Superintendent's Corner - March 31st

Mar 31 2023

Superintendent's Corner March 31, 2023 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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Board Meeting Dates

We hope you will complete this survey to help us with our Summer Meals planning. Please complete by April 5th at 5:00pm.

WSESU 2023 Summer Meals

The Supervisory Union is currently making plans for our 2023 free summer meals program. We are looking at options that best serve the children in our WSESU towns and make best use of available resources. You can help us plan by completing this short survey.

mtascutneyhospital.surveymonkey.com

John Broderick Presentation Invitation

Recognizing and Acting on Signs of Emotional Distress in Teens

Please join us for a special presentation by a parent whose teenage son suffered for years from

undiagnosed mental illness. Speaking from his own experience, John Broderick offers a compelling and personal perspective on how unaddressed mental health concerns disrupt the life of a family.

In 2019, almost 1 in 3 WSESU middle and high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless in the past year. (2019 YRBS) Rates of anxiety and depression in teens have been rising starkly since the pandemic.

With so many students today experiencing mental health issues, this opportunity for parents and caregivers could not come at a better time. You will be given tools for:

 identifying the signs of mental health issues in your child's life

 communicating support and care

John Broderick will be available for questions after his presentation.

We hope you will join us for a candid and honest discussion.

Monday, April 17th

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm (presentation + Q&A)

Windsor High School, 19 Ascutney Street in Windsor, VT

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John Broderick is the Senior Director, External Affairs at Dartmouth Health and former NH Chief Justice. This event is part of the R.E.A.C.T. campaign to provide clear next steps to take when someone sees some, or all, of the five signs of emotional suffering in another person. The R.E.A.C.T. campaign is presented by Dartmouth Health in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Health (CHaD), the New Hampshire Department of Education, and the Vermont Agency of Education.

Finance & Operations Update

I want to echo Superintendent Bourne's thankful note from her last newsletter for the support of the FY24 budgets in all of our member towns and districts. The budget season can put a great deal of strain on everyone, especially in a time of rising costs & prices. It can be made even more confusing with a seemingly byzantine tax & funding structure employed by our State.

The alphabet soup and terms of CLA, Property Yields, Equalized Pupils, and more can sometimes leave parents and community members bewildered and frustrated. Earlier this year, I gave a presentation on the state funding system at a Weathersfield School Board meeting. I am including an image below of one of the slides from that presentation, which I hope is a good overview of how we go from Here (budget expenses) to There (taxpayer impact).

Balancing our educational priorities with our community's ability to pay can be difficult - so, to all our parents, faculty & staff, and community members - thank you again for supporting our FY24 budgets. We do not take your support for granted.

Larry Dougher
Director of Finance & Operations
Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union

We had two amazing student performances in March. Students at Weathersfield performed 'The Little Mermaid', and students in Hartland performed 'Matilda'! A huge shout out to all the staff who helped make these performances happen (and for all the students who participated)!