Marathon Memo

January 2025

Important Dates

Friday, January 10

Early Release, 1:00 PM, Lunch Served

No PM Preschool

Friday, January 17

Term 1 Ends

Report Cards Issued February 7

Monday, January 20

Martin Luther King Day: No School

Friday, January 24

Preschool Parent Conferences: No Preschool

Friday, January 24

K & 1 Early Release, 1:00 PM, Lunch Served

Monday, January 27

Preschool Parent Conferences: No Preschool

Wednesday, January 29

Lunar New Year: No School

Notes From the Principal

Welcome 2025!

Cheers to a new year! I hope you had a wonderful December break, building lots of memories and finding some time to play. The year ahead is sure to be full of student growth and strong home-school connections. The Marathon Community is special, and I am grateful to be part of it.

We are hosting a Marathon Math Night in February. This will be an opportunity to see strategies that build fact fluency in action as you play math games with your child. Save the date: February 12th. Details will follow.

I look forward to seeing you at school!

Reading

Our early elementary role in building a solid reading foundation is paramount at Marathon. We are a high-performing district with high expectations. At Marathon, our foundation includes both academics and social-emotional learning. A key aspect of academics, one that supports all future learning, is reading. Simply put, reading is being able to interpret written symbols and understand printed material.

In recent years, reading has received much attention, and passionate perspectives exist on the best instructional approaches. Five main components contribute to reading success. Rather than subscribe to one program per se, we focus on the aspects of reading to provide instruction that meets each student’s needs. These are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. We instruct explicitly with great intention.

All students receive instruction in language comprehension and word recognition, which together lead to skilled readers (see the illustration of Scarborough's Reading Rope). Starting in PreK, students build their phonological awareness using a program called Heggerty. In addition to Heggerty, kindergarten and first-grade students learn decoding skills and build sight word recognition utilizing Fundations, a multisensory and systematic phonics program. We teach these skills with increasing automaticity—we want students to not only recognize letter sounds and read words but to do so fluently, which will free their cognitive load to comprehend what they read. Because all students receive instruction through these two programs, we refer to them as “Tier I instruction.”

Our students build language comprehension during whole-group reading lessons and read-alouds. Lessons that correlate to the Massachusetts Reading Standards build vocabulary and comprehension skills. What will students know and be able to do after these lessons? They work to become increasingly strategic in their small group instruction, where they read texts and apply one or some of the skills they have learned. Reading is a complex task; we teach these skills slowly, building and intertwining them to develop skilled readers. When students demonstrate the need for intervention, they may receive more targeted instruction from their classroom teacher or another educator, such as a special educator, literacy specialist, or tutor.

We seek continuous improvement. Our educators are dedicated to promoting student growth. We look at student assessments and meet with teams of teachers to use data to guide instructional decisions--decisions at the macro level (for example, growing many students’ automaticity) and at the micro level (providing increased phonics instruction for a small group of three students, again as an example). We regularly improve, tweak, and adjust—we are never done working to meet student needs. We consider elementary data, not just Marathon data, to inform instructional decisions. We take seriously our role as the school that builds the foundation for future learning. This is essential in our high-performing district.

Ask your child to show you something from Heggerty, tell you what they did during Fundations, or share what story they heard or read at school. We do a lot every day at school despite the “nothing” often given in response to a question about what they learned today! Each month in the “Marathon Memo,” we’ll focus on an aspect of instruction to highlight what that looks like at Marathon so you will know more about your child's learning while at school.

Scarborough's Reading Rope: video with examples to support development.

Reading 101: A Guide for Parents

Senior Capstone Experience

Hello Hopkinton Parents,

We are reaching out to you in regard to an exciting learning opportunity called the Senior Capstone Experience.

This program is available exclusively to the Hopkinton Senior Class and enables them to explore an area of personal interest by developing and implementing a self-directed, four-week learning plan at the end of their senior year. Students who participate in the Capstone Experience are required to find an adult mentor, who has experience in the topic they want to explore, to help guide them through the process.

We recognize finding a mentor may present a challenge, as our seniors are not always aware of the breadth of knowledge and experience that exists within our own community. To help, we would like to compile a list of parents who would be interested in serving as a mentor for our seniors. If you would be willing to serve as a mentor and help a senior develop and implement a project, please let us know by filling out this form.

If you would like more information, here are the links to the Capstone Experience website and the mentor specific page.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the program coordinators: Christine Enos (cenos@hopkinton.k12.ma.us) and Jenn Pond (jpond@hopkinton.k12.ma.us)

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Evan Bishop

HHS Principal

Preschool Playground

We often revisit expectations throughout the school year. January is a great time to share the playground expectations with all who use this area. We appreciate your reinforcement of what is expected during the school day to ensure a fun and enjoyable experience.

Preschool Playground Expectations

Attention future Kindergarten Families!

The district will open registration for the 2025-2026 school year this spring. This includes registration for those entering kindergarten.

Please share with your neighbors and friends that live in Hopkinton and who have children that will be 5 years old by August 31st as they are eligible for kindergarten.

Information about kindergarten 2025-2026 including a link for kindergarten screening.

Preschool 2025-2026 Lottery Application

Dear Hopkinton Families,

Hopkinton Integrated Preschool is now accepting applications for the 2025 lottery. Please click here to complete the application. Completing the application is your ticket to the lottery, and at this time, this is the only necessary step.

Thank you for your interest in our program. Please fill out the application as accurately as possible. Applications must be received by February 1st. The preferred method is to complete the application online, as this timestamps the receipt of your application. The lottery will occur on February 4, 2025, at 4:30 pm. This will be a live lottery via HCAM. The lottery results will be posted on the preschool website within 24 hours of the lottery.

To be eligible for the lottery:

Children must be at least 3 years of age by August 31, 2025
Children must not turn 5 years of age on/before August 31, 2025
If your child turns 5 before September 1, 2025, he/she is age-eligible for Kindergarten at Marathon Elementary School. They are not eligible to participate in the preschool lottery.

Families must be residents of Hopkinton at the time of the lottery. Families will have one month from the notice of lottery acceptance to secure their preschool spot with a non-refundable deposit, which will serve as the first month's tuition.

Do Not Register in PowerSchool. You will be notified of the next steps should your child be selected via the lottery.

Applications received after the February 1st deadline will be added to the waitlist generated in the order received. Applications received after February 1st will not be part of the lottery.

If you have any questions about the application, lottery, or general preschool information, we encourage you to email one of us at soverdahl@hopkinton.k12.ma.us and kisullivan@hopkinton.k12.ma.us

Please note that applicants must be residents of Hopkinton.

Shannon Overdahl

Preschool Director

Kim Sullivan

Preschool Coordinator and Teacher

The HPS Integrated Preschool holds annual screening days, which are advertised on social media and via the District website ( June). Screenings are also conducted at parents' requests throughout the year.

Hopkinton SEPAC is excited to announce the start of our new program called Project SHARK.

What is Project SHARK?

SHARK is an acronym for: SEPAC Helps Add Resources for Kids

SEPAC has asked our Marathon Elementary School special educators, related service providers, and paraprofessionals to make a wish list of items that would be helpful in their work with students with special needs. (Example: therapy supplies, items for the classroom, equipment for learning ADLs, or anything that would be helpful to students). The goal is to provide enriching materials that further the work that our educators do every day. Similar to how a PTO provides additional educational items and supplies, Project SHARK hopes to add materials and supplies that enhance and add to classroom materials.

SEPAC is proud to support our amazing teachers. We hope that this project puts a spotlight on special education, the phenomenal work of our educators, and the different needs of students with disabilities.

Donate to Marathon Elementary School Project SHARK in 2 ways:

Amazon.com Wish List – search “Hopkinton SEPAC” or use this link here.

Don’t forget to include a note of thanks to our wonderful educators in the “Gift Message.”
We want to thank families that donate! – Optional: Click “Share your default shipping address.”

Donate the following gently used items (Email ESeekell@gmail.com to arrange delivery):

K-1 Intensive Learning Specialist Classrooms

Flexible seating
Sensory equipment
Sensory materials
Toys for K-1
Games
Fine motor activities

Speech Therapy

Games

Occupational Therapy

Board games for children age 3+
Fine motor toys and activities for ages 2+

January 2025 SEPAC Events

The New IEP: Q & A with Abby Hanscom

January 14, 2025 at 7-9 pm

Virtual - meet.google.com/sxr-vopk-dhd

Parents and care partners are invited to a Q&A and feedback session about the new IEP with Abby Hanscom, Director of Student Services.

Hopkinton SEPAC Parents and Care Partners Coffee Hour

January 31, 2025 at 10am-11:30am

Hopkinton Public Library, Betty Strong room

Hopkinton SEPAC is hosting a coffee hour for parents and care partners of special needs students. Come to meet other special needs parents and learn more about Hopkinton SEPAC. We will be serving coffee and donuts.