Monday, July 27, 2015
Summer Letter to Raymond Families
July, 2015
Dear Raymond Families,
We have been busy preparing for the 2015-2016 school year and are eager to see all of our students back at school! The buildings are clean and polished thanks to our custodial staff, and our teachers are excited to meet their new students.
One important back-to-school ritual has always been filling out piles of paper- and if you have more than one child in the District, it took considerable time to do this. We have made this process so much easier for you because it is all on-line! Please watch for a letter that includes a brochure on how to fill out this important information for each of your children. Your information should already be filled in, but it must be updated every year.
In addition, by being part of the Parent Portal Information System, you have access to your child’s grades, homework assignments and test scores for each subject. Teachers update this academic information a minimum of every two weeks. You will find another brochure in the mailing with information on the Parent Portal along with the access codes for your students. You must have these access codes to proceed with Parent Portal and each one is individualized. It is also possible to contact teachers with your concerns using the Parent Portal. If you have any questions, there is a PowerSchool help page on the district website www.sau33.com in addition to the brochure.
We are also concerned that the economy has not recovered for everyone. This is to remind eligible families to fill out the application forms for free and reduced lunches that are included in the letter you will receive. This should be done as soon as possible. Please do not hesitate to call our Food Service Director, Judy DiNatale, at 895-6616 ext. 2345 with any questions you might have. We want every one of our eligible families to take part in this important program. All information is kept confidential and goes only to our food service director. It is important for you to know how the lunch system works: every student is assigned a lunch number and these numbers do not indicate which students are receiving a free or reduced lunch. This program is a small way in which your schools can help.
The elementary school welcomes two new administrators: Bryan Belanger, Principal comes to us from Seabrook where he was an Assistant Principal for 5 years and Laura Yacek, our new Assistant Principal, was the Curriculum Coordinator in Brentwood. At Raymond High School we welcome Benjamin Morse as our new Assistant Principal. Mr. Morse was a science teacher at Timberlane High School.
We are excited about the new school year and expect every student to have a rewarding and worthwhile experience. If you have any questions, you are invited to call your child’s school at (603) 895-3117 (elementary school); (603) 895-3394 (middle school) and (603) 895-6616 (high school). We believe that communication between school and home is essential to student success and welcome all of your questions, concerns and comments.
For Your Students,
Mrs. Ellen Small
Superintendent
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Elementary School Plans
The Raymond School Board at their July 8th Board meeting voted to continue with a Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee to determine the best means of solving some of the space issues at the elementary school. This is wonderful news for our elementary school students! A preliminary plan, as determined by the Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee who completed their work in June, calls for a 12 class room addition and a gymnasium addition that will allow us to remove all the portables currently at the elementary school- both detached and attached.
The attached portables are ones that are owned by the District and are in poor shape. In spite of all the improvements and upkeep done over the years, they still need such things as new windows and doors. The detached portables are the ones that can be seen from the front parking lot. These six classrooms are rented by the District at a cost of $36,000 per year. Besides needing constant work, being in these portables also require students to go outside whenever they need to use the restrooms, see the nurse, attend a unified arts class, are called to the office, go to lunch, see a counselor, use the library, etc. etc. This is not a good situation for our students! All of these trips are necessary no matter what the weather is outside.
Here's where we are in the process. The Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee was established in May and held regular meetings with the purpose of presenting their findings to the School Board at a meeting in July. The Committee was chaired by Tina Thomas with Erin Brewitt as Vice-Chair and Sandy Ellis as Secretary. Committee members included Todd Ledoux, Facilities Director; Ron Brickett, Business Administrator; Ellen Small, Superintendent; John Harmon, School Board member; and members of the community and parents: Amy Faust, Dean Plender, and Sean Ahearn. Meetings were held throughout May and June while the committee examined past information about the current buildings, recommendations from previous Building Committees, as well as, a needs assessment.
This committee came to a consensus that an addition to replace the portables and the addition of a gym would be the best plan for the elementary school while keeping in mind the taxpayers ability to pay. (Students currently have physical education classes in their classrooms when other students are having lunch in the cafeteria.) Part of this plan will include flood proofing the current elementary building. We have estimated the cost of the additions and improvements to be $7,169,983- remember this is only an estimate. This amount is about what we would have been required to pay if we had built a new building and had received building aide from the state of NH. It appears that school districts will no longer be able to count on building aide from the state.
We are putting together a new Building Committee to continue this work and have some openings. The committee will determine a meeting schedule that will begin in August as we go forward with next steps, provide citizens with information, and, hopefully, present a proposal to the voters in March 2016. If you are interested in joining this committee, please send a letter of intent by 3:00 PM July 29 to Jennifer Gillespie at the SAU office or email your request to her at: j.gillespie@sau33.com
The School Board will choose new members of the Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee and approve the Charge for their work at the July 29 meeting. I look forward to working with the citizens of Raymond on this important work.
The attached portables are ones that are owned by the District and are in poor shape. In spite of all the improvements and upkeep done over the years, they still need such things as new windows and doors. The detached portables are the ones that can be seen from the front parking lot. These six classrooms are rented by the District at a cost of $36,000 per year. Besides needing constant work, being in these portables also require students to go outside whenever they need to use the restrooms, see the nurse, attend a unified arts class, are called to the office, go to lunch, see a counselor, use the library, etc. etc. This is not a good situation for our students! All of these trips are necessary no matter what the weather is outside.
Here's where we are in the process. The Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee was established in May and held regular meetings with the purpose of presenting their findings to the School Board at a meeting in July. The Committee was chaired by Tina Thomas with Erin Brewitt as Vice-Chair and Sandy Ellis as Secretary. Committee members included Todd Ledoux, Facilities Director; Ron Brickett, Business Administrator; Ellen Small, Superintendent; John Harmon, School Board member; and members of the community and parents: Amy Faust, Dean Plender, and Sean Ahearn. Meetings were held throughout May and June while the committee examined past information about the current buildings, recommendations from previous Building Committees, as well as, a needs assessment.
This committee came to a consensus that an addition to replace the portables and the addition of a gym would be the best plan for the elementary school while keeping in mind the taxpayers ability to pay. (Students currently have physical education classes in their classrooms when other students are having lunch in the cafeteria.) Part of this plan will include flood proofing the current elementary building. We have estimated the cost of the additions and improvements to be $7,169,983- remember this is only an estimate. This amount is about what we would have been required to pay if we had built a new building and had received building aide from the state of NH. It appears that school districts will no longer be able to count on building aide from the state.
We are putting together a new Building Committee to continue this work and have some openings. The committee will determine a meeting schedule that will begin in August as we go forward with next steps, provide citizens with information, and, hopefully, present a proposal to the voters in March 2016. If you are interested in joining this committee, please send a letter of intent by 3:00 PM July 29 to Jennifer Gillespie at the SAU office or email your request to her at: j.gillespie@sau33.com
The School Board will choose new members of the Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee and approve the Charge for their work at the July 29 meeting. I look forward to working with the citizens of Raymond on this important work.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
What's Happening at School These Days
I'd like to keep everyone updated on our summer projects and the happenings at each of the schools. So far, cleaning is progressing as usual with lockers and desks scrubbed; walls being washed; stairways cleaned; painting; and the washing and waxing of floors. Our computers (over 1,000 of them!) are all being re-imaged. Of course, this is just a small portion of what is being done to make our buildings shine and to prepare for the opening of school.
At the same time, our summer programs are up and running. I toured the middle school that has three
Extended School Year programs, a preschool program, summer school, the 21st Century LEAP program, and both the elementary and middle
recreation programs-these are all underway. I visited with the students in
several of these programs and was very pleased with what I saw. The preschool students are very eager to
please and were working on their names- coloring them and identifying the
letters. They were adorable as they kept asking me- do you like this one? Do you like this one? I was exhausted when I left their room! This week the Raymond Roundtables program begins and
we have a total of 37 students
signed up for the Roundtables: there will be three sections of English and one
math class. This wonderful enrichment program is run in partnership with Phillips Exeter Academy.
At the elementary school, our new Principal, Bryan Belanger is settling in with the help of our new Assistant Principal, Laura Yacek. This week a new cafeteria floor is being installed and it looks fabulous. If you had seen the previous floor, it was long overdue for repairs with broken, taped together tiles. With our space limitations at the elementary school, this year we are making some changes to create a conference room and a slightly larger nurse's office. We also needed another 3rd grade classroom this year and had to move all the special education case managers together in one room to make room for this additional class. There will be one 3rd grade housed in the portables.
All in all, everything is going well within our schools as we prepare for another school year. Todd Ledoux and his crew are doing a wonderful job to keep our schools clean and safe, as well as, to protect and ensure the longevity of these resources. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, I can be reached at the SAU offices at 895-4299.