August 16th, 2007

Bonjour!

Greetings from Schoolsville. It’s a little quiet here, and it seems as if pinecone sales have gone quite flat in the markets out back, no doubt a result of recent setbacks in Asia.  Slowdowns in other local industries—the sandbox, most notably—have investors worried. But the Federal Reserve chairman has promised an adjustment in interest rates on or about the 4th of September. I’m sure that will reinvigorate the economic activity to the levels to which we’re accustomed.

St. Castin: You’ll hear many wonderful things about our trip to St. Castin, France in June—lots of photos and stories and thoughtful responses to share. Suffice to say, we had an extraordinary visit.
When we gather on the town common on the first day of school, September 4th at 07:25, we’ll say a special “Bonjour” to St. Castin, France. We’re making a DVD for the occasion of their Fete de St. Castin on September 12th. So we’ll record our opening ceremonies, with some special surprises, and send our best wishes.

Bienvenue, Kate Morse! In August, the school board hired Kate (of Penobscot) to be our new French teacher. Adams School now speaks French! Kate is an experienced teacher and school counselor, returning to her earlier passion of French. So all students will now have French twice each week.

The Nature Center—lend a hand! We now have a roof on our nature center porch (thank you, Ted), and hope to have a grand workday on August 25th in order to get a lot of shingling work done. If you can spare a few hours and would like to bang some nails, drop by school after 8:30am.

Building work: Denny has done a lot of great work in the building this summer. And kids will notice special reading loft in Ms. P’s room (Thanks Colin and Jimmy!), as well as a new window; fresh paint on the walls upstairs, a reconfigured Mrs. McFadden’s room, and a cleaned out attic.

Grounds: As you’ve probably heard, we are the beneficiaries of a land grant from Temple Blackwood and family that will add greatly to the size of our playground. This will become garden space and a little nature preserve. We hope to have the fence moved, after a big tree and brush cutting session, so that the grounds will look amazing when the kids return. We’ll plan for a dedication ceremony of some kind—for the land and nature center--on Columbus Day Weekend.

P-T Conferences: If you would like a before-school conference with your child’s teacher, please call school to schedule. We have set aside an in-service day on Friday, September 21 for the purposes of conferences. The idea is to get a couple of weeks of school go by to get familiar with new children, new routines, before this customary goal-setting conference.

MEA scores: The annual reporting of March’s MEA scores for your children are enclosed.

Host families: GSA is still seeking host families for two international students. Manuel (Spanish boy) and Minpyo (Korean boy) are great kids!   Please consider opening up your hearts and homes to them.  Let Sheryl Stearns (sherylstearns@george-stevens.pvt.k12.me.us; 374-2808, ext.134) know if you are interested in hosting for either the full academic year or for a few weeks until permanent host families are found.   There is a stipend involved to help defray the cost of housing these kids.

Take another paddle, dip your toes in the stream, the black raspberries are almost ripe.  See you soon.



Monsieur Nelson
Principal
nelsontr@verizon.net