8.22

Hi All, 

I hope that you're feeling ready for tomorrow! I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at U-32 and then again back in our building for staff meeting starting at 1:00. 

Reminders:

As a reminder here is the outline for tomorrow and the next day. Click Here or see below. 

Monday: 

Time	Topic	Time	Topic
7:45-9:00	Breakfast (Coffee/Light Snacks)	11am- 12:45	Special Educators Meeting and Lunch
8:00-9:00	Association Meeting Time  (Attendance Optional)	11:00-12:45	Travel/Light Lunch Provided at BES
9:00-9:15	Break	1:00-2:30	All Staff Meeting
9:15-11:00	Convocation	2:30-3:30	Mandatory Training Time

 Tuesday: 

Time	Attendance	Topics to cover in each building - Principal’s discretion	Why??
8:30-9:00	All Staff	Welcome and Carbs and Coffee	Personal connection and food are keys to our survival	RB
9:30-10:00	All Staff	Focusing on the “Why?”	Grounding ourselves in commitments to each other and our students. Answer the question of “why?”	RB
10:00-10:15	All Staff	Break	A quick reset is important!
10:15-10:45	Teaching and Para Staff	PBIS Review		L
10:45-12:15	Teaching and Para Staff	Nuts and Bolts  Team Meetings  Schedules  LCAP  Upcoming Dates Open House— September 24th 5:30-6:30 Pictures— September 18		IS
12:15-1:00	Lunch	Lunch	Food is important—We will provide lunch
1:00-3:00	Teaching and Para Staff	Team Time  Schedules  Planning  Questions   Mandatory Trainings  Unpacking new materials (literally and figuratively)	Time to connect and complete work as you see fit.	PL
3:15	Closing Circle		Connection and closing is part of the brain science of a cohesive team	RB

Please see the notes from Lori last week: 

• New Coffee Maker--will not be operational until Monday
• I have an order here in the office I cannot figure out who ordered: some of the items include Digital timer, pencil eraser caps, pencil sharpener, Neon Colored Paper.  If any of this sound familiar let me know
• If you have any laminating or copy jobs get them to us asap please.  The laminator is only run by Doreen or myself.  Thanks!
• Upstairs, at the top of the stairs, there is a table and shelves (only first section) to the right that have free items.  If it is still there by the end of the day Tuesday, its going to the dumpster.  
• If you go upstairs and are not sure where your section is, come and see me...I have that knowledge.  Anyone who had things upstairs, has a rack now.  Please do not stray outside of your rack and the 3 feet in front of it.
• Also upstairs is a rack with some free for all things such as bulletin board paper, etc
• New cafeteria pricing for adults this year is $5.00 for Breakfast & $7.00 for lunch.  This is a pay in advance system so feel free to put monies on your account at the beginning of the year and you can ask for your balance at any time.
• I will be putting Sunshine envelopes in your mailboxes at some point soon, if you want more info on that, please ask me.
• If you have not received something in your orders, please let me know asap so that I can get it ordered or check on its status.  School Specialty has some B/O items.

To-Do's:

• LAST CALL: Summer Slideshow: Please add a slide to this slideshow with something you'd like to share from your summer. Directions are on the slideshow. 
• Staff Spotlight: All staff please fill out this Staff Spotlight Form. We will be recognizing staff in the wider community weekly throughout the year. 

Upcoming Events: 

• August 25---Watermelon Social at BES 5:30-6:30
• August 27---First Day of School 8:45-3:00
• September 1st---No School
• September 9th- Playing Fields Project at U-32 6:00pm
• September 24--- BES Open House 5:30-6:30pm
• September 25th--- Community Meal at U-32

Where is Celia?

Monday 8/25	U-32 then BES!  Watermelon Social 5:30-6:30 *All are Welcome
Tuesday 8/26	Inservice All Day  SPED Team
Wednesday 8/27	Admin Team Nuts and Bolts 1:00  Staff Check In 3:00
Thursday  8/28	9:00-11:00 504 Training  Community Meal Meeting 3:00
Friday 8/29	** Rowan's Birthday**

8.14

Hi All, 

We're getting closer by the minute! I hope you are all staying hydrated in this muggy weather. I feel like I sure enter a contest to see how big my hair can get. 

I'm coming off of admin retreat and a coaching training this week. I'm feeling ready to continue to find the conditions where our students thrive this year. 

Nuts and Bolts: 

• Inservice 
• We will start at U-32 and will be back here in the building by 1:00. 
• Carbs and Coffee will be provided by U-32. I will have a lighter lunch on Monday for us. 
• Tuesday we will start at 8:30.
• I will provide breakfast and lunch on Tuesday. 
• Steven will be sending out more information next week. 
• Open House will be the 24th of September form 5:30-6:30 
• Flex-Day is the 22nd of August. This is a time for you to be here and get things rolling. If you're not able to come in that day the expectation is that you have spent 7.5 hours total during other days to get yourself set up for the year. 
• Here is the Universal Schedule again. I have added an Allied Arts tab so you can see who's on what day. Here is a very DRAFTY Duty Schedule. We will finalize this during inservice. I also need to work with the Special Educators to determine para lunches.
• Updates: 
• The playground equipment looks like it will be here mid-September. I'll keep you posted.  
• I've sent nomination forms to CO and I will share the new hire names as soon as I get confirmation from Heidi. What that means is that we will be fully staffed. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I will do my best to get assignments out by tomorrow evening. If not, it will be Monday. 

To-Do's:

• Summer Slideshow: Please add a slide to this slideshow with something you'd like to share from your summer. Directions are on the slideshow. 
• Staff Spotlight: All staff please fill out this Staff Spotlight Form. We will be recognizing staff in the wider community weekly throughout the year. 

Upcoming Events: 

• August 25---Watermelon Social at BES 5:30-6:30
• August 27---First Day of School 8:45-3:00
• September 1st---No School
• September 9th- Playing Fields Project at U-32 6:00pm
• September 24--- BES Open House 5:30-6:30pm
• September 25th--- Community Meal at U-32

Where is Celia?

Monday 8/18	District Safety Team Meeting 8:30-10:30  Elementary Principals Meeting 10:30-11:30  Meeting with Tech Director 11:30-12:00  PK Taskforce Meeting 4:00-5:30
Tuesday 8/19	Work from Home---Text/Email/Call
Wednesday 8/20	Flynn Theater Meeting 8:00  Celia at School 9:00 on
Thursday  8/21	Celia at School
Friday 8/22	Celia at School  9:00-10:00 Community Schools Meeting

Welcome Back Letter

                                                                                                                                              August 4, 2025 

Hi All,

I hope that you are enjoying your summer! Here’s a welcome back letter with some skeleton ideas, reminders and a couple of tasks. 

Our building is looking better everyday. Josh, Chuck and Lucia have been hard at work cleaning, organizing and making our spaces sparkle! We’ve also had a bunch of work done on some of the “guts” of the building. The pipes should be less jumpy, Jake has a brand new walk in and the lighting outside got a facelift! There are some other fun surprises as well. BIG thank you to our maintenance crew for all their work this summer! Classrooms are very close to being ready to move back in, please just double check with Chuck if you're all clear.

Lori has been hard at work in the office. Rosters are in IC, Welcome Back packets have been assembled and mailed and orders are being shuffled around. Everyday is like Christmas here in the summer months! 

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you back to school soon. It’s odd when the building is so quiet. I can’t wait to hear about all of your adventures, relaxing moments or whatever it is that you ventured into in these short weeks off. 

In the next weekish I will be finalizing our inservice agenda. Please know that we will start at U-32 on August 24th and will have the remaining day and a half in our school building. We will be working on balancing fun, classroom time, and setting the stage for the year. The 22rd of August is your “Flex Day” for professional staff. This is the day to use as you need to set up your classroom, etc. 

All Staff, I have a few to-do’s for you as we get ready for the year. 

• Please fill out this survey by Friday, August 8th as we need to get a communication out about Open House. 

• Summer Slideshow: Please add a slide to this slideshow with pictures of your summer. Please have this done by August 22. 

• Please be thinking about your “Why?” We will be storytelling at the start of the year. 

Staff Spotlight:  I will be asking every staff member to fill out a Staff Spotlight Form. I will give you some time during inservice to complete this task but if you’d like to take it off your plate before, the link is live!

Nuts and Bolts

• I am working on a staff website for us to house our shared work for the 25-26 School Year. 

• If you have any known leave at this time please enter it into Frontline. 

Support Staff

• Assignments are forthcoming. There are still many moving parts and vacancies and I want to be as accurate with you as possible. 

Hiring Updates

Completed:

We are welcoming the following folks onto our team next year:

• Jessica Maurais–Special Ed

• Amadeus Dorfman— Special Ed 

• Mary Clare Armstrong— ⅚ Classroom Teacher 

• Ruthanne Peterson— Speech Language Pathologist 

• Sarah Darmstadt— Paraeducator 

In Process:

Paraprofessionals: We are looking for two additional paraprofessionals to join our team. Please send anyone who is interested my way!  

I’m looking forward to continuing to build our joyful, student-centered community in this coming year.  

                                         Be Well,

                                              Celia 

7.17

                              .                               

                                                    

Hi All, 

I hope that this update finds you well and that you are enjoying your summer. We had a fantastic trip out West and we made our trip from CO to VT in 4 days. Rowan was a car ride champ and we are so grateful for the time to spend as a family. The Great Sand Dunes and vistas in Colorado were just breathtaking. 

I've spent this week re-centering myself in the work of our building and am currently at ESY at EMES. I wanted to give you an update of where things are in process at school. The intention of this update is to keep you informed. There will be no asks of you from this update. 

I will be at BES most of the day on Friday and will working remotely for next week. Check out this early summer update. 

Building: 

• The maintenance team has been cranking along! They are working diligently to make things sparkle upon our return. 
• The new Fridge/Freezer combo has been installed 
• The exterior of the building has been re-keyed for our safety
• "The Pit" in Chuck's space is getting cleaned and filled in
• The soffit around the building are in the process of being repainted
• Picnic Tables are getting rehabbed
• Front entrance way concrete is getting a facelift
• The last week in July we will be undergoing a water project so there will be a few days with no water. Chuck will send out an email detailing the dates. 
• You are welcome to come in over the summer, please check with Chuck, Lucia or Josh before you enter your space just in case the floors are not ready for you to walk on them. 
• We got approval for a new playground right at the end of the year. The system has been ordered and will be installed in September. We're hoping for the middle of the month but it could be later. We will roll out the new structure to students in September, the plan is to have the PTNA help us in the celebration. 

There will be an additional spider net climber and a "ten spin" to round out some fun new playground structures! See pictures below. 

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School Year 25-26:

• Orders: 
  • Lori has been a very busy bee and has placed many, many orders. She is getting ready to roll students up and assign them to classrooms in the IC. 
• PBIS Team Update
• The PBIS team met this week and we reflected on last year, reviewed data input from staff, behavior data. There are some exciting things to expect in the future here's a brief preview, more details and information to follow. 
• Schedules: Year Long Plan/Schedule for Den Groups and Whole School Morning Meetings  (WSMM)
• We narrowed down the four basic themes for the year. I've listed them below if that's helpful to you in planning:
• Community (Aug, September, October) 
• Kindness/Gratitude (November, December, January) 
• Mindfulness Empathy—(February, March, April)
• Perseverance/Celebration— (May, June) 
• A weekly staff spotlight. We will be highlighting two staff members weekly. We will ask you to fill out a form during inservice.
• Fresh Face: We're looking for ideas of a new paw collection system/station. If you have any ideas send them along to Jessica Heinz, Tyler Smith or Myself. We are also looking for new whole school celebration ideas! 
• New Incentives: The team worked on creating a new set of incentives for our older students who may be less engaged in only the whole school celebrations.  
• I did some more updating to our schedule based on feedback from the last days of inservice. Here are the updates. If I missed something please let me know! 
• Universal Schedule 
• Specials Schedule
• FYI: Data meetings will meet every Friday. One week you will focus on Academic Data the second week we will focus on student behavior. The team will have a schedule for you at the start of the year. 

Upcoming Dates: 

• New Teacher Orientation---August 20 
• Staff "Flex Day"---August 22
• WCUUSD Convocation--- August 25th (U-32 AM/Building based PM )
• PTNA Watermelon Social---August 25th 5:00-6:30 (I may be off on timing!)
• Building Based Inservice---August 26 All Day 
• First Student Day---August 27th

I think that's it for now. Please reach out with any questions or needs that you have. Enjoy the sunshine and the glorious place that VT is in the summer.  I can't wait to here about your summer! Celia