August 20th, 2017
Dear Horace Mann Families,
I hope that this letter finds you well as we enter the latter part of August and begin to turn our attention to the start of a new school year. As always, summer goes by far too quickly, with the first part of July being tied up with transitions and adjustment to a new (more sane) pace of life. When August arrives our attention as educators almost immediately turns to the upcoming school year. The Nardelli family did get to relax a little by mid-July. Our big trip this year was to Quebec where we got to participate in a blend of culture and outdoor adventure. One highlight for my two daredevils (Julia-12 and Alora-6) was climbing the rocks and ziplining with their dad over Canyon De St. Anne. We also spent time in Old Quebec and visited the breathtaking Montmorency Falls Park. I highly recommend visiting if you have a chance. Eliana (14) will be entering high school in a few weeks, and spent time in summer school getting ready for this big change. She hopes to join the high school gymnastics team this year. Vincent, who will be two in October, hit a few milestones this summer: he learned to climb out of his crib (at 5:00 am most days this summer), will only drink from a cup without a lid (inevitably spilling everything all over the place), and currently sings “Hakuna Matata” at least 5 times a day. My wife Christine and I celebrated our 16th anniversary, did some summer cleaning and built a small gravel patio out back. We are now collectively dreading the return to our busy fall schedule of work, soccer, gymnastics, making lunches, daycare, and more!
Summer is also a time for reflection and learning, and I spent considerable time thinking and reading about our work for the upcoming year (a more detailed explanation will be forthcoming). I had a chance to take an online course on cultural proficiency and read a few books on related topics: Multicultural Education by James Banks, and Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Haney-Lopez.
It is hard to ignore the relevance of our work given the current atmosphere in our nation. I find myself truly troubled by the events of Charlottesville and the implications for where we stand as a country. It further strengthens my resolve as a parent and as school leader to ensure that we are doing all we can to teach each other and our students to listen, to be kind, to be compassionate, and to appreciate all that a diverse community has to offer.
If you need any guidance on how to talk to your children, the following article is helping in addressing the events of Charlottesville. It could also be helpful in talking more broadly about race.
I look forward to hearing about your adventures and your learning as well...
Moving on to more practical matters, I have several updates about the upcoming year:
Staffing/Programming News -
- In mid-July, after getting married, Kate Blanchard shared that she had an opportunity to work closer to her new home, and made the decision to leave Horace Mann for another district. Thank you to Kate for her work and we wish her the best of luck. With Kate’s departure, we almost immediately embarked on the process of hiring a new first grade teacher. Several staff participated in the interview process and collectively we interviewed eight candidates with a diverse array of backgrounds and levels of experience. In the end we selected Allison Rose. Allison has spent the last three years teaching first grade in a private school setting. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education & Graphic Design at Stonehill College, and this summer completed her Master’s degree from Lesley University as a Specialist Teacher of Reading. Allison’s demeanor, her work ethic, her thoughtfulness about creating a classroom community, and her strong references helped to formulate what we felt would be a good fit for our team.
- This year, Horace Mann did not qualify as a Title 1 School (we were 5th on the list in terms of socioeconomic measures). This reality has a few significant implications for staffing and funding of initiatives. First, Sara McSwiggan, will now split her time between Horace Mann and Lincoln-Eliot, doing some combination of Reading Recovery and LLI. In addition, Ellen Kelner will be moving on to Lincoln-Eliot. Many thanks to Ellen for her years of service at HM. We wish her well. Finally, we will no longer have additional funds to use for homework club, or other extended day activities. We will need to decide as a school how to move forward with some of these activities.
- Welcome Back to Carol Oldmixon. She will return to 4th grade after taking a year at home to support her family.
- Nicole Levasseur is officially moving into the BCBA role. She will service the BCBA needs for the entire building, working four days per week. Nicole has worked for many years as a behavior therapist at Horace Mann and in other Newton Schools, while doing BCBA work in an unofficial capacity. Nicole will bring her considerable expertise and energy to the role.
- Barbara Kwan, ELL teacher at Franklin the last four years, will be joining our team for the fall. Barbara comes to us as a well respected colleague, collaborator, and educator.
- Holly St. Peter will be coming on board as our new team specialist. Holly has been a licensed school psychologist since 2008 and comes with experience across multiple grade levels in a variety of settings. She has extensive experience with the special ed evaluation process, writing behavior plans, conducting FBAs, running social groups, etc. Most recently she has worked to create a program at Brookline High School for students with emotional disabilities. Holly will be working 4 days per week in the team specialist role.
- Anna Cox will be joining our special education team as inclusion facilitator. Anna spent last year at Peirce under the guidance of Kara Smith and came to us as a well regarded applicant. Anna has had a range of experiences with students on the spectrum, as well those with social/emotional and behavioral challenges. Anna will join Katie Deehan and Siobhan Mikolajewski on our special ed team.
- Daniela Gentile will be moving into the Behavior Intervention role this fall. Daniela impressed the interview committee with her thoughtful answers, her understanding of the challenges of the job, and her ideas about how to move the program forward. I also had Daniela spend a day as the behavior interventionist last spring, and during that time, she took initiative, connected with students, and managed a variety of circumstances effectively. This summer, she also attended a 3 day behavior workshop with several other staff. Finally, congratulations to Daniela on her wedding this summer!
- Congratulations to inclusion facilitator, Siobhan Mikolajewski. She gave birth to Fiona Maggie Mikolajewski on July 28th, weighing in at just over 7 lbs. Siobhan will be on maternity leave until the end of October. I am in the final stages of naming a long term sub to fill in for Siobhan in her absence.
- Al Zellman is our new night custodian and began at Horace Mann midsummer. He has most recently been at Zervas and lives close to the HM neighborhood. It didn’t take long to see that he will fit right in at HM. Al is thoughtful, hard working, flexible, thorough, and willing to provide teachers with the support they need.
Other new staff:
- Darlene Watkins (inclusion assistant in K) - Darlene has worked in Title 1 Summer Success, has been a Metco Bus monitor, and has worked in a variety of capacities within the Newton Schools.
- Catherine Doherty (BT) - Catherine has spent the last two years working at Brown Middle School in the inclusion program and is interested in furthering her education by enrolling in a BCBA program. Catherine will be working as a BT in Kindergarten.
- Ashley Mosley (BT) - Ashley has worked in Brookline as a paraprofessional and as an ABA therapist for students on the autism spectrum for the past two years.
Calendar - The PTO and I discussed a possible change to the calendar this year that will impact Back To School Night. First, the PTO would like to have a separate PTO open house on Tuesday, September 12th to talk about the role of the PTO and encourage parents to sign up for volunteer work. In addition, we thought it might be a good chance for specialists and all non-classroom staff to be available for a more in-depth meet and greet. As a staff we still need to work out what this might look like. More details to follow.
Placement - Placement information will go out to families next Friday, August 25th. Sometime after noon, I will send placements out electronically via email and also post class lists on the front and rear doors of the school.
Facilities - We had no major changes to our building this summer, but we did have lots of classroom assignment changes. As always, please take a few minutes to thank Bill Pepicelli and Al Zelmann. They did a great job managing camp and limiting access to the building. We had lots of room changes and as a result, there was a lot of moving of furniture and shifting of storage, in addition to the normal cleaning and polishing that had to get done. The building is looking great for the arrival of the children. Thanks again for all you do!!!
School Supplies - If you participated in the school supply program last spring, kits are scheduled to arrive soon and will be distributed to classrooms prior to the first day of school. If you chose not to participate, a copy of each grade’s supply list is posted on the Horace Mann website at http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/2636. You can take advantage of sales and buy the items on your own. Please be sure to send your child into school with these supplies ready to start a great year of learning. The PTO can sponsor any student for whom the purchase of supplies would create a financial hardship. Please contact me for information.
The school calendar has been integrated into our website and will be updated regularly. You can access the calendar at this link: http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/horacemann. You can also follow us on Twitter @HoraceMann687.
Teaching Assignments for the 2017-2018 School Year
K - Bonzey, Ferland, Seyferth
1 - Chatfield, Gower, Rose
2 - Bartley, Lewis, Sandison
3 - Bard, Harris, Rosen
4 - Berardi/Fischer, Hoover, Oldmixon
5 - Akdag/Dias, Feldstein, Moore
Important Dates
August 29th at 5pm - K Playdate* (please note that this is a PTO event, teachers will not be present)
September 5th - 1st Day of School - Grades 1- 5 and Group A Kindergartners
September 6th - 1st Day of School - Group B Kindergartners
September 12th - PTO Open House
September 14th - Back to School Picnic
September 21st - No School - Rosh Hashanah
September 25th - School Picture Day
September 27th - Early Release Day
September 28th - Back to School/Curriculum Night
