School Board Report February 2021
Old Town Elementary School "Work Hard and Be Kind"
Exploring 5th Graders to Return to Full Time In Person Learning
Having success with our 4th graders, we have started to explore and plan for our 5th graders to return to full-time in-person learning in the next month. With the support of Mr. Walker and Dr. Doty, the task of planning has been underway. We have more students in these classes, so getting students back into classes has some challenges. A variety of spaces are being used in our school to accommodate our 4th graders' return to school in January for times when students are not wearing masks (lunch and breakfast), so developing a schedule for alternative eating times for 5th graders is imperative. The 5th-grade team will spend the next few weeks implementing safety precautions and schedules to assist in the process of bringing our 5th graders back to OTES under one roof.
Another challenge we face in bringing our 5th graders back to full time will be transportation. We are also working with Cyr Bus and sending messages to parents over the next week to explore alternative transportation plans for families. We have limited spaces on our busses right now, so how to add more students or develop additional bus runs will be considered in our planning.
We are excited to consider we may have our entire K-5 population under our one roof for the last trimester of learning. This would be completely opposite to what last year's trimester looked like at OTES!!!!
February 11, 2021
Annie---The Musical
School Resource Center
Professional Development Offered at OTES
Professional Development at OTES
With limited opportunities for outside professional development experiences, OTES has turned to our own skills and staff members to continue to build professional knowledge.
SeeSaw and RAZ Plus Session: Kristen Doty and April Smith, teachers at OTES, offered a session for fellow teachers to support their development of connecting reading programs with the online instructional programs we use at our school and with our students in K-3 students.
Writing About Reading: Writing about reading supports phonics and decoding, enhances comprehension, and helps readers think more deeply about the text. Dr. Sharon Greaney, our Literacy Specialists, helped our teachers examine ways they can scaffold students’ learning by choosing the best approach in their instruction.
Reading Instruction: Amy Cyr, one of our Literacy Specialists will be offering a few book studies with our staff. Jennifer Serravallo has a new book called Connecting with Students Online and addresses the pandemic and the state of education right now. Nancy Boyles has a book out called Classroom Reading to Engage the Heart and Mind. These two book studies will support many staff members and their professional needs in their classrooms.
We are very proud of our staff members' response to their own professional needs and how they continue to professionally grow in spite of the challenges. We are very fortunate to have so many educators that can provide ongoing professional development opportunities right here in RSU 34.
Upcoming events
Report Cards Go Home: March 12
Annie Rehearsal: Wednesdays 2 pm to 3pm
Old Town Elementary School
Email: jeanna.tuell@rsu34.org
Website: rsu34.org
Location: 576 Stillwater Avenue, Old Town, ME, USA
Phone: 207-827-1544
Facebook: facebook.com/RSU34OTES