The last time: Pumpkin Man waves good-bye

The last time: Pumpkin Man waves good-bye

With two final messages and his usual gentle antics, Pumpkin Man said good-bye to Charlotte Central School last week on Halloween. Along with the local mysterious figure’s dismissal, school principals also cancelled the annual Halloween parade, and the final time the holiday was celebrated at school had smiles, tears, and a gentle, loving message from the man of the hour.

Personalized learning in the Champlain Valley School District

Personalized learning in the Champlain Valley School District

This week’s CVSD board meeting featured a discussion of personalized learning, which is designed to maximize student choices around curricula and respond to individual learning styles. It is an important building block in the Proficiency Based Learning (PBL) system that the Champlain Valley School District has embraced across all schools.

Pumpkin Man breaks his silence: The tradition is going away, but the magic and wonder will remain

Pumpkin Man breaks his silence: The tradition is going away, but the magic and wonder will remain

Charlotte Central School’s resident mythical figure, Pumpkin Man, has been the center of controversy in town lately, as school principals Stephanie Sumner and Jen Roth recently announced that after this year, he will no longer be appearing at the school’s annual Halloween parade—and that in fact, this will also be the parade’s last year. In light of recent news reports claiming that Pumpkin Man wanted to retire, the man himself reached out to The Charlotte News to set the record straight and explain that he did not, in fact, want to retire after this year.

Pumpkin Man is on his way out: CCS principals decide this is the last year for Halloween at school

Pumpkin Man is on his way out: CCS principals decide this is the last year for Halloween at school

Every year since the early 90s, at the CCS Halloween celebration, students parade by grade out into the school’s back field. They gather at the far edge, uncharacteristically silent, looking expectantly at the tree line on Pease Mountain.

Promoting academic mastery and social learning at CCS

Promoting academic mastery and social learning at CCS

The Charlotte Central School staff is undertaking a number of activities to improve social and academic learning and proficiency this year. On the academic front, CCS is engaged in a design/build implementation that is moving the instructional system from a standards-based system to a system that measures proficiency at each level.

Mentoring extends to high school: Pairs connect through rabbit yoga and other shared interests

Mentoring extends to high school: Pairs connect through rabbit yoga and other shared interests

Bunny yoga is a thing that exists. Yes, yoga with rabbits. And not too long ago, a Connecting Youth mentor and mentee pair from Champlain Valley Union High School got to experience some lapin Zen together. Now in its fourth year, the CY-CVU mentoring program is connecting students and community members in new ways, fostering a relationship that reaches much further than the school walls. The program is in need of adults who are willing to spend time with a high school student on terms that make sense to both the mentor and the mentee.

New policy at CCS puts phones on silent for the day

New policy at CCS puts phones on silent for the day

The perpetual challenge for parents of tweens and teens is getting kids off their electronic devices and encouraging them to participate in the real world. Charlotte Central School is taking steps to do just that for students during the school day, rolling out the Away for the Day program as school started last week.

CVU Graduation 2019

CVU Graduation 2019

On Friday afternoon of June 14, 312 seniors of Champlain Valley Union High School paraded into Patrick Gym at UVM. Family, friends, teachers, staff and numerous other supporting community members watched as the class stood together one last time.

Don’t slap them, count them

Don’t slap them, count them

The mention of NASA brings to mind things hurtling through the air—for third graders at Charlotte Central School, those flying objects are mosquitoes, and their mission is to figure out when those pesky summertime visitors are going to show up. As part of The Globe Program, Mission Mosquito is a citizen science project that helps NASA scientists identify patterns in mosquito growth and infectious disease around the country.

School board discusses flag policy and innovation, among other topics

School board discusses flag policy and innovation, among other topics

The Black Lives Matter flag issue and the aftermath of the controversy earlier in the year dominated the conversation at the Champlain Valley School District school board meeting on May 21. The meeting at CVU featured talks from current foreign exchange students, an update on proficiency indicators and a lengthy discussion about a comprehensive policy moving forward regarding flag raisings at district schools.