On Tuesday, we held our opening day convocation for all staff at Belchertown High School. We welcomed 18 new staff members, celebrated with 9 teachers who achieved Professional Teacher Status, and honored staff who have achieved longevity milestones: 9 employees with 10 years of service, 10 employees with 15 years of service, 12 employees with 20 years of service, 9 employees with 25 years of service, 3 employees with 30 years of service, and 2 employees with 35 years of service. The longevity of our staff is a tribute to the fact that the Belchertown Public Schools are a great place to work and learn! The theme of our opening day was "Know Thy Impact," which comes from a book our Leadership Team began studying this summer, Visible Learning for Teachers, by John Hattie. This book presents research on instructional practices and their impact on student learning. We discovered that the #1 impact on learning is students' own expectations of themselves. Our job as educators is to make learning visible to students by making our intentions clear, setting challenging expectations, and instilling confidence in students to achieve those expectations. Students make their learning visible to us when they achieve success in meeting those expectations, even if they have to work through errors to get there.
On Wednesday, the children arrived! Although our summer was jam-packed, it was great to see our schools full of students again. When I arrived at BHS for a check-in on how the day was going, Mrs. Vigneux, the principal, was meeting with the seniors. At the end of their session, they posed for a picture in their class t-shirts.
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| The Class of 2014 poses for their first official group "seniors" picture! |
New administrators on board
We have hired two new administrators as part of our Leadership Team this year. Mr. Douglas Daponde joined the BHS staff as the new Dean of Students & Athletic Director. Mr. Daponde is a former high school teacher, coach, and assistant principal and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, which also includes military service, to our district. His first week was this past week and we are pleased to have him with us. Please be sure to stop and say hello if you should meet him in the hallways, on the field, or on the court.
Swift River Elementary School will welcome a new assistant principal next week, Ms. Eileen Farrington. Ms. Farrington comes to us from the Holyoke Public Schools and has a wealth of experience as a teacher, Education Team Leader, and teacher mentor. Ms. Farrington's experience is at the elementary level and we are looking forward to her sharing her knowledge and expertise with us. Take a moment to stop by SRE next week and extend a welcome to Ms. Farrington.
Adjustments to morning bus times
The first week of school always brings some adjustments to the run times of our buses, as we see how everything works with students on board. The following buses will be starting 5 minutes earlier, beginning on Tuesday, September 3rd: buses 1, 2, 14, 16, and 19. Bus 9 will start 5 minutes later, beginning Tuesday, September 3rd. These adjustments will ensure that our students will be on time for the start of their day. Thank you for your cooperation with First Student, our bus contractor.
New web site
Our web server crashed last weekend, causing our IT department to try and get a web site up and running from a backup copy - spending much of the weekend getting the job done. In the interim, they have put together a new web site on a new server, which just went live late today. Please take a moment to check it out at www.belchertownps.org. If you have any comments or suggestions, click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the main page and you will find a link to the webmaster's email on the page of contacts at the bottom.
As always, if you have any questions or comments about this blog, please feel free to call me at 413.323.0423 or email me: superintendent@belchertown.org.
Enjoy the long weekend! Dr. Judith Houle, Superintendent of Schools
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