986, I worked in museums for a few years and then earned a Ph.D. in art history from Yale in 1996. I moved to Vermont in 1994 to take a job teaching art history at St. Michael's College. My specialties are American, African, and African Diaspora art, in addition to special topics courses which focus on Vermont art and/or architecture. My students often construct websites as final projects-their website on Fort Ethan Allen won the Bryan Award from the Center for Research on Vermont. The website on African art is pretty cool as well: http://academics.smcvt.edu/africanart and http://academics.smcvt.edu/africanart3 . Information about my work as a professor can be found on my St. Michael's College homepage. In April, 2011, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Grant to teach American Studies in China from August, 2011 through June, 2012. My service on the Board ended in June, 2011.
I have written often about the Board, and all those neighborhood updates are posted to the left. Please feel free to check those out, and/or to write to me with any comments and questions you may have at: awerbel@bsdvt.org . Ni Hao! Amy