Tuesday’s in-school COVID-19 vaccine clinic administered 174 doses to Winooski students, which is almost half of our entire elementary student population. Getting our students vaccinated will keep them safe and healthy and will grant them the freedom to live their young lives with less worry. The relief we’re all feeling cannot be overstated.

Tremendous work went into preparing for an on-campus clinic during a busy school day, so I have a long list of people to thank. Thank you to the staff at the Agency of Education (AOE) and the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) for all their work preparing for the clinic in Winooski and across the state. I want to share my gratitude for all of our young students who bravely stepped up to get their vaccine even though the needle made many of them very nervous.

Our amazing Multilingual Liaisons Tul Niroula, Padam Thapa, Mukhtar Abdullahi, Dalib Bulle, and Faridar Ko put in hours of work to register students for the clinic. Without our liaisons, an inclusive and accessible clinic wouldn’t have been possible.

I also want to recognize the tremendous work of Principal Sara Raabe and guidance counselors Sarah Murphy and Grace Holcomb for getting students calmly to the clinic; Nurse Liz Parris for her health expertise and compassion for students and families (and for wearing the Hippo costume!); Shannon Fountain and Katharine Monje who tended to the health needs of our students throughout the day while also managing parts of the clinic; and Emily Hecker for working with the VDH and the AOE to make the clinic run smoothly and for making the experience as pleasant as possible for students.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate. I hope you all enjoy the school break and take time to refresh and enjoy time with your loved ones.

Thank you for taking the time to read the information below as we strengthen our school-family partnership.

Take care,

Sean McMannon, Superintendent

• November 18 and 19: Early Dismissal at 11am for all students (JFK Family/Teacher Conferences)
• November 19 – Veggie VanGo (community members may pick up produce from 10:05-10:25am)
• November 22 through 26 – No School
• December 7 – In-School COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic for Children ages 5-11 (2nd dose)
• Updated 2021-2022 Calendar

The Winooski School District COVID-19 2nd dose clinic will take place at school on December 7 from 9am to 3pm. Your child has been automatically enrolled if they attended the first clinic at our school.

Do you still have questions about the vaccine for this age group?

Read more about the COVID-19 vaccine for kids and find out where to make an appointment.

There have been no positive cases of COVID-19 reported to the WSD COVID Coordinators since last week. In our learning community, nine people are out because they have COVID-19 symptoms and may return to school once they receive negative test results or finish their 14-day quarantine.

Surveillance Testing
Surveillance testing will continue on November 29. If you would like your child to participate in this free program, you may sign up here. You only need to sign up once for ongoing participation. Results will come through a software program called Binx, which requires creating an account.

The Multi-Stakeholder Group has completed their final report to the community about their recommendations to the board about school safety models and the role of the School Resource Officer (SRO).

As stated in the MSG’s report, “After extensive and careful review of concerns and perspectives from various public participation fora, school and SRO practices and policies, interviews with students, teachers and community members, as well as a literature review on school safety models and data nationally, in Vermont and in Winooski, the group recommends shifting the SRO model to a combination of a District Liaison Officer (DLO) model with a school safety coach (SSC).”

Superintendent McMannon formally notified the City of Winooski that the WSD would like to retain the services of the SRO for the upcoming 2022-23 school year. Between now and June 30, 2023, our district will continue to work with everyone involved to make the following improvements:

• Develop better governance and accountability mechanisms to review and understand the SRO’s interventions at school and referrals to law enforcement.

• Improve data collection about disciplinary incidents of all kinds regardless of SRO’s involvement and ensure that such data includes demographic data such as race and gender.

In his memo, Superintendent McMannon affirms the district’s commitment to continuing a community consultation process and implementing an updated school safety and security model for the 2023-24 school year that continues to provide a high level of school safety and security and reduces the unscheduled amount of time an armed officer spends on the school campus during regular school hours.

Read the MSG full report and Superintendent McMannon’s memo below.

Last year, the WSD School Board approved funds to provide winter transportation this school year. Unfortunately, due to a severe statewide bus driver shortage, local school bus companies are unable to fulfill our request to provide winter transportation. This is not because of a lack of money, but because there are not enough trained drivers to drive the buses.

We are very disappointed that we are unable to provide school bus transportation this year because we know this is important to our students and their families. So, we have worked with Green Mountain Transit (GMT) on a plan to provide public bus transportation to and from school. Riding the GMT busses is FREE for everyone this year.

Here is our current plan for riding a GMT bus to school:

• Winooski students catch #9 bus when it loops through Elm/Hickock neighborhood around 7:21am, and then get off the bus at Winooski Falls/Spinner Place at 7:26am

• Students will wait at the Winooski Falls/Spinner Place stop for 10 minutes

• Winooski students catch the next outbound #9 at 7:39am, and get off the bus at Normand St around 7:45am

We highly encourage all students to use this GMT route to and from school. Our hope is that through increased ridership by Winooski students, we could discuss options with GMT to add routes or reconfigure the route so students do not have to change buses.

Please see the map below for more information about where and when your child should board the bus to get to school on time.

This Seven Days article by reporter Alison Novak clearly outlines the ongoing work to address inequitable school funding in Vermont. Well worth the read!

If you missed the Listen Up tour this summer, now is your chance to see this powerful, original musical based on the lives of Vermont teens. Winooski High School student Moseka “Don” Kiputa gives an incredible performance alongside youth from across the state. Tickets are $15 and you can reserve them by contacting Bess O’Brien at [email protected]