West Villages Elementary School 

Principal’s Newsletter

May 10, 2013

Dear Parents:

            We have a new principal selected for our school, His name is Kirk Gibbons and he will be starting with us on July 1^st. Mr. Gibbons is currently the principal of the Kane Elementary School in Marlborough, MA. He was here visiting a few weeks ago and he will be back again for a visit before school ends to spend the day shadowing me and having me acclimate him to our school. I feel he will be a wonderful fit for our school and will do very well.

             Our first graders have been gardening this week in the courtyard near the auditorium. Some of our parents may not be aware of this, but we have three picnic tables set out right near the first grade wing of our school. Mrs. Cole, who is our PTO volunteer of the month, has been offering her services and working with Mrs. Favreau to develop a program called “From the Ground Up.” Our first graders have been learning to weed and plant and write in their garden journals. If you have a first grader I’ll bet you have already heard about it! We are also looking for gardening tools like small shovels and trowels, etc. If you have anything you’d like to donate, see Mrs. Cole or Mrs. Favreau.

            Our third graders took their Math MCAS tests this week. Whew! What a relief to finally have that over and done with! We don’t have the actual results, of course, but we can say that the children worked hard and most of them effectively used the strategies to problem solve and do their best!

            Today was our Kindergarten Screening and Orientation Day. We have 90 Kindergarten students registered for next year! We usually don’t hit that number until August of most years so this may prove to be a large class! The children received a bag with materials for them to use during the summer. The bag was inscribed with our WVE initials and included a school water bottle courtesy of our PTO!

             Now that the weather is finally getting warmer, we are having more classes go on field trips. Please be sure that your child is dressed appropriately for the actual nature of the trip. Sometimes, flip flops are not the type of shoe to wear. Please be sure that you stay informed. We really want to avoid any situation where a child needs to call home for something that was forgotten which could possibly delay a bus. Thanks in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

            Finally, I want to wish all our mothers a very Happy Mother’s Day!

Sincerely,

Donna Lee Forloney