From the Desk of Gerry St. Amand

Dear Families and Colleagues,

The first week of school has flown by, with students at both buildings contributing to the creation of our “school-wide” building rules, which will be shared with the entire school community early next week. Special thanks to all of our classroom teachers, their students, and the grade level representatives who helped us to create and finalize these important rules that will guide our behavior in all large group settings, such as: the playground, lunchroom, hallways, and bus lines. Individual classroom rules have also been created by teachers and their students. Those classroom rules will be implemented in classroom settings.

Assessments in reading and mathematics are being administered to students across all grade levels to help us determine groupings in reading and mathematics, to guide us in forming groups that will receive additional, tiered interventions outside of the classroom, and to provide us with information specific to the delivery of instruction. Families will be notified if their children are being recommended for any additional services beyond what the classroom teacher will be providing. Should you have any specific questions about your student, please communicate first with your child’s classroom teacher to discuss the situation.

Please remember that Open House nights will take place during the week of September 25th and that our Open House nights include all family members—children and adults are invited and encouraged to attend. In many instances, the Clark-Wilkins students will serve as guides for their families to meet all of the staff members with whom the children interact at school. Please check our web page for updated information about Open House night and future events.

All of our staff members participated in professional learning this past Tuesday, our late start day, with support staff spending time reviewing student plans and creating substitute folders. Teachers spent time in small and large groups reviewing samples of performance assessments that could be administered to students and in reviewing the calendar of professional learning opportunities that we will be targeting over the year. Christine Landwehrle, director of curriculum and professional development for SAU#39, led the “learning groups” with support from Kathleen Murphy, our associate assistant principal at Clark-Wilkins. Many families took advantage of the New Morning program during our “late start morning” and I want to remind families who have not yet registered their children for New Morning that you must re-register annually for your child to participate.

Enjoy the final weekend of summer!

St. Amand