Bus Routes Listed

Bus Routes Listed
2017-2018
https://www.wpsk12.com/Page/86

Welcome Back Letter 2017-2018

Dear Families,    

I can’t believe summer is almost ending and the new school year is beginning. I have heard from so many students via postcards. My family and I did a little traveling this summer to Madeira beach in Florida and LEGOLAND. As you can imagine, Legoland was a hit! Please feel free to check out the Post Card to the Principal bulletin board when you visit the Shawsheen this year. All of the staff have been working diligently preparing for the opening of school. A big thank you to our secretary, Mrs. O’Reilly for her organization and endless preparation, thank you to our custodians Dan, Justine and Ken for working tirelessly on preparing all the floors and rooms for teachers and staff. Another thank you to our staff who I have seen in and out of the building on their own time preparing new bulletin boards, lessons, setting up desks and ultimately being ready for a great first day of school. All this hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed. 

We have so many wonderful things to look forward to this upcoming school year including some new staff members, the continuation of reader’s workshop in grades one and three and Fundations program in grade 2. Second grade will also begin the implementation of reader’s workshop this year. Our theme this year will focus on Kindness and incorporating our PBIS matrix and lesson planning that will be intertwined within all school areas. To help with this message is the book How Full is Your Bucket, by Tom Rath. Each year a book is selected and the message within that book is celebrated throughout the school year. Along with the ongoing theme of Kindness we will be establishing and continuing on with school wide norms and expectations that will be included in the role out of PBIS. We have a team of teachers and staff that will help to work on establishing and finalizing these along with assistance from our students, of course. More information on this will be filtered out as we proceed through the Principals Blog and or other forms of communication. In addition, we will continue on with the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach when working with students on any unsolved problems. Some staff were very fortunate last year to be trained by a co-worker of Ross Greene who wrote Lost at School and The Explosive Child. This year we are going to continue with this approach to problem solving and teach more staff about this. For more information on the CPS or PBIS, please see the blog  http://shawsheenschool.blogspot.com/. You can also follow the school on Twitter @shawsheenschool.

I am thrilled to add some new staff to the Shawsheen Elementary School. We have a new health teacher, a speech and language pathologist and our behavior interventionist who will now be leading her own classroom to support students with similar needs. In addition, to Paula Bartalamia continuing in this manner we have two new aides in her program and welcome them on board. Mrs. McNamara, our art teacher, has taken a position across town and we are happy to announce that we are in the process of transferring another great art teacher from the district. Please check the blog within the next week for introductions on all the new staff members. 

As part of our tradition in the elementary schools we welcome students and families to visit the school the evening before to view their classroom. We find that this helps to alleviate stress or anxiety of where their desk is or how to get to their classrooms. This will take place on August 28^th from 5:00-6:00.  Teachers are not required to be here, but you will have an opportunity to meet them during Open House scheduled for September 28th. More information will be sent out once the date gets closer.  We hope to see families on August 28^th.  

^{Reminder that school starts on Tuesday, August 29th and we have no school on the Friday!}

Please note that bus routes are normally posted one week before school begins on the district website. Also, if your child is going home by a different means of transportation for the first day we will need a note.

Lastly, I worked with some parents this summer to update the car rider procedures in both a.m and p.m. Please view the new maps and read over the procedures if you intend on dropping off or picking up.This is also posted on blog and I will send a reminder out as school approaches. 

As always we look forward to a fantastic year and to see all the students entering into their new grade. If anyone needs any assistance prior to school beginning or during the year please feel free to contact the school or myself.

Enjoy the rest of your summer,

Mrs. King