We’ve had an amazing start to the school year! Students and staff have hit the ground running, with district professional development focusing on social emotional learning, literacy, and math. A shout out to Dr. Brault for her work establishing restorative justice practices at MTRS. She has been working with Suffolk Centre for Restorative Justice in Boston to train 20 members of staff this week in Tier 1 Restorative practices. This has been a huge logistical undertaking across MS and HS schedules and classes. The second wave of staff to be trained is planned for later in the year. The beginning of the school year is such an exciting time. The District Leadership Team (DLT) has been working on our collaborative instructional leadership as we support building-based teams in analyzing student achievement data, curriculum alignment across grades and schools, and interventions for students requiring additional instructional support. We have been working with the Joy and Justice team from the Collaborative for Educational Services (CES) to gather data beyond student achievement and climate surveys. Understanding the variety of student experiences is critical to ensuring equitable learning environments for all students.

Open Houses were well attended! Thanks to everyone who came out and saw their students in action, met teachers, and supported the efforts of each school.

September 18: Sanderson Open House

September 25: BSE Open House

September 25: Colrain Central School Harvest Fair/Open House

September 25: Mohawk Trail Regional 7th grade Open House

September 25: Hawlemont Open House

How many mornings do you hear, "What's for lunch today?" School menus are at the top of the list for the most requested pieces of information at start of each month, especially since moving to the "free lunch for all students" program.

To make it easier to access the super important information, visit the district Food Services page to find your school's menu on the right-hand margin. The plan this year is to update the menus a few days before the beginning of the month and post them there.

The BERK12 folks are churning out reports left and right based on feedback collected from district families, town government officials, and other community members. Visiting their website, one may read a number of prepared reports. For the progress update synopsis, please consider joining a virtual session on October 10 from 7 pm to 8:30 pm to be brought up to speed on the findings.

BERK12 Progress Update on the 2Districts8Towns Sustainability Study

Thursday, October 10, 7p to 8:30p

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/pme-pqjc-qwr

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 505-636-0084‬ PIN: ‪981 448 988‬#

Superintendent Stanton and School Committee Chairs Martha Thurber (MTRS) and Elizabeth Van Iderstine (HRSD) will appear at upcoming selectboard meetings to offer similar progress reports (in date order):

* Charlemont and Hawley, October 7, 2024, 7:00 Hawlemont Regional School Cafeteria

* Buckland, October 8, 2024, 6:15 pm, Buckland Town Hall

* Ashfield and Plainfield, October 15, 2024, 7:00 pm, Sanderson Academy

* Shelburne, October 21, 2024, 6:00 pm via Zoom

* Colrain and Heath, October 22, 2024, 4:35 pm, Colrain Town Hall

Community engagement sessions will follow this suite of meetings. Watch for your opportunity to be part of the conversation. Until then, please read and participate to keep in step. See the September update attached below.

The Mary Lyon Foundation will bring to us, again, a resource fair in which community members may come to Mohawk Trail Regional on Wednesday, October 30th to be greeted by individuals associated with local community resources. The Franklin Regional Council of Governments FRCOG) will be offering vaccines (pre-registration required), the MTRS Caring is Sharing clothing closet will be open for browsing, a read-aloud will happen in the library, and more!

The Kiwanis Club will be serving food out of the onsite shack. A football game will kick off at 6 p.m. and the pep band will play to get and keep the crowd moving.

Special guest Jay Mankita of Playful Engineers will host a free STEM session in which students of all ages may engineer chain reactions. Join Jay in the MTRS cafeteria!

Please see the source news stories below. However, if you do not have online access to the Greenfield Recorder, you may read the articles on the Mohawk Trail websites. For MTRS news, visit this news archive. For district wide or specific reporting on elementary schools, visit the district news archive. (Please note, sometimes the news shared is included in a "round up" or other compilation article, and it may not be clear that the story includes coverage of district news by the displayed title or photo.)

Eliza Crowell, a senior at Mohawk Trail Regional High School, has been recognized as a National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalist. Being one of the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) top scoring 16,000 students nationwide, Eliza is one of only five public school students in Western Massachusetts to be chosen for this honor.

Eliza took the PSAT in October of junior year and her resulting test scores earned her semifinalist status. The competition is very rigorous; scholarship winners are chosen based on their abilities, skills, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in college and beyond.

Mohawk Trail Regional teacher Erik Sussbauer shares, "In working with Eliza, I appreciate that she demonstrates absolute and authentic joy for the opportunity to be creative and shape a learning experience. Any task or idea is met with sparkle and positive energy."

Eliza admits, "Receiving this recognition was pretty surprising. I'm grateful to my family, teachers, and friends who have encouraged me, pushed me forward and helped keep me going. Mohawk Trail has been a great place for me, and I'm also really excited to look forward to college and what comes next."

Semifinalists represent less than 1% of the nation’s high school graduating seniors. Several colleges and universities view this award highly during the application and admission process and award scholarship dollars for this achievement.

The list of semifinalists has now been made public to media outlets and the top colleges and universities in the country and Eliza will complete the application to be considered for the National Merit Finalist program. High schools are notified in early February of their Semifinalist(s) who have advanced to Finalist standing.

Many Mohawk Trail seniors are deep in their college application process. With all there is to do and deadlines looming, our Student Services Office brings a number of higher education institutions in-house to cut out fitting visits into their schedules. See the image with the basic calendar through the fall.

New this year will be a College Crawl in which High School Guidance Counselor Linda Desarro has coordinated visits with nearby colleges such as Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA, North Adams), UMass Amherst and Springfield College. If your college-bound senior sis interested, have them sign up!

The Student Services Office reported that last year's graduating class had these plans in place:

70% went on to higher education. (4 year, 2 year, and trade training)

27% went to work.

3% went into the military.

Visits from recruiters is another feature of this fall with the United State Air Force and United States Space Force having visited most recently.

Mohawk Trail Regional is offering a Forensic Science course that explores applied science in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and crime science investigation. Students taking this course will get an overview of the theoretical understanding and experience practical application of forensic science techniques including work with these topics: DNA and biological evidence, Chain of Custody, toxicology, death investigations, search warrants and report writing, fingerprinting, fire science, mock crime scenes, and more.

The course is co-taught by middle school teacher Travis Minnick and Detective Tucker Jenkins (who took a similar class when he was a student at Mohawk Trail Regional!). Guest instructors like police officers, firefighters, an assistant district attorney and more, add their expertise on a range of topics. In the classroom, the progression of any unit is to learn in one class and to participate in a practical application in follow up classes.

In one recent class, students were visited by the Drone Team from the Greenfield Fire Department. Officers brought the department’s $30,000 drone and spoke to MTRS students about the tool itself, why it is helpful, and its capabilities. Both officers are certified by the FAA (part 107) to fly the drone. Drones have the capability to search a wide range of areas quickly using features such as gps, thermal imaging and other tools. Typical uses include: pinpointing the location of individuals or items; oversight of an emerging or ongoing emergency; and flood or fire observation. Students had the opportunity to hear about the work of the Drone Team, observe the drone being flown, and take a turn piloting the drone themselves.

In another recent class, students were prepped and assigned to process a mock crime scene. Students approached a “home” and were required to ask questions of the victim and describe how they would collect and process evidence. The goal was to create a picture using statements from the victim coupled with evidence they found to draw conclusions about what happened.

Mohawk Trail Regional teacher Travis Minnick shares, "Mohawk Trail students are really invested in this class. They are responding to a real-life application of science and exploring the many career options in criminal justice! This experience and knowledge will serve them well into the future. I have appreciated being able to bring them content in this way."

BSE Vice Principal Joe Moynihan has taken on the school's weekly newsletter with newsy bytes and thoughtful openers. Thanks to Mr. Joe for his commitment to communicating more regularly with families and caregivers in this way.

Thank you to all involved in the planning and participation in Oktoberfest's inaugural year, supporting access to the Nature's Classroom experience. The event invited vendors to display and sell their wares, community organizations to share information, and food and drink vendors to satiate attendees. Staff and volunteers managed games, parking, food booths and other activities that meant there was something for everyone. Attendees enjoyed all that was offered - including the spectacular weather! Preliminary reports total fundraising over $12,000! What an undertaking! What a result!

It is events like these that allow our community spirit to shine through. And it was shining ever so brightly on that Saturday.

Thank you, parents, staff, volunteers, community members and organizations, visitors, vendors, and more!

The Colrain Central Elementary librarian, Talia Miller, was selected to participate in two programs with the Rural Schools Collaborative. She applied and was selected as a 2023-2024 Grants In Place Fellow which is part of their International Teacher Reciprocity project. As noted by the website, “The Reciprocity Project connects rural educators worldwide, promoting place-based learning and global awareness… and aims to create a network of international rural teachers and school leaders who work together to support place-based instruction and connect learning to the communities and the world around us.” This organization has made Talia feel like the work that happens in rural schools matters and is supported. Securing funding to do more of that work was affirming and empowering.

Talia has felt inspired when working with people who feel connected to a specific place. She was already considering a placemaking project when the grant opportunity presented itself. With the support of this grant, she saw an opportunity to connect fourth grade students, families and townspeople to work together to bring forward connection, knowledge, and a sense of pride in Colrain. Having the added element of a video exchange with students from schools in Wales who were completing a similar project, gave weight to connections, deadlines, and presenting. Through their sharing, students helped each other develop a better understanding of “place” as a concept and expand their knowledge of the world around them. This was the second program with the Rural School Collaborative in which Talia engaged.

Colrain Central’s Reading Interventionist, Jennifer Martin, encourages “reading stamina” in young readers. From the readingrockets.org website, “Reading stamina is a child’s ability to focus and read independently for long-ish periods of time without being distracted or without distracting others.” This year, librarian Talia Miller is starting a project to post photos that document the books schoolmates read out loud together. Students will also receive and decorate "Reading Rockets" that will be used to showcase when students finish reading a library book that they feel is a "Just Right Book" - one that is a bit challenging to a reader, but is something they can read and also holds their interest. The library will feature a Space Exploration theme this year. Colrain Central offers thanks to the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution who donated many books for their library and supplies for their school. Their generosity is greatly appreciated!

As part of its annual accountability reporting process, DESE identifies a small number of Schools of Recognition. These schools demonstrate progress toward annual accountability targets, with an emphasis on the performance of all students in the school and the school's lowest performing students group (where applicable). Hawlemont Regional Elementary has been recognized as such a school. Congratulations to Principal Amber Tulloch and her staff for making strides to be recognized in this way!

On Wednesday, October 2, Hawlemont students arrived at Mohawk Trail Regional School for a couple of hours of fun. Members of the junior class hosted Hawlemont students with activities, humor, conversation and fun.

They got right into a scavenger hunt along the wooded trails. They then enjoyed a snack and continued their fresh air fun with field games like Red Light, Green Light and Fishy, Fishy Cross My Ocean. HAY Teacher Jenn Sinistore reported, “The Mohawk Trail students in my group were GREAT! The scavenger hunt through the woods was perfect. It was really a great morning.”

Sanderson Librarian Robin Wilson recognized Everett Miller, who applied for and won the Time for Change Youth Award through First Book. Not only did Everett distribute litter cleanup kits to local soccer teams and public libraries, he also donated two great books about caring for our planet to the Sanderson Library. Thank you Everett, and way to go!!!