December 2024
Congratulations to our outstanding MHS Varsity Girls soccer team for taking the D2 Championship this fall!
Board Corner
MTSD Budget Process
One of the many responsibilities of the MTSD Board of Trustees revolves around the financial obligation to the Milton community. The Board does this through the creation of a budget that puts our students first and supports the District's vision and mission. The greatest challenge all school boards face is finding a balance between ensuring our students have the resources they need to thrive in a constantly changing world, and minimizing the financial burden placed on the members of the communities we serve. It’s for this reason, the MTSD Board of Trustees engages in the budget process early as possible. This process can be broken down into 3 phases: Planning, Creation, and Approval and Implementation.
Planning
This part of the process involves the Board developing a budget timeline, identifying information needed to drive the decision-making process, and determining the framework of the budget (level service vs level funded). A level service budget maintains the programs and services offered by the District. Due to factors like inflation, state legislation, the education fund, and healthcare costs this leads to an increase in the budget from the previous year. On the other hand, a level funded budget maintains the previous year’s expenditures. Due to factors like inflation, state legislation, the education fund, and healthcare costs this leads to the district needing to eliminate programs and services.
Creation
Once the Board determines the type of budget it wants to move forward with, they review all data received from the State, internal sources, and external sources (stakeholders and community members). After reviewing and analyzing the data, the finance committee will piece together a draft budget that attempts to balance the needs of the students with the desire and financial capacity of the Milton community. Upon completion, the finance committee will present a draft budget to the Board. This serves as an opportunity for the Board, stakeholders, and community members to provide feedback on the draft budget. The finance committee will use the feedback it receives to revise the draft budget. The presentation and revision process will continue to take place until we reach the deadline, established in the planning phase, to approve a finalized budget.
Approval and Implementation
After the Board approves the final budget, it will be placed on a ballot to be voted on by community members. Once the budget has passed, by community members voting “Yes”, the school district is able to take the necessary steps to implement expenditures agreed upon in the budget creation phase.
WIN Students at MES
Our MES WIN students proudly showcased their incredible 8-week projects this November, and the results were nothing short of inspiring! In the STEAM program, students explored architecture and robotics, creating innovative designs and functional models. In the Library program, students became authors, writing and illustrating their own captivating books.
A huge congratulations to all of our WIN students for their hard work, creativity, and dedication. You make MES proud!
Learning at Milton Elementary
Global Foundries Ambassadors Inspire the Next Generation in STEAM
In an exciting initiative, professionals from GlobalFoundries supported the 4th grade STEAM classes by bringing an engaging lesson on electricity and circuits to the students. This collaboration aims to inspire young students by providing them with real-world insights into science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
By having professionals in the classroom, students gain valuable perspectives on how STEAM concepts apply in real life. GlobalFoundries ambassadors bring their expertise allowing students to see the relevance of their studies in a dynamic field that shapes our daily lives.
Hands-On Learning
GlobalFoundries Ambassadors engage students through hands-on activities that make learning fun and interactive. Here are a few highlights from their sessions:
The GF Ambassadors taught students about electricity and electrical currents during a mini lesson which encouraged student questions and connections. After the foundation was laid, students were given a circuit kit and some suggested projects to follow. Students worked with the GF ambassadors to create electrical circuits that made a light bulb turn on, a propeller spin and a speaker play happy birthday. The students were excited and fully engaged. The excitement was contagious as each student celebrated her/his success after completing a circuit. The time with the GF Ambassadors went quickly and the students asked for more time with the circuit kits.
The partnership between GlobalFoundries and our school exemplifies the power of community engagement in education and represents a wonderful chance for 4th graders to engage with professionals in the field of engineering. By inspiring these young minds through hands-on STEAM experiences, these engineers and professionals are helping to cultivate the innovators and problem-solvers of tomorrow and growing student skills and confidence needed to pursue their passions in an ever-evolving landscape.
Thank you to Heather Preuss (Milton Resident, parent and GlobalFoundries Engineer) for collaborating with our STEAM teacher, Kendra Gorton to make this possible. GlobalFoundries will return later in the year to provide similar opportunities for grades K-3.
Herrick Project Update
Improving the Herrick Facility for Our Community
Since 2021, the Milton Town School District (MTSD) Board of Trustees has been working with the community to find solutions for the aging Herrick Facility. The Milton Elementary School infrastructure is at or beyond its end of use including: the roof; underground plumbing; windows, floors and casings; heating and ventilation controls. Moisture also continues to be problematic; at the start of this school year, MES was delayed and classrooms in three hallways were temporarily closed, due to mold and a subsequent remediation process.
After gathering community input through forums and surveys, the MTSD Board has chosen to proceed with a stabilization project. This approach includes vital upgrades, such as electrical work, new windows, HVAC and dehumidification systems, domestic water updates, roof replacement, and gutters. These upgrades aim to ensure that the building can continue to operate safely and effectively, addressing many of the critical infrastructure needs.
Next Steps and Community Involvement
On November 21, 2024, the Board discussed the stabilization project in more detail, and voted to move forward with an estimated $7-10 million Bond to make the most essential upgrades. They also voted to move forward with a bond vote on Town Meeting Day in March 2025. At the December 19, 2024 Regular Meeting, the Board will review estimates for the stabilization project and calculate the impact of a bond. Please join us as we continue to discuss this important project.
We thank everyone for your continued involvement and support. With these planned improvements, MTSD can provide a safer, more reliable environment for our students and staff at Herrick.
Stabilizing the Building
$7 M - $10 M
- Roof Replacement
- Gutters & Perimeter Drains (Water Management)
- Sprinkler Repairs (Code & Safety Issues)
- Replacement of Domestic Water Entrance (Contains Lead)
- Add Required Egress Lighting (Safety)
- Electrical Code Issues
- Electrical Distribution Panels (end of life)
- Window Replacement
- Domestic Water Heater (recommended)
- Replace HVAC with Central Air System with Dehumidification (Health)
Upcoming Events
Learning at Milton Middle School
MMS & PLL Partnership
Milton Middle School is fortunate to work with Partnerships for Literacy and Learning (PLL) for a third school year, paid for through grant funding. PLL is a local Vermont group whose mission is to bring the power of literacy to all students through partnerships with organizations and educators. They do this by working with educators to build expertise so that students develop complex reading, writing, and critical thinking skills for personal and civic engagement throughout their lives.
In January of 2023, the Milton Intensive Literacy Pilot was launched. The goal of the work in the first year of our partnership was to build the knowledge and expertise of our teachers around evidence-based approaches for literacy instruction. This started with a small Design Team developing the Milton Literacy Intensive Pilot program, then implementing, monitoring, assessing, and supporting the pilot. The Design team also built MMS’s version of the Reader Data Summary and Reader Profiles. Following the work of the Design Team, the first cohort group was launched. The first cohort group included Reading Interventionists and Special Educators and provided them with professional learning on evidence based reading practices.
The 2023-2024 school year was a second year to go deeper with the initial cohort, providing them intensive professional development in using the Reader Profiles to create and implement reading interventions to identified students and their areas of need. Throughout the year cohort members engaged in workshops and job embedded coaching to learn and strengthen their reading knowledge. Topics included cognitive flexibility, active self- regulation, executive functioning, fluency, and comprehension. Year two also included an opportunity for Science, Social Studies, and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers professional development on embedding literacy into their lessons.
Learning at Milton High School
We Asked the Students | Connection Survey
High schools must maintain an unwavering focus on student engagement and connection. As our students grow older and more independent, they are given more choices about when, where, and how they learn. The hard reality of serving high school students is that if we do not meet their academic, social, and emotional needs, we can lose them.
To be successful, our high school campuses must be places where students feel safe, deeply connected to adults and other peers, and academically challenged. In order to meet this challenge, Milton High School has developed new systems to ensure that we are assessing our students’ sense of connection and then acting upon that data to improve outcomes for individual students and the system as a whole.
The MHS Connection Survey - We Asked the Students
The MHS Connection Survey is an effort to provide students with a direct channel of communication with their school administrators, school counselors, advisors, and teachers. It is a set of approximately 20 questions, which provides every individual student the opportunity to share their thoughts on the following questions:
- How engaging and challenging do you find your academic work and our course offerings?
- How connected do you feel to the adults at MHS?
- How connected do you feel to your peers at MHS?
- How engaged are you in co-curricular and athletic offerings at MHS?
- How safe and comfortable do you feel across settings at MHS?
Students at MHS will be asked to complete the survey each fall and spring. While the concept of a student survey is far from a new one, how MHS is acting upon the data we collect demonstrates a new comprehensive approach to reacting to student feedback.
Student Support Team - Prioritizing Adult Relationships
This fall, MHS created its first-ever Student Support Team. This group is composed of school administrators, school counselors, social workers, the school nurse, and members of the school's behavior team. They meet weekly to discuss student needs and coordinate efforts to better support students who are struggling. The initial work of acting upon individual needs identified in the Connection Survey is assigned to this group. They focus on the most critical protective factor of having a trusted adult in the school building. Every student who answered that they do not have a trusted adult was asked to meet with a member of SST to discuss their response and brainstorm ways to foster a connection with a teacher or staff member.
Interdisciplinary Teams - Prioritizing Academic Engagement and Peer Relationships
Individual student data was shared with the team of teachers that works directly with the students. As a team, they were able to look at levels of student engagement in the academic coursework they are providing. This included data about the students’ perception of engagement, rigor, and personalization of the school work. It also allowed the teams to better identify and intervene on behalf of students who were struggling to make and maintain positive friendships with their peers in their classes.
HIVE Time - Reflecting Upon Connection, Belonging, and Overall Well-Being
Finally, the student data was presented to teacher advisors, just in time for fall conferences. At MHS, fall conferences are student-led conferences. We structure these conferences to focus on self-reflection and goal setting. The data from the Connection Survey is provided to all TA teachers and students are asked to reflect upon it and possibly use it to set goals for the school year. This provides a venue for the student’s family to better understand the successes and challenges their students face when it comes to their overall social and emotional health at school.
Conclusion
All in all, these new tools and processes have placed social-emotional learning and data at the forefront of our professional conversations at MHS. They provide a venue for student voices to be heard, but more importantly, a more systematic approach to reacting to those voices and providing a distributive responsibility amongst our staff to better support our students.