Estabrook Buzz

• Monday, April 22 & Tuesday, April 23: Gr. 5 Math MCAS Testing
• Wednesday, April 24 & Friday, April 26: Gr. 4 Math MCAS Testing
• Saturday, April 27 5:00-8:00: Fifth Grade Spaghetti Supper

• Monday, April 29 & Wednesday, May 1: Gr. 3 Math MCAS
• Tuesday, April 30 & Friday, May 3: Gr. 5 Science MCAS

• Wednesday, May 1: Grade 5 Student Orientation @ Diamond Middle School
• Thursday, May 2 8:45 am Meet Incoming Principal Lisa Riendeau

• Minute Monday: Take a minute to get updated on local “green” initiatives and news
• Textile Tuesday featuring Estabrook’s Baystate Textiles collection
• Plastic Bag Wednesday: Annual plastic bag collection during morning drop-off
• Reusable Snack Container Thursday: Try bringing your snack in a reusable container.
• (No) Food Waste Friday: Focus on eliminating uneaten food to reduce food waste

Please join us on Thursday, May 2 at 8:45 am to meet incoming Principal Lisa Riendeau and welcome her to our school community. In order to ensure a smooth transition, she will begin working in Lexington on May 1st. Interim Principal Rick Rogers will continue as principal through the end of June. Lisa will have an opportunity to meet and learn from members of the Estabrook community and to become familiar with work going on at the school and district level. Please help us give Lisa a warm welcome to Estabrook!

School Improvement Plan Priorities

Roland Barth, founder of the Harvard Principal's Center and a central mentor of mine was fond of quoting an old saying: "For a sailor with no direction, there is no fair wind." Translated for schools, it means we need to have clear goals so we can take full advantage of opportunities to sail ahead.

The School Council is in the midst of updating the School Improvement Plan for next year. Our current plan has 12 action areas and 28 implementation steps. Too many to do anything well. The Council has begun a process to narrow the focus and identify clear priorities within the plan. We have already engaged the Faculty Leadership Team and the PTO Executive Board in a process designed to winnow down the list and set priorities.

The next phase of our work will be to elicit input from the entire staff and as many families as possible.This coming week, you will receive an email from me inviting you to complete a brief survey identifying your top 3 priorities for next year from the plan. You will also have the opportunity to suggest a new priority if you feel something is missing.

Please keep in mind that the purpose of the School Improvement Plan is to identify "what's next" for the school. Try to think "big picture." It is also important to remember that most goals need 3-5 years of work before becoming institutionalized in the school.

The School Council will review the survey results and use them to formulate a more focused school improvement plan. Our hope is that clearer priorities will be beneficial to incoming Principal Lisa Riendeau and the school as a whole in moving forward.

Watch for the survey coming this week. If you are interested in looking over the current plan, here is the link (also available on the Estabrook School home page):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rClRnX6WiG6IXCaze0WgAjXWKwx-WRNsBr3y2JAjwsw/edit?

Happy sailing!

Rick Rogers

rrogers@lexingtonma.org

Join us in a walking challenge!

It’s easy and fun for the whole family!

Put a tally mark on your chart for each 10 minutes you walk.

Keep track for a month (April 10- May 8)

Turn in your chart on Safe Routes to School day, Wednesday May 8th.

Let’s see how much walking Estabrook School can do!!

Download the calendar here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/155LQPStTwFCew2Z8Hvp79jkmxFw2-JBm/view?usp=sharing

We are pleased to announce that the 4th Grade Math Club team is a Continental Math League Euclidean Regional Winner (Massachusetts and Connecticut Region).

Congratulations to 4th Grade Math Club members Siddharth Revankar, Dorje Arya, Alex Tsaros, Jayden Ho-Tran, Aikyan Vadlamani, Danny Olofsson, Vasily Morozov, Avia Liao, Sri Sunny Daxikar, Shreyas Pokharna, David Guo, Esme Cohen, Aleah Hernandez, Parnika Mysore, Isabel Tully, Ayush Deb-Bhattacharyya, Jeremiah Liu, Jasna Singh, Patrick Noonan, Sadie Maloney, Lewis Ferguson, Deeya Khamesra, Bernardo Streithorst, and Alexander Tran.

And a big thank you to John Michael Streithorst, Greg Tully, and Divya Khamesra for coaching the group to this achievement!