First magnet schools to open in fall

Print More

(Host)  Vermont’s first magnet schools will open this fall. Two Burlington elementary schools will re-open as district-wide magnet schools — one with an emphasis on arts, and the other focusing on sustainability.

The schools will remain public, but will no longer be considered neighborhood schools. Instead, they’ll accept applications from children throughout Burlington’s school district.

Paula Bowen is the principal at Lawrence Barnes Elementary, which will become the Lawrence Barnes Sustainability Academy. Bowen says the students will continue to study core subjects, but in a different way.

(Bowen) "The way I like to describe it is that the concepts and the big ideas of sustainability are like a lens through which you view the rest of the curriculum. So kids are still learning to read, write and do math, but we just use the big ideas of sustainability – change over time, community, cycle – as a lens through which kids explore those concepts."

(Host) Just a few blocks over, the H.O. Wheeler School will become a magnet school with a focus on the arts.

The idea to start magnet schools in Burlington’s Old North End began in 2006 when a task force concluded that socio-economic integration was lacking in the city’s schools. Bringing together children from different neighborhoods and backgrounds is one of the goals of the magnet program.

Magnet programs began in other states in the 1960s.  But Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca says Vermont hasn’t had any magnet programs, largely due to geography, transportation issues and low population density. Though he says the state has the potential to develop more magnet school programs.

(Vilaseca) ""I think with a little more research and studies, we could take this concept that Burlington is leading the way on and expand it to other parts of the state."   

(Host)  The attendance zones for the two Burlington schools will eventually be re-drawn so that students who would have attended Lawrence Barnes or H.O. Wheeler will attend other district schools. Critics say that creates transportation problems for those families, in addition to the community’s loss of a neighborhood school.

Comments are closed.