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|  | | Table of contents:- From the Principal's Desk
- Important Dates to Start the Year
- News at SCS:
- Staff News
- Introducing Emily Lyons.
- SCS Partnering with Salisbury Family Center
- Save the date for Open House! September 5th!
- The Year Ahead:
- Grade configuration news.
- Join Friends of Salisbury Community School!
- Logistics
- First day info
- Arrival/dismissal
- Attendance
- Bus routes
- Lunch information- including August/September Menu
- School year calendar.
| | From the Principal's Desk:August 16, 2024
Dear Salisbury Community School families,
It seems like just yesterday busses rolled away from Salisbury Community School, and I hope you have all had good summers with good summertime things. Maybe the things summer brings are swimming, or a Lake Monsters Game, tubing on Lake Dunmore, or getting loud at the demolition derby at Field Days. Maybe a summertime thing is a kid riding down the back roads of Salisbury on a bike (or a scooter, as I see sometimes!) to go hang out with a friend who lives down the road. Whatever the summertime things were that your children did, our whole faculty and staff at Salisbury Community School is excited to hear all about them, and kick off another great year. We look forward to catching up with you all, and meeting some new members of our community as well.
Summer brings fun things, but hard things too. The challenges of heat and rain have made it tough across Vermont, and it has been truly heartwarming to see the way communities across Vermont rally in tough times. Salisbury has not been immune to tough times, and I'd like to thank everyone that has stepped up to help folks who could use a little of it. Salisbury is truly a special place, with special people. As ever, I feel extremely fortunate to be the principal of Salisbury Community School.
School will feel reliably similar for our families and students as the year starts- we return almost all of the same staff, we did some important work on the school building this summer but nothing huge, and we are keeping our same general systems and daily schedule . Behind the scenes though, we continue to work to try to make what we do stronger. Many teachers and staff members took courses this summer, including three digging into very intensive courses on how to provide the best in literacy instruction, which always remains a special focus for us. Other courses explored music education and curriculum design. The school district itself has had a new Superintendent, Dr. Wendy Baker, take over the reins, and she has been leading us with a specific focus on engendering a sense of belonging for all students throughout all of the schools in Addison Central School District. This positive and inclusive approach is really noticeable in the work we are doing as a group of administrators over the summer, and I'm excited for the future when it comes to all of our school communities. We also worked as a district to set-up for the rollout of a new version of our core Math curriculum, Bridges 3. Salisbury teachers already have experience with the new elements of it, as we did a school-wide "pilot" of the program last year, so we're ready to pick right up and go.
One interesting little "start of the year' thing we have added: We are going to have an hour next Friday, the 23rd, for students and families to visit their classrooms and see their teachers if they want. It will be very informal (we'll have our usual open house on September 5th), but we figured offering a little time on the Friday before school wouldn't hurt.
While we didn't have major projects, one important bit of upkeep was the repair of the semi-circular windows above the front door, as well as the scraping and painting of the front entrance. Also of note was the work Pete Maloy, our awesome custodian, did to strip the floors and rewax all of them, a process that had not been done in full in some time. They cleaned up well!
Well, I don't want to make this too long. Welcome back, or welcome for the first time, and let's do another great year! As ever, if you have questions reach out to me or to Donna, and I look forward to connecting soon!
Best, Bjarki | | Important Dates to Start the Year:Kindergarten Pre-Week Visit: Thursday, August 22nd 2:30-3:00. Kindergarten Room, SCS "Classroom Drop-in": Friday, August 23rd 11:00-12:00. Salisbury Community School First Day of School! Monday, August 26th. Labor Day: Monday, September 2nd- No School. Open House and Ice-Cream Social: Thursday, September 5th 5:30-6:45 | | | Staffing News at SCSOnce again, Salisbury Community School has very few changes in our staff. Staying in their same positions as primary classroom teachers are: Casey Fitzgerald teaching Kindergarten, Ann Rubright First Grade, Jennifer Larocque combined Second and Third Grades, Amy Clapp, teaching Fourth Grade, and Emmaleigh Sabol, 5th. Also teaching their same classes are Eileen Gombosi teaching Art, Sarah Metcalf, Music and Band, and Sierra Thornton teaching Physical Education. Lili Foster continues as our Academic Interventionist and Tammie Johnson remains our Counselor. Megan Sutton is our school Librarian and Media Specialist, Haysal Jones helps us stay healthy as our school nurse, Peter Maloy looks after us as our custodian, and Kathleen Newton keeps us fed as our wonderful cook! Sandy Hayes and Suzie Quesnel work to support students, especially in the younger grades. Donna Simpson continues as the school Administrative Assistant and Health Designee, a role that is , as always, one hundred different jobs rolled into one.
We will certainly miss those who left: Eliana Canas-Parra (Spanish) Vicky Wideman (CSAC Counselor), Madeline Wilson (SLP), Nancy Velez (Library Assistant) and Jessica Hurley (paraeducator). All five were wonderful and important members of our community, and I and all of Salisbury Community School thank them and wish them the absolute best in new endeavors.
At the moment we only have one new hire to announce: Emily Lyons, who is joining us as our CSAC Counseling Clinician, taking over the role that Vicky had held. Emily comes highly regarded by those who have worked with her, and we are excited to welcome her to the Salisbury community!
You might notice that this letter does not mention the hiring of a Spanish teacher or a Speech Language Pathologist. Those roles have been very hard to hire for, so we are still working on what our plans in those areas will look like to start the year.
This summer, while things were quiet, our custodian Peter Maloy did a great job with the summer cleaning. The building has been thoroughly cleaned and the grounds have been refreshed and inspected for safety. Thanks to FOSCS for their help in sprucing the place up too, and FOSCS member Kristin Clark for organizing. | Welcome to Emily Lyons, our CSAC Clinician! We have one new staff member to announce at the moment: Emily Lyons. Emily will be joining us as our CSAC School-Based Clinician, and we are so excited she is joining our crew! A native Vermonter and Middlebury College graduate, Emily has worked with children and adolescents for the past 20+ years, first as a camp counselor and director for Camp Dartmouth-Hitchcock, and then as a Youth Employment Specialist for HireAbility Vermont. Subsequently, during her Master's Degree internships for Vermont State University she worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and as MUMS School-Based Clinician. Emily had the pleasure of volunteering for the Green Mountain Girl Scout Camp at Branbury State Park this summer and is excited to be working with the Salisbury community! | SCS is excited to partner with the Salisbury Family Center!This year, we are VERY excited to announce that we are working with the Salisbury Family Center (a childcare center located in Salisbury Village) to bring afterschool care to SCS. Salisbury Family Center is owned and directed by Christian Bowdish, a Salisbury resident, and they will be operating an after-school care in our gym! Any interested families should reach out to Christian at sfc.afterschoolprogram@gmail.com or call her at 802-352-9800. | Open House/Ice Cream Social Thursday, September 5th. Our annual "Open House" will be held on Thursday, September 5th from 5:30-6:45. Come in, see your children's classrooms, visit with their teachers, and have some ice cream while you are here! We are doing it a little earlier this year so that it is before most fall youth sports start. We look forward to seeing you there! | | | Grade Configuration Reminder: This section of the "Welcome Back" Communique is a lot shorter this year! As a reminder, for 24-25 we are returning to a grade configuration where 2nd and 3rd grades are combined, and all the rest are individual grades. This year our incoming Kindergarten class has 12 students and the outgoing class (the rising 6th graders) had 7 students, so Salisbury Community School is growing a little! We are also excited to welcome some new students in older grades- because we know Salisbury Community School is made better by every new member! | | Get involved in FOSCS! One of the most important contributors to our community is the work of our parent-teacher organization Friends of Salisbury Community School (FOSCS). A solid PTO is really powerful for a school, especially an elementary school, and it really impacts students’ lives and well-being more than most people realize. Enough cannot be said about the impact FOSCS has on kids’ experiences at school, and the more people get involved, the more we can accomplish. To get involved in FOSCS, please reach out to Principal Sears at bsears@acsdvt.org, or to James Clark, FOSCS co-chair, at jamesearlclark@gmail.com. They'd both be happy to help you get involved! | | A Proud International Baccalaureate School:As an International Baccalaureate World School, we are continuing to develop our curriculum to be child-centered, engaging, integrated and action focused. Students across the grades all participate in the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme, and we look forward to teaching you more about the program throughout the year. Please always feel free to ask teachers about their curriculum, and attending open houses can be a great way to learn more about IB. This year we will be continuing our intentional focus on creating positive learning environments using the research-based approach called “Responsive Classroom”. Developing literacy skills, and growing strong reading habits, are going to continue to be things we focus on, as they open the doors to further learning and enjoyment. We believe deeply that a connection of home and school around reading can be incredibly powerful, and we encourage everyone to read together with their children, and to create spaces for children to read alone.
| | Some logistics: School will begin on Monday, August 26th. The doors to the school will open at 7:30 for a prompt start of our school day at 7:45. It is very important that students be on time each day, as teachers will be meeting with students and orienting them to the day’s work as soon as they arrive. For this reason, we also ask that parents who would like to talk with teachers do so before or after school, but not at time of arrival. We want teachers to be able to greet and welcome each student into their classroom and give them their undivided attention. This will result in a great start to your children’s day!
Students will be dismissed at 2:45 pm. Students departing by car are dismissed at the upper parking lot. If a student is picked up early, they must be signed out at the front desk. Please be sure to include the reason the child needed to leave early. The end of the day is a very important time of reflection and organization. It is expected that students stay for a full day unless there are extenuating circumstances.
All academic research shows that It is important that students attend school regularly, and attendance is something we will want to communicate about clearly this year. If your child will not be in school, please call Donna at the front desk at 802-352-4291 to report the absence. If your student is going to miss several days in a row for a planned absence, please reach about that beforehand. If a student misses school regularly (more than 5 times over a four week period) we will reach out to provide support around attendance.
ACSD Bus routes will be published in the paper and on our website within the next week by the Central Office. You can also request a hard copy by calling Donna Simpson at 352-4291.
Our Breakfast and Lunch Program offers healthy kid-friendly food to all students, for free. Students will all have the opportunity to place their orders every morning. | | |  | |  | Bjarki Sears Bjarki is using Smore to create beautiful newsletters |
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