August
25, 2015
Dear
Canton Public School Families:
It
is with great excitement and anticipation that I am writing this “Opening Day and
Welcome Back” letter for the 2015-16 school year. We have had an incredibly busy and productive
summer preparing for the arrival of the students. I am sure your children are
curious and possibly a bit anxious about their return to school or the start of
their school career. Knowing our
educators and support staff as I do, I am confident that each child will be
received with warmth, caring and support.
With
the help of our administrators, custodial and maintenance faculty, technology
staff, Central and Business Office staff and many educators, a significant
amount was completed in preparation for our Thursday, September 3rd opening
of school. We have been busy hiring new faculty; adding educators to our
district always adds a heightened level of energy.
So,
welcome back to all, and “hello” to our parent/guardians of new students to our
District. We eagerly await your arrival!
The
biggest change for our District this year is the school start time; therefore I wanted to devote a bit of this
letter to that topic. I have attached
the new start time schedule at the end of this letter. Bus times will be posted in the Canton
Citizen on August 27th.
Bus passes with explanatory letters are being mailed out this week. If you signed up your child for a bus, and
you have not received your letter/pass by Friday, August 28th,
please contact Leslie Tamarkin at tamarkinl@cantonma.org
or 781-821-5060, ext. 1156. No students
will be allowed to board the bus without their bus pass, so please be certain
that the bus pass is visible on your child’s (all grades) backpack. Beginning
October 1st, we will put additional riders on the bus as space is
available.
I
would like to ask your patience in the first two to three weeks of school as we
continue to make the bus schedules as efficient as possible. While we do try to plan for all possibilities,
some issues may arise. I understand that there has been some concern about
middle and high school students having to ride for lengthy periods of time, with
some busses having the two levels combined.
We have made every effort to ensure that the rides will be as short as
possible. We managed to have only four busses with combined high school and
middle school students. In efforts to ensure
that students in grades K-5 will not sit in the busses while waiting to offload,
we have hired additional morning staff at each of our elementary schools. If you have any concerns that range beyond
“getting the kinks worked out” during the first few days, please do not
hesitate to contact Barry Nectow, our Business Manager, at 781-821-5060, ext.
1245.
Other
updates I would like to highlight:
- We have hired several new administrators, some in interim positions and
others in permanent positions. Each
of the principals will update you re: their new faculty and
administrators. With regard to
district positions, I want to introduce Kim Clark-Connor, who is our new
Nurse Leader. Also, Jayne Moore is acting as Interim Curriculum and
Instruction Director for our district.
- Mike Wentland, Technology Director, and April
Goran, Technology Integration Administrator, have worked extensively with
our maintenance department to install new teacher computers in the
classrooms and to roll out the interactive projectors to the elementary
and middle schools. Additionally,
we are pleased to have hired a technology teacher for our elementary
schools, another enhancement in our budget.
- The high school continues to develop their
World Language program, offering American Sign Language in addition to
Mandarin, which was added two years ago. Enhancements are also being added
with courses in STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Mathematics) at
the high school level.
- We are pleased to say that there are NO new curriculum
initiatives at the elementary level this year as we take continued steps
to work with our team of teachers on the mathematics curriculum that was
implemented over the last two years.
- Teams of teachers came in over the summer to work
on writing units for the elementary levels, update science units across
the district and add technology to their curriculum units.
- The Rodman Early Childhood Center will have
their own lunch program this year thanks to Martha Lawless, our innovative
Food Services Director.
I
could continue to list many more programs that are being undertaken this year,
as this is only our “short list”. However,
it is critical to know that as you scan the above list, the majority of this
could not have been accomplished without the support given to the school
department by the Canton community – thank you!
If
you would like to continue to stay in touch with new projects and programs as
they develop, please consider attending our School Committee meetings. A schedule of those meetings is posted on our
website at www.cantonma.org. You can find the district calendar, the lunch
menus and links to all the schools there.
Please also consider signing up for the Superintendent’s Blog or Twitter
account.
We
look forward to seeing all of our students in grades 1-12 on Thursday,
September 3rd. Please note
that there is school on Friday, the 4th. Following a day off on Labor Day, September 7th,
we will return, Tuesday, September 8th. That day will also be the first day of school
for preschool and kindergarten students.
In
closing, as I enter the 2015/2016 year as your Interim Superintendent, I am
excited and confident with the direction the Canton School District is moving
to benefit all of our students. We have
a dedicated educational faculty, families, and community members who are highly
motivated to make the Canton School District not good, but great. It looks to be a terrific year!
Sincerely,
Jennifer
A. Henderson, Interim Superintendent of Schools