School Board Report October 2019
Old Town Elementary School "Work Hard and Be Kind"
Inservice Day AT OTES
October 11th gave the staff at OTES a great opportunity to reset and reflection about the start of the school year. The entire staff started the day with the second part of building our VISION STATEMENT, which has been part of last year's work with the accreditation process for our school. The Vision Statement exercise allowed us to look back at the work started on August 27th and to narrow our vision to get closer to developing a vision statement for our "graduates." We will take the work done on October 11 and start to draft our vision statement for our school and bring the draft back to our staff in December. We will be sharing the draft with the school board in the spring of 2020 to have ready for the 2020-2021 school year.
Many other activities were accomplished with the time provided our professional staff:
- K-1 Teachers worked collaboratively to plan for instruction in the new Fundations Program
- Grade 2 Teachers examined the Fountas and Pinnell Spelling Program to implement a pilot program this school year. They also looked at the Fundations Reading Program to pilot the 2nd-grade programming this school year.
- Grade 3-5 examined the results of their students' NWEA test results. They looked for common trends in the grade level, examine classroom results, and set growth goals for their students in their classrooms.
- Special Education Teachers worked with Ed Tech to review behavior plans, instructional plans and created new schedules to support learners.
- Kimm Kennsition and Betsy Dyer completed the second day of Safety Care Training with our Support Staff and some new teachers.
It was a well developed and productive day!
Diversity Week at OTES
October 21-25, Diversity week at OTES
Vision Planning
Placing "dots" to vote for the most important skill, values, or outcomes we want our students to have when leaving OTES.
Garden Learning
Kindergarten in the spring of 2019 planted the sunflowers for the Kindergarten students to harvest in the fall of 2020. This process is called Legacy Planting and Learning
Diversity Theme at OTES
Diversity
Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. Lunn have been busy planning our Diversity Week for October 21st. The students will have several activities throughout the week to help celebrate our school's many cultures and families. On Wednesday, October 23rd, we will welcome author, Barry Lane. Barry Lane has written several books, but he also performs for schools about the Power of Kindness and the students will enjoy his performance. Here's a youtube clip for you to see his work> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzimmQaLzo8. We will have several parent speakers throughout the Diversity Week. We are looking forward to a great week!
Garden Events
This summer we were lucky to gain a great parent helper in our school garden, Christina Lannin. She has worked tirelessly to develop Garden Events throughout the summer and into the fall. The last Garden Event will be held Saturday, October 12th and the students will press apples, decorate pumpkins, and harvest the last items in our garden. Christina has been working with our classroom teachers to connect the garden to their existing curriculum. Teachers and students have been enjoying their lessons in the garden planting, harvesting, sketching plants, and observing bees in the garden. The incredible engagement of our students' learning has been excited to watch and experience. We shared our wonderful garden on the Maine DOE Site:
Enrollments at OTES 2019-2020
Kindergarten: 90 Students
1st Grade: 85 Students
2nd Grade: 92 Students (This is where we created an additional teacher)
3rd Grade: 92 Students
4th Grade: 94 Students
5th Grade: 106 Students
Old Town Elementary School
Our school is located near the University of Maine. We have a K-5 program with 600 students. The students at OTES have an enriched environment with academics, social interactions, and many alternative activities to support their developmental growth. We are very lucky to have a wonderful parent organization that support enrichment activities and provide many exciting experiences for our students.
Email: jeanna.tuell@rsu34.org
Website: rsu34.org
Location: 576 Stillwater Avenue, Old Town, ME, USA
Phone: 207-827-1544
Facebook: facebook.com/RSU34OTES