Ratified Support Staff Contract

Last Friday, the Support Staff at the Ellis School ratified a 2 year collective bargaining contract. Last evening, The Fremont School Board, in turn, ratified the contract. What is noteworthy within this process is that the support staff asked for no pay raise or any additional monetary compensation. Rather, at the first bargaining session, they made it clear that in this economic time that they were grateful to be employed and that they really enjoyed working at the Ellis School. Minor language changes were made and time exchanged from personal sick time to sick time to care for specific family members as well as being allowed to use a personal day for a professional experience.

I congratulate the Support Staff in this matter and would like to recognize them for their dedication to the young people of Fremont!

Get ready for kindergarten!

Yesterday, I attended a very interesting workshop focused on the impact of student achievement when youngsters enter kindergarten without the expected skills. Based on the book "Annual Growth, Catch-up Growth", the presenters stressed the strong need to work with parents to assure that the students have the necessary skills for immediate success in kindergarten. Additionally, we must identify students who do not have those skills and work diligently with them to gain them. Students who enter kindergarten a year behind grade level, will continue to stay and fall behind unless their needs are addressed in a rigorous manner.
At the Ellis school, we are taking strong steps to work with youngsters who are not on grade level through the RtI model. Parents of all children can also assist the school by either reading to your child for twenty minutes every night or assuring that your child is reading independently on a daily basis.
I will be talking with the kindergarten and preschool staff at Ellis to discuss how we can assure that youngsters start school ready to succeed.
Please contact me if you have any ideas to assist in addressing this challenge or if you would like more information.
Yours,
Bill Lander

New School Year

Greetings!
Two weeks ago, if you had told me that I would spend the past weekend worrying about whether we would have school or not, I would have told you that was crazy! Irene, however, had a better idea! What a way to begin the year!!! I want to recognize the DOE for the way that they provided updates for us on the hurricane. Friday through Sunday they held 10:00AM conferences call with folks from Homeland Security and the power commission providing updates and answering questions. Additionally, the Fremont Police and Fire departments and the road agent did a great job getting things taken care of so we could have school today. Communication between the town officials and me was excellent.

School started this morning without major incident. Buses were a bit behind schedule because of the newness of the routes and one bus was stuck behind an accident. Mr. Safina met with many of the grade levels as they arrived at school. All in all, it was a very positive environment at the Ellis School this morning.

In the upcoming months, I will be looking for feedback on what the community of Fremont would like our children to know and/or be able to do when they leave the Ellis School. Additionally, I am seeking ways to improve communication between the school and the community. If you have ideas and would like to meet with me and others to discuss these matters, please contact me.

There is a great positive energy at the school! The super enthusisam throughout the teaching ranks indicates that it will be a most positive year!

I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Yours,
Bill Lander

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.