Follow-up from previous

Not long after I posted my last message, I realized that I had left out a number of important people to thank.  First, Theresa for all for the support that you give the school and students.  Sherri, who has been so helpful to me in making sure that we get those state reports and requirements taken care of. And who has always met me in person or on the telephone with the most upbeat "hello" that I have ever received.  Bonnie who has served as most competent colleague over the past three years, frequently serving as my sounding board on many matters.  And finally Yvonne; without her my sanity would have been exhausted soem time ago!  Thanks to you all.  Fremont School District would have survived the past three years without you! 

Saying Good bye

As I wind down my tenure with the Fremont School District, I want to thank everyone for the support that I have received over the past three years. From the school board to the kids, my work has been made enjoyable and easy because of those who were with me in this journey. As I reflect about my work in Fremont, I need to emphasize how wonderful the faculty and staff are at the Ellis School.

In this past year, the restructuring of the administration demonstrated the talents of the administrative team, Mr. Safina, Mrs. Krebs and Mr. Totten. Routine "walk throughs" of the building demonstrated that the teaching staff is remarkable. The children in Fremont are truly fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated group of educators, both teachers and support staff. Providing safe guards for all of the children are the talented school nurses and guidance staff. They are great! And please don't forget the we have the Middle school Guidance Counselor of the year, Mrs Farrar, working with our youngsters!!!And of course, the building wouldn't be what it is without Mr. Brown and his staff as well as the those who work in the cafeteria!

The PTA and parent support in this town is just remarkable! The children a blessed to have such an active group to make things better for them.

Thanks for all you do! Working with the officials in town has been a pleasure. I particularly want to thank Mark Pitkin who was in contact with me regularly early in the morning on those snowy days helping to make decisions about school. Additionally, thanks to Neal Janvrin and Reese Bassett for their help over the past years. I'll never forget that iffy day when I called off school and Neal called me three times to tell me what a good call it was! While it wasn't often, when working with Heidi and Lori in the town offices, I always felt supported and I want to extend a big thanks to them.

Finally, a big thanks to the School Board. I has been a wonderful ride together!

While I am eager to begin may new position in Alton, I have many mixed emotions about leaving Fremont. I have truly enjoyed working here trying to make things better for kids. As I told the teachers yesterday, my job was made easy because of the talented group of educators at the school. Thank you for allowing me to serve you and best wishes in the future!

Bill

More Good News At Ellis!

Yesterday, April 3rd, the DOE published the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report for the state. I am pleased to announce that the Ellis School made AYP in reading and missed AYP in math in just one sub-group causing the entire school not to meet AYP in this area.

Last year, we did not make AYP in any of the areas. The progress that we have made in the past year has been remarkable and is an indicator of the hard work of the teachers at Ellis.

As some may know, for the past three years, we have been focusing on reading and writing. It is obvious that the focus has paid off! Last fall, we began to work on math. I am confident that as we continue to hone our reading and writing instruction, math achievement will rise as we work on improving student learning in mathematics.

There is much to celebrate and I am proud of the administration and teaching staff at Ellis1 However, we can't rest! We must continue to positively impact student learning.

More good things at Ellis

I have been remiss in not posting to this blog news about our middle level guidance counselor, Michelle Farrar. Ms. Farrar has been recognised by her peers throughout the state as the guidance counselor of the year! Congratulation to her!

This is just one of the wonderful things to celebrate at the Ellis School this year!

NECAP Progress

At the Fremont School District Deliberative Session, I spoke about the progress that we have made academically based on the latest NECAP results. I want to make this information available on my Blog if you were not in attendance and for you to share with others.
Looking at our present eighth grade class, over a three year period of time, the eighth grades' proficiency rate has increased by 21% in reading and 16% in math.(this figure compares the 8th class of 2009 with the class of 2011) If one is to follow this class's proficiency rate from when they were in sixth grade to this year, this cohort group increased proficiency by 36% in reading and 7% in math over those three years. I believe that this is significant growth of the students as they end their career at Ellis.
While we can trace this same type of growth from the seventh and sixth grade cohort groups over the three year period, we know that clearly we can't give up! We are working diligently to make sure that all grade levels increase the academic performance for our children.
I also need to point out that NECAP results should not be seen as the only indicator of success within a school. There are other measures such as attendance rate, discipline referrals, NWEA and AIMS Web data and the general climate of the building. In all areas, we are making sound progress. If you haven't been in to visit the school, I encourage you to contact Mr. Safina to make arrangements to see what is taking place.
I welcome your comments.
Bill

Fremont School District Deliberative Session

I would like to remind you that the Fremont School District Deliberative Session is scheduled for Saturday, February 4, 2012 in the Ellis School Gymnasium beginning at 9:00AM. During this meeting, the school board will provide an overview of the 6 warrant articles that will be officially voted on in March. As voters of the Town of Fremont, you will have an opportunity to ask questions, discuss and debate each of the warrant articles. Warrant articles may be amended subject to the laws of New Hampshire, which are within the actual copy of the warrant articles. Additionally, a brief overview of things that have taken place during the last year will be presented.

The warrant article include:
1. An overview of the election of School District Officers.
2. Approval of the Support Staff Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
3. A special meeting option if the CBA id defeated.
4. The operating budget of $11,049,721; the default budget is $11,048,753.
5. The approval to take $10,000 from the 2012 fund balance to be placed in the existing expendable trust fund for building and ground maintenance.
6. The funding for a foreign language teacher ($69,990)

Deatilas of the budget and the warrant articles can be found on the Ellis School website.

I hope to see you on the 4th.
Bill Lander

Administrative Restructuring

At the April 12, 2011, Fremont School Board meeting, the Board voted to eliminate the combined position of the Elementary Principal/Special Education Director. Since that time, the Board has been working toward the restructuring of the administration at the Ellis School beginning in the 2011-2012 school year. It is anticipated that there will be one Pre-K-8 Principal, an Assistant Principal and a Special Education Director. Details of the positions are still under consideration.

The topic of administrative restructuring will be on the Fremont School Board meeting agenda scheduled for Tuesday, June 14, 2011, beginning at 6:30 PM in the Ellis School library.

Snow days

Good morning!
First, I want to thank all of you who attended the deliberative session Saturday. The turn out was far better than I expected. Don't forget the ballot vote on
March 8th!

Snow seems to be dominating the thought process of many of us! February is not over yet and we have had five snow days to date. If we have no more and the floods avoid us, the last day of school right now is June 22nd. This isn't too bad. BUT, if we get more days and go into the last week of June, it becomes more of an issue.

I'd like to get some feedback on ideas of how to make up days if we do get into the last week. The timing is too close to do anything for February vacation. What are your thoughts about making up a few days during April Vacation? Having school on Saturdays? Other ideas? I am not in favor of extending the school day unless absolutely necessary.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Lander

Deliberatvie session

Good afternoon,
I want to remind you that the school district deliberative session is scheduled for this Saturday, 2/5/11 at 9:00am in the Laurence Pettengill Hall at the Ellis School. This will provide an opportunity for the voters of Fremont to hear about what is taking place throughout the school district as well as gain an overview of the budget for next year.
I hope that you can make this important meeting.
Bill Lander

Info for parents with pre school children

Good morning and Happy New Year!
For my first post of 2011 I want to direct my remarks to those parents who have children not yet enrolled in school. Having just completed the book "Annual Growth:Catch-up Growth" I can not stress enough the importance of building the literacy and math skills of your children prior to the start of school. Reading to them daily, asking them questions about what you read is vital. Making sure that when entering the Ellis kindergarten, they have developed an awareness of the alphabet and numbers is very important. The world around us is filled with chances to practice these skills in natural settings. Simply going food shopping provides many opportunities to reinforce numbers, colors, letters of the alphabet and words. Building these skills can be a lot of fun and will greatly improve academic success when school begins.
For more information on specific skill, please contact me.
Bill Lander

At the December 14, 2010, Fremont School Board meeting, the final reading of the new bullying policy occurred. The board unanimously adopted this policy, which by law must be done by each school district in New Hampshire prior to January 1, 2011. In drafting the new Bully policy, all facets of the law have been addressed. This policy is posted on the school district web page. I would encourage you to review it and if you have any questions, please contact me.

Cyber Safety

The ever increasing social networking that is taking place among our children presents routine concerns for parents about their safety. Who can gain access to the sites that they frequent and how can we safe guard against people gaining this access? Has your child been the victim of cyberbullying?

Last week, I received a document entitled "Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online". This document has been written for parents, providing information to help assure that children have safe experiences when on-line or when they are using cell phones. If anyone would like a copy of this, please let me know and I will make it available to you.

Yours,
Bill Lander

District Planning

I am pleased to posted that the action plan for the Fremont School District was approved at the last school board meeting. This plan has taken the work done a number of years ago by NESDEC and developed a timeline to implement the goals that they created from "focus group" discussions throughout the town. The goal is ultimately to improve the programs for our children. You can review this action plan under the school board tab on our web page.

Also, at the last meeting Ms. Nancy Bernhardt announced that she would be moving her family to Rochester New York. We will miss Nancy and thank her for all that she has done for the Ellis School. If you are interested in filling her position until March, please contact the SAU office.

Greetings!

It was a great start to the school year! Walking around the building on the first few days, it was like we had never left. I give credit to the school administration and teachers for being so well prepared for the children.

I would also like to recognize North Reading Transportation, our new bus company. Their preparation for the new year was wonderful. Communication with them has been outstanding. They are receptive to hearing from you about your concerns. In turn, they communicate with me as needed.

I encourage you as parents and community members to be in touch with the teachers and the administration. I welcome your involvement in the school!

Bill Lander

NEW SCHOOL YEAR

I hope that this has been a restful and relaxing summer for you all. As the calendar was turned last week and we are approaching the middle of August, it is time to think about the start of school. The Ellis School will open its doors to the student with great enthusiasm on Monday, August 30, 2010.

In the few short weeks prior to the start of school, you can help getting your child(ren) into the school mode by getting necessary supplies, starting routines that will be similar to when they are in school and setting goals for the upcoming year. As the year unfolds, I encourage to be part of the education of your student(s); talk about the the daily occurrences at school, contact the school when you have concerns or questions and be active in the school.

I am looking forward to the upcoming year! Please let me hear from you about topics that you would like me to address in my blog and as always thoughts on how we can better provide an education for your family.

NECAP and AYP

This past week, I received, anonymously, a copy of an article appearing in the Manchester Union Leader some time ago indicating that the Ellis School was among the failing schools in the State. One needs to be careful how you read into headlines; they are meant to sell newpapers! While the Ellis School did join the list of schools that are schools in need of improvement, they join some 183 other schools on that list. If you look closely at the data, we in fact do continue to have more students in many areas reach the level of proficient and over time, grades 3 through grade 8, we can track continued growth. The fact is, as outlined in NCLB, it becomes more and more difficult to make AYP, Adequate Yearly Process, because the "bar" is raised annually, requiring all schools to demonstrate higher levels of proficiency. A clear indicator of the Ellis School's success is seen when we realize that this is only the the second year that AYP was not made, something that most schools in the State have been unable to avoid.

I would be glad to meet with anyone interested to discuss NECAP testing and AYP in more detail. Please feel free to contact me.

While we will use all data possible to continue to improve the achievement level of the students and will never to satisfied with the status quo, the Ellis School is by no means failing!

New Hampshire Reads

Many libraries throughout the state are participating in "The Big Read: New Hampshire Reads To Kill a Mockingbird" a state program organized by the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library. many events will be scheduled throughout the state and can be reviewed at www.bigreadnh.org. If interested, I would also recommend that you check at the local library in Fremont to see if they are participating.
Yours,
Bill Lander

School District Meeting

I would like to thank all of you who supported the school district last Saturday. It certainly seemed that there was a great deal of positive support in the room. Approving the School Board's budget provides for us the financial support necessary to move the Ellis School forward. As I did Saturday, I remind you that school improvement is a process not an event! I look forward to working hard to assure our "process" yields positive results!
Yours,
Bill Lander

School District Meeting

I would like to remind everyone that the Fremont School District meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 13, 2010 beginning at 9:00 AM in the Laurence Pettengill Hall at the Ellis School. I encourage you to attend and take part in the decision making process for funding for the school district for the 2010-2011 school year. In the upcoming days, information regarding the warrant article will be mailed to the voters in Fremont. I encourage anyone who has questions to contact me at 895-6903.

I look forward to seeing you on the 13th!

Snow days
So were you among the many, including myself, wondering why there was no school Tuesday? It certainly seemed like a wasted day off. However, at 5:00 AM I was in front of WMUR, listening for the forecast, anticipating what might take place. When I heard that the "storm" would start late morning and intensify throughout the afternoon, I felt that that would be putting the children on the buses at an unsafe time, even if we dismissed at noon.

I don't know that you can truly appreciate the thinking and the stress that goes into making a no-school decision. I will always err on the side of caution for our young people. And the decision becomes even more difficult when you need to think about sending the students home mid-day. While our ALERT NOW systems make the communication of this better, I am always afraid that we not get out message across to some folks, leaving a young child locked out of his or her home.

Now let's cast some blame! Who is it that really owns the responsibility for all of us superintendents calling off school? Why it is those weather people!! If they were correct, we would have looked like heroes in this decision rather standing around with egg on our faces!

As winter break approaches, I wish for you all to have a safe and restful time away from school.