An extraordinary week

In tragedy, we find strength

A tragedy in Boston on Monday, April 15th, sparked a week of extraordinary events. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims who lost their lives and to the injured and their families.

Events such as these remind us of how fragile life is and raise questions about why and about our safety in general. Children, particularly younger children, often have difficulty processing events of this magnitude. The U.S. Department of Education's web site on Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools has a technical assistance site with helpful links for families in how to help children deal with traumatic events. Click here to see the resource links.

Good does come from tragedy - we saw extraordinary strength in those who responded to the injured at the marathon, the law enforcement officials who put in extraordinary time and effort into the investigation and its conclusion on Friday night, and the citizens of Boston, Watertown, and surrounding communities who came together in support of the killed and injured, and to allow law enforcement to do what they needed to do. The heroism and goodness of the human spirit demonstrated last week lives within all of us.

We have been working together in the district to ensure that we do everything in our power to ensure that our schools are safe places in which to work and learn. In the coming weeks, we will be reaching out to the community to help us with this work. This is work we cannot do alone, but we know that this same sense of goodness and coming together is part of our community, and we look forward to engaging with you in this process.

Celebrating literacy - reading and writing

On Friday, April 5th, we tallied the latest numbers in our Million Minutes of Reading challenge and discovered that we exceeded our goal: 1,091,768 minutes read by students and their families, along with patrons of the Clapp Memorial Library! Congratulations to one and all and a big thank-you to everyone who provided support along the way! In celebration of reaching this milestone, Friday, April 12th, was "Dress Like a Millionaire Day" in our elementary schools. Staff and students alike dressed like royalty, in formal attire, like sports stars, and in their finest "bling" for the occasion!

Cold Spring School Principal, Sandra Bremer, Kindergarten Teacher , Brendan McCarthy, and Dr. Houle pose with our "millionaires" in celebration for Reading for a Million Minutes!

On Tuesday, April 9th, the School Committee celebrated students who participated in the New England Outdoor Writers Association initial Youth Writers' Contest. Two Belchertown students won top awards: - Katelyn Clark, BHS student, for First Place in Belchertown in the Senior Division, and Matthew Davidsohn, JBMS student, for First Place in Massachusetts in the Junior Division. Tom Fuller, of the NEOWA, presented awards to the students at the meeting.

NEOWA Youth Context winners pose with Tom Fuller and their teachers in celebration of their work.

Katelyn's work is going to be turned into a children's book with illustrations and the assistance of Clapp Memorial Library's Children's Librarian, Jennifer Whitehead. We are looking forward to seeing the finished product! 

If you have any questions about this post, please feel free to contact me by phone, 413.323.0423, or by email: superintendent@belchertown.org.

Best regards, Dr. Judith Houle, Superintendent of Schools