Barnes Beautification Project, Day 1

In the spring of 2006, the kids at Barnes presented the PTO with a petition asking us to replace the pea stone under the play equipment in the front playground with something less abrasive. This summer, with support from Lowe's, CEDO and Alderson Environmental Contractor, we have taken this on as part of our summer beautification project, using all-volunteer labor. In addition to re-surfacing the front playground, we are increasing our garden space and muralizing the back entrance.

Thanks to the generous loan of a bobcat from Alderson Environmental Contractor, removing the pea stone from the playground won't be quite as labor-intensive as it would be by hand:


Our resident parent-artists Rebecca Hartwick and Maria Chomentowski are designing and organizing the painting of murals on the columns and ceiling of the back entrance to the school, with a sustainability theme:



(those are windmills, painted by one of the non-artist parent volunteers)

Of course, it wasn't all work, and there's nothing like working while surrounded by playing children:

First year of Barnes World Summer Academy concludes

On Wednesday, August 1st, the Barnes World Summer Academy, a joint project of the Sara Holbrook Community Center and Burlington Parks and Recreation, held its closing ceremony. The Academy, held at Barnes, provided low-cost summer childcare and education for kids from the Old North End and as far away as Colchester and Winooski. It emphasized "place-based learning," and different groups of kids took on projects such as identifying strengths and challenges in their neighborhood, researching and making proposals for community improvement.



The assembled crowd of kids, parents, and community leaders including Mayor Bob Kiss and representatives from Parks and Rec and CCTA heard how kids had spent the summer surveying each other, their families and the general public to identify areas in which Burlington could better serve their neighborhoods. Their proposals include:

* Reduce car traffic in the neighborhood;
* A community pool for Burlington, so Burlington families wouldn't have to travel to Winooski to swim in the summer;
* A free CCTA shuttle to North Beach, to reduce greenhouse emissions and allow families without cars to access this public beach; and
* Recycling bins at North Beach, to help reduce both littering and landfill.

Barnes on Channel 17!

Lawrence Barnes parents will be hosting "Live @ 5:25" this Friday, June 8th, on Burlington's Channel 17: Town Meeting Television, talking about the school district's proposals for "Socio-Economic Integration" (SEI), the Unity Plan put forward by the Barnes community, and the work of the Sustainable Schools Project and the PTO at Lawrence Barnes elementary.

Unity Plan for Burlington Schools

This Unity Plan was developed by members of the Barnes community, as a proposal for how the Burlington school district can move forward on the issue of elementary schools.

The goals of the Unity Plan are:

* A long-term economically sustainable school district
* A move toward greater socio-economic integration in the Burlington elementary schools without disrupting existing school communities and pitting neighborhood against neighborhood.
* Neighborhood elementary schools that allow families to walk to school and maintain community.

We propose the following:

1. The three existing downtown elementary schools remain as K-5 elementary schools. Two become Magnet Schools:

* Barnes becomes a Sustainable School Magnet
* Wheeler becomes an Arts and Drama Magnet

2. Common registration for new families for the downtown elementary schools. All current families would be allowed to attend their current school. New families would register for the downtown elementary schools and assignments would be based on:

* proximity
* preference
* socio-economic integration

3. In order to keep the district financially sustainable, sell the Ira Allen building. The administration that is currently located there could move to Edmunds. The EEE program that is currently there could move to Wheeler.

4. Invest in the district's current infrastructure to make much needed improvements and make the buildings energy efficient. On-Top and Horizons programs remain at Taft where long overdue improvements will result in significant long term energy savings. At Barnes and Wheeler improvements are needed to make the schools more attractive, better suited to carrying out their roles as Magnets and to achieve long-term savings from energy efficiency. The funding for these improvements could come from:

a. Grants specifically designed for Magnet Schools
b. Grants specifically designed for districts to gain energy efficiency
c. The proceeds from the sale of the Ira Allen building.

If Burlington closes a school, would it have room for universal Pre-K?

This past year, the Vermont state legislature held hearings on the possibility of the state funding universal pre-K education in the public schools. It is widely accepted that pre-K education is one of the most effective ways to improve academic performance for children from low-income families.

As the chart below shows, if universal pre-K were instituted, Burlington's current elementary schools would be just at capacity. If schools are closed and buildings are sold, we would not.

Elementary	Capacity	2006	pre-k	total with pre-k
Barnes	180	149	25	174	under by 6
Champlain	320	294	49	343	over by 23
Edmunds	340	287	48	335	under by 5
Flynn	360	331	55	386	over by 16
Smith	320	279	47	326	over by 6
Wheeler	320	228	38	266	under by 54

Barnes parents' principles about "socio-economic integration"

A large group of Barnes parents (representative and socio-economically integrated) met the morning of May 16 to discuss Superintendent Collins' recent proposals for "socio-economic integration". There had been a lot of focus on the Ward 1 parents who are upset. What no one seems to be focusing on is that under all of the superintendent's proposals, Barnes is essentially closed as an elementary school for people in our neighborhood, and those of us who live on the West side of the ONE would be redistricted to either Edmunds or Champlain Schools (although which one is difficult to tell as the administration keeps changing the maps).

We agreed on a set of principles, listed below:

1. Barnes, and the other Elementary Schools should remain K-5 schools
2. We should preserve the concept of Neighborhood Schools that children and their parents can walk to
3. We should work to make the three downtown schools attractive to all parents
-possible ideas: Themed Schools (Sustainable, Arts & Music, etc) that build on what are schools are already doing.
-invest in infrastructure (maintain and green-up our schools)
4. We should carefully examine the costs and benefits of selling any current school property (Ira Allen and Taft)

We know that many people have very positive ideas that could fit into the above. We are very concerned that the current proposal alienates parents while selling district property that will result in a net short-term cost to the district.

We are holding a press conference at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22 at Barnes to share the above concerns and principles. We will then be meeting at 4 p.m. to walk from Barnes to Ira Allen for the 5 p.m School Board meeting (1.5 miles—a shorter distance than Barnes to Champlain Elementary).

2nd grade classes visit JDK design studio

More about this trip on the "vlog" it's from, Stuck In Vermont