It's hard to believe that we're in the first full week of February and will welcome spring next month! The past year has been a whirlwind in many ways. COVID-19 has taken up so much space in our world, but I'm really excited to share updates and highlights about the wonderful work happening around our district. Spring is a time of renewed energy and I am looking forward to seeing even more students in our classrooms; more collaborations between our communities and schools; and our collective commitment for healthy, safe, communities.

We've got a lot going on district-wide; so here's what's happening this week:

* Strategic Planning

* FY22 Budget & School Committee Meetings

* Hayley Gilmore Named Principal at BSE

* School Spotlights & Student Work

* MTRS MSC Students Back to Biking Thanks to Community Volunteers

District work continues with our strategic planning process. Our strategic planning workgroup, led by our consultant Justin Martin from TMS, met this week to firm-up our timeline; plan for community surveys/engagement; and envision the future of our district.

I'm truly excited for these next steps and look forward to incorporating community engagement and feedback in this process. THIS week, please keep a lookout through email, on our website, via social media, and via our all-call system as we will will share the link on Wednesday, Feb. 10 to our family and community feedback survey (which will be issued by our consultant TMS). Your feedback is critical in helping us in this work and I hope you will take a few moments to complete the survey. Thank you in advance for your continued dedication and commitment to making our district a GREAT place to learn and grow.

The next MTRSD Budget Subcommittee Meeting will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. to review FY22 budget presentation materials and review the process and timeline. The regular monthly school committee meeting will follow at 6:30 p.m. Presentation materials will be shared on our website following the meeting.

The next Hawlemont Regional School Committee's budget subcommittee will be held on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 5 p.m.

Our COVID-19 School Planning Task Force continues to meet each week to review and discuss the state, local, and district COVID-19 data and its impact on our school community. While there was a slight bump in cases last week (as indicated in our data dashboard), I'm happy to report we've seen our community move back into the GREEN.

As a reminder, even when we saw this slight increase in our community, there was NO impact to our in-person school community in the MTRSD and we continue to remain in our hybrid model. We want to continue to express our THANK YOU to our entire community for practicing their FAB FOUR--it truly makes a difference in mitigating community spread and keeping our students, staff, and community safe.

As a reminder, visit our COVID-19 information page (www.mtrsd.org/covid-19-information) for regular updates and links to important resources.

Remember to continue to practice the FAB FOUR--wear your mask; wash your hands; practice physical distancing; and stay home when you are unwell--to help keep our communities SAFE!

Our friends at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments have been working hard to provide COVID-19 updates and vaccination information for right here in Franklin County. Please visit their website to get connected to important updates, links, hotline number, and local vaccine roll-out: www.frcog.org/covid-vaccine/

It's with great pleasure that I share with you we have officially named Hayley Gilmore as the next principal at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School! Ms. Gilmore will transition her role as assistant principal to principal over the next few weeks. We look forward to continuing to work with Ms. Gilmore in this capacity and congratulate her on this appointment!

With these congratulations, I want to also express my best wishes and gratitude to Joanne Giguere for her many years of service to our districts and her leadership at BSE. We wish Ms. Giguere the very best in her retirement this month!

We have some incredible budding journalists right here in our district! If you haven't yet checked it out, be sure to subscribe to the North River News--a community publication completely created by Colrain Central School Fifth grade students in Melissa Norwood's classroom.

Students share news reports about school and district news and host a variety of different columns--there's a little something for everyone, so be sure to subscribe and get the issues hot off the press!

Earlier this month, BSE Preschoolers learned all about the joys of WINTER! Students created a poem and made their own winter illustrations. Check out their work below!

A big THANK YOU to our caring community members who consistently step up to the plate when needed. Recently, local community bikers Jim Bonham of Buckland; Phil Pless of Ashfield; and Tom McCrumm, of Ashfield volunteered to fix MTRS' fleet of mountain bikes. Additionally, Pless worked with the students outside on the MTRS campus to teach them how to perform repairs. These community members were essential to to helping MTRS to get their fleet up and running again--something our students certainly appreciate! A thank you to Patricia Donahue, in the MTRSD central office, who helped to facilitate this community connection. We are grateful to live and work in such a caring, kind, committed community. THANK YOU!