Dear HM Families,
I want to express my thanks to all of the staff, students and families who helped to make for a relatively smooth opening to school, despite the challenge of having to start day one in the dark! Since that first hour, we’ve been hard at work sharing summer stories, getting to know one another, developing routines, and easing into academics. We place a strong emphasis on talking about our school-wide beliefs, modeling appropriate behaviors, setting goals, and developing a sense of belonging. Here's a link to the book I shared at Assembly on Friday:http://www.slideshare.net/emilyjarvie/ci350-its-okay-to-be-different-book. The theme was about the importance of embracing differences and recognizing that each child at HM is special. I look forward to sharing more with you at Curriculum Night on September 29th.
Playground: We are excited to officially begin use of the new playground after completing construction in late June. We purposefully began the year with very few guidelines about how the new structures should be used…we wanted to give the children a chance to explore without making assumptions or creating limitations. Now that we’ve had a few days to try things out, we are going to take Monday and Tuesday this week to talk with the students and gather observations from staff about what’s working and what isn’t. Our plan is to use the feedback we receive to make some recommendations about rules and/or guidelines that should be in place to ensure the safety of the children. If parents have any observations, questions or suggestions they would like to share, please email me this week atmark_nardelli@newton.k12.ma.us
Food Service Changes: Newton has recently entered into an agreement with a new food service company (Sodexo) and with this new agreement comes several changes. Below are two important highlights:
- The menu has changed district-wide. We will no longer have a day devoted to serving pizza. In addition, snacks will not be available as an additional purchase option. Both of these might be worth mentioning to your child; they’ve already been asking!
- The food purchase and service system at HM has changed. We’ve removed the lunch service setup from the upstairs hallway and relocated to the kitchen at the rear of the building. This new system helps minimize noise and congestion during instructional time in the halls, and also reduces the considerable effort it takes to continually stock and restock food and other items from downstairs. We had our first run Wednesday-Friday this week and things went very smoothly! The students did a terrific job and I think this change will be a positive one.
Staffing Update:
With the departure of Michele Bilodeau, I have decided to shift our inclusion facilitator, Katie Deehan, into the learning center position (joining counterpart Lucy Couture). In this role Katie will be responsible for delivering the specialized academic instruction that Michele provided in her time at HM. While there is no doubt that Katie has done a terrific job with our inclusion program over the past three years, she also has a broad range of specialized academic skills to offer our learning center, including extensive experience delivering Wilson Reading Instruction. I am confident that Katie's skill set will serve our school well in the learning center.
While Katie will primarily be a learning center teacher, she will also retain a small inclusion caseload. In addition, I am excited to share the news that the majority of the inclusion facilitator role will be fulfilled by Siobhan Mikolajewski. Siobhan has spent many years at Horace Mann serving as a Behavior Therapist, working hard to service individual students while advocating for inclusion. She has a strong background in supporting social and behavioral challenges, and has recently completed licensure requirements that will enable her to tackle the administrative side of the job. Siobhan knows many of our students, staff and families, which will help make for a smooth transition.
We will work hard to support both Katie and Siobhan in their new role. Please join me in congratulating them!
SEPAC: The Newton Parent Advisory Council for Special Education (NewtonPAC) is an all-volunteer organization of parents of children with disabilities in the preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, and in private schools who meet to learn more about special education programs, issues, policies, regulations, and resources. We sponsor monthly informational meetings, maintain an online discussion group, and work with the school administration regarding our children’s education.
Liaisons to the PAC are in place for each Newton public school and for those attending private and out-of-district schools. The liaison for Horace Mann is Lisa Estes, Horace Mann parent. Lisa created an email address for parents to ask questions and get info when needed. You can reach Lisa at the following address: horacemann.sepac@gmail.com. Thank you to Lisa for offering to spearhead this home/school connection. |
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