Quantifying classroom screen time

Administrators commit to studying school tech use

BY JASON STARR Observer staff

Would you like to know how much time your kid spends online while at school?

The Champlain Valley School District would, too.

School administrators made a first attempt this year to create a screen time log across a sampling of K-8 classrooms. In kindergarten through fourth grade, teachers were asked to report total screen time during the day; in middle school classrooms, students were asked to

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self-report.

Screen time was defined to include when each student was using their own device and when a classroom used a digital tool together, like when a video was projected to the group or when a special guest Zoomed in by video-conference.

Bonnie Birdsall, the district’s director of digital learning, said she is keeping the results private for now but offered that total time online “is actually less than we thought.”

“It’s not really conclusive,” she said. “It’s something we are

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definitely committed to further exploring and are looking at other ways we can gather that data without putting it on people to self-assess.”

Administrators hope to eventually have accurate screen time accounting across all grades.

“An important element of this is … are (teachers) aware of what’s happening in each other’s classes to get a sense of, cumulatively, what does that look like during a day for a student,” said Birdsall. “Those are the kinds of questions we’re asking and try

Sivo reported to the school board in May that absences among staff have hit an all-time high this school year with an average of about 1,100 a month. At the same time — likely both a cause and an effect of the staff absences — instances of problematic student behavior (physical aggression, for example) are also higher than ever.

“We are in survival mode on a lot of days,” Sivo, the district’s first full-time director of behavior systems, told the board. “There are days where I look at the (staff) absences list and I’m like, ‘whoa. What are we going to do? How are we going to get through this day?’”

Staff absences first skyrocketed last school year, reaching a total of 12,578, nearly double pre-pandemic levels. Through April of this year, staff absences total nearly 11,000. The absences have led to daily shifting of staff responsibilities and increased substitute teaching, and it is layered on existing unfilled para-educator positions. The inconsistencies are weighing on the school environment and af- fecting student behavior, Sivo said.

“When the people who are supposed to be running the system are stressed, how do our students respond,” he asked. “If the adults are not well and they can’t take care of themselves, how can they take care of our kids?”

Incidents of problematic student behavior that rise to a certain level are “written up” in a report that goes to a school-wide information system (SWIS). The number of SWIS reports being filed is up about 22 percent from last school year, Sivo said. The most frequent category of problematic behavior in reported incidents is physical aggression, he added.

According to his report to the board, there have been an average of 25 such incidents each day through the district’s five K-8 schools this year. The total number of K-8 incidents through April of this year (3,942) already surpasses last year’s total of 3,709. During the pre-pandemic year of 2018-2019, the number of incidents was 3,213.

Sivo said teachers are reporting “behaviors they’ve never seen before.”

About 27 percent of the total student population has been written up at least once, he added.

“We are stuck in a reactive system where people are see TECH page 20 see STRESS page 20

Library exhibit features Ukrainian student art

Dad’s favorites available:

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A display at Williston’s Dorothy Alling Memorial Library through the end of June features art on the theme of peace created by students at the S. Vasylkivskyi Children’s Art School located in Izyum in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. The artwork comes to the library via the Fermata Foundation, which seeks to develop cultural exchanges between New England cities and former Soviet cities.

E-Bike lending library available through July

Local Motion’s Chittenden County Traveling E-Bike Lending Library will be in Williston from June 14 to the end of July. Borrowers will be able to check out an e-bike for five days from the Williston Town Hall Annex to explore how these bikes can replace car trips and transform daily transportation. The fleet includes a variety of bikes at different price points, including Radwagon, RadCity and Trek Verve+2, all with an electric assist that helps riders get around with less effort.

To reserve a bike visit https://www.localmotion.org/chittenden_county_traveling_lending_library

Contact Andrew Plumb at aplumb@ willistonvt.org or 802-878-6704 with any questions.

Celebrating sheep at Rokeby Sheep & Wool Day returns to Rokeby Museum on Saturday, June 17 from noon3 p.m. Sheep farming transformed the historic economy and landscape of Vermont in the early 1800s. At the time, the flock at Rokeby numbered 1,500.

This free and family-friendly event will feature sheep, spinning demonstrations with The Burroughs Garret, printing demonstrations with A Revolutionary Press, wool products from Hands & Heart Farm, an instrument ’petting zoo’ with Young Tradition Vermont, crafts and lawn games, children’s history talks and a story walk on the Green Trail.

Rokeby Museum is located on Route 7 in Ferrisburgh. For more information visit https://rokeby.org/.

American Pickers calls for Vermont treasures

The ‘American Pickers’ return to Vermont in August to film episodes of The History Channel television series. The documentary-style series follows skilled “pickers” as they hunt for America’s most valuable antiques with a mission to recycle and rescue forgotten historically significant objects while learning about people, their stories and American folk history.

If you or someone you know has a unique item or story to tell, and is ready to sell, email americanpickers@cineflix. com or call (646) 493-2184.