February 12, 2012
Hi Everyone,
I hope that all of you had a nice weekend. I was pretty happy that there was no snow this weekend.
This winter is a Principal's dream. Last year is something that I do not want to repeat again. I think I
aged 10 years during last winter. And I got a new pair of cross country skis for Christmas that I
haven't used yet and I am still happy.
One more week before the vacation but it should be a lot of fun. Of course there is Valentine's day.
You should all be getting lists of the students in your child's classroom. Make sure that you have
your child make one for every student in the class. It is up to the classroom teacher as to wether
there is food etc. Any candy that is given out will be sent home with your child for parents to peruse
and make sure they are o.k. for consumption according to your beliefs on the sugary sweets. Feel
free to send in any extra blank Valentines day cards with your child in case someone forgets theirs!
On Wednesday, the students that completed President's Day projects will be displaying and
performing their projects at our school meeting. These students will get special seating at the
meeting and they will be part of a slideshow as well. If your child is doing a presentation at the
meeting, you will be receiving or may have already received a letter from Ms. Demers. We are going
to be seeing how many presentations there are and we may be adjusting the start time of the school
meeting so that we can fit them all in.
On Friday, the students that completed the assignment get to come to a special luncheon with me at
1:15PM. We have had close to 80 students turn in their assignments. The lunch looks like it should
be really tasty and there may even be a "surprise" guest for the kids. We never expected such a great
response to this idea but we couldn't be happier or more proud. I would like to thank Mrs. Demers
for her work on this. It was her idea and she has really run with it.
Over the last month, I have been keeping track of the amount of paper that we are using as a school
especially in the notices that we send home from Great Oak. I was shocked by the amount that is
wasted and added to our recycling or worse, our landfills. It seems so pointless especially when Mrs.
Rideout and I have figured that there are very few families that do not have email (under 15). From
this point on, we are going to start sending home as many weekly notices as we can through email
rather than paper. On Wednesday night, I am going to do a connected message by phone to families
along with an email. Any families that do not get the email should call the office to either adjust the
address or request that we send them notices by paper. This is being done successfully at the Smith
school. So from this point forward, please check those emails on Thursdays! Your feedback to me
will be very important. Therefore, I am eager for any of your thoughts once this gets going. The
classroom teachers are also going to be making greater efforts to send their notices through email as
well.
Students in grades 3,4,and 5 will be getting a notice (sent through email) about a robotics program
that is being offered after school by one of our parents, Chris Prince. He is doing this program
through the 4h club. There is only space for 10 students but we are hoping to expand it in the
future.
Tomorrow starts the first day of Great Oak offering breakfast to all of it's students. The times are
from 7:55-8:10AM. Students will go to the cafeteria to get their breakfast and they will eat it at a
designated table downstairs. Speak with your child as to wether you want them to get breakfast or
not, it is going to be done through the Meal Magic system so I don't want anyone to get any surprise
bills because their child was getting breakfast and you didn't know about it.
Also, I have updated the MCAS improvement plan and our efforts thus far in completing it. Please
click on the link to the left to view.
Happy Valentines Day!
Mr. Fusco
