Principal’s Report
November 2008


K-2 Update. New furniture has arrived…and it gives classroom some new, helpful seclusion for second graders. Defines the borders of space in the classroom. The scheduling changes that took place immediately after last board meeting have been an instant improvement in terms of separating ages and defining needs in the classroom. One thing that we should continue talking about is kindergarten in particular—not just because this year it is large, but because the needs of a kindergarten program are unique. The kind of day that kids need in that first year of school is a more elastic use of time and attention—thus, the short period approach, with many transitions in the day and multiple adults teaching them, may not be the best approach for kindergarten in particular. We all know what’s optimum! So continuing to discuss what’s possible with all the competing interests and needs—space, personnel, budget--is important.  

Anti-Bullying and Civility Project. We have held two middle level meetings/discussions with kids (i.e. 5-8th graders), and class meetings with younger grades, and begun a long-term discussion of Adams School behaviors and the issues that kids identify as problematic. The 5-8th graders are very impressive when discussing their school lives. We’ve reviewed with them their own responses on the school-wide questionnaire, and made updates and additions through group process. This will evolve into making connections and practice between the civility rules and the issues they’d like to solve. I feel confident that everything we need for guidance is close at hand and the conversation is a healthy, productive one. Practicing some fresh “scripts” using civility language is ahead of us.

Halloween: Perfect weather, tradition, and spooky spirits. Thank you CFD for another great vehicle escort. We began the afternoon with a Skype conference with Gurdeniz. Halloween was his great, shining moment at Adams (remember his interview last spring?). He greeted us with his Scream mask on; we greeted him with bagpipes and my own Scream mask.

Copier lease: It’ll cost more, break less, give us performance and cost benefits. We would save $400 on maintenance agreement, and have our current $800 maintenance pro-rated into the deal; receive $500 credit for old machine; pay $125.00/month on new lease-to-purchase. I.e. copier costs to our budget rise to $2300. Per year. We could save nominally on printer toner costs, since we can print directly from laptops to copier, at cheaper per-copy rate. New copier has hard drive that can store files for repeated use. It’s not a wash—it will cost more. But we’ll have a new generation machine requiring less frequent repairs.

Emergency plan & current events: We will review our lock down procedures at next faculty meeting, then practice an intruder drill. Obviously, it’s on everyone’s mind after Stockton Springs. We were already reviewing our emergency procedures.  

Katsusige Murai arrives next Wednesday! We have arranged a volunteer ESL tutor for him (MMA student). He’ll join the 7th grade, primarily, where one of our students has been studying Japanese and can be a big help to him, and he to her.

Other New Students: We are expecting a new 5th grade boy in January, son of new physician to area; and a new kindergartner moving into the area…awaiting enrollment forms on both. This would bring our numbers to sixty, as of January, plus the short-term enrollment of Japanese student.

French hosting dates. Still tentative, but the French students (23) and chaperones (5) are aiming for May 16-23th for their trip to Castine. Fundraising is underway in St. Castin; great excitement over there! Once the dates are confirmed, we’ll become more active on our side in scheduling joint activities with our kids and theirs (probably two school days during their week visit), and community events for town-to-town welcome and entertaining. Mayor Finzi is a likely a chaperone.





Todd R. Nelson
Principal
11-5-08