Calais Cougar Chronicle

Our building has been a bright place to be with a wonderful week of celebration honoring staff and faculty for teacher and staff appreciation week. Students and staff have been working really hard and have taken some moments to play as well. The sun has been shining enough to be comfortable outside and the only downside has been the beginning of black fly season. I will take the black flies if we get to keep the sun! I want to thank all the folks who have reached out to support our school community this week. Special thanks goes out to The Friends of Calais and to Danielle Barclay for coordination. There have been thoughtful notes, gifts, and so much wonderful food!

While we are talking about appreciation, I also want to thank our community for showing up for our students and schools by passing the budget. This has been an incredibly difficult season with hard decisions made and finding the balance of protecting programming while being fiscally responsible has been the biggest challenge I’ve seen our district face in a decade. Thank you to all who showed up to vote and shared their voice.

Looking ahead to the last five(ish) weeks of school (is that possible?) we have a lot of work to do to celebrate our accomplishments, culminating activities, step up, and graduation for 6th grade. As this is also the time of year when teachers and staff make decisions about returning to their classrooms or taking on new roles, I anticipate we also will see notes from a few staff members who are moving on to new roles (I will let them share their own stories when they are ready). Once we have more information, we can move forward on conversations about classroom configurations and teaching assignments for next year.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Cat, CES principal

We want to give a huge, enormous shout out to the Friends of Calais for organizing "Staff Appreciation Week" this week. Thank you for all of your coordination with the community and for all of your hard work that helped to make this week so special.

We also want to give a special shout out to the East Calais General Store for our lunch that they donated for the staff on Thursday. Thank you for your generosity and for the support - they were delicious!! 😃

Lastly, thank you to the Calais community and anyone who donated yummy treats, time, kind messages and gifts throughout this week. We feel spoiled, full and most importantly, appreciated, so thank you so much.

Information, Registration, Introductions, & Screenings

The Washington Central Unified Union School District registration process is available online for the 2024-2025 school year.

The Pre-K and K registration process must be completed for students who are attending our public school programs and students who are attending private, pre-qualified programs through Act 166 in 2024-2025.

Registration for Pre-K 3 is for students who are 3 years old on or before September 1, 2024. Pre-K 4 is for students who are 4 or 5 years old (5 years old and not enrolled in Kindergarten) on or before September 1, 2024 from the towns of Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, and Worcester.

Kindergarten is for children who turn age 5 on or before September 1, 2024. If you have not recently moved to our district and your child already attends public Pre-K, they are already registered for Kindergarten in our district.

Please go to our website at www.wcuusd.org and follow the directions after clicking the icon titled "Online Registration" located under the slides on the right-hand side of our website or you will find more information, including forms, under the "Pre-K Information" in the same area.

If registering for public Pre-K in your local elementary school, it is strongly suggested that families complete the online registration process as soon as possible. We will begin offering placements to students in the late spring. For Pre-K placements 4-year-olds are given priority until the placement date and then students are placed on a first-come-first-served basis, space is limited. If necessary, we will create a waitlist or will offer spots in our other public Pre-K programs, also on a first come, first served basis. All registration paperwork must be completed before a placement will be offered.

WCUUSD offers childcare options through Community Connections in order to increase access to public Pre-K programs.

Please contact Kim Bolduc, Coordinator of Early Education and Expanded Learning Opportunities at Kbolduc@u32.org or 223-7936 ext. 305 if you have questions regarding Pre-Kindergarten, Act 166, or Community Connections before or aftercare options. Please include the town you live in to your email or message.

We will be offering the following upcoming Pre-K play-based Introduction and Screening opportunities as follows:

Calais: Wednesday, May 15th call 802/454-1111
Rumney/Doty (Middlesex): Monday, May 20th call 802/223-5429 or 802/223-5656
Doty/Rumney (Worcester): Monday, May 20th call 802/223-5656 or 802/223-5429

Those having missed the Berlin and East Montpelier dates may ask to attend the Calais or Middlesex/Doty Screenings

Should you have any concerns about your child's development, please contact our Special Education Teachers Bess Powers and Dawn Bates at bpowers@u32.org or dbates@u32.org or call 802/223-2796

See below for a new and exciting summer soccer camp opportunity run by our very own U-32 soccer program! You can register here:

Downloadable link below

5/11 - Girls Lacrosse Clinic (2nd-6th Grade)

5/15 - Pre-K Introduction and Screening

5/16 - Prenatal Nurturing Parenting Program

5/17 - Field Trip - Ethan Allen Homestead Museum (3rd & 4th Grade)

5/18 - Girls Lacrosse Clinic (2nd-6th Grade)

5/21 - Nurturing Program for Families in Substance Use Treatment & Recovery (In person)

5/22 - Board Meeting (U32)

5/25 - Girls Lacrosse Clinic (2nd-6th Grade)

5/27 - Nurturing Program for Families in Substance Use Treatment & Recovery

5/29 - Nurturing Program for Mom's in Substance Use Treatment & Recovery

5/30 - Field Trip - VINS (K-2)

5/31 - Registration Deadline for Black Bear Hockey

6/4 - Calais Art and Music Night

6/10 - Nurturing Fathers Program

6/11 - Unity Day

6/13 - Rising 7th Graders - Trip to Boulder Beach

6/13 - Friends of Calais Meeting

6/18 - Last day of school - half day for students

6/18 - 6th Grade Graduation

Evacuation Drill in June - TBD

7/8-7/12 - Raider Summer Soccer Camp

Hazel

Emma

Autumn

Hi Calais Cougars! Stay fierce!

Today we are interviewing Hazel.

Her favorite color is mint green!

Her least favorite colors are plain colors!

Her favorite foods are sushi and dumplings.

Her least favorite food is tomato sauce.

Her favorite sweet food is a lemon curd donut.

Her least favorite sweet food is bubble gum.

Her favorite animal is a cat.

Her least favorite animal is a mosquito (same).

Her favorite subject is math and literacy.

Bye for now!

Cinco de Mayo themed lunch

Students were asked to describe teachers and staff so that they could all be surprised with "Word Clouds"

Breakfast!

Flowers hand picked by a student <3

Treats for our staff meeting!

Pies! 🥧

Beautiful heart pie <3

Sandwiches donated from the East Calais General Store!!! :)

Salads!

Chef Dena appreciation <3

Donuts, Seeds, Fidgets and Supplies - Oh my! :)

Hello all,

Swim lessons are on for this coming summer at Curtis! We have two wonderful instructors, Adeleine and Grace Cannella. They are fully certified and excited to teach your kids to swim!

Please see the registration flyer here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DOUHmFb-TD33wJZmJ3p6tBltnQw-9oiV/edit?usp=sharing&ou[...]rue

You may print and deliver to
Adrian Wade-Keeney
97 Kent Hill Road
Calais, Vermont 05648

Or you may fill out the digital version here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKjLYFMoUo8Z4yYYXHk9URSbiG54nK_ei3SQLP12dOYUwg1A/v[...]ink

Please reach out if you have any questions. Spread the word! We do have less week this year than previous years, but hopefully you can find a time that works!

Warmly,

Adrian