Dike-Newell School Newsletter

February 7th - PTA Valentine's Family Dance! @ BMS

February 17th - NO SCHOOL for President's Day

February 18th - February 21st - NO SCHOOL for Winter Break

March 14th - Professional Development Day - No School for Students

March 27th - Parent Teacher Conferences - 1/2 day for Students

March 28th - 1/2 day for students

April 21st - April 25th - NO SCHOOL for Spring Break

Please see the letter below from Superintendent, Patrick Manuel, about our partnership with BusRight!

I am writing to provide an exciting announcement about an initiative that Regional School Unit 1

has been pursuing for several months and is preparing to roll out on January 27, 2025.

As you may have seen in prior communication, we’ve partnered with BusRight to allow you to

keep track of your child’s school bus route to and from school directly from your smartphone.

The BusRight app will allow you to, in real-time, follow your child’s bus route to and from school,

receive notifications when the bus begins and ends its route, view the expected arrival time at your

child’s designated bus stop, and receive ad-hoc communications from First Student.

Invitations to our rollout of the app will be sent to your email on Monday, January 27, 2025 from

support@busright.com with the subject “You’re Invited to BusRight”. Your invite will contain a link to

create an account with BusRight. Once you create your account, if you find that your child is not

assigned to a bus route, please contact First Student at Kimberly.Haskins@firstgroup.com, for

assistance.

We’re working closely with the BusRight team to perfect the system. In the meantime, we ask for your

patience and understanding as we continue to make improvements.

Once launched, if you log in to the system and observe the bus appears to be offline, it does not

mean the bus route is not in operation - it is most likely the result of one of the following reasons:

● The bus route has completed its run and is back at the bus lot and not turned on.

● The driver is using a spare vehicle that is not equipped with BusRight's GPS tracking system.

● The GPS Tracking system on the vehicle is not online due to technical issues.

● If the route does not show as an option on your route list, you may not be assigned to the stop

in the BusRight system - you can contact First Student at 207-707-4855.

Questions or issues regarding the use of the BusRight app should be directed to

support@busright.com.

As always, questions about your child's bus stop or route should be directed to First Student at

207-707-4855.

*Please note that Bath Bus Service (West Bath/Georgetown) buses are not equipped with the

BusRight tracking system.

Sincerely,

Patrick Manuel

Superintendent

The Morse High School International Club and local Girl Scouts invite you to the second annual International Night evening of cultural exchange on Friday, February 14th, 2025. Each country represented will have a tabletop display presented by exchange students or girl scouts from local troops. Performances of instrumental music, song and dance, and poetry will take place in the nearby performance auditorium. Nearly 20 countries will be represented! This event is free and open to the public.

Date: Friday, February 14th, 2025

Time: 6:00-8:00PM

Location: Morse High School/Bath Tech, 826 Shipbuilder Drive, Bath, ME 04530

One more week until our Valentine’s Day Family dance!

We still need some help! If you’re interested in volunteering or donating to this event, please see opportunities to signup here: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/30E0A48ABAD28A7FE3-54397699-family

Our next meeting will be ONLINE on Wednesday, February 12th at 6:30pm. We will be sharing plans for upcoming events, including The Great Bath Bake Off, and Kids Book Swap! All parents, guardians and teachers are welcome to attend, membership is not required!

Keep an eye on our FACEBOOK PAGE for all PTA related events.

Thanks to the generosity of donors at Donors Choose, the Dike-Newell Library recently received two sets of Giant Safe & Soft Dinosaurs from Lakeshore Learning (linked HERE). Ms. Deci's kindergarten class participated in Dinosaur Club this week, the other three classes will be participating in the next couple of weeks.

In addition to providing time for creative play with the new dinosaurs, Librarian Ms. Hardman read What Are Dinosaurs? by Bobbie Kalman and showed students how to access dinosaur information on PebbleGo and Epic. Time was also provided to browse dinosaur books, color a dinosaur picture, and to do a Jurassic Winter Challenge movement break.

For more information on Donors Choose please visit:

https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/2658360

Are you interested in being on a list of eligible volunteers? Visit the RSU1 website to learn more and to sign up: https://www.rsu1.org/page/volunteer-information. Be sure to click "Submit" after the form is complete and signed. Please allow one week prior to a field trip or event for processing.

Email: kwalker@rsu1.org
Website: https://dns.rsu1.org/o/dike-newell-school
Location: 800 High Street, Bath, ME 04530
Phone: (207)443-8285