Forest Avenue School News
Happy New Year 2015
Thank You for a Wonderful 2014 Year!
The Forest Avenue School community had a wonderful, fulfilling school year in 2014. The best highlights of the year were, by month:
January, the teachers and PTG put on our annual talent show at the J.H. Gaudet cafeteria. What a fun and festive evening! The students faces were glowing with pride in what they accomplished. A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Guerin and Mrs. Robinson for their effort in this fun event. Also in January we had our annual international night run by our PTG. This is a fabulous night as we celebrate our international families. The families enjoy celebrating their traditions and we enjoy mingling with everyone at the event. Thanks to Gianna Carrol for her efforts in coordinating this event.
February had two snow days in back to back weeks all around the 100th day.
In March the last NECAP State Testing scores became available and our third graders scored higher than ever. Ninety- four per cent of them passed the test with flying colors. That score explains the effort that our parents, teachers and students put into the academic areas. We also celebrated Reading month with a variety of Reading activities that entice our students to read.
March is also Music in our Schools month and we had a variety of bands and shows that had the students singing and enjoying music.
April was Math month and we had daily math activities for students as students read their math problems daily on the intercom. We also had Military Child Day and a great parade around the school for all our military children. They dressed accordingly to show their great pride in how their parents serve our country.
In May we had our annual fishing derby. We had about fifty students and families attend and participate in the annual event. All of the participants caught fish and everyone was presented with an award. This event ran for two weeks in May.
The month of June was a long month as summer vacation did not arrive until the 24th. It was a bittersweet month as our faculty saw the retirement of two dedicated teachers, Ms. Betsy Colaneri and Mrs. Karen Weikert. Both teachers had fabulous careers of over twenty years teaching in Middletown. We wish them the best. Many of you stopped by and spoke with our incredible school clerk, Mrs. Dede Forgue, during the last weeks of school, as she also retired after thirty five years of Middletown employment. Good Luck to all of them in their new careers.
The first Friday in June, we celebrated the opening of the Kerrie Harrison Peace Garden with an afternoon outside assembly recognizing the life and professionalism of our deceased friend and teacher, Mrs. Kerrie Harrison. Thank you to all who planned the event and participated in that emotional afternoon.
This fall the school atmosphere has been one of total dedication to academic rigor. Students are ready for their teachers challenges in Reading, Math and Science. The daily school day has been exciting, yet serious as the students tackle their daily workload. Teachers are preparing students for the newest state test challenge, the PARCC test,, which will be given in mid winter and at the end of the year.
In October we started a year round reading program where students keep monthly calendars which enable them to be part of an awards assembly and reading raffle. Our third graders went out and collected socks for the needy and did this as a Feinstein Service Good Deed. They collected over 750 socks and other health aids for the needy people of our local community.
In November we had our highly successful Bingo, Bounce and Read Night. This was great fun and almost all of our school was in attendance. We also readied for the flu with our district wide flu clinic. This works well as our school annually boast a 95% attendance rate.
December was another month where the students contributed new toys to the needy as this program was sponsored by our PTG.
I look forward to another fabulous year here at the extraordinary Forest Avenue School. This school is the one where students enjoy learning, conduct community service projects and realize how important it is to treat everyone as they want to be treated.
School begins on January 5th, 2015. We have awards night right away on January 8th and math night later in the month.
Happy New Year!