Elementary School - Education For Live

December 4, 2021

The Recorder – Selectboard, supt. mull capital projects as Sunderland Elementary School repairs mount

SUNDERLAND — As the list of repairs and maintenance for Sunderland Elementary School increases, Superintendent Darius Modestow met with the Selectboard this week to begin discussions about how to address them.

The group came away from the discussion determining that the Union 38 School District and the town will need to cooperate to evaluate their methods of funding.

“We’re not solving this problem with the current setup and that’s my message tonight,” Modestow said. “The system in which we need to address these capital needs is broken right now. We’re not going to be able to address these needs in the current way we do things.”

Currently, the Union 38 School District’s budget does not include capital improvements. Meanwhile, Sunderland’s capital budget covers the entire town, but does not set aside any money specifically for the school. The discussion led to Selectboard Chair Tom Fydenkevez proposing that the district determine an annual maintenance cost so a designated capital fund can be created.

“To do it right, you have to identify how much you need per year to maintain the school,” Fydenkevez said to Modestow. “I like that idea. … It has to be used for capital expenditures. You’re designating money and it’s going to be used for that reason.”

Another option Modestow proposed was possibly taking out a joint loan with Sunderland if the town already has capital improvement ideas.

“I wanted to bring it to your attention because I’m wondering if the town has other facility projects … that it wants to group together and possibly do a loan,” Modestow said. “I wanted to put it on your radar because it’s getting to a scope that’s a little bit bigger than the School Committee alone can handle and we’re going to have to work together.”

Modestow highlighted the need to replace glycol in the sprinklers, a non-functioning intercom and a dishwasher that constantly breaks down as the immediate needs for the school, but said much larger projects such as window replacements and the installation of air conditioning in the gym are on the horizon. Modestow anticipates the list “will keep getting longer.”

Fydenkevez said a loan is not out of the question because Sunderland doesn’t “have a lot of debt in town right now.” He said residents could be persuaded to take on a loan or designate money if the school can clearly identify what projects need to be addressed.

“We’ve retired a lot of our debt over the past few years. We have the capacity to talk to the citizens of our town and say, ‘Hey look, this is gonna set the school up for another 15, 20 years,’” Fydenkevez said. He added that compiling a list of repairs would be more persuasive than “coming back every year and asking for another $50,000 for this or $30,000 for this” because “it’s much harder than trying to do this stuff all together.”

Modestow later told the Greenfield Recorder the meeting was productive in laying out the particular challenges Sunderland Elementary School is facing.

“It was the first step to start the conversation to make them aware of what the elementary school’s needs are,” Modestow said by phone. “As the building ages, we start to get more and more higher-priced repairs.”

He said Sunderland Elementary is at the age where a full renovation isn’t necessary, but significant repairs are starting to add up. He noted the three other elementary schools in the Union 38 School District are not seeing a growing list of repairs “to the same degree” because they are made of brick.

“Their buildings are made of brick and this is made of wood,” Modestow said. “That’s the honest truth.”

He clarified his statements from Monday’s meeting about the “broken” system for addressing capital improvements and said the system is “broken for the amount of repairs we have at this time.”

“We don’t have capital as part of the elementary budget. … We’ve been going to the town and that list is getting big enough,” Modestow said, “that we’re not going to get things done at an appropriate pace.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at [email protected] or 413-930-4081.

December 3, 2021

Summerlake Elementary School raises over $11,000 for local non-profit | West Orange Times & Observer

Summerlake Elementary School raises over ,000 for local non-profit | West Orange Times & Observer

One Orange County Public School is going above and beyond its goals to help those in need.

Summerlake Elementary School recently raised over $11,000 for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida through its virtual food drive.

Second Harvest is a a private, non-profit organization that collects, stores and distributes donated food to more than 550 feeding partners in six Central Florida counties.

Summerlake Elementary School PTO Vice President Veronica Solarz said the virtual food drive began last year due to COVID-19 restrictions where volunteers could not be on campus.

“We didn’t want a food collection falling on the teachers and staff that were already going above and beyond the call of duty during the first few months of school,” Solarz said. “Especially being a brand new school last year. So I started looking for different options and found that Second Harvest offered a virtual option and I loved it.”

Solarz said even with so many of the students being virtual last year, the event was a hit.

This year, the food drive ran for a total of six days.

The original goal of $2,500 was met in less than one day. The school quickly expanded its efforts, setting a new goal of $10,000 which was still surpassed.

The school helped to provide over 43,508 meals for those in need.

Solarz said she had the opportunity to speak with the students during lunch about the drive. She let them know why they were taking part in the drive, how $1 provided 4 meals and why it’s important to be a good neighbor to those in need.

“The older students were even figuring out how many meals we had provided when I told them the amount we had raised so far,” Solarz said. “They were so excited knowing they were making such a huge impact on our community.”

Mrs. Crispell’s 1st grade class won the prize for the most donations during the food drive. The PTO Vice President said they are planning to do a pizza picnic with the school’s mascot for the kids as well as supplying them with hand-made Great Neighbor Gator certificate’s to show appreciation.

“These kids….they are simply amazing,” Solarz said. “But to be honest, the kids at this school always do amazing things. I collect items to be recycled through TerraCycle every month and we’ve collected over 9000 items already. They donated leftover Halloween candy to the troops and I brought 241 pounds home to be packaged up. They donated costumes to Give Kids the World. And we have so much more planned this year.”

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December 2, 2021

Essex Elementary School Students Break the Code

By
Elizabeth Reinhart/Zip06.com

•
12/01/2021 09:34 a.m. EST

When a child first starts learning to read, decodable texts can be an important tool. These texts provide them more practice in decoding, or sounding out, certain phonics patterns, or words, in the context of a story that they find interesting.

To supplement the Essex Elementary School (EES) collection of these types of texts, the Essex Elementary School Foundation (EESF) provided an $8,600 grant for the 2021–’22 school year for the purchase of new Geodes Decodable Texts that are now being used as part of K-2 instruction.

“Just yesterday I had the pleasure of observing a group of students reading one of the books,” said EES Principal Jennifer Tousignant in a phone interview. “They were actively engaged and genuinely excited to enjoy their new books.”

Tousignant said the books feature a variety of genres and are a mix of fiction and non-fiction.

“The illustrations in these particular books are bright and the story lines are far more interesting than decodables of the past,” said Tousignant. “Decodable readers have certainly come a long way.”

The texts are aligned with and complement the school’s reading curriculum, which is called the Wilson Fundations foundational reading program.

Tousignant said that the phonics and decoding skills taught through the school’s reading program are reinforced with decodable readers.

“Students can use and practice the skills that they were taught and that they learned,” with the decodable readers, said Tousignant.

Decodable texts are often used along with leveled readers.

“Leveled readers are characterized and categorized by level of difficulty,” said Tousignant. “They are more focused on meaning…and contain many sight words.

“So, there are benefits to both and both serve a valuable purpose. Teachers use multiple tools to support and differentiate literacy instruction to meet the needs of our students,” she continued.

Funding for the decodable readers was allocated to the school by EESF prior to the start of the current school year.

“The EESF is really neat, and I feel so fortunate to work with them,” said Tousignant.

She noted that Early Literacy Teacher Colleen Artymiak and Kindergarten Teacher Kelli Grace submitted the formal grant proposal to the foundation.

“Colleen and Kelly were interested in these books, and they came to me,” said Tousignant. “I feel like we could never have too many books and kids get very excited about new books…I fully supported it.”

The Geodes decodable texts were chosen based on their “systematic scope and sequence, which will allow our students to practice the phonics skills that have been explicitly taught in our phonics lessons,” said Artymiak in an email. “Geodes will scaffold children’s mastery and application of the alphabetic code in reading.”

According to a press release, EESF provided $50,000 in grants and program support to EES this school year.

In addition to the decodable texts, the funds support a collaboration with the Essex Historical Society for a Historian in Residence Program, a Summer Math Passport Program, and a Scientist in Residence Program offered by the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center.

Other continued grants and programs include Bloom Art instruction, Lego Engineering and 3D Printing Makerspace afterschool programs. Another new program for the 2021–’22 school year is a collaboration with the Connecticut River Museum “to increase students’ knowledge of their town and connection to the Connecticut River,” according to the press release.

The foundation is also working to develop a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) lab for students and teachers, for the 2022–’23 school year.

“We are thrilled to bring back some favorite learning opportunities in addition to some new collaborations with our local community organizations,” EESF President Bill Jacaruso stated in the press release. “We are grateful for the generous support from our local parents and community members to make these programs possible.”

December 1, 2021

Giving Tuesday on full display at Middletown elementary school

Keilani Lopez and Adele White spent this Giving Tuesday organizing food at Middletown’s Creekview Elementary School. Keilani and Adele are fourth graders who are helping to make a difference in their community.They know with each box of food that was donated and every can placed on a shelf, a Middletown family’s life gets a little easier.”I did not think that there’s going to be that much,” Keilani said as she looked at the donations.Adele said, “I didn’t know all that food was in there.” Even after handing out dozens of meals fr Thanksgiving, there was a lot left over from the school’s food drive, which was a little different this year.”We just wanted to not make anybody feel pressured to extend themselves in a way that would have been maybe hard,” said Brea Greer, an art teacher at Creekview. So, rather than asking families to donate, as they did in years past, teachers asked students to write letters to local businesses and churches.”We wrote letters saying what they can give to us and what we need, basically,” Keilani said. The response was overwhelming.”It was super exciting. It filled our office, our front office into the conference room, down the hallway,” said Allison Drake, a fourth-grade teacher. “I think it kind of helped lift our spirits during a crazy time of the holidays.””It just became clear that people in the community wanted to be connected and wanted to help out with the schools but didn’t know how,” Greer said. “We had so many donations, we were able to open it up to anybody in our school.” A counseling office has now turned into a mini food pantry that will help to feed families and souls.”It makes me feel happy,” Keilani said.Creekview is still accepting donations of food, hygiene items and gif cards. Anyone wishing to make a donation is asked to call the school directly.

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio —

They know with each box of food that was donated and every can placed on a shelf, a Middletown family’s life gets a little easier.

“I did not think that there’s going to be that much,” Keilani said as she looked at the donations.

Adele said, “I didn’t know all that food was in there.”

Even after handing out dozens of meals fr Thanksgiving, there was a lot left over from the school’s food drive, which was a little different this year.

“We just wanted to not make anybody feel pressured to extend themselves in a way that would have been maybe hard,” said Brea Greer, an art teacher at Creekview.

So, rather than asking families to donate, as they did in years past, teachers asked students to write letters to local businesses and churches.

“We wrote letters saying what they can give to us and what we need, basically,” Keilani said.

The response was overwhelming.

“It was super exciting. It filled our office, our front office into the conference room, down the hallway,” said Allison Drake, a fourth-grade teacher. “I think it kind of helped lift our spirits during a crazy time of the holidays.”

“It just became clear that people in the community wanted to be connected and wanted to help out with the schools but didn’t know how,” Greer said. “We had so many donations, we were able to open it up to anybody in our school.”

A counseling office has now turned into a mini food pantry that will help to feed families and souls.

“It makes me feel happy,” Keilani said.

Creekview is still accepting donations of food, hygiene items and gif cards. Anyone wishing to make a donation is asked to call the school directly.

November 30, 2021

Sixth graders will remain in Kent elementary schools for now

Any changes to Kent School District boundaries and moving sixth graders to middle schools from elementary schools won’t happen until at least the 2023-2024 school year.

District staff recommended waiting to make a decision, and the Kent School Board agreed.

“We want to be certain you guys are comfortable moving this direction of sixth grade in middle school, clear feeder patterns and to balance out elementary enrollments is where we want to be going,” said Randy Heath, district interim chief of school operations and academic support, during a November presentation to the board.

Heath said staff knows the planning work and making decisions will take time.

“The more we looked at it and to do it in a purposeful way with the community engaged in the work, 2023-2024 would be an appropriate time,” Heath said at the Nov. 10 board meeting.

That plan worked for the five-member board.

“I appreciate the time extension,” Director Joe Bento said. “It was going to be for next school year, so I thank you for that.”

Board members emphasized they want to be sure to involve community residents in the decisions about where to draw school boundaries, feeder patterns and whether sixth graders should be moved to middle schools.

“The last time we had these conversations my concern was equity among the voices heard,” Director Denise Daniels said. “We had pretty vocal parents that knew who to talk to. I’m not sure there was the opportunity for other neighborhoods that also were impacted. …We need all input, not just certain groups of parents. We need to hear from a multitude of neighborhoods.”

The district said in a statement that it will be convening subcommittees comprised of community members, parents, staff and administrators to conduct additional analysis and help create effective implementation plans. An application process will be identified for those interested in becoming a subcommittee member and a timeline established to move this work forward. The subcommittees will provide regular updates to the school board throughout this school year on the progress of its objectives.

The board in February approved boundary changes for certain schools to feed students into the new River Ridge Elementary that opened in August on the West Hill in the city of SeaTac.

But the board decided earlier this year against voting on other changes recommended by MGT Consulting Group that would move sixth grade into middle schools, reopen the former Kent Phoenix Academy (previously Sequoia Middle School) as a new middle school, aligning school feeder patterns and adjusting school boundaries to help balance enrollment districtwide.

Heath told the board a number of reasons support moving sixth graders to middle school.

“It’s the most appropriate placement of sixth graders academically and socially,” Heath said.

He said state guideline standards favor dividing students into the sixth through eighth grades. He said it gives students a chance to have three years of lab science to better prepare them and that most elementary schools do no have labs. It also gives students increased opportunities for academic acceleration and electives.

“Instead of math at the sixth grade level they can take a higher math level,” Heath said. “They have more electives at middle schools, which could be band or choir.”

The clear feeder patterns are an effort to keep more students together through elementary, middle and high school. Right now, 80{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of students at one middle school might go to the same high school but another 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} are sent elsewhere.

“Students and families want to travel with peers to new schools,” Heath said.

The change in elementary school boundaries would help reduce overcrowding at certain schools and curtail the use of portables.

“We won’t make every school 450 students but we can keep within capacity of the school and allow us to make decisions on needs of students in programs and not where we have physical space,” Heath said.

The district plans to hold meetings in neighborhoods that would be impacted by any changes.

Despite pushing out changes to the 2023-2024 school year, Heath said it’s still going to be important to hit deadlines.

“We will come back to the board and share recommendations by fall of 2022,” he said. “We will need decisions by September or October of next year to implement changes for the following school year.”

Questions

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November 29, 2021

Stafford Elementary School students complete kindness-based fundraiser

From Stafford County Schools:

Students at Stafford Elementary School (SES) recently completed a two-week, kindness-focused fundraising campaign named Raise Craze. During the fundraiser, students showed their appreciation to donors by completing Acts of Kindness for others. At the end of the campaign, the students completed more than 630 acts of kindness and raised more than $16,000.

“Students completed a variety of kindness acts, from picking up trash in their community to writing special letters to teachers at Stafford Elementary School. Some students even made blessing bags for the homeless,” said SES Principal Stefanie Sanders. “In addition to individual acts of kindness, the school hosted a community Chalk the Walk at the school to spread kindness messages and art.”

During the campaign, students signed their name on various sea life and applied it to the Dolphin Kindness Wall after completing an act of kindness. “Kindness is an important part of good citizenship, and we all can learn a lesson from these students about supporting one another with kindness,” said Dr. Stanley B. Jones, SCPS Interim Superintendent. “Every small act leaves a ripple of joy in the community. I encourage all of us to go out and do something nice for someone today. You never know how large an impact one small act, such as a letter of support to a child’s teacher, will make.”

As the culmination of the campaign, school administrators, with the support of the SES PTA, created a surprise Magical Celebration day on Friday, November 19. With support from the SES PTA, each grade level hallway was immersed in a different Disney movie theme. Teachers, administrators, counselors, and staff dressed as characters from the movie, enhancing the magic. “We wanted a fundraiser that meant something. The kids were so excited to complete their acts of kindness and see how being kind can make a BIG difference,” said Kathleen Meade, Stafford Elementary PTA President.

The students also were surprised with two kindness assemblies. The Stafford County Sheriff’s Department provided several displays from the special operations unit which included the SWAT Team, the K9 Unit, and the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Team. Guest speaker Lieutenant Diggs delivered an inspiring message addressing the importance of kindness. Stafford County Fire House 4 conducted the second assembly, providing a 100-foot fire truck. The students watched as Mrs. Sanders and Mrs. Hardman, the school administrators, were raised into the air above them to read “Be Kind” by Pat Zietlow Miller.

“These two organizations are a large part of our community,” said Sanders. “They have always done kind things for us, so having them deliver a message about kindness was very powerful for our students. We hope our students remember how everything begins with just one small act, and that the message of kindness resonates with them all year.”

Photos courtesy Stafford County Schools