Testing

continued from page 4 rolling.”

Chris Hennessey, superintendent of the Barre Unified Union School District, said he feared the hasty implementation of the test would put school administrators in a tricky position.

On one hand, Hennessey said, district officials could be forced to defend the use of standardized testing to parents who watched their kids struggle with the haphazard rollout of the assessments.

“You’ve got families who just don’t believe in standardized testing, and don’t feel comfortable with their kids taking them, for the very reasons that we’re seeing right now,” he said.

But on the other hand, he said, administrators might have to explain low test scores to school board members and the general public, who could see them as a sign of academic shortcomings.

“It’s a really tough situation,” he said.

In their April 11 letter, the educational organizations asked the state to “indicate to the public and the entire education community that this year should be regarded as an implementation pilot.”

In a memo the following day, interim Secretary of Education Heather Bouchey acknowledged frustrations with the testing rollout.

The state’s contracting process “was significantly held up in an extended, and unanticipated, process,” Bouchey wrote. “The Agency of Education (AOE) takes full responsibility for the associated delay in the Cognia rollout and its impact on the training timeline for the field.” crash, but those records were inconclusive.

Crash reconstruction experts from the Vermont State Police determined Lewis was traveling at the 45 mph speed limit. Tire marks show that he drifted about 3 feet into the bike lane, failing to exercise “due care” while passing Malavenda, according to the affidavit.

Vermont law requires that a motor vehicle passing a bicycle “shall exercise due care, which includes increasing clearance to a recommended distance of at least four feet, to pass the vulnerable user safely …”

Lewis has no prior criminal history.

In the last five years, there have been 32 fatal crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists in Vermont, according to data from the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

A bill introduced in the Vermont Senate in February (S.64) would require the agency to create or widen bike shoulders on state highways.

An Essex native, Malavenda had lived in Williston for about eight years. He was an avid cyclist and member of the Green Mountain Bicycling Club. The Community News Service contributed to this report

Williston’s Community Newspaper Since 1985 www.willistonobserver.com

ADVERTISING

Rick Cote, Associate Publisher rick@willistonobserver.com

802-373-2136

EDITOR

Jason Starr editor@willistonobserver.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN

Jan Kenney jan@willistonobserver.com

PUBLISHER

Susan T. Cote susan@willistonobserver.com

BILLING INQUIRIES

Michael McCaffrey office@willistonobserver.com

MEMBER: