OVERVIEW OF THE 2006-07 SCHOOL YEAR
Despite our town-wide budget crisis and serious cuts to our programs, South School continues to focus on key elements of educating youngsters in meaningful ways. Each element is an example of how Stoneham as a district and South in particular, works with our parents and community to meet the needs of our children and their families.
Our tuition based Full Day Kindergarten Program continues to be a success. This year we have 15 children enrolled for a full week schedule, with Music, Art, Library and P.E. The longer day has provided children with greater opportunities for more in depth activities and better coverage of the curriculum. Our After-School Childcare Program at South continues to do well. This program has provided kids a great place to finish their homework, play games, and do fun activities.
Our Stop & Shop Homework Help Program completed its fourth year. Our business partner, The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, was able to fully fund our Homework Help Program this year with a very generous donation of $4320. This program, a major goal of our School Improvement Plan, serves to lengthen the school day for a number of our students, and give them help on their homework. More students are able to complete their homework and are doing better with their grades as well.
This year we expanded our Open Circle Social Competency Curriculum to Second and Third Grade. This program, in conjunction with the Stone Center from Wellesley College, provides teachers and staff with training in how to implement the Open Circle curriculum in each classroom twice weekly throughout the school year. The program has been so successful that we are proceeding with plans to expand the program into Grade One next year, so that our Grade One – Five population will have this curriculum in place.
Our K-2 staff began work on the District Early Literacy plan for South School. We are excited to be implementing the Three-Tier Model for Reading Instruction, which involves regrouping students every day for up to 45 minutes in flexible groups based on data from the DIBELS assessment. Teachers have been and will continue to receive training in how to teach the Three-Tier Model and how to administer the DIBELS assessment.
Our PTO Mini Grants Program continues to attract attention. This program seeks to encourage teachers and staff to plan for events and activities that go “above and beyond” the normal school curriculum and school day. We also had our Author’s Night in June. This year we continued to have our Third and Fifth Grade Math Nights that have been so popular. We continued with our second year of Open Circle Parent Training which was very well received by our parents. We will continue to weave Open Circle into our school community in the 2007-08 in new and we hope, exciting ways.
Our PTO and School Site Council continue to be tremendously positive forces that contribute to the overall climate of South. We offered a full range of school wide activities, such as Holiday Breakfast, Halloween Party, Back-to-School Picnic, and Bingo and Pasta Nights. Our Community Outreach effort expanded this year to include a tremendously successful Thanksgiving food drive and “Giving Tree”, which provided local families with toys and clothing for their children. Our annual Anton Cleaners “Coats for Kids” program was wildly successful, as South School won second place in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thus earning $500 for our PTO and a school wide pizza party. South School also
raised several thousand dollars through the NSTAR Lightbulb Fundraiser. Our PTO consistently provides students with enrichment opportunities through in school visits and performances, as well as educationally sound field trips. The school also continued to offer a full Junior Achievement curriculum, in conjunction with our PTO.
Our school participated in our annual outreach, this year with the Hats-On-Day program. This program, based in St. Louis, provides children and their families with monetary support as they go through childhood cancer treatments all over the United States. Students at South wore hats every Monday in February and March in support of this program, and in support of one of our Kindergarten students who is currently undergoing cancer treatments.
South School continues in its mission to educate its children in the most complete ways possible. Staff and parents consistently work together to reach our goals. We are fortunate to have so many of these special opportunities to enrich and support the academic and social lives of our children. We will look for ways to continue to do so.
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