Standish staff and students are excited about the arrival of spring after this long, cold, stormy winter. It has been a very busy winter for all with the 5th grade Chorus Holiday Show at George E. Jack and Edna Libby's Grades 1 and 3 Holiday Show. Standish PTO generously sponsored a Laser Light Show at George E. Jack and an African Presentation of drumming and storytelling at Edna Libby School. Our Standish Recycling calendars arrived from the Town's Recycling Committee and all students received their calendars. The District Writing Contest and Geography Bee took place as usual during the first of the year. Mr. Schnell arranged for the Little Kotzschmar Organ to come to George E. Jack and be incorporated into the music program. Students loved this!
In February, GEJ 5th grade students in the band program put on a concert for friends and family as well as staff and students. Band students showed great growth from the beginning of the year. The 4th grade students participated in the NAEP Assessments.
The March Parent Teacher conferences went well at both schools. It is always awesome for students, staff, and parents to get together to discuss student growth and accomplishments. It was exciting to see the advances in student number sense now that we are well into our second year of Everyday Math. Students, teachers, and parents are becoming more familiar with the program and the philosophy upon which it is built.
Students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades all participated in the Maine Educational Assessments (MEA's) also in March. This will be the last year for this assessment as Maine has opted to join the other New England states, in an effort to save money, in giving the NECAP's. These will be similar to MEA's as they are written by Measured Progress who also produced the MEA's.
We have a request for George E. Jack parents. The front circle is reserved for buses during bus drop off and pick up times. Parents need to park in the lower parking lot and escort their child to the office to sign in. This is huge safety concern for staff at GEJ and the transportation department. We know it is an inconvenience for parents but it is problematic in that we can not have vehicles maneuvering around buses in the circle, students walking around buses, or students coming to school by any means other than a school bus who are not signed in. This is for your child's safety. We appreciate your assistance with this. The only exception to this is vehicles with handicapped plates.
We have several of our Standish students who have earned Citizenship Tee-shirts. Students earn these shirts by doing something that demonstrates good citizenship in our school community. We are all proud to see these acts of kindness occurring around the schools.
Our 3rd grade students were all given their own dictionaries by the Active Senior Citizens of Standish. Every year this group raises money to purchase these dictionaries for all of the 3rd graders in Standish. This is such a generous gesture by this group. The students love their dictionaries!
In addition to our citizenship awards, the school communities have been involved in community service in a number of ways. In response to President Obama's request of Americans to participate in a National Day of Service in January, Edna Libby staff and students collected 492 non-perishable items to donate to the Standish Food Pantry. Valentines were made and delivered from both schools to veterans to show them that we have not forgotten them in these busy times. We have other community projects going on from now until the end of the year such as Coins for a Cure to raise money for the fight against cancer.
We have many histrict Writing Contest Winners from both GEJ and EDL. And George E. Jack held a Geography Bee with the winner who will compete in the State of Maine Geography Bee on April 3rd at University of Southern Maine.
Virginia E. Day
Supervising Principal
George E Jack and Edna Libby Schools