Student & Family Update
April 29, 2022
Good afternoon everyone,
I hope you have had a great week.
Student-Led-Conferences: Let us have your feedback
It was great to see caregivers in the building on Thursday and Friday for our first set of Student Led Conferences. Don't forget that the Wednesday schedule was moved to Monday 29th, the first day of Semester 2! Caregivers - please give us feedback on your experience of SLC and how we can improve for our June conferences.
Please note that if there is a cancellation on Monday, we will move SLCs to Tuesday.
If there is a two hour delay, we will go ahead with SLCs scheduled from 9:45-11:50 and reschedule appointments made for 7:45-9:45am.
Middle School Phone Pilot in Semester 2
Our focus in Middle School during Semester 2 continues to be on maintaining a safe school environment and maximizing student engagement in learning opportunities in the classroom. With this in mind, we will be piloting a program called, Off and Away During the School Day, which is designed to help students avoid cell phone distractions while they are in school.
Starting Tuesday 30th January, students in grade 7 and 8 are still permitted to possess a cell phone but this must be off and in bags/ lockers on arrival at school. This is no change for Grade 7 students but it is a change for Grade 8 students who are no longer permitted to access cell phones during breaks, transitions, at lunch or up to the end of the school day at 2:20pm.
MS students seen with cell phones will be asked to hand them into the office where they will be collected at the end of the day. Repeated infractions will mean caregivers will be asked to come in and collect phones at the end of the day.
Caregivers are still able to communicate messages to their children by calling the front office during the day.
We will be asking for student feedback on the pilot program at the end of Q3 and caregiver feedback at the end of Q4. We will also be measuring student academic performance data and gathering social-emotional feedback to see the impact of having phones off and away during the school day! This data will be shared with the Local Education Committee later in the year and also with the school committee and may contribute to a change of school policy as outlined in the student handbook.
Teachers will speak with their advisory groups and administration will speak with students as a group on Monday.
Finally, in the community section of the newsletter you will find resources for care providers that might be helpful when talking to your children about safe social media use in relation to cell phones.
Please see below for more information related to upcoming events at MTRS:
- Semester 2 starts on Monday and students are able to see their new schedules now.
- MOHAWK TRAIL PAIRING WITH FRANKLIN COUNTY YMCA TO OFFER COMMUNITY FITNESS CLASSES! See Athletics section for more information
- Our annual Department of Education Report card for the school and district is out now. Link. Please see the Teaching and Learning section below which has more information about the report. This information will also be emailed to all families as a PDF attachment. If you would like a hard copy, please let the office know.
- There has been in a change in the grading schedule: Grades close on Friday 2nd February and reports will be published in Aspen on Monday, Feb 5th..
- SEPAC is organizing a virtual meeting from 9-10am on Feb 14th - more info on the posters below
- Graduation information for the Class of 2024 - please see below! As a reminder (in newsletters since August of 2023: Graduation will be on Friday 31st May, indoors in the MTRS Auditorium)
If you are reading this newsletter on a phone or laptop, don't forget to click on "read entire message" in order to see the complete newsletter.
Finally, we do our best to convey information to our community from a variety of sources, lots of them community rather than school based organizations. Unfortunately we are not able to share images and posters with live links through Smore but always ensure there is an email for inquiries. If you would like an e-copy of a poster with live links, please feel free to reach out to the office directly.
Have a nice weekend
Chris
Upcoming dates
Jan 29th: Last day of Student-Led-Conferences
Feb 2nd: MTEA Family movie night: Times TBD
Feb 19-23rd: Vacation
March 1st: Winter Dance 6:30-8:30pm
March 3rd: 6:30-8:30pm: Student Council dance
March 27th: District Celebration of Learning
April 12th: Middle School Career Speakers in Advisory
May 3 and 4th: Spring Musical: You're a good man, Charlie Brown
May 15 & 16th District Music Concert at BSE
May 18th: MTAA Spring Fling
May 18th: Prom
May 30th: Senior Awards evening
May 31st (Friday) -6-8pm: High School Graduation. Indoors at MTRS (This is a correction to the published date of June 1st)
June 3rd - Grade 6 Step up day
District Calendar for 2023/24: Link
MTRS MCAS and AP testing schedule
Quarter 2: 50 days (including student-led conferences)
First Day: Friday, November 3, 2023
Last Day: Friday, January 26, 2024
Q2 progress report grades close on: Friday, December 8, 2023
Q2 progress report grading window: Thursday, Dec 7 - Thursday Dec 14 at 11:59pm
Q2 progress reports will be distributed on: Friday, December 15, 2023
Q2 grading window: Thursday, January 18 - Fri, February 2nd, 2024 at 11:59pm
Q2 report cards will be available in Aspen on: Monday, Feb 5th, 2024
Semester 1 Student-led conferences
Friday, January 29th 2024 - Regular school day
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown - Performances May 3rd and 4th, 6pm
Congratulations to Emily C, Buckland’s Ambassador for Project 351. Her quote (shown below) was used in an email to all schools to represent the amazing students who were selected to be in this program!
"My school could have chosen anyone to represent my town, but they chose me! Me! Being selected as Ambassador turns my dream of changing the world into reality. When I'm old I want to be able to say 'I love this country, I'm proud of this country.' I want to look back and know that I made a difference. That I helped our country see a better day. Project 351 is the beginning of my journey to do just that."
Beginning the week of February 5th, detentions will be back in full force. We have a few dedicated teachers who will be running them during lunches.
High School:
When: Tuesdays at lunch
Where: Room 106
Why: Tardy to school and/or class, Skipping class, repeated phone violations, etc.
Rules: Phones off and away and no talking. Students may eat lunch and work on
homework.
Middle School:
When: Wednesdays at lunch
Where: room 106
Why: Tardy to class, repeated cell phone violations, inappropriate classroom/school
building behavior.
Rules: Phones off and away and no talking. No outdoor time at lunch. Students may
eat lunch and work on homework.
Office detentions will only be assigned by an administrator. The second detention for the same offense will result in an email to parents. The third offense will require a parent conference.
Carol Foote, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, cfoote@mtrsd.org
Placemaking Project at Colrain Central
Part of a larger project, 4th grade students at Colrain Central are researching local points of interest in an effort to become experts with librarian Talia Miller. A sampling of the places being researched include the fire station, Catamount Schoolhouse, and the ballfield. Students are learning and practicing research skills and deciding whether they will be able to find sufficient information on the topic they have chosen. Stay tuned as this project unfolds.
Colrain Central’s North River News
Catch Colrain Central’s latest issue of their school newspaper - the North River News! Great job, journalists! Keep your news coming!
BSE Visited by MassDOT and Edward Blizzardhands
BSE’s 6th grade submitted a name for MassDOT's Snowplow Naming Contest - and WON (for the second year in a row!) On Friday, January 26, staff from MassDOT visited BSE to thank and congratulate members of Mr. Conlon’s 6th grade class who submitted the winning entry, “Edward Blizzrdhands.”
The name was unveiled, and then preschool and 6th grade students were invited to sit in the snow plow and honk the horn. Plastic hard hats and bracelets were given out as celebratory mementos of the day.
The snow plow itself will plow roads in our region including route 112, and will be housed in the Ashfield facility. Give the driver and plow a wave if you see them out there taking care of our roads. As long as the plow is in service, the name Edward Blizzardhands will grace its side.
Hawlemont Weaves Skill Into the Community
Last weekend Hawlemont offered their second minicourse, Mozzarella Cheese Making with Sheila Litchfield. Thank you to all that participated in this fun day. The next minicourse offering will be on February 24th, “Intro to Weaving” with Jeanne Bruffee and Susan Gruen. There are limited spaces available and it costs $15 for the one-day course. Please contact HAY teacher Jennifer Sinistore if you’d like to reserve a space, jsinistore@mtrsd.org.
Speaking of weaving, Hawlemont 4-H has an immediate opening for an adult who is skilled in weaving and willing to become a volunteer 4-H Weaving Club leader in the afterschool program. We are seeking someone to teach beginner level weaving to 3rd through 6th grade students on specific Wednesdays after school. For more information please contact Liz Billings at 978-407-3812.
Sanderson’s International Travelers
For 50 years, Sanderson Academy has been sending and welcoming students to and from Mexico.
The program that was founded in 1973 connects Sanderson Academy and the Lomas Altas School in Mexico City. The goals of the program have always been to: stimulate social development and maturation, help children become aware of cultural differences and similarities, develop responsibility and independence, and to facilitate the establishment of new relationships.
The program first brings students from the Lomas Altas School who stay with Sanderson families to have their experience here for two weeks. The students from Mexico appreciate the snow and all its activities. While they spend much of their time with the 6th grade students, they also make their way around the school engaging in various activities like eating lunch with first graders, sledding with the kindergarteners, sharing some of their language with third graders, and so on. Field trips are integral to their trip with visits to Old Deerfield, Magic Wings, skiing and tubing at Berkshire East, and ice skating, to name a few. One student from Mexico went skiing this year and said, “It was the best day of my life!” Coming from Mexico City, the sense of peace and quiet, increased oxygen levels (due to an altitude drop), and depth of the night sky are things for our visitors to behold.
The students who travel here largely become hosts to the Sanderson students who will travel to Mexico for their two week visit, which encompasses the February vacation week. Anita Upright, head paraprofessional at Sanderson Academy, has been at the school since about 1995 and has assisted with the travel program for the last couple of decades. She has taken the trip six times and will again accompany the group of 7 sixth grade students this year. Generally, about ⅓ of the class takes the trip, and students who wish to go but require financial help are never turned away.
An example of the program’s longevity and enduring interest is the Shearer Family. Roxanne Shearer was one of the first students to take the trip in 1975. Her son Robert “Robbie” Shearer traveled with the Sanderson trip in the winter of 1994. And Robbie's older son, Caleb went last year, and his younger son Kaden will go this year. The Shearer family is currently hosting Sebastian, one of the students from Mexico. Robbie shared that over the course of the two week trip, he remembers having a sense that he gained new perspective and felt a heightened sense of maturity upon returning. He and his mom, Roxane, recounted a favorite memory that was in common - climbing to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. Unfortunately, sometime between Robert’s visit and his son’s last year, they’ve since stopped allowing visitors to climb to the top though they still visit the architectural marvel and explore the Avenue of the Dead. Sanderson students find themselves culturally and socially in awe as they live and experience life in Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities with a population of over 21.5 million.
Anita takes great pride in observing the students as they navigate this experience. When asked how the program has enjoyed such longevity, she replied, “It's been all positive from both sides throughout the tenure of the program.” She cites it being, for many, the first time the students have the chance to travel internationally and take part in such a rich experience. Their memories last a lifetime.
Our School and District report cards are out now!
Every year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education releases a report card for each school and district in the state. Here is the MTRS District Report Card for 2023
This will be sent as a PDF to all families next week. If anyone would like a hard copy, please let the office know.
What is the purpose of the school report cards?
Massachusetts is required by federal law to annually produce information about school performance for families and communities. Just as a student's report card shows how they are doing in different classes, school and district report cards are designed to show parents and community members how a school or district is doing in different areas. Report cards highlight a school or district's strengths as well as any challenges that need to be addressed in order to make sure the needs of all students are being met.
What type of information can be found on the report cards?
The report cards provide a different way of looking at information related to overall school performance. They include information in a variety of areas that we heard from parents are important:
- Student Enrollment and Teacher Information
- Student Attendance and Discipline
- Academic Opportunities
- College and Career Readiness
- MCAS Performance
- School Spending
- Accountability Information
How were families involved in the development of the school report card?
Massachusetts sees families and the community as important partners in a school's success and spent time listening to parents to make sure the report cards were designed as easy-to-use tools that provide meaningful information. We posted online surveys during the initial and final phases of the report card design process. In addition, we worked with parent advocacy groups across the state to host feedback sessions with parents, to see where we needed to make improvements before the report cards were released.
Why are the school report cards important to families?
The school report card is one of many pieces of information parents receive about their child's education. When looked at alongside other measures like the child's report card, MCAS scores, and classroom work and tests, it gives parents a more complete picture of their child's education.
How can the report cards be used by schools and districts?
Report cards are just one of many tools that principals and district leaders can use to identify which schools are doing well and which schools need more help. This will help to understand the strategies that are most effective in improving student performance and allow leaders to provide support to the students and schools that need it most.
Visit reportcards.doe.mass.edu to search for a school or district report card and to see our previous report cards for MTRS.
Class meetings will take place in the next two weeks and the Class of 2024 will be planning their involvement in the following events:
Graduation
Prom - Saturday 18th May
Senior Send off - Weds 22nd May
Senior Soak - Thursday 23rd May
Last Day - Friday May 24th
Memorial Day - Mon 27th May
Finals and rehearsals for Awards/ Graduation - Tuesday 28th May and Wednesday May 29th
Elementary school visit and MTRS staff cookout - Wednesday 29th May
Awards Event - Thursday 30th May (5-7pm)
Graduation Celebration - Friday May 31st 6-8pm indoors at MTRS (auditorium)
Scholarships
Please keep checking the Student Services section of the website in order to stay on top of deadlines. Last year the Class of 2023 walked away with over $100,000 in scholarships from our MTRS community!
This section of the newsletter will be updated as we progress through the year, so please check back in regularly!
Check out what is new in the library!
Take a look at our MTRS Library January 2024 newsletter: “Check It Out!”
Also don't forget to be checking the Senior Scholarship Bulletin.
Students and parents, please reach out with any specific questions - happy to help! Mrs. Cairney acariney@mtrsd.org Students to book an appt visit: https://acairney.youcanbook.me/
Bus Schedules and Questions
Please make sure that you check the Bus routes on district site. Care providers can call Dawn at the bus company on 413-489-3195 at ext 3304 or call the school and ask to speak to Robin Pease.
We want to hear your voice!
Local Education Council (LEC)
This meets virtually every second Wednesday of the month between 3:45 and 4:30pm. More information can be found here. The next meeting will take place on February 14th
The virtual joining information is as follows:
Meeting ID
Phone Numbers
(US)+1 813-435-9650
PIN: 741 012 215#
Principal Drop-ins
As was the case last year, I will hold regular virtual office hours. You don’t need an appointment to come and talk with me and share your thoughts on what goes on at MTRS. I will try to be available for the whole 60 minutes but can't always guarantee it at our busy school. The next drop in will take place on February 9th.
Second Friday of each month: 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.
Meeting ID: meet.google.com/jtz-yhet-ipo
Phone Number: (US)+1 (813) 773-5581
PIN: 636 883 303
While the winter athletic season cruises on, The Mohawk Trail Athletic Department is incredibly excited about some upcoming events on the calendar! Let’s get started!
MOHAWK TRAIL PAIRING WITH FRANKLIN COUNTY YMCA TO OFFER COMMUNITY FITNESS CLASSES!
In an effort to expand their offerings to west county residents, the Franklin County YMCA is now utilizing Mohawk Trail as a satellite location for their Enhance Fitness program! This is a great opportunity for residents in the Mohawk Trail district to take advantage of YMCA programming without making the trek to Greenfield! For more information regarding this pilot program, please reach out to the Franklin County YMCA directly at (413) 773-3646!
MOHAWK TRAIL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION BEGINNING PLANS FOR SUMMER BRIDGE DINNER!
After an incredibly successful first year of organizing the annual “Dinner on the Bridge” in Shelburne Falls, the Mohawk Trail Athletic Association is in the process of organizing the 2024 dinner! This year’s event will take place on July 28th on the Iron Bridge in Shelburne Falls. For more information regarding how you can volunteer, or purchase tickets, please contact MTAA President Jenn Pease at jpease@admin.umass.edu.
SPRING SPORTS REGISTRATION OPENING SOON!!!
While it has just started to feel like winter with snow and cold temps, the Mohawk Trail Athletic Department is preparing to open Spring Sports Registrations on JANUARY 29TH!!! We will be offering boys and girls track and field, baseball, softball, and tennis. A link will be shared in next week’s newsletter with registration information and instructions, so don’t forget to check your inboxes! Please reach out to District Athletic Director Greg Lilly with any questions at glillyAD@mtrsd.org.
Chris Buckland
Email: cbuckland@mtrsd.org
Website: www.mtrs.mohawktrailschools.org
Phone: 413-625-9811
Facebook: facebook.com/mohawktrailregional