Moretown Monday Update - August 31, 2015

Hello Moretown School Families,

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Hard to believe that the first week of school is over!  Let us know how things are going and if there is any way we can help with you family's transition to the new school year.

Here are some important notes for this coming school week.

1.  Reminder:  PTN sponsored Ice Cream Social tomorrow evening - beginning at 6:00pm.  Ice cream will be served out of the cafeteria window.  Come and enjoy meeting families and students as we start this school year.  We will have information regarding our PTN meetings and events.   (Students must be accompanied by an adult for this event)

2.  The Lunch menu for September will be published as soon as we receive it from the Harwood Food Service.

3.  No school on Friday September 4th.  This is our first WWSU inservice - the speaker and workshops for teachers will be lead by Katie Novak.

About our Featured Presenter

Katie Novak, Ed.D
Is the Assistant Superintendent of the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District. With 13 years of experience in teaching and administration and an earned doctorate in curriculum and teaching, Katie designs and presents workshops both nationally and internationally focusing on teacher implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), MTSS, and the Common Core. 

Some professional highlights are below.

• Author of best-selling book on inclusive education, 
• UDL Now! A Teacher’s Monday Morning Guide to Common Core Implementation using Universal Design for Learning, and UDL in the Cloud (September, 2015), published by CAST Professional Publications.
• Earned Ed.D. from Boston University in Curriculum and Instruction, K-12.
• Selected by the Teaching Channel to be featured in a series of videos about teacher excellence in implementing the Common Core.
• Member of CAST’s Professional Cadre which is a premiere group that represents the broadest range of talent available for providing professional development in UDL
• Teach graduate level courses focused on UDL, Mastering the Art of Writing, and Common Core implementation. Exemplary evaluations in all courses.

Moretown School Update - August 28, 2015

August 28, 2015 School Update

Hello Moretown School Families,

Not long ago (four years to be exact) on this day our school and the greater community of Moretown experienced the wrath of Tropical Storm Irene.  It was an event that will continue to be present with as a reminder of how important the word "community"  is.  During that time we pulled together as a community to keep our school going and our shared spirit strong and alive.  It is that enduring spiritof connectedness and hope that continues this week as we welcome our students to the 2015-2016 school year.    We hope that your first days ofMoretown helped your children feel like they are a part of a greater learning community.  We hope your  stories from your children were filled with excitement, some relief and hopeful anticipation that this school year will hold opportunities for them to grow as individuals and as a connected community.  Thank you for sharing them with us!


A few notes about our school's Responsive Classroom initiative.

Responsive Classroom... 

The Moretown School is on its way to utilizing a Responsive Classroom School approach to create a positive environment for all members of our community. Responsive Classroom is a research-based approach to education that is associated with greater teacher effectiveness, higher student achievement, and improved school climate. One element of RC that we would like to share with you is Morning Meeting.

What Is Morning Meeting?  

Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. Each morning, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful components:

1. Greeting Students and teachers greet one another by name and practice offering hospitality.

2. Sharing Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions.

3. Group Activity Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion and helps students practice social and academic skills (for example, reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game that reinforces social or academic skills).

4. Morning Message Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The message is crafted to help students focus on the work they'll do in school that day.

What are Buddy Classrooms? 

We have started to utilize a buddy classroom system where staff partner with other staff to assist work together to help students learn about themselves and how their actions effect others. Teachers worked together to set up this system to support a positive and healthy school climate. Here is a blurb from the Responsive Classroom Website;

“Buddy teacher time-out can stop a negative cycle of behavior,” says Gail Sperling, first and third grade teacher at Yavneh Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Some children continue to be stimulated by the other students in the room when they’re in time-out, even if the teacher has taught children to focus only on themselves during this time,” she says. “A change of scenery can help those children settle down.” Other children might continue to act out with regular time-out as a way of testing the system. In these cases, says Gail, buddy teacher time-out shows them that the expectations for behavior are firm.

Another important benefit of buddy teacher time-out is that it allows the teacher to continue working with the class. With the buddy teacher taking care of the child for the moment, the teacher can continue with the lesson as planned. This shows the child and the rest of the class that disruptive behavior isn’t going to cause issues for learning.  

Finally, buddy teacher time-out can help the teacher stay calm as well. “When you’re at the end of your rope,” says Gail, “having a buddy take the child gives you some distance.” Later, when the teacher and child are both calmer, they can talk more constructively about the incident. (The Responsive Classroom) 

First Day Pictures

Important school notes

1.  Notes from the Bus Barn 

Moretown Bus Changes - (Note no AM Route changes)

PM Bus #19 and #20

 Overview: 

1) All of Jones Brook and River Road students (MES and Harwood) in the PM ONLY will ride Bus #20.  Bus #19 has been doing Jones Brook and River Road and will no longer do this.

Please check Bus Route Changes by clicking below to view updated routes

http://www.wwsu.org/bus-routes.php

With these changes, Bus #19 is estimated to be completed at 3:15PM and Bus #20 (River Road/Jones Brook) will be empty at 3:30PM; a significant improvement.  We will be monitoring the route times next week to see if additional changes needed.

2.  Picture Day Scheduled 

for the Moretown School is scheduled for October 15, 2015.  We will once again utilize Ember Photography.  More information to follow. 

3.  Taking Pictures at School 

We are very happy for parents to take pictures of their children's experiences at our school.  Please be mindful that there are families who have asked that their children not be photographed at school and that they do not want any photographs placed on the internet.  Thanks for remembering this.  

4.  Ice Cream Social Scheduled 

Our annual PTN ice cream social will be held on Tuesday evening, September 1st from 6 - 7pm.  Come on out to meet neighbors and friends to welcome in the new school year.  Ice cream social will be held in the cafeteria.  (We may use the cafeteria window system...) 

5.  School Board Meeting Change

The School Board Meeting for September has been changed from September 14 to the 21st. The Agenda will posted on our website and the school blog for review.  

 

First Day

Hello Moretown School Community,

We had an excellent first day with our students for the start of the 2015-2016 school year.  Thank you to our parents, grandparents, guardians and family members who helped with the "big" transition to a new school year.

We will continue to post updates about school events, learning opportunities, and important messages on our blog to keep you as up to date as possible.

Below is a quick video about what some of our students had to say about this school year.  We will continue to create posts like these to give you an idea of some of our experiences here at The Moretown School.

Have an excellent day

The Question:  What are you excited about this school year......

www.moretownschool.com 
(Final school year website updates will be completed by the end of the week)

Last Minute Notes  

Hello Moretown School Families,

The 15-16 school year begins tomorrow, August 26, 2015.  Here are a few last minute notes;

1.  The school day begins at 7:40am. Busses will arrive at the school around 7:30.  Students will be marked late after 7:45.  The Moretown School will offer an early morning drop off at 7:15 for parents/guardians who needs this service.  For Bus information please refer to the bus schedules in the above links for details.

2.  The school day ends at 2:30pm  for all students (both for students who take the bus and are picked up or walk home).  MECA begins at 2:30.    

3.  Our school nurses, (we have 2 part time nurses) will provide 80% coverage for the school year.   To accommodate this change,  school nurses will be here half days on Tuesday and Wednesday- both in the afternoon.  If you need to contact our school health office, please contact either dfennelly@wwsu.org  (Deirdre Fennelly or klu@wwsu.org (Kelly Lu) with questions or concerns.

4.  School staff will meet students near the front entrance, welcome everyone to our school and help guide students to the appropriate classrooms.  At this time, students will not wait in the cafeteria until the beginning of school at 7:40.

5.  The August lunch menu can be found on the link listed above.

We cannot wait to see everyone tomorrow!  

Have an Excellent Day

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. W.B. Yeats

Update from WWSU and a quick note about bussing

A note from WWSU 

On Tuesday, September 8th at HUHS in the auditorium, the local school boards of the Washington West Supervisory Union will have a first presentation on Act 46 or H.361. This is the new legislation that requires merger/consolidation of school districts  by July 1, 2019. The Executive Committee of the WWSU board decided to take a break over the summer and then move full throttle into the work immediately in late August and throughout the fall. The presentation will include an overview of the law, some cost models for Washington West based on what we know to date, and a Q & A. Nicole Mace, attorney and Executive Director of the Vermont School Boards Association, and Brad James, an accountant/finance officer for the Agency of Education, will present with Michelle Baker, WWSU CFO and Brigid Scheffert Nease, Superintendent of Schools. This event will be widely publicized. We are encouraging all community members, faculty, and media to join the boards and administration as we begin to fully understand the law and begin our very important work. 

The following evening, Wednesday, Sept. 9th, the WWSU Executive Committee will debrief the presentation, set a rigorous working schedule (additional meetings), change the bylaws to expand the membership for this work to include an additional representative from each school board, and begin serious work on the primary guiding question; should the WWSU go for the accelerated merger option: why or why not? A number of resources to study can be found on the Vermont Agency of Education and www.wwsu.org websites. This is a very important time to serve, with serious decisions-financial, governance and programmatic to be made, on behalf of many student generations to come and our taxpayers at large. As always, I look forward to working with you as we tackle these challenges and engage in problem solving. We are very lucky to have such wonderful people capacity and resources in the Washington West Supervisory Union! 

Please attend. Brigid Scheffert-Nease


*Please note that busing schedules indicate that students will leave our school at 2:30 each day. (this is a change from our summer update newsletter in July)   Bus schedules can be found on the WWSU website - (Link here:  http://www.wwsu.org/bus-routes.php) or through our school blog  - link is listed above.  

Moretown Inservice and August Menu

Staff members meeting in pairs sharing their thoughts about our Mindset book 

Hello Moretown School Families,

The Moretown Staff met for the first time this school year to prepare for the upcoming year.    During the two days of in-service, teachers focus time and energy into reviewing, adjusting and developing items/initiatives within the three areas of Climate, Curriculum and Communication of our school.  

*note:   To families that utilize multiple email and physical addresses as school contact information.   There may be an internal issue with our data system that we are addressing.  If you are aware of parents or guardians who have had issues with communications from our school with emails or addresses please let us know as soon as possible.  

The school menu for August:

August 25 - Grilled Cabot Cheese or Ham, Fresh Fruit and Veggies
August 26 - Turkey of Veggie and Bean Nachos, Cheese Sauce, Rice, fresh Tomato Cilantro Salsa,                          Fresh Fruit and Corn
August 27 - Buffalo Chicken, or Roasted Portobello Cheddar Sandwich, Pesto Pasta, Fresh Veggies,                       Fresh Fruit and Tossed Salad
August 28 - Pulled Pok Sandwich or BBQ tofu, Potato's, Cole Slaw, Fresh fruit and Tossed Salad
August 31 - Turkey or Veggie & Bean Tacos, Rice, Fresh Tomato Cilantro Salsa, Fresh Fruit, Corn

Menu's can be found on the link under the Blog heading or on our Website.   The school menu's can be found there beginning next week.

We are looking forward to starting our new school year next week!

Have an excellent day

One week to school's opening..

The countdown has begun... one week left.

Hello Moretown School Families, 

The school is almost ready for our 15-16 school year.  The floors are shiny,  and staff are busy with last minute  preparations of  their classrooms and instructional materials.    We spent many days this summer learning new ways to engage our school community with both hands on and minds on activities.   Also we spent time reading two books regarding how we can positively shape and influence learning at our school   We highly recommend  parents and guardians to spend some time reading these books this fall. We have copies of both in the library for loan.   We will take some time during our inservice this week to reflect upon our school practices as they relate to these very influential books and utilize what we learn from them to help us make adjustments to our school where/when needed.     The two texts are: 

Mindset "A new psychology of success by Carol S. Dweck

A  summary is linked here -http://alexvermeer.com/why-your-mindset-important/

The Power of Our Words by Paula Denton

A summary is linked here-http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept08/vol66/num01/The-Power-of-Our-Words.aspx

Let us know if you have any questions.  We can't wait to see your children next week!   

Have an excellent day!  

Reminder - School will be open tonight (Aug 17) from 6:30 - 7:30

Hello Moretown School Families,

Just a reminder that the school will be open tonight, August 17, from 6:30 - 7:30.  Duane Pierson will be available to answer questions and assist in any way to help with the first few days of school.

Here are some important school links that were listed on our welcome back email last week:

Important School Links:

To our Website:   www.moretownschool.com

Bussing: http://www.wwsu.org/bus-routes.php

Lunch Menus: Lunch Menu

School Blog: http://moretownschoolblog.blogspot.com/

Events Calendar Events Calendar 15-16

Bus Routes and Getting Ready for School Tips

**Bus Route Information

BUS ROUTE INFORMATION 15-16

**Here are some helpful tips with helping your child(ren) get ready for the school year...

1. Talk about school starting as a positive event – not a negative.
2. Have your child help pick out their own school supplies (backpacks, lunch box, pens, pencils, etc.)
3. Visit or revisit the school grounds so that your child feels comfortable in their school environment.
4. Start tailoring your schedule now so that it matches your school schedule.  Earlier bed times and earlier rise times.
5. Engage your child in discussion about the upcoming school year – what are they looking forward to, what are they scared of?
6. Make sure your child knows emergency contact information.  This will help your child and you both feel more secure.
7. Take advantage of any back to school open houses, tours, or parent-teacher meetings that the school offers.
8. Familiarize yourself and your child with their teacher’s name, school room location, school office, and locker location.
9. Discuss your child’s school schedule.  When do they start, when is lunch, when does school get out?
10. If your child takes the bus, visit the bus stop and make sure your child knows what time the bus picks up.
11. If you have any specific concerns regarding your child, contact the appropriate party and make your concerns known.  This could be the teacher, school nurse, school counselor, etc.
12. Start building up their confidence by revisiting topics that they were learning last year.
13. Encourage your child to work hard this school year by setting up a study schedule and quiet area for them to work in.
14. Label your child’s belongings.  Many kids will have the same backpacks, lunch boxes, etc.  Print your child’s name, use stickers, or even use a luggage tag to help them identify their stuff.
15. Have your child’s backpack and lunch prepared the night before to help the first day of school go as smoothly as possible.  Enclose a special note with their lunch so they know you are thinking of them.
16. Make sure you enjoy these last days of summer!!!

August 10, 2015 School Board Meeting Agenda

Moretown Board of School Directors

School Board Meeting

Monday August 10, 2015

6:00 pm School Library

Agenda

I.   (6:00) Call to Order

II.  (6:05) Approval of July 14th Meeting Minutes

III.  (6:10) Public Comment

IV.  (6:15) Principal Report

A.  Communication - New School Blog

B.  Curriculum - Professional Development overview for 15-16 school year

C.  Climate  

D.  Employment

V.  (6:50) Superintendent Report

VI. (7:15) Financial Update/Board Orders/Decision Items

           VII. (7:20) Washington West Exec. Committee

           VIII. (7:30) Other items that may require action

A.  OLD

B.  NEW

IX.  (7:50) Executive Session

X. (8:00) Adjournment