It is a great time for learning in the Valley!
This past Monday our board approved the recommendations of our Curriculum Committee and District Leadership Team for a new English Language Arts Curriculum for Grades K-6. The program is called Wonders™ and it will serve our students for the next several years.
Our Curriculum Director, Mr. Joel Smith headed up the effort to examine concerns with our existing curriculum and determine needs for new programming with a comprehensive team that included teachers, parents, and literacy experts. A review of our needs started last spring and the new selection process has been ongoing since September of this year. A new curriculum is very expensive and we all take the stewardship of our resources seriously in the Valley. ESSER funds were helpful in allowing us to seek the best curriculum possible and the impact of Covid on our student's learning makes it clear we need excellent tools to help our students fill any gaps in their learning.
The process included meetings and visits to other districts which utilize the curriculum we focused upon after extensive reviews and elimination rounds led us to the Wonders™ program. The results of the study and suitability for our district were shared with our board Monday evening and the curriculum was unanimously selected. We will be securing the materials this spring and sending them home with our staff for the summer to begin learning the new system of learning as well as providing professional development in the best ways to utilize the materials and tools.
We will be continuing this process for the Math curriculum, Health curriculum, and Social Studies curriculum as we have many areas in which we want to improve resources for our students. We encourage all of our families to stay tuned in to our notifications and we welcome everyone’s review and input regarding the materials we will be examining for the next year.
Transportation Update
- Our three new drivers have passed their state-mandated testing! We are developing plans to return our services to curbside service for our families and our previous routes will all be reestablished in short order as soon as our staff can be trained on the routes.
- Additionally, we launched a new drop-off and pick-up process at Fuller Street School to get our families off of M-66 (Durkee St.) during the busy morning and afternoon hours. It has been a huge success in safety and that is due to excellent planning and our cooperative and cheerful parents. Drivers should not experience congestion at Casgrove and Durkee Streets any longer.
- On behalf of Mr. Chamberlain our director of Transportation and Operations and myself, we want to thank everyone for their collaboration, cooperation, and commitment to getting our kids to and from school safely while we were in our retooling phase. It was a tough adjustment, and we got through it together as we always do with any adversity that comes to the Valley.
Every day we strive to make it an even better day to be in the Valley!
Dr. Bertolini
