Alton Elementary School

We are planning a "Meet the Teacher" day on Wednesday, September 2nd. Please use this link for more information and to sign up for a time slot for your child(ren). If you already received this information, please disregard! :-) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P2b8QP1eDYzVuJmJm9T60gp33-6T3cvFNg92-jMKt1g/edit?usp=sharing

Update! The school board voted last night to move the start date of school to September 8th. If you are having trouble signing up through the google doc for a meet the teacher time, please call the school. 394-2331

“Meet Your Teacher” at Alton Elementary School! We will be arranging times for your child to meet his/her new teacher on Wednesday, September 2nd. Please click on the link to your child’s grade to choose a time to visit at the school! Pre-kindergarten: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UFhArsSF96c0Pl-LWLC76C50x-otmgYHFgXtroQXna0/edit?usp=sharing Kindergarten: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ds70ABeDTZu9ZfGxSOAhQlXN320kobjdJ1VYc4fDOcU/edit?usp=sharing First grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18Hkzruz9Eunsj06q8O1DCtHPSa7TQGtmPD_M2jCd3Sg/edit?usp=sharing Second grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1snKWwR9lhPpu7d1KS0Le8gVHd14a3a5u5wC7EG0rQXs/edit?usp=sharing Third Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xVWHpIUnDR1_4gO-Or5uRznrdtLoGTRPFCp-Dq-fbys/edit?usp=sharing Fourth Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14AsbkTrjMn5Xx6FekE7lu7Ue6mLQNDkjTv1JU3V0Umo/edit?usp=sharing Fifth Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18X-JUk8faXcIsW0p4Hd4XT1P6zmmaEXLAKNtMot7n98/edit?usp=sharing School address: 22 Argyle Rd., Alton Phone: 394-2331 Principal: cheryl.leonard@rsu34.org

There will be a lot of changes at Alton Elementary this school year! We are excited to welcome new students to our school!! To spread students out, enabling more in person instruction, we have added classes so that there is a class at every grade. All of the Alton Elementary School students will be coming to school all 5 days! There is a lot of moving under way to be ready for students on September 2nd. Here are the teachers at each grade level: Pre-k - To be determined K - Mrs. Wilcox Grade 1 - Mrs. Gasaway Grade 2 - Ms. Burris Grade 3 - Ms. Graves Grade 4 - Mrs. Ouellette Grade 5 - Ms. LaFrance Title 1 - Mrs. Vafiades Resource Room - Mrs. Paradis There will be a LOT of new faces, both students and staff which be a lot of fun!! We are making plans for an open house at each grade level to ease any anxiety our families may be experiencing. This will be a different year, with masks and distancing between kids and adults, but we are determined to make the best of it and look for ways to have fun in this crazy new situation!

Required parent form for RSU #34 students - Fall 2020 Dear Parents/Guardians of RSU #34 Children, Our district has put together a form through which parents/guardians will inform the schools of their family’s plans and needs for the upcoming start to the school year. Please submit one form per RSU #34 student in order for us to coordinate family plans PreK-12. We estimate this form will take no more than 5 minutes per student to complete. Please submit this form as soon as possible and no later than Friday, July 31st. You can watch the presentation of our planning to the School Board here: https://www.rsu34.org/article/272060?org=rsu-34 RSU #34 anticipates needing to move flexibly between three “lanes” in 2020-2021, depending on things such as community transmission rates of the novel coronavirus and the rates of student and staff illnesses with symptoms similar to COVID-19. These lanes are: fully remote learning, a combination of in-person and remote learning, and in-person learning five days per week. Families that wish to participate remotely all year long may do so. More details and background about the district’s plan can be found here (tinyurl.com/y9o23gmk). Here is the link to the form: https://forms.gle/qzbHRsjgZQuNAkuNA Any questions should be directed to the building principal of your student. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We thank you for your hard work, patience, and community spirit supporting our children throughout the pandemic. Sincerely, RSU #34 Planning Team

The school board meeting on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 included a presentation by the RSU34 administrative team on a reopening plan for this fall. The video of the board meeting and chat file can be found here: https://www.rsu34.org/article/272060?org=rsu-34

Maine Department of Education continues to work with educators and health experts from across the State to develop health markers and corresponding plans to ensure the safe return to classroom instruction. As this work develops, the Department is seeking input from additional stakeholders from across the State, and is releasing a survey on July 6. On June 11, 2020 the Department of Education released the first draft of a framework to assist school administrative units (SAUs) in developing their plans and determining their capacity to meet the national CDC guidelines for safely returning to classroom instruction. This draft framework will continue to evolve and will be developed based on science and community health markers. The framework was created with input from a diverse group of stakeholders, and included education and health experts, students, parents, education advocates and leaders. We have worked with a research organization to develop a survey through which educators and support professionals, education leaders, and families of students can provide comment and share their opinions on the 2020-2021 school year and possible models and needs for a safe return to classroom instruction. Four different surveys have been created, specific to the role of the person completing the survey, including: 1. Teachers and educational technicians; 2: School or SAU leadership; 3: Specialists and student support staff or 4. Family member. The surveys will be available at https://www.maine.gov/doe/fall2020survey beginning July 6 through July 12. The Family Survey is available in 11 languages. The data and feedback will be compiled by the research group and considered by the team who will continue to revise the framework over the next month. While these surveys will provide a snapshot at the state and county level, many superintendents have asked for and are reviewing their own community-specific information, which will inform the work of their Collaborative Planning Team in developing instructional plans that will be responsive to risk levels. Your participation in these surveys is greatly appreciated in preparation for the next school year. Our fervent hope is that our continued trends in the battle against COVID-19 here in Maine will allow our schools to resume classroom instruction for the start of the 2020-2021 school year, as our schools serve as a stabilizing force for our communities, students, families and the economy. Yet, it is prudent at this time to both hope for the best, and prepare for many possible scenarios.

Today's Drive Thru Celebration is still on! Please bring any library books and school materials that need to be returned. Students will get out one at a time to have a picture with the teacher, receive certificates and yearbooks, a popcorn and the ice cream. Back in the car and on to the next child! We plan to keep things moving so the line goes quickly. Can't wait to see you all!

Good morning! We are nearing the end of the 2019-20 school year and it has been a challenging one for all of us! Over the summer, we will be making preparations to be ready for whatever scenario we are faced with when it is time for school to resume. As we make these preparations, it would be very helpful to have feedback from parents and guardians as to how things really were on your end of the remote learning. Being well informed will help us tremendously. This is a link to a survey that is specific to Alton Elementary School. https://forms.gle/zeb6Fh3BUJAMbR228 Your feedback is important to us as we begin this important planning! Thank you in advance for taking the time to let us know about your family's school experience this spring.

Alton Elementary Drive Thru celebration

Parents & families of RSU #34 kids, we seek your input/feedback! Our families and educators have done amazing things with kids on an emergency basis this spring. Please let us know the strengths and challenges on this anonymous survey: https://forms.gle/hdJ4X7RseMUhHjdp9 Please do the survey by June 3rd. Thanks!

The parade route will be leaving the school at 10:30 and proceeding as follows: Start at school and go left on Argyle Rd. to Southgate Road. Turn right and follow Southgate Rd out to Bennoch Rd. Turn left and follow Bennoch Rd out to Rte 43 Turn right and follow Rte 43 out to Tannery road and turn around at Gerry Lane. After turning around, return back to Bennoch Rd. Follow Bennoch Rd out to LaGrange and turn around at church. Return to school.

There will be an AES staff parade through Alton on Thursday, May 28 from 10:30 til noon or so in appreciation of our students and parents! It is a beach theme so join the fun! The route will be posted on Facebook and the school website (RSU34.org - choose Alton Elementary).

Another Thursday bus run will be rolling this morning. Please request the grade level packet your child(ren) need along with the food. Kindergarten students should be getting three things from Mrs. Wilcox today. There will also be packets for pre-k students on the Alton buses. The packets for Old Town pre-k students will be dropped off. I'm missing all of you! Be well!

Books are special! They can take you on adventures to new places. They can help you learn more about something new to you! Making books more readily available to kids is the purpose of little community libraries and Alton now has one! Scott Wilcox built a little library so the children in Alton will be able to access books and keep reading through this pandemic and beyond! It is located right in front of Alton Grocery on Route 16. Stop in and browse for a book to take home. It is fine to leave a book to share if you want to! Thank you Chief Wilcox!!

Happy Thursday! The lunch buses will be around again today with another week's worth of lunches and breakfasts. Since next week is April break, the next delivery will be on April 29th. The buses will have paper copies of an optional Bingo Board for next week with the work packet for April 27-May 1. Please ask for the grade(s) you need. We will have copies in the bin in front of the school as usual!

Today is the first day of providing a week of breakfast and lunch for each student. From now on, the busses will run only on Thursdays and will drop a box of food for each child with items for a week. We will be making the process safer for all those who are involved in prepping and delivering lunches. More time at home and less contact with others for these staff members and bus drivers who are doing so much for our community!

There will also be copies of next week's lessons available for each grade in the bin at the front doors to the school in case you don't catch the bus!

The lunch busses will have hard copies of next weeks lessons on board today for pre-k to grade 4 so please ask for the grade your child needs! Third and fourth grade students will also be able to get their handwriting and spelling books from the buses today.

There will be a hard copy of next week's work for students in grades K-5 on the lunch buses tomorrow. Those may also be printed from the web site. Please reach out if you have any questions going forward!