Superintendent Wendy Baker

Welcome Back 2024-2025

 

Dear ACSD Families & Students,

We are so excited to welcome you back to the 2024-2025 school year! 

Today, MUMS welcomed 6th graders, MUHS welcomed 9th graders, and our elementary schools - Bridport, Cornwall, Mary Hogan, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham, and Weybridge - have been hosting welcome back events to help our youngest students feel comfortable and connected to their school. 

If you are entering a new school this year, I hope some of your nervousness is melting away as you get to know your school community. Like many of you, I am also new to ACSD, but over the last few months I have felt welcomed by our Board, staff, and families. This summer, I have had the chance to work closely with our leadership team. It has been a joy for me to watch them plan and investigate new ways to help everyone feel noticed, important, and needed as this school year begins.  

This past week, we invited every licensed and non-licensed educator and operational staff member in the district to join together to celebrate with each other and began to envision the year ahead. We also began important conversations about how best to realize our Strategic Plan goals.  We began conversations to advance our anti-bias efforts, connected and collaborated around streamlining all levels of student support, and dove into PreK-12 instructional work that will move the needle to improve outcomes for all students. 

As I continue to get to know the 5000+ students, family members, employees, and Board members who make up our ACSD community, it is my goal to ensure that each of us has the opportunity to make an important contribution. I especially look forward to the year’s upcoming opportunities to connect with our students. As the school year begins, I anticipate seeking your partnership in a few new ways as we expand our ability to operationalize our commitment to equity.  Please don’t hesitate to invite me to join community meetings as the year progresses. Your enthusiasm for the bright future of our students is contagious. 

Wishing you a wonderful academic year,

Wendy K Baker, Ed.D.
ACSD Superintendent

 

PowerSchool Data Breach Notification
January 20, 2025

Dear ACSD Community,

When I last wrote to you about the December 28, 2024 PowerSchool cybersecurity incident, we had learned that ACSD was not affected by the primary source of breach in PowerSchool’s data compromise. On Friday, January 17th, ACSD discovered that we have been impacted by a secondary source of breach. 

We have traced the unauthorized access to the PowerSchool customer support portal that was used to provide assistance within a training database. Through this portal, the unauthorized party gained access to ACSD student and employee demographic data from the 2023-24 school year. The training database was held on a separate server, outside of our main system.

The Agency of Education is actively working with PowerSchool to determine the next steps. PowerSchool is handling notifications to all impacted parties and required regulators, including ensuring that credit and identity monitoring services are offered when applicable. If your information was compromised, PowerSchool will be in touch with reparative action. Our district intends to remain actively involved in this process to ensure it is completed thoroughly. We are maintaining regular contact with PowerSchool, the Agency of Education, and other impacted school districts. 

We understand that the situation is concerning on many levels. We share the concern, and we will continue to keep you informed as we learn more. 

Sincerely,

Wendy Baker
ACSD Superintendent

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Nationwide Cybersecurity Breach
Friday January 10 10:29AM
Dear ACSD Community, 

We’re writing to let you know about a recent cybersecurity breach of PowerSchool, the company that provides our student information system. This security breach affected schools across Vermont and nationwide. At this time, we do not believe ACSD was impacted. However, in matters of cyber security, we don’t ever want to assume a position of over confidence. Our District Tech Team attends to cybersecurity challenges routinely. In this case, it appears that some of the proactive strategies they have taken helped to significantly limit our exposure.

We know that PowerSchool engaged its cybersecurity response protocols and, after an initial investigation, they reported that they are confident that the incident has been contained and that the data will not be publicly available. We also conducted an internal audit that revealed that no student or teacher data was accessed by this breach. 

In addition to the PowerSchool breach, you may have heard that Addison Northwest School District also experienced a separate security breach that impacted their local servers. This incident is unrelated to our District's security. 

We will continue to monitor both situations and share any additional relevant information.

Thank you, 
Wendy Baker, Superintendent

The Addison Independent and state press are actively covering updates to the Governor’s proposal. Our ACSD School Board members and our district team are involved in ensuring the interests of ACSD are represented to the extent possible. The power to make sweeping changes to all Vermont school districts lies solely and completely with the legislature. We encourage you to contact your legislators with questions and input. 

January 22, 2024 Legislative Address

An excerpt from an email titled "State and Federal Policy Implementation updates sent by Superintendent Baker on January 29, 2025

Federal guidelines that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from carrying out immigration enforcement in "sensitive locations" such as schools, hospitals, and churches has been rescinded. ACSD has existing protocols in place that prevent any law enforcement activity in school sites or on school grounds that does not have a warrant. We are working collaboratively with other school districts within the Champlain Valley region to monitor any ICE presence within the region as new federal orders take place. We are committed to protecting our students’ rights and creating a welcoming and inclusive environment free of barriers to education for each student. 

An excerpt from an email titled "State and Federal Policy Implementation updates sent by Superintendent Baker on January 29, 2025
 

The current administration has issued a pause on federal grants and loans beginning January 28th; as of yesterday, this action has been halted by court action. We have been told by the Vermont Secretary of Education that this will not impact our current federal formula allocations. Our universal lunch program is funded by state funds and we have no reason to believe it will be impacted. Although we recognize that we may be impacted in the future, for the time being, we are most concerned for our nonprofit partners who provide crucial supports to our students and families. We encourage you to reach out to local nonprofits that serve our community to offer your support to them. 

An excerpt from an email titled "State and Federal Policy Implementation updates sent by Superintendent Baker on January 29, 2025
 

It is a priority for ACSD to ensure that our LGBTQ+ community feels welcomed, valued, and supported. The current administration’s “Defending Women" Executive Order asserts that, "As the policy of the United States," only 'two sexes' will be recognized," Executive orders that conflict with federal or state law are not readily enforceable. All applicable state and federal laws, providing recognition of LGBTQ+ status and protection from harassment and discrimination remain in place and will continue to be fully implemented within our schools. 

Dear Families, 

We are writing to parents of children who will be in kindergarten or first grade for the 2025-26 school year to ask if you would be interested in having your child enroll in a K/1 classroom within Ripton Elementary School.

The ACSD Board recently revised policy D6 to allow the superintendent to invite families in our other ACSD towns to attend an under enrolled K-5 class should we have one. Ripton Elementary School currently has openings within its K/1 classroom. Expressing your interest and asking questions does not bind you to attend Ripton Elementary. 

We would be happy to talk about support that might make this opportunity possible if you feel it might be a good fit for your child.  If you want more information about this potential option, you can do so in one of three ways by March 3, 2025: 

• Contact Darcie Arensmeyer at darensmeyer@acsdvt.org 802-388-1274, or 

• Contact the principal at your local elementary school or 

• Contact our Universal PreK Coordinator, Ashley Bessette, at abessette@acsdvt.org 

We hope to finalize enrollment at Ripton Elementary School prior to March 24, 2025. You can read the full D6 Class size policy here. Please reach out with any questions.

Warm regards, 

Wendy Baker, EdD
Superintendent