September 2024 volume 11 number 1

Dear Friends,

The 2024-25 school year is officially up and running, and things are going very well thanks to the outstanding effort of so many. Our buildings never looked better because of the hard work all summer of our custodians and maintenance staff. Our teachers and ed techs are ready to roll out revised curriculum and new materials that will address the needs of all learners. Drivers are excited to be back with their students, school nutrition staff are ready to use new recipes and initiatives that will feed all students, school and district offices are up and running and have welcomed dozens of new students, and administrators are ready to lead with courage, pride, and passion for our schools, our students, and our community. Families are excited to be back at school and our open house attendance was standing room only. Most importantly, our students are engaged, happy to be back, and ready to learn. I have the pleasure every year of meeting with our Seniors and our Kindergarteners, our students who are just beginning their journey with us and those who are taking their final steps toward graduation. While the energy level of 5 year olds versus seventeen year olds may be a bit different, I could see many similarities. Our kindergarteners, wide eyed and nervous, have settled in and our seniors, similarly wide-eyed and nervous about making decisions about the future, are committed to hard work and a joyful final year. They represent our school community very well! Coupled with our amazing staff who are deeply committed to every child's success and our wonderful families who support our schools in so many ways, we are poised to make this the very best year ever. We will have great stories to tell!

Take care, and be strong!

Dr. Peter Lancia, Superintendent of Schools

First Days of School

Telling Our Stories Anew

Our annual Back to School Meeting and Celebration for school staff was held on Monday, August 26 at WPAC. After a performance by the WHS Blue Blazes Jazz Ensemble and remarks from Superintendent Dr. Lancia, School Committee Chair Suzanne Salisbury, and WEA President Sue Lombardo, over 200 employees were recognized for their years of service to the district, for transitioning to new positions, and for joining the school department as new employees. Then the staff participated in a workshop presented by Nick Whiston, Program Director from The Telling Room, an organization in Portland committed to telling the stories of the many people of Maine. The workshop focused on the importance of telling stories and offered suggestions and strategies for sharing stories of our lives, our classrooms, our schools, and our community. It was a great event to celebrate the opening of the new school year!

Great Schools Partnership Visiting WRVC

WRVC will host a site visit from a team at Great Schools Partnership (GSP), the school reform organization with whom we have worked for a number of years. They want to learn more about our integrated credits initiative that we pioneered several years ago and have been refining ever since. Students are able to earn core High School credits (such as English and math) concurrently while enrolled in WRVC classes. This creates greater opportunity for students to complete diploma requirements and engage in Career and Technical Education programs. It is a model initiative in Maine and GSP would like to promote the excellent work at our center.

School Safety and Security

We take the safety and security of our students and staff very seriously. We prioritize practicing our protocols in order to respond to any kind of emergency or unexpected event. As a district, we follow the Standard Response Protocol, a national system that teaches and follows standardized procedures across the district. Information about our school safety protocols can be found by clicking HERE or on our website. We work collaboratively with Westbrook Police, Fire, and EMS to practice our procedures on a regular basis. We also make sure that doors are locked during the school day. Visitors must be admitted by office staff. If there is an active emergency event, we will send notifications to families and the community via our automated messaging system. Depending on the situation, the information we provide may be limited. We will all work together to maintain the safety and security of our schools.

Westbrook Multilingual Program to be Featured

On Thursday, Sept 12, a researcher by the name of Alejandra Vasquez Baur who works with the Century Foundation and the National Newcomer Network, visited Westbrook High School to learn more about the work we do with welcoming newcomers to our schools. She was referred to Westbrook by Maine DOE Multilingual and Bilingual Education Specialist Melanie Junkins at The Department of Education who knows of the work we do here. Alejandra met with Multilingual Programs Director Regina Clement, Superintendent Dr. Lancia, several teachers, the co-principals, and a student. She also visited classrooms and met with the Adult Education staff to learn about our pathways for students and adults. This visit is part of her research to identify and spotlight best practices nationally in Newcomer and multilingual programs. Westbrook will be featured in a future white paper “spotlight” showcasing outstanding work in different parts of the country. What a great way to tell a story about the great work we do in Westbrook which is student centered, forward thinking, welcoming, and always responsive to needs. 

What is new in 2024-25?

The new school year typically has new initiatives and programs. This year, we have a clear focus on literacy, particularly foundational skills and strategies that are necessary for further literacy development. This initiative was developed through last year's thorough program review of English language arts. These skills involve language, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary , spelling, and comprehension. In grades K-3, we have begun to use a structured program, From Phonics to Reading, that addresses these skills. Similarly in grades 4-8, we are launching a program called Morpheme Magic which reinforces early literacy skills and extends them through more complex texts and purposes. Coupled with our continued commitment to reading and responding to excellent literature across the curriculum, these programs will provide a well rounded literacy experience for our students and will increase achievement. We are also focusing on language development for all students which will also increase achievement. We look forward to setting goals and monitoring growth throughout the year as we follow our revised frameworks.

At WHS, we have launched new courses in computer technology as part of our STEAM programing. We are also offering EDU 100 Exploring Teaching as a Profession as an Early College offering with USM. It is part of our Future Teachers Academy diploma endorsement.

We are very excited to introduce Reach My Teach as another communication tool for families and teachers. Messages can be sent to various platforms and translated into a language determined by the receiver's settings. It is very easy to use and will help bridge communication.