The Adams School  
P.O. Box 29
27 School Street
Castine, Maine 04421
326-8608
www.adamsschool.com

The School Consolidation Plan--Synopsis from MMA

ADAMS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
JUNE 8, 2007

 Dolphin le Bearnaise

Chapter 1

In which we hear the beginning of how a bear from the United Forests of America travels to France, where, he believes, a bear might even be king.

            He packed his bags, obtained traveler’s checks from the bank. He combed his fur and packed extra honey sandwiches for the trip, donned a fresh Adams School T-shirt, and settled into first-class accommodations in a comfortable cardboard box. Port Out Starboard Home, or something to that effect. His specially expedited diplomatic passport was in hand. Dolphin was ready for his trip to France—to the region known as the Bearn, to be exact. And last Friday we sent him on his way, bidding him bon voyage, en masse, at the Castine Post Office. Postmaster Rollins was in attendance and personally supervised his safe departure. His ticket cost $82.00. His box of Castine and Adams artifacts, $59.99. Sending our stuffed bear to the Bearnaise kids….priceless.

            Not many bears from the U.F.A. (United Forests of America) get to visit France, much less travel by Overseas Priority Mail. But when Dolphin learned that his name in French is Dauphin, and that it’s the name that the French traditionally assigned to the heir to the throne, he was quite intrigued. (We did not inform him that the French monarchy no longer exists.) How could he not undertake this voyage? “Maybe I’m a prince,” he told his kindergarten-first grade friends. We’d settle for a baronial bear.

            They’ve been very generous in permitting him to go. But with the understanding that the children of St. Castin will help fill in his journal with photos and stories, in French, and have him back in Castine safe and sound,  in time for the opening of school in September, they have permitted him to summer abroad. After all, he has been hard at work ever since 1995, supervising kindergarten-first grade imaginations and presiding over reading, writing and sums.  Mostly he is in charge of hugging and being hugged.

It was noted, before he left, that Dolphin had already begun extensive journal writings of his own. In fact, he seems to have developed a particular attachment to a French essayist by the name of Antoine de St. Exupery, and here are some of the quotes that Dolphin transcribed into his journal prior to his sejour en France.

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are. 

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys. 

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.                                                            

            Our beloved bear, Dolphin-Dauphin, is clearly a very philosophical bear. He thinks and feels deeply, and he will be in good hands in St. Castin…and they will be in good hands with him. The French students he is going to meet are interested in saving the wild bears of the Pyrenees. Perhaps our Dolphin will meet some distant cousins? Perhaps there is a chateau awaiting his hereditary claim? And perhaps an American bear can even find l'amour en France?

We await his report with great expectations. And imagine the surprise in store for children in France when they discover it is an American bear in the mysterious box that was shipped from Monsieur Nelson, le directeur de l’ecole Adams, and that he has been reading books by the author of Le Petit Prince.

—Todd

 

Welcome Art Wittine! Our new superintendent is on the job. Art joined us at our concert rehearsal Tuesday morning, and stayed for lunch with the K-1 class, and attended the June board meeting. His official start date is Monday, June 11. 

What School will look like next year: At the school board meeting on Wednesday night the new plan for structuring and staffing our school was approved. See longer explanation below!

Graduation is June 13^th, 12:30pm. Please join us, if you can, at the Unitarian Church. We’ll honor several members of the school and community, in addition to sending our 8^th graders onward to life after Adams. We’ll dismiss the school at the regular time.

The 2007 Yearbooks have arrived…and are being stored at a secret, secure, undisclosed location!  We will distribute them early next week so that students have plenty of time for the obligatory signing-fest. Each student gets their own yearbook; each family a copy of the “Miss Nelson is Missing” DVD. The yearbooks are no cost to recipients, thanks to Castine community and merchants advertising.

Lost and Found: Egad! The Clothing is piling up at school…be sure to have a look next time you’re in the building. After June 19, lost and found passes on to the afterlife: Goodwill.

Last Tennis: Our after-school tennis program will end on June 12.

Summer Opportunities:

Free Sailing Lessons Week:  The annual free sailing week will take place the week of June 25-29 at the Castine Yacht Club.  Please stop by the Town Office to sign up.  This program is co-sponsored by the Castine Recreation Committee and the Castine Yacht Club.

Sailing Scholarship Program:  Forms are available at the Town Office for the Sailing Scholarship Program. The deadline to submit paperwork is Friday, June 22^nd.  If you have any questions, please call 326-4502.                                                                                                   

ADAMS SCHOOL MENU   June 11^th – 15^th

Monday – Corn Dogs, Tater Tots, Blueberry Muffin, Applesauce, Milk

Tuesday – Chicken Noodle Soup, Biscuits, Crackers, Pineapple, Milk

Weds. – Chicken Burgers, French Fries, Salad, Pumpkin Bars, Milk

Thursday – Macaroni & Cheese with Ham, Corn, Pumpkin Muffin, Cherry Crisp, Milk

Friday – Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Chips, Baby Carrots, Fruit Juice, Cookie, Milk

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Summer Music Lessons at Tamarack Farm Music Studio: During the summer months, music lessons will be offered on all school wind instruments, piano, percussion, guitar and recorder. This year there will be two four-week sessions beginning June 25^th and July 30^th. It’s a great time to improve your music-reading ability and technique, start a new instrument, or dust off that instrument in the closet. For more information: Luki Hewitt, 326-8789.

Summer Art & Theatre: Amy Grant, former GSA teacher and administrative assistant, has founded a new company!  Peninsula Metamorphic Arts & Learning (P.M.A.L.) will run two performing arts camps this summer at the Brooklin School. 

 

      ARTS PLAYHOUSE, a performing arts camp for next year’s 2nd-9th graders, will run July 16-20 from 9am-3pm with classes in drama, music, dance, and visual arts.

      The TEEN THEATRE WORKSHOP, a theatre camp where students will write and produce an original script, will run weekdays from 5:30pm-9:00pm, July 9-26.  Performances will be July 27 and 28. 

 

Registration forms are available on-line at www.peninsulametamorphic.com or in the GSA office.  For additional information, please call Amy at 479-6382.

 

Kneisel Hall Summer Program for young musicians:

When: 10-11:30 Saturday Morning from June 30^th  -through August 4^th

Who: Students grades 3-5

Where: On the Kneisel Hall Campus, Blue Hill

What’s this all about: Learning, listening, playing and composing

Do I need to play an instrument? No, there will be plenty to do and learn.

You will be given a MUSIC LAB pass which will allow you to attend the six Saturday sessions, six Wednesday Library concerts, master classes, young artist concerts, as well as faculty dress rehearsals on Friday mornings.

We’ll explore music through the perspective of scientists, detectives, architects, athletes, actors and other such careers. We’ll look up close at the music that Kneisel Hall Young Artists are working on and we’ll even make our own!                                                                                                              

Each Saturday session will focus on the music being performed each Wednesday afternoon at the Blue Hill Library where you’ll have the chance to make a journal of your observations and interview the musicians.  

How do I sign up? Just email Beth: elizabeth.weisser@gmail.com

How much: $50

  

Calendar for 2006-2007

Last update: June 7, 2007

June

 

8        End of third trimester. (12 weeks)

8      Smorgs III. K stays all-day.

9      Readers Theater Multi-Cultural stories...9-12:00.

11   Step-Up Day...new kindergartners visit. K stays all day.

12   Graduation rehearsals for 8th graders.

13   8th Grade Graduation, 12:30pm. Whole School attends. UU Church.

14   Calvineers and grade 2-3 to Brooksville School.

15   K-3 to Holbrook Island. K stays all day.

15    Term 3 reports go home

19   Last Student day: Field Day and Beach picnic.

20    Teacher in-service day.

21    Teacher in-service day.

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Adams School 2007-2008

 

Dear Parents:

         As you know, in April we were asked by the school board to find a way to maintain all of our current programs for next year—minus one full-time teacher. And after several weeks of meetings, and numerous drafts of schedules and assignments, we presented our plan to the school board at the regular June meeting. The board unanimously adopted our proposal. Now it’s time to explain to you how we’ll teach your children next year.

         Clearly, Adams School will feel different in September. But I trust that the kids will feel as excited as ever about their school lives, and that parents will have confidence in our new organization. The structure is a blend of change and continuity. Our hearts and ambitions—the best part of “Adams Schoolness”—are still in the right place. I’m grateful for such a resilient, inventive faculty that feels genuinely excited about the new possibilities.

         It should be said that everyone here is “stepping up” to new roles, increased responsibilities, and some clever and generous new uses of time and talent. I also think what we propose is good for kids, actually augments our program, aligns us with the grade configurations in the other Union 93 schools, and will assure that kids still feel a sense of belonging to particular teacher and room. In fact, we’re already dreaming of the things we can do over the summer to make the facility feel new and special, even for kids who find themselves returning to a classroom they had anticipated leaving next year. We’ll surprise them!

         Homerooms/class groups. We proposed the following grade structure for homerooms and basic teaching assignments.

 

            K-2 Lameyer

3-4 Pelletier

           5-6 Nelson

           7-8 McWeeny

 

The break down of Middle Level teaching assignments goes like this:

 

         Language Arts 8                      Nelson

         Social Studies 7-8                            Nelson

 

         Language Arts 5-7                                     Nelson, McFadden

         Social Studies 5-6                                      McFadden

         Math/Science 5-8                                      McWeeny, McFadden, Bertrand

         K-5 extra reading support, AKA “Title I”:  McFadden, Bertrand

 

Here are some notes as to what this new structuring accomplishes:

 

This structure realigns us with the other Union schools, finally. This matters, given the amount of grade-level curriculum work at Union in-service days. We are always out of synch now.

 

It’s a good match of teaching abilities and interests with grade levels/student ages. It treats K-2 as a learning continuum, particularly good for reading. Second grade is a key grade for solidifying literacy. Cheryl McFadden will teach the second grade math class. There will actually be more adults working with grades 1-2, and possibilities for more individual support.

 

Homeroom size is appropriate and age mixes work well. Kids will still feel a sense of “belonging” to a particular place and person. The class lines feel a little more developmentally appropriate, particularly at 3-6^th grade levels. 

 

Things that kids have been looking forward to at certain grade levels—band, laptops, sports, etc—do not change.

 

At the middle level, there will be three primary teachers (McFadden, Nelson, McWeeny) with support from Schamle and Bertrand for math and in-class support.        

 

There is no loss of art, music, PE, band, Spanish, Library, etc. in the weekly schedule. Art, in particular, will find more integration into the upper grade humanities curriculum.

 

5^th graders will have Bill McWeeny for science.

 

7^th graders are alone for Science—this is new—and 7-8 has twice as much art time.

 

Title I/reading will have increased time (McFadden, Bertrand) in all the grades where it’s needed.

 

The 8th grade experience will be preserved as a distinct, special “culminating” year for a child’s Adams School years.

 

Some students will be entering into a repeat year with a teacher they would not have had for a third year. Hopefully, this will be seen as a benefit. But that’s happened before in restructuring here and is unavoidable.

 

5-8th graders will have a familiar new teacher (Nelson) for Language Arts/Social Studies.

 

We did not recommend full-day kindergarten at this time, as it would complicate the afternoon experience for 1-2 graders. Our new K-2 program gives second graders a little longer to solidify their new reading skills with one teacher, and to mentor 1st graders in a multi-age classroom. We are not philosophically opposed to an all-day kindergarten program, but given our staffing and building constraints it seems unworkable while trying to balance all of the other considerations in restructuring. We’re also mindful that our kindergarteners now have a 4.5 hour-day—more than a half-day.

         We intend to explain all of this to the students next week, and they’ll have a chance to ask plenty of questions during a step-up morning. We haven’t thought of everything, no doubt, and we welcome your questions and the chance to further refine our plans. Most of all, we’d like the kids to go out the door to summer vacation thinking, “I can’t wait to get back to school.”

         Thanks, as always, for your support.

 

Todd R. Nelson

Principal