The big news this year was that Montpelier High School was one of the top five hundred five high schools among over eighteen thousand in a national study. Standard & Poor’s (who conducted the study for US News & World Report) ranked Montpelier a “Silver” school (placing somewhere from101^st to 505^th) for its overall performance on state assessments, the performance of disadvantaged youth on those assessments, and the number and success rate of students taking advanced placement courses.

This achievement is an example of the excellence that Montpelier students exhibit and we are proud of the accomplishment – especially because it includes the performance of disadvantaged youth. And we celebrate the contribution of each of our schools and staff members. But we are not satisfied. In order to be a truly successful school, we must ensure that every child learns – and learns how to learn. Whether students are headed to school or to work after high school, we know that in order to be successful they will need to continue to learn throughout life.

That’s why I’m so excited to see the breadth of accomplishments of our students. In academics, athletics, the arts, and civic participation, our students excel. We have a second grade published author, a state champion girls’ soccer team, several accomplished musicians in various genres, three middle school students selected to be pages for the legislature, a high school student serving as a US Senate page, a YouTube-famous group of rappers -- the list goes on and on. If engagement and performance enhance learning – and they do – then we are on the right track.

In addition, our students are learning through “real world” activities. One notable project was a second grade effort to create a Kid’s Guide to Montpelier, now on display at the Capitol Region Visitors’ Center, Kellogg Hubbard Library, and other venues in town. In another project, Montpelier High School AP Spanish students provided audio safety materials for the Vermont Farm Safety Pilot Program. This educational CD on farm safety will assist Vermont dairy producers to explain various safety rules and regulations involved in the dairy industry to their Spanish speaking migrant workers. By addressing actual needs in the community, projects like these motivate students and allow them to make concrete contributions. Best of all, their learning is enhanced!

At the time of this report, we are awaiting the results of this fall’s statewide assessments. But, more important than one year’s results is the capacity of the system to monitor learning throughout each year and make adjustments where necessary, with the goal of meeting the learning needs of all students. The faculty and administration continue developing a system to enable us to gauge each child’s progress on key learning objectives and to provide effective interventions when learning lags. We have recently selected a software program that will allow us to use our own defined objectives. There are challenges – one being to find the right balance between the time we spend collecting data and the time we spend analyzing and acting on what it tells us. A second is to find the time to do this important work. However, we are enthusiastic about this work. Our goal is to do what the research tells us increases student achievement – enable teams of teachers to meet regularly to monitor and discuss student learning.

The proposed budget for 08-09 reflects some difficult decisions, mostly related to our declining enrollment. The budget increase is 2.76%, resulting in an increase in spending per equalized pupil of 6.00%. Montpelier has been budgeting to the latter figure over the last several years. As a result, Montpelier’s per pupil spending has dropped from a rank of 56th of 242 towns in fiscal year 2003 to 140^th in fiscal year 2008. The following pages offer more detailed information; please do not hesitate to call me if you have questions.