School Board Update February 1, 2008

Dear Neighbors,

This is a great time to be a Burlington school board member, as we finally are seeing the results of three years of careful, thoughtful conversation and consensus-building around the issues of excellence and equity at all our elementary schools.  If you saw the Free Press this morning (Friday), you probably already know that we voted at our last work session to authorize planning for one or two magnet schools in the Old North End.  The idea of the magnets is both to provide demographic balance through parent choice and to create schools that incubate new teaching methods and curricula.  Magnets offer a different way of learning for the students who attend them, and generate dynamic new ideas that spread to other schools as well.  There is much work to be done before we get to see architectural plans and a proposed mission statement and class schedule, but the Board has created a timeline and put into place the resources that make it possible for this dream to be realized by Fall, 2009.  I hope that you will keep your fingers crossed, and get involved in the numerous opportunities for public engagement that will be coming along over the course of the next year.  The first really important thing to do is to get this year’s school budget passed!  For more information about all of the above, visit the District website at:  www.bsdvt.org

Stay Warm,

Amy Werbel
Ward 5 School Commissioner
awerbel@bsdvt.org