News
Support Local in November: Governor's
As part of our Support Local initiative this year at OTES, we are giving back to community establishments . In November, if you visit Governor's, make sure you leave a...
Holiday Book Fair November 20th-December 4th
It’s Holiday Book Fair time! The holidays are the perfect time to buy books—books make wonderful presents!! From November 20th-December 4th, the OTES Library will be...
Minutes to PTC Meeting 11/4/20
PTC Meeting Minutes from November 4, 2020 1. Feedback about school procedures: Jeanna reviewed the parent survey for feedback about our school year so far. She reported...
Events
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Maggie Mitchell
OTES Family Update November 20, 2020 🦃Thanksgiving Break There will be no school Wednesday, November 25th through Friday, November 27th. We hope all our families enjoy a safe, healthy and relaxing Thanksgiving! 🚗Out of State Travel If you plan to travel out of state, please be in contact with our school office at 827-1544. Any staff or students who travel to any state other than New Hampshire or Vermont (no restrictions for these two states only as of 11/16/20; subject to change), will be required to either: - Quarantine for 14 days upon return to Maine, or - Quarantine until receiving a negative test result. The test must be taken either: - In the state you are visiting and no more than 72 hours prior to your return to Maine, or - Once you return to Maine. Any staff or students who have travelled to restricted states will not be permitted inside the school building until either the negative test result or 14 days has occurred. This is not dependent on the length of time spent within the restricted states, meaning that a day visit still requires any person to quarantine for 14 days or until a negative test result is confirmed. All members of the household who travel must test or quarantine if over 12 months old. Any person who is quarantining should stay home, and not have in-person contact with others unless there is an emergency. 🗓December Break and Schedule Change for 4th and 5th Hybrid Students In order to balance the number of in-person days, we have made the following change: Monday, December 21st and Tuesday, December 22nd will be IN-PERSON days for our THURSDAY/FRIDAY cohort of 4th and 5th graders. Monday, December 21st and Tuesday, December 22nd will be REMOTE LEARNING days for our MONDAY/TUESDAY cohort of 4th and 5th graders. All other students, kindergarten through 3rd grade, will follow their regular in-person schedule on these days. Holiday break begins Wednesday, December 23rd and students return to their regular schedules on Monday, January 4th. 📚Holiday Book Fair to Benefit the OTES Library It’s almost Holiday Book Fair time! The holidays are the perfect time to buy books—books make wonderful presents!! From November 20th-December 4th, the OTES Library will be hosting an Usborne Holiday Book Fair to stock up on great books! The library will earn 50% of dollars spent to purchase books for the library with Usborne. Here is the link to the Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/152123586602111 Here is the link to the shopping site: https://z9460.myubam.com/1916489 More information will go home with your child! Great books=happy readers! ✉️Trimester 1 Report Cards Trimester 1 ends Tuesday, November 24th and report cards will be sent home on Friday, December 4th.
Maggie Mitchell
Dear Families of Bus C, Over the past couple of weeks, we have had many more children/families want to ride bus C. Starting tomorrow, we are going to try to do a split run if it’s necessary to get students to and from school. In the mornings, we will have Bus C start Downtown on Main Street and head all the way to Orono line to pick up students. The bus will turn around at the Orono line and head back into town head up Highland Ave to Hamlin, down Brunswick Street to Cooper Street. If the bus is full, the bus driver will head to OTES and drop those students off and return to Jefferson Street to start picking up student on Perkins, Brunswick Street to Cooper Street and down to South Main Street. The bus will head right to school from there. In the afternoon, if the bus is overloaded with students, we will have the students that ride from the Regency to the Orono Town Line, wait at school (supervised) and the bus driver will drop off students on Perkins Street and come back to school to pick up the students for the second run. We know this is a bit more time on the bus for students, but we are trying to accommodate students needing transportation and keep the numbers down for safety reasons. We do not have an exact timeline for pick up and drop off until we experience the run as we have planned. Please be patient as we figure out the timing of the new run. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to call school (827-1544) or the bus company (827-2335) for clarification.
Maggie Mitchell
OTES Family Update November 6, 2020 🇺🇸No School Wednesday, November 11th🇺🇸 A reminder that RSU #34 schools are closed this coming Wednesday, November 11th in honor of Veterans Day. No in-person or remote learning will be conducted. 🧤Winter Weather and Clothes🧤 Despite the warm stretch we are currently experiencing, the snow this week was a wake up call! We do a lot of outdoor activities at OTES, please make sure your student is prepared for the coming winter weather with snow pants, a jacket, boots, a hat, and gloves or mittens. Please contact your student’s teacher if this is a hardship for your family. We will not be able to loan out items this year due to COVID-19 regulations, but we do have many donated items to give to students to keep if necessary. A change of clothes and mask in your student’s backpack or cubby is also important if students get wet or dirty! ❄️Snow Days ❄️ We will continue to have storm/snow days this year, if necessary. We will announce storm/snow days through the RSU #34 app and through our website. We know that major storm/snow events often come paired with power outages, internet outages, and other challenges that make a full day of remote learning difficult. When there’s a storm/snow day, we encourage our students to help shovel out a neighbor, build a snowman, play a game, and do other wonderful things. If during the year we begin to accumulate an unusually large number of storm/snow days, we may consider shifting to some remote learning days for moderate storm/snow events. Link to school calendar: https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/871751/2020-21_Student_Calendar_Revised.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1P4d8SboZm-zPD_4GutP83H3hv3vMGfbRHl-3zkX1htLClL5-Sl7lbPjg 🦠Continued Vigilance Around COVID-19🦠 ✅Screening for Symptoms✅ All students and staff need to use this home screening tool to determine if they are well enough to attend school each day: https://www.maine.gov/doe/sites/maine.gov.doe/files/inline-files/Pre-Screening%20Tool_11.pdf 📞Reporting Absences📞 Please report your student absent EACH DAY they need to miss in-person or remote learning for any reason. Contact your student’s teacher or the school office attendance voicemail 24/7 at 827-1544 option 3. 📃Make Up Work and Remote Learning📃 When students cannot attend in-person due to symptoms, quarantine, or other reasons, please contact the student’s teacher for make up options. 4th and 5th grade students should still attend their remote learning days if well enough to participate. ☎️COVID-19 Hotline☎️ Please remember to contact RSU #34 with information about a confirmed case of COVID-19, so we can take appropriate action to keep the spread slow and protect our community. You can report a confirmed case 24/7 by calling 827-7171, option 0, or go to www.rsu34.org and click “COVID-19”. view image
Maggie Mitchell
❄️This week's snow is an indicator that the winter weather season is here! Please read this important district re-post about snow days during the 2020-2021 School Year. ❄️ RSU #34 Calendar & Storm/Snow Days RSU #34 revised its school calendar at the end of the summer; the calendar can be accessed at the link below. That calendar lays out the school holidays, such as Veteran’s Day next Wednesday, November 11th. The last scheduled day of the school year is Monday, June 14th. We continue to guide families to anticipate a typical number of storm/snow days. For example, with four storm/snow days school would end Friday, June 18th. We will continue to announce storm/snow days through the RSU #34 app and through our website. We know that major storm/snow events often come paired with power outages, internet outages, and other challenges that make a full day of remote learning difficult. When there’s a storm/snow day, we encourage our students to help shovel out a neighbor, build a snowman, play a game, and do other wonderful things. If during the year we begin to accumulate an unusually large number of storm/snow days, we may consider shifting to some remote learning days for moderate storm/snow events. Link to calendar: https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/.../2020-21_Student...
Maggie Mitchell
Progress reports are coming home today if they have not already. If you have any questions, please reach out to your student's teacher. Included in the link below are some helpful tips for home-to-school communication anytime. https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/559172/RSU__34_Guide_to_Referrals_and_Parent_Communication.pdf