Search Committee for RES Principal

April 26, 2013

Dear Teachers, Parents, Families, Students and Community Members,

Mike Berry, Principal at Richmond Elementary School has been selected to serve as the school district Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation.  We offer him our congratulations, and appreciate the time he has invested in at Richmond Elementary School.  We are forming a search committee which includes parents, board members, teachers and support staff to find a replacement for his Richmond principal position.  We are looking for individuals who are interested in serving on the search committee.  If you are interested in playing this role, please email Jennifer.Botzojorns@cesuvt.org.  Below please find a tentative timeline for our hiring process.  

April 26 Advertisement posted on schoolspring.com

April 29th Initial meeting with interview committee to review process

(2:30-4 pm- if people are unable to attend this meeting, there can be individual meetings)

April 29 - May 19 Committee reviews applications (candidates names kept confidential)

May 19 Committee meets to select candidates for first interview (3:30-6 pm)

May 26 First round of interviews by committee, select finalists (12:30-5:00 pm)

Committee recommends finalists to the superintendent

May 31 Second round: full day visit by candidates w/performance task (all day)

Final candidates visit and all stakeholders provide feedback for superintendent

Here is a link to a draft of our hiring process, once finalized, we will share a link on our website. Once we reach the second round of the process we will make the finalist candidate’s names and resumes public.  Please mark your calendar:  

May 31, 2016

7 am - 8:00 am & 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm.  

Richmond Principal Candidate Meet and Greet

On the 31st of May, finalists for the principal position will visit Richmond Elementary and all parents, families and community members will have the opportunity to meet, ask questions and then provide input.  We will provide detailed information including resumes for each candidate when we are closer to the actual date.

We have always been appreciative of the interest and support from the school and community in Richmond. During times of transition, one always feels uncertainty, however, we are confident we will find an excellent individual to lead the school community for the years to come.

Please do not hesitate to email (jennifer.botzojorns@cesuvt.org) or call 434-2128 if you have any ideas, thoughts or questions.

Looking forward to your participation in this process, I am

Sincerely yours,

Jennifer Botzojorns

Assistant Superintendent

Chittenden East Supervisory Union

Michael Berry: New Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation

Welcome Michael Berry: New Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation

Chittenden East Supervisory Union would like to announce the appointment of Mr. Michael Berry to serve as our Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation commencing July 1, 2016.  We began the search process in January with 28 initial applicants.  The search committee interviewed five candidates and selected two finalists.  The finalists engaged in a lengthy interview and reference check process including several performance tasks and full day visits to seven schools.  We received feedback from multiple stakeholders including parents, board members, teachers, administrators and students.

Mr. Berry received his bachelor's degree in Children's Literature and Education from Castleton State College.  He served as a classroom teacher for seven years in East Montpelier, then as school principal first at Underhill Central, then Richmond -- for the last nine years.  He received his masters degree from Union Institute and University/Vermont College.  His passions include supporting teachers and children to explore all learning styles, and to use technology to expand the realm of education. He believes that students are natural learners, curious about the world around them.  He lives with his wife and two daughters in Barre, Vermont.

Mr Berry can be followed on twitter @PrincipalBerry or his blog https://principalberry.wordpress.com

Superintendent John Alberghini, “I welcome Mike to his new role on our leadership team.  He brings a breadth and depth of knowledge to our school district.  We look forward to his ability to communicate and integrate technology, and his passion for learning for all including children, scholars, teachers and administrators.” School board chair, Jon Milazzo, “We are extremely excited to welcome Michael Berry as the new Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation in CESU.   His educational experience, quality leadership and effective communication background will be an asset to CESU.   The school board looks forward to working with Mike as we serve together to ensure every student receives consistently the same high-quality education in CESU through the implementation of effective systems around curriculum, assessments and instruction.”

Mr Berry shared, “As a member of the MMMUSD-CESU learning community for the past nine years I’m more than grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to continue to work with and learn from our amazing scholars, educators, families and communities.  As the Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation my goals will align with helping our learners achieve their dreams.  I will continue the important work of promoting, supporting, and increasing the implementation of innovative approaches in teaching, learning, and leadership throughout our schools.  Finding ways to recognize, celebrate and connect innovative approaches will help to create opportunities for growth and experience for all learners in our schools and beyond.   I am sincerely thankful for the opportunity and look forward to learning together.  Thank you and please feel free to contact me with ideas, celebrations or questions anytime.”

WSCC MEETING

Announcement:

Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community (WSCC)

Team Meeting

Chittenden East Supervisory Union

Thursday April 28th, 4pm - 6pm, Camel’s Hump Middle School

We envision a community for our children to grow into a thriving adult world.  Our purpose is to gather a diverse group of individuals committed to growing healthy children. Come join us in the conversation.  More details are in this announcement.  

Smilie Cares, Shares and Reads 2016

Smilie Cares, Shares and Reads Shoe Project 2016 has come to end! We read enough books to travel from Bolton, Vermont to Nigeria, Kenya and back again! Thanks again for all of your support! The whole school celebrated together with a dance party on Friday, April 15. I have included some photos of all of the creative designs our students made on their white canvas shoes.

The colors and designs were beautiful!

Preschoolers had their own dance party!

Everyone was proud of their creations!

Just a reminder....

Smilie School's 8th Delayed Opening is on Wednesday, April 13, 2016. School will begin 2 hours later than normal.

School will officially begin at 9:30 a.m.

Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation

Candidate Finalists

April 11, 2016

Chittenden East convened a search committee comprised of members of the school board, faculty and administration to review candidates for the director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation.  The committee selected two finalists, Ms. Libby Bonesteel and Mr. Mike Berry.  On Monday, April 11th the two finalist candidates will tour our supervisory union.

There will be two public sessions, one for each candidate, at Camel’s Hump Middle School between 3:30 to 4:30.  The sessions are open to parents, teachers, administrators, board members and community members to meet and greet and ask any questions of the candidates.  We will have input forms for everyone to provide feedback.  

Please contact Barbara Tomasi-Gay if you have any questions. 

 Mike Berry and Libby Bonesteel’s resume

April 11 visitation schedule

The position of Curriculum Director is currently held by Jennifer Botzojorns; she has accepted a superintendent position in Caledonia North beginning July 1.  Following the day long visitation and interviews, all feedback will be reviewed by the superintendent.  The superintendent hopes to make a final decision and recommend to the school board the finalist by the end of April.

MMMUSD-CESU MATH NIGHT VIDEO

Smilie Shares, Cares and Reads

Hi folks,

I wanted to update you on our school-wide

 initiative we are calling, Smilie Cares, Shares

 and Reads. The teachers and students have 

been having fun decorating shoes, hearing 

stories about how important shoes are and

reading lots of books. Every time a student 

reads a book, the title is written down on a

 "footprint ticket" and placed on our bulletin 

board. We are making a path of these tickets 

from Vermont to Kenya. Today, one of our fourth

 graders calculated that it is 7,241 from Vermont 

to Kenya, Africa. Our fourth graders are donating 

pairs of shoes to a poor area in this country. She 

then figured out that each of our "footprint tickets" 

was worth 20 miles. We need 362 tickets to make

it to Kenya. We currently have about 164 tickets, 

so we are almost halfway there and we have 2 more

 weeks of reading!! Of course, we need to come back

 from Africa, so we need 724 miles for our round trip.
Today at our assembly, we watched a video about 

"paying it forward". We saw how one kind act toward 

another person can fill our hearts with love and make 

us want to do something nice for another person!
Thanks for helping your children keep up with the 

reading each night!

The students were very happy to choose a brand new book that they could keep forever!  We are calling them our “forever books”.  On Monday, students starting picking out books to read at home.  Some students are choosing books they can read on their own and others are choosing books that they want to have their parents read to them or with them.  When the students finishes the book, they should return it to school and choose another book to read.  

 

Most students are still working on decorating their shoes so we are unable to wear our shoes to assemblies yet.  The students have taken the time to plan out what their shoes will look like and are carefully decorating them.

We are feeling really proud of ourselves for all the reading we are doing and for donating the shoes!  We can’t wait to wear our own shoes all together at our final assembly!