The Latest School System Good News Newsletter

Here is the latest Good News of the Week newsletter from the Vernon public school system:

GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK – JANUARY 17, 2014

ROCKVILLE HIGH SCHOOL – The Rockville High School Art Department is pleased to announce several student Scholastic Art Awards winners:  One senior gold key portfolio, four gold keys, one silver key, as well as six honorable mentions in various art categories.

Vernon Center Middle School also received two honorable mentions.

VERNON CENTER MIDDLE SCHOOL – Fifth graders from our elementary schools are beginning their annual visits to VCMS.  On Jan. 14, Skinner Road was the first group to experience a Middle school transition with various tours, changing classes, and sharing lunch at VCMS.  Next, we will welcome Lake Street on Jan, 22, Northeast on Jan. 23, Center Road on Jan. 24, and lastly Maple Street on Jan. 28.

Our first team of eighth-graders had the opportunity to visit Rockville High School on Wednesday, Jan. 15.  Various tours and Q/A enabled the students to understand and experience their next level of education. 

CENTER ROAD SCHOOL – The fifth-grade students who are part of the Center Road School chorus sang the National Anthem last Saturday night at the Hartford Wolf Pack game. Over 250 parents, students, and staff members attended the game to cheer on our singers! The group sounded amazing, and the Wolf Pack has already invited Center Road School to come back next year to sing the National Anthem again!

LAKE STREET SCHOOL – Five of our Pride Club students were selected to participate in the Elementary Leadership Conference, sponsored by the Connecticut Association of Schools. On Friday, Jan. 10, these fifth graders joined students from other schools at Asnuntuck Community College to participate in hands on activities to strengthen their communication, problem solving, decision making and productive thinking skills. Congratulations to these student leaders - Cameron Daitch, Kathryn Galvin, Muntaha Kahn, Jack McCann, Sonya Parsons, and Carly Simler.

Fifth-grade students are integrating with schools from other districts to understand more about diversity. On Friday, Jan. 17, our students will be building their problem solving and collaborative skills in team building activities.  EastConn is facilitating this lesson as part of a series through a Discovery Grant. Students are linked with pen pals in other districts. Our students are writing to fourth grade peers from North Windham School.

Our LSS PBIS focus for 2013-14 is to renew our school wide expectations of Respect, Responsibility, Safety and Cooperation with greater depth to instill these character traits within our students. Respect and Safety were the focus for the first part of the year. As students are well into the routines of school, it is an excellent time to shift our focus to Responsibility and Safety, the focus of our School Wide Assembly on Thursday, Jan. 16.

MAPLE STREET SCHOOL – Maple Street School has established a student leadership team and combined with student council they have become an advisory group to the students and the principal.  Last Thursday evening students with presented with awards called “Student of the Marking Period Awards.”  Parents and family members were sent invitations to see their children get the awards.  It was a very happy evening.  The student leadership team and the student council members were incorporated in the awards program also.  They looked over the marking period and each gave a speech to parents as to what they did in their subject periods and reported on that.  In other news, the fourth grade students have been working very hard in the computer lab practicing their math skills with a program called “Ten Mark.”

NORTHEAST SCHOOL – Way to go Mrs. Warner! She applied and was chosen to receive a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant in the amount of $4,985 for the Innovative Apps for Math! project.    This money will be used to purchase 10 iPads, a charging station and an Apple TV for Mrs. Warner’s third-grade classroom. CONGRATULATIONS!

SKINNER ROAD SCHOOL – Last Friday Chris Avtges ran a healthy cooking class for our fourth- and fifth-grade students. Four students and four parents worked with Chef Avtges prepping and learning about how to prepare healthy meals.  Parents were amazed that their children were eating foods they had never tried before.  We look forward to running this class again.

on Tuesday, our fifth grade students had their first visit to Vernon Center Middle School. The visit began with a welcome from Principal Harrison.  The students had the opportunity to visit sixth-grade classrooms, tour the building and eat lunch in the café.  This was a huge success and our students are looking forward to becoming middle school students.

This week, Skinner Road School has started a Positive Office Referral.  Students are written up for going above and beyond.  The referral is given to the office and is read over the announcements.  We are very proud of the positive behaviors that students exhibit every day at Skinner Road.  Behavior referrals have reduced by 36 percent from last year.

The Skinner Road Governance Council met for the second time. The council has set three goals for this year: Parent Communication – The council is working to improve communication.  The goal is to increase the climate survey returns from 27 returns to 100. As a school we value parent input. The second goal is to review and revise the school handbook.  The third and final goal is to investigate and plan activities in the community to allow access for parents who do not have transportation to school.

VERNON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - Have you ever wondered how some insects seem able to walk on water?  The reason is something called “surface tension.”  Students in Mrs. Kowalczyk’s class at Vernon Elementary School conducted fascinating science experiment using water and paper clips.  Students learned that we can make paper clips float on water when we layer tissue paper into the water to create surface tension.