The first day of school is Monday, August 29th. The first three days will be 12:30 dismissals. The regular full day schedule will begin on Thursday, September 1st.

As sometimes happens over the summer, we've had some staffing changes that I want to make you all aware of.

• Ms. Jillson will be out for the year on maternity leave. We are excited to have Ms. Neill hired for the year.
• We have hired Mr. Ron Clark as a part-time custodian. He will be working primarily in the mornings, getting the building ready for our arrival each day.
• We also welcome Ms. Alyssa as our cafeteria assistant. In addition to being our after-school program director, she will be working with Ms. Tina during the day to help prepare and serve lunch each day.
• Ms. Tyler has taken a position closer to her home so will not be our PE teacher this year. We will miss her and wish her all the best in her new school. I am currently looking to fill this position.
• Ms. Norwood will be out on medial leave until sometime in October. Ms. Tori will be filling in as the long-term substitute until she returns.
• Ms. Tori will also being leaving us this fall to pursue a job more in line with her career aspirations. At this time, I am working on hiring another paraprofessional.
• Mr. Youmell will be leaving us at the beginning of September to take another position closer to his home. We will be looking to hire a full-time custodian.
• Finally, after many, many years of service to our library, Ms. Genie will be moving to a full-time paraprofessional role and no longer working in the library. Ms. Miller, our Service Learning Coordinator, will be taking on that role and is excited about how she can integrate Service Learning into the library as well.

As I emailed earlier this week, we have had a very generous donation of backpacks and school supplies. If you are in need of these things, please let me know. I want to make sure that these get into your homes rather than just into storage. There are plenty to go around and we are happy to help where we can!

Below you will see three different buttons for three different annual forms that must be completed by families. They are the blanket field trip permission slip, the media permissions form, and the chromebook use forms. Please note that they must be completed by Friday, September 9th. Why not click on the links now and you can check this off your back to school list? :)

Be sure to join us next Friday, August 26th from 5-6pm for the PTO's annual back to school ice cream social! This is a great time to meet some of the staff, reconnect with old friends, make some new friends, and who doesn't love free ice cream?!

Donations of ice cream, whipped cream, toppings (sauces, candies and cherries) bowls and spoons are still being accepted . If you would like to help with a donation please email the PTO at colrainpto@gmail.com to see what is still needed. Thank you for your support.

We love the first day of school and hope you'll be able to join us as we celebrate the start of another school year!

Below, please see the schedule for our annual First Day Celebration on Monday, August 29th from 8:30-10:00 am.

At 8:30, you'll get to visit your child's classroom, meet the teacher, and see where they'll be spending their day at school.

At 9:00, we will have all adults join us in the cafe for a cup of coffee and to hear a bit about the school and some of what we have planned for the year.

At 9:30, the students will join us for the first all school assembly of the year, where all staff will be introduced and we will share a story together and play a game or two.

At 10:00, we invite you to give your child one last hug or high-five and enjoy the rest of your morning.

Building a strong home/school partnership is really important to us as we believe this is the foundation to a successful school experience. We want to hear from you what your hopes and dreams for the year are, as well as to be able to share some of what you can expect from us. These conferences will be held between 1-3 on the first three days of school. Please contact Mrs. White in the front office to schedule your conference. You can reach her by calling 413-624-3451 or by emailing swhite@mtrsd.org

We look forward to meeting with you all then.

I'm pleased to be able to offer both our before and after school programs this year.

When staffing allows, we will run programs on all regular school days and early-release days. They will not run during school vacations, snow days, delayed openings, or on days when school is released early due to bad weather. Drop-ins are welcome if necessary, but please send a note in the morning if possible. If a child’s bill is not in good standing, they will not be able to attend the program(s) until it is. Last year's bills must be paid in full prior to a student attending this year.

Before School Care (Run by Ms. Genie Shearer)

The program will begin one hour before the start of school: 7:30 on a regular day, 8:30 on a one hour delayed opening, and 9:30 on a two hour delayed opening. Students have time for some homework help, games, activities, and movement before the school day begins. The cost for this program is $7/hour for one student and $6/hour for all subsequent family members.

The before school program will begin on Tuesday, August 30th.

After School Care (Run by Ms. Alyssa Patenaude & Ms. Clare Wasileski)

This program will run each day that school is in session from dismissal time until 5:30. The cost for this program is $7/hour for one student and $6/hour for all subsequent family members.

The after school program will begin on Monday, August 29th.

Payment options:

• online at https://unipaygold.unibank.com/customerinfo.aspx clicking on the Colrain Elementary tab and following the prompts from there
• check made out to Colrain Central School with before/afterschool program in the memo line
• Cash handed to program director

"With the signing of the FY23 state budget, Massachusetts has become the fifth state to provide state support to extend universal free meals beyond Congress’ expiration date of June 30, 2022. The new state funds will be used to supplement federal USDA reimbursements, allowing for National School Lunch Program meals to be provided to all students at no charge and to be reimbursed at the federal “free” rate during the 2022-23 school year.

However, it is still important that districts participate in direct certification of eligible families and for families to fill out income eligibility forms, because income eligibility numbers will be important in meal reimbursements to districts and for other benefits to families. (For instance, households that establish that their income qualifies them for free or reduced-price meals by August 31, 2022 will qualify for summer 2022 Pandemic EBT.)" ~A message from the
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

What this all means for you is that all students, regardless of family income, will be able to receive school breakfast and lunch at no cost to you. Students are welcome to bring a lunch from home if you prefer. And, we will not be able to provide a school snack this year, so students should bring a healthy snack from home to have mid-morning.

Once school begins, we will be sending home the free/reduced lunch applications and ask that everyone complete the forms and return them to school...even if you don't qualify. Even though all students will be able to receive free lunch this year, the percentage of families that qualify using the federal guidelines also makes us eligible for other grants and federal funding, so it's really important that we get that information from everyone. All information collected will be kept strictly confidential.

8/26: PTO Back to School Ice Cream Social

8/29: First Day of School

8/29-8/31: 12:30 dismissals

9/1: First full day of school

9/5: No School: Labor Day

9/21: Open House 6:00 pm

August/September early release dates:

12:30 dismissals: 8/29, 8/30, 8/31

1:50 dismissals: 9/21, 9/28

Just a reminder that updated information can always be found at our website: https://colrain.mohawktrailschools.org/ and our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/colraincentral