March 21, 2013

Next week on Tuesday, March 26^th and Wednesday, March 27^th our third grade students will be taking the MCAS test. I want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to the PTA for sponsoring a healthy breakfast for our students on the mornings of the testing. Please make certain your child has a good night sleep to be well rested for the test.

We are looking forward to our LEGO Showcase night on Friday, April 5^th. This is looking to be a very exciting evening! There are very few schools in the country who were awarded this grant, so it is truly an accomplishment. Dr. Czajkowski and I are going to be a part of this night evaluating students’ designs. There will be a sign-up for this event coming home in the next week so PLEASE mark the date and plan on joining us!

I want to remind families that school attendance is a priority. Please refer to the school handbook for the attendance policy. If your child has missed more than six days in a six month period of school, it is a concern. It impacts our ability to deliver the curriculum to your child and hurts the continuity of their educational progress. Please try to keep family vacations to a time when school is not in session, so that if your child is ill his or her attendance is not as impacted.  As always, please remember to contact the school nurse if your child is going to be absent so that we can document the reason for his or her absence. 

We have conducted our kindergarten registration with great success! If you have not registered your child for kindergarten, or if you know of someone who has not yet done so, please contact Mrs. Carlon in our main office. We are trying to make staffing decisions for next year and we need accurate numbers to accomplish this task successfully. Your help is appreciated.

The preschool is in need of 3 year old peers for next year. Our 3 year old peers come to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings from 9-11:30. We will be conducting a peer screening on April 10^th from 9:30-11:30. This is a great opportunity to have your child come to school and be taught by certified teachers in a classroom environment. The preschool fees are on a sliding scale making it an affordable option for families. We are looking for students who have strong language skills and are able to model appropriate behaviors. If your child is three years old by September 1^st , please come to school to be screened.

Finally, please remember that Friday, March 29^th is Good Friday and there is no school.

Mr. Scheufele

October 31, 2012

Dear Parent or Guardian:

We are pleased to provide you with access to the Centerville Elementary School Report Card, put out by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It contains information about student enrollment and teacher qualifications, student achievement, accountability, how our school is performing relative to other schools, and the progress our school is making toward narrowing proficiency gaps for different groups of students.   There is a link to the school report card available on the Centerville Elementary School Web Page.  If you would like a hard copy of the report card, please contact Mrs. Carlon and she will print one for you.

Part I: Student Enrollment and Teacher Qualifications

The first section of the report card provides information about the students and teachers in our school as compared to the district and the state. If your child attends a school that receives federal Title I funds, you also have the right to request the following information about the qualifications of your child’s classroom teachers:

·         Whether your child’s teacher is licensed in the grade levels and subject areas they teach

·         Whether your child’s teacher is teaching under an emergency license or waiver

·         The college degree and major of your child’s teacher

·         Whether your child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications

Part II: Student Achievement

The second section of the report card shows how Massachusetts students are performing on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test that allows you to compare the performance of Massachusetts students to students across the nation or in other states. You can also see how our school performed on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests as compared to the district and the state.

Part III: Accountability

The third section of the report card contains three important pieces of information:

·         Accountability and Assistance Levels: Schools and districts are placed into one of five accountability and assistance levels (1-5), with the highest performing in Level 1 and lowest performing in Level 5. Our school has been placed into Level 1.

·         School Percentiles: A school percentile between 1 and 99 is reported for most schools. This number shows the overall performance of our school relative to other schools that serve the same or similar grades.  We do not have a school percentile due to the redistricting that took place four years ago. We anticipate having a percentile next year.

·         Progress and Performance Index (PPI): The PPI is a number that indicates our school’s progress toward narrowing proficiency gaps, or, in other words, helping all students reach proficiency and be prepared for success after high school. Massachusetts has set a goal of reducing proficiency gaps by half between the years 2011 and 2017. For a group of students to be considered to be making sufficient progress toward narrowing proficiency gaps, its cumulative PPI must be 75 or higher.

We encourage you to become involved in helping us improve our school. Some of the ways you can become involved are:

• ·         Encouraging your child’s learning at home
• ·         Attending parent-teacher meetings and other special meetings
• ·         Serving as a volunteer in our school or district
• ·         Encouraging other parents to become involved

For more information about what we are doing to improve student achievement or to request information about the qualifications of your child’s classroom teachers, please feel free to contact us at (508) 790-9890.

Sincerely,

Matthew Scheufele, Principal

Dear Parents,

It is hard to believe that a month has gone by already. It appears that the installation of the new playground is complete. We are waiting to get final approval of the work that was done, and our students can begin to enjoy the new equipment. Thank you to everyone in the community who helped to raise money to make this project happen. Without the donations and fund raising efforts, we would not have received the generous donation from the COBB Fund.   In addition, I would like to acknowledge the work of Doug Brown who volunteered his equipment and labor in the excavation of the new playground. Finally, I want to thank Norma Schmidt, who has been behind the scenes for the last five years, trying to get this playground to happen and Ron Haley, for attending the planning meetings and giving me advice at every turn. This project is a tribute to what can be accomplished within the Centerville community to benefit the children. 

Dismissal in the afternoon appears to be improving as more children have begun taking the bus. Thank you for your patience. Just a moment to remind our preschool families, to not enter the loop until 3:30 and please, stay to the right, so that when you have parked your vehicle, other cars can still enter the loop. 

I would like to welcome the following members to the Centerville School Council. Our new parent representatives are Randall Hoskinson and Fiona Ineson. Our new staff member is Jane Anglin. Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 3:30 PM. 

We are launching a new web page for the Barnstable School District. Our hope is that it will improve our ability to get important information out to you all in a timely manner. We anticipate that the web page will be up and running next week. If you get the opportunity to look it over, and have suggestions about the kinds of information that you would like to see on the Centerville page, please send me an email or a note with some suggestions and I will try and incorporate it into the web page. 

The annual Harvest Festival sponsored by the PTA is on October 26 from 6-8PM. Students are allowed to attend in costume. I need to remind students that guns, swords, or any other weapon facsimile should not come onto school property. Please remember, this is the only time costumes should be worn to school.

Have a great weekend!

Mr. Scheufele