EMES School Newsletter

September 8th, 2023

EMES School Newsletter May 24, 2024

What's Happening at EMES

What a beautiful, summer-like week we've had! It makes us realize that summer break really is just around the corner, although it feels like there is still so much to do here at EMES. We kicked off our week with an awesome all-school assembly in the gym with one of the Harlem Wizards. I know many families made it to the game on Monday night and Nurse Dave and Mrs. Zeilenga were all stars! What a fun event for the broader Central Vermont community to participate in.

In last week's Friday Folders, families received the Thoughtful Placement Forms to fill out. We sent these to all EMES K-5 families, even those who may be looping up as a whole class. We do this so families can give the receiving teacher any information about their child they feel would be helpful. This form is not mandatory, but we do use it to help guide our conversations around placement. They're due back next Friday - thank you for helping us with your feedback!

I know several families have asked how and why we come up with the configurations that we do each year. For example, some classes and grades are single-grade and others are in multi-grade mixes. Every spring we sit down to review the current makeup of each class, look ahead to the number of students both leaving and coming into our school, and then think about the best scenario for each, given what we know about each group of learners. This year, our very large Kindergarten class of 22 students have worked beautifully together and rather than creating small classes of mixed grades for them, we made the decision to keep them together. Contrarily, our class of 19 fourth graders have been together without any mix of others for several years now and we felt it would be in their best interest to give them some new opportunities with different students in a multi-age/grade setting. Our first and second graders had a mix of opportunities this year with both straight and multi-age classrooms. After looking at the varied opportunities these scenarios created, we agreed that this group of students would do well next year to have more common learning experiences. For this reason, rather than having a straight 2nd, a multi-age 2/3, and a straight 3rd grade, we will have three 2/3 multi-age classrooms. With the ever fluctuating number of students we have in any given grade any given year, this is a puzzle our staff have become accustomed to working through each spring. We recognize the results are different configurations each year (another reason to consider re-configuring our elementary schools!).

In the Friday folder today you will find a bright orange sheet of paper - this is the permission trip for our Spring Wellness Day. We are excited to go to Elmore next Friday, May 31st. There is a portion at the bottom of the form for anyone who would like to chaperone this trip. There is an error in the date/location (it says June 2nd and Wrightsville). This was left over from last year's slip and didn't get changed. Sorry about that!

We have a change of date for the Talent Show - our performers need one more week to practice! This will be on Thursday, June 6th.

Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend with your littles! It looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend!

Alicia