Dothan Brook School
Grade Levels: Pre-Kindergarten-Grade 5
Student Population: 254
Average Class Size (K-5): 19
Number of Classes: 2 (Pre-K) & 12 (K-5)
Website: DBSVT.com
Facebook: Dothan Brook School
Principal: Rick Dustin-Eichler
The Dothan Brook School’s community of students, staff, and families is committed to providing a physically and emotionally safe learning environment, fostering academic, social, and emotional growth, and nurturing a sense of belonging in all its members.
In July 2016, the Dothan Brook School was honored by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) as a Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) and School of Distinction. The RAMP recognition was presented to DBS for its exemplary commitment to the delivery of a comprehensive school counseling program. Through this process, the school was selected as one of five Schools of Distinction for the entire nation. In addition, Rebecca Lallier, one of the DBS school counselors, was named as one of five finalists for the national school counselor of the year award. Dothan Brook’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) program was recognized as “Exemplar” by the Vermont Agency of Education in October and received a formal commendation from the state’s secretary of education. Dothan Brook was one of two Vermont schools to receive this award for five consecutive years. The basis of this accolade stems from the innovative work that the school is undertaking with the goal of increasing every child’s ability to learn.
Academically, when results from Vermont’s statewide assessment program (SBAC) were released in September, Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe shared that Dothan Brook had one of the highest percentages of students who receive free lunch and met or exceeded grade level standards. To support this statement, she shared the school’s 4th grade math results in which 75% of students who receive free lunch made the standard compared to 32% statewide. School-wide 64% of DBS free lunch students met or exceeded the standard in math compared to 34% state-wide. Go to the following link to learn more--www.mynbc5.com/article/what-new-vt-school-test-data-tells-us/3619148.
Building on this strong foundation, Dothan Brook students have access to a wide array of resources and experiences that nurture intellectual curiosity and growth. Many of these experiences are made possible through various partnerships: DBS Parent Teacher Organization’s support of numerous fieldtrips and activities; the White River Rotary’s financial contributions to the 5th grade biography fair; Growing Change, America Reads and Big Sibs from Dartmouth College; 4th grade Shakespeare in the Classroom program in conjunction with Northern Stage; and Berlin City Auto Group’s monetary contributions to the DBS Drama Club. In addition, the school is in its fourth year of collaboration with VINS to bring deep science content into the classrooms and 3rd year working with Think3D! to increase students’ spatial reasoning and problem solving through origami.
