The Weekly Update #4
March 25th, 2022
I hope that this newsletter continues to find you all well! I cannot believe that we have already reached Spring! I am excited for all that the last months of school brings for our students, staff, and community - celebrations of achievement, field days, picnics, promotion, and graduation...all great moments in a young person's life!
I am excited to share that we are continuing to progress on our Turf project at Memorial Field. Our groundbreaking ceremony is schedule for Thursday, April 7th at 5:00 pm. As such, the last day for our community to use the track will be Sunday, April 10th. As shared earlier in the year, Mr. Hall has worked with the Kinnelon School District to allow our community to use their track at night to walk. We once again apologize for any inconvenience; however, the time away will be worth it as we will not only have a turf field for our children to utilize regardless of weather conditions, but we will have a new, resurfaced track for our students and community to enjoy. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.
I am thrilled to share that, through the hard-work and generosity of the Butler Bulldog Education Association (BBEA), we will begin to work on a Robotics Lab at Butler High School. This past week, the BBEA awarded the district with another grant to support this effort. Due to the BBEA, our district has been able to build a MakerSpace at ADS, the ThinkCentre at RBS, and now the I-Lab Robotics Lab at BHS. Due to this, our students are able to experience a true STE(A)M curriculum starting in Kindergarten. Our students learn coding, design process, engineering concepts, collaborative problem-solving, and digital citizenship. They have opportunities to code robots starting at ADS, and this will now culminate in advanced courses at the high school, which includes the creation of a Robotics Team to compete in tournaments against other schools. We are excited to be able to offer these educational opportunities for our learning community!
We are in the process of finishing our school budget for the 2022-2023 school year. In next month's newsletter, we will share all of the exciting goals we are planning to continue to advance our district in the coming year!
Be Well!
Dr. J.
Aaron Decker Elementary School - Mr. J. Manco, Principal
Kids Heart Challenge
The Aaron Decker Physical Education program just wrapped up their Kids Heart Challenge program. During the month of February students learn about heart health, mindfulness, and are taught ways to stay active and healthy. Students are also given the opportunity to raise money and be a "heart hero". All proceeds go directly to the American Heart Association. This year Aaron Decker School had one of its biggest fundraising years at over $10,500. Thank you to everyone who participated along with their families and businesses that matched donations.
ADS Congratulates Mrs. Jackie Tierney as Bulldog of the Month
Congratulations to Jackie Tierney for being our February ADS Bulldog of the Month recipient. As you all know, Jackie will be retiring in April. Her service to the entire Butler Public School District and the students she worked with over the years as a member of the Child Study Team is very much appreciated. We wish her the best of luck in her retirement!!
Richard Butler Middle School - Mrs. M. Papa, Principal
As we look forward to the spring, there are many exciting things happening at RBS. Thank you, again, to our awesome PTA for arranging the 8th Grade v. Staff Volleyball Game. It was so much fun and very well attended by the Butler Community! The TREP$ Marketplace is in the works, and we’re happy to offer it to all RBS students in grades 5-8, so please look for more information coming soon. The Scholastic Book Fair is returning to RBS the week of March 21, 2022. All of our students always get so excited about the book fair, so we anticipate its return. There’s also a Family BINGO Night on March 25, 2022; please bring the whole family out for this fun event! Drama Club has been continuing to hold rehearsals and build the set for the spring production of All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Murder Mystery by Werner Trieschmann on April 8-9. We hope you’ll plan to join us for the show! Thank you to the PTA for the donation for each child as they received a book for Read Across America Week. We are truly grateful to our most generous PTA! More information about all of our events can be found in the RBS Review Newsletter.
Team 8 has been working on the Elements of a Bulldog where each student chose an abbreviation from the Periodic Table of the Elements and assigned it a positive character trait. They’ve completed the project, and we are so proud of their accomplishment. It’s displayed in the All Purpose Room for all to see! Thank you to our Grade 8 staff for supervising the project.
RBS Bulldog of the Month - Mrs. Price
Please join us in congratulating Mrs. Katie Price on being named the Bulldog of the Month for February here at RBS! She does a spectacular job of continuing to hone the foundational literacy skills students need to experience success in all content areas. Mrs. Price is an avid reader and truly promotes a love of reading with our students as well!
Butler High School - Mr. R. Fitzgerald, Principal
Butler High School continues to shine as we move through March. We are excited for all of our upcoming programs and events from now until Graduation. Please reach out with any questions or concerns at any time. Here are some highlights at BHS over the past month
Spongebob the Musical is coming to Butler! Show is April 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Tickets can be purchased using this link.
We had a successful district wide Social Emotional Learning Day on Friday March 11th. We started our morning with a Character Strong lesson and our faculty incorporated SEL activities throughout their lessons. During lunches the students had the opportunity to spin the SEL wheel and answer questions related to social emotional learning. We had 300 students participate!
