February 2024 volume 10 number 6
Westbrook School Department
A New Format for our Monthly Newsletter
Dear Friends,
We have been publishing the Teaching and Learning newsletter every month for many years, posting it to our website and publishing it to Thursday Folders. This month we are trying a new digital format which will be sent electronically to all families and staff as well as other community members on our mailing list. It will also be posted to our website. This format promotes a wider distribution of the newsletter and allows for one-click translation of content into the reader's language of choice. We hope you continue to enjoy the stories of our schools, our students, and our staff - we have so many amazing stories to tell! We would appreciate your feedback about the format and the content as we continue to expand our communication tools that will keep us all connected.
Our schools have been holding a number of family and public events of the last few weeks, including Saccarappa's Winter Festival and Valentine's Pancake Breakfast, Canal's Spaghetti Supper and Bingo Night, Congin's Family Fun Night, and concerts and athletic events at WMS and WHS. It is so good to see people participating in school events. Thank you for being part of these great events!
The Saccarappa Lodge Masons are promoting reading by once again sponsoring the Books for Bikes program at Canal, Congin, and Saccarappa School this year. When kids read books, they are able to enter a drawing for a new bike and helmet. Two students will be chosen in each grade and will be given bikes before April vacation. We appreciate their generosity!
Thanks to our WHS school resource officer Brett Moreva and the generosity of our friends at Ernie's Cycle Shop, we are now developing a plan to provide bikes for high school students who need them. You may have seen the recent story featuring this project on the channel 6 and channel 8 news. We appreciate the creative thinking of our staff and community to support our students.
We have been involved in a thoughtful process to review our literacy instructional programming in our K-8 schools. Assistant Superintendent Kim O'Donnell and I have held roundtable meetings at each school with faculty to discuss how are children are doing, what is working well, and what is not in reading and writing. It was rich dialogue at all the schools that clearly pointed to the need for some new directions in literacy instruction. In addition, our elementary schools completed the Comprehensive Needs Assessment process, a requirement of school receiving federal Title I funding, which included a review of achievement data as well as further conversations about programming. It also suggested revisions to classroom instruction as well as in targeted programs including Title I, multilingual, and special education. Information gathered at these meetings is being synthesized and will lead to thoughtful decisions about next steps. The process should wrap up this winter and will be discussed at upcoming Educational Programs meetings. One thing is clear, however: we need to continue promoting extensive reading of books in order to practice foundational skills and strategies in phonics and phonemic awareness, develop reading fluency, expand our vocabulary, and develop comprehension. Let's all encourage our children to read, read, read!
Take care, and be strong.
Dr. Peter Lancia, Superintendent of Schools
SACCARAPPA LOCAL STORIES PROJECT
The mural is in 4 sections and will be displayed outside of the cafetreia in the main hallway for all to see and learn!
Saccarappa School 4th grades recently completed a Local Stories Project, a two-month interdisciplinary project integrating history, writing, art, and theater entitled "Presumpscot River Stories: The River of Many Falls." Students worked with local artists in residence Laurie Downey and Gretchen Berg, learned from special guests including members of the Penobscot nation, participated in activities and field trips, and conducted research about Westbrook history, particularly the city's Wabanaki heritage, fishing and paper industries, and our community's connection to the river. Students rehearsed and presented performances for family and friends and revealed a collaborative mural with drawings and writing. What an amazing amount of work and learning! Thank you to the Warren Memorial Foundation, UNUM, and other local funders, as well as Director of Art Dr. Rachel Somerville, Saccarappa 4th grade teachers Lindy Hankins, Cara Colgan, Becky Belanger, and Dean Wellman, principal Alexis Jones, Assistant Principal Bonnie Hicks, and our amazing kids for making this possible!
WHS Jazz Auditions for Essentially Ellington at Jazz at Lincoln Center
For the first time in Westbrook's proud history of music education, our WHS Jazz Band has submitted an audition recording to the prestigious Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. If selected, they will be among the top 15 bands in the countrry and will be invited to perform in New York. Director Kyle Smith shared that being selected would be amazing, but just having an opportunity to study the master works of Duke Ellington has been a great experience for our students.
To hear their recording -yes, it's our own WHS students - click on the titles: Rent Party Blues, Across the Track Blues, Almost Cried.
CURIOUS ABOUT COLLEGE
On January 30 and 31, 2024, Westbrook High School students were able to participate in a college simulation presentation to better help them understand what entering college really looks like and the reality of costs students are presented with, even with “Free College” in Maine. Shila Cook, ABE/ELL Coordinator for Westbrook Adult Education visited Portland Adult Education when they presented this experience to their adult learners and then, in partnership with Alice Shea, College and Career Success Coordinator at SMCC, decided to present Curious About College to Westbrook adult learners. With more planning, they thought including high school students would have a big impact, so they brought in WHS Aspirations Counselor, Nicole Sturgis, to get the word out to WHS staff and students and execute the plan. The presentation was a big hit! Westbrook High School students were fully engaged in this informative experience and were surprised by how different starting college was than what they had imagined. Mr. Taylor brought his class down to participate and sent feedback saying, “LOVED the stations today for the students. Back in our classroom, so many good conversations were happening”. This feedback has sparked more conversations about how to expand the presentation to more students in the future. It was truly a wonderful, eye-opening experience for all.
CONGRATULATIONS
Westbrook has a long tradition of recognizing outstanding teaching by naming the annual Teachers of the Year for each school. They were nominated and selected by peers as great members of our school community because of the impact on our students and colleagues. They have also been nominated for Cumberland County Teacher of the Year.
Congratulations to the following:
Canal - Morgan Glencross
Congin - Susan Powers
Saccarappa - Nacoma Hollatz
WMS - Kristen Drottar
WHS - Jennifer Conway
WRVC - Rob Jamie
Also nominated separately for Cumberland County Teacher of the Year are:
Jared Ruthman at WHS
Caleb Taylor at WHS
Jessie Arujo at Saccarappa
PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY AT CANAL
Canal students and staff enjoyed a lively whole school presentation followed up with classroom workshops with Portland Stage’ Company, one of Maine's premier professional theaters. They presented the PLAY program which helps develop literacy and reading fluency, character recall, understanding of themes, social-emotional skills, physical storytelling, and vocal characterization.
The PLAY program presented was “A World of Connection”, including readings of How to Party Like a Snail by Naseem Hrab and Kelly Collier, Chickadee Criminal Mastermind by Monica Silvie and Elina Ellis, The Red Jacket by Bob Holt, and What the World Could Make by Holly M. McGhee and Pascal Lemaitre. Thank you Portland Stage and Canal Librarian Susie Brown for organizing this wonderful experience!
YUMMY! Look what's in our cafeterias!
(left) homemade mac n' cheese; (above) beef stew in a bread bowl; (right) fresh donuts!
FY25 Budget Development
The annual School Department Budget is in development for the next school year. The process began in the fall when administrators worked with staff to identify budget requests based on needs for schools and departments. Dr. Lancia also sent a survey to staff seeking their input on priorities across the district. In December, administrators submitted their respective budgets after which they reviewed them line by line, including priorities and requests, with Dr. Lancia, Dr. Mazjanis, and Dr. O'Donnell. The full Leadership Team reviewed and made further adjustments to the budget, which will continue through the end of February. In early March, the budget will be made public when it is presented to the school Finance Committee who will also review the budget line by line, making further adjustments and affirming district budget priorities. The budget is then submitted to the full School Committee who will discuss the budget, make further adjustments, and finally adopt it becfore submitting it to the City Council for their consideration and adoption with the municipal budget. The final step is the annual School Budget referendum vote in June.
We encourage the public to be involved in the process of budget development! Public meetings are held in March and April in person at WHS Room 114, on Zoom and Facebook, and channel 2. The following are the dates of upcoming budget meetings:
Wednesday, March 6 Finance Committee Budget Presentation, 5pm
Monday, March 11 Finance Committee Budget Review
Tuesday, March 12 Finance Committee Budget Review
Wednesday, March 13 Finance Committee Budget Review
Thursday, March 14 Finance Committee Budget Review (make up)
Wednesday March 20 Finance Committee Budget Review
Wednesday, March 27 School Committee Public Budget Hearing and 1st reading, 5pm
Wednesday, April 3 School Committee Budget 2nd Reading, 6pm
Materials will be published on the WSD website. We hope you will be part of the budget development process
Teaching and Learning in Westbrook
What are I Times and U Times in BARR?
All schools in Westbrook are now aligned with the BARR Center, an initiative that monitors and supports the academic and social and emotional learning of all students. In every interaction with, or discussion about, students, educators address students’ academic, emotional, social, and physical needs. Teachers work to better understand and build on students’ strengths, proactively address the non-academic reasons why they may fall behind in school, and identify what they need to thrive. They monitor progress closely and build strategies to support their growth. Additionally, all students are engaged in whole-class weekly lessons and activities called U-Time (K-4) and I-Time (5-12). These brief but focused lessons and activities promote relationship building, resilience, communication skills, goal setting, and other important life and interpersonal skills. U Time and I time activities are common across grade levels so that all students can have similar experiences and learn similar skills and strategies that support and engage them in their classroom, school, and community. Activities are project based, hands-on, and adaptable to all levels of ability and language development. Through U Time and I time and the structures to monitor student growth, BARR makes an impact on student achievement as well as the culture of learning in our schools.
Equity and Opportunity in our Schools
The Westbrook School Department provides interpreter services. If you would like to request an interpreter for a meeting or require translation of a school form or document, call the administrative Offices at 207-854-0800. After you are connected, please say the requested language and provide your name and telephone number. A staff person will return your call with an interpreter.
All students need to feel connected to schools, to be seen and heard in all aspects of our community. Books and food are two ways of promoting this.
Books provide "windows and mirrors" for our students. They can reflect one's own culture and experience and they provide opportunities for people to learn about cultures and experiences other than their own. For example, many libraries are featuring books by Black authors and famous Black Americans during February which is Black History Month. What a great time to read books by Maya Angelou, Jacqueline Woodsum, or Kwame Alexander or learn about people who have made great contributions to our lives.
Our cafeterias are continuing to pursue Halal certification and include a variety of foods from different cultures on our menus. Westbrook will be one of the only three schools in Maine with this certification. Thank you to director Mary Emerson and her amazing staff for expanding our offerings and making sure that all children have options from which to choose in our cafeterias.
READERS' THEATER AT CONGIN SCHOOL
2nd and 3rd Graders at Congin School love their new Reader's Theater Club! Students practice reading favorite books in script format to practice decoding strategies, develop oral reading skills, and build fluency while having fun and entertaining their friends! Reader's Theater is a great traditional way to practice foundational reading skills! A recent presentation was of the popular story The Day the Crayons Quit.
Schools will be closed for
WINTER VACATION
February 19 - 23.
Classes resume on
Monday, February 26.
ENJOY YOUR VACATION!
It's time to start planning for the graduating class of 2037! Westbrook's elementary schools will begin registering our incoming kindergarten students in March. If you are a parent of a child turning five before October 15, 2024, please plan to attend the kindergarten orientation session at your neighborhood school on March 5th at 6:00 p.m. Registration and screening information will be shared at that time.
We look forward to welcoming our new Shining Stars and partnering with you in your child's educational journey.
More information can be found here. Or please call your neighborhood school:
Canal School, 102 Glenwood Ave, 207-854-0840
Congin School, 410 Bridge St, 207-854-0844
Saccarappa School, 110 Huntress Ave., 207-854-0849