TO: RSU #74 Board of Directors
FROM: Jean Butler
DATE: May 28, 2025
PreK-5 ELEMENTARY REPORT
The 2024-25 school year has flown by, and the next few weeks will go even faster as we wrap up our learning units and hold lots of special activities and events to celebrate the past year. It is a very busy but fun time to be in our elementary schools.
Library Trips
Our library media assistant Shirley Mellows will be taking students to the town libraries in June. The Solon K-5 students will visit the Coolidge Public Library on June 4th, and the Garret Schenck K-5 students will visit the Madison Public Library on June 6th. Mrs. Mellows hopes to connect students with a resource available to them during the summer months when the school libraries are closed.
Bikes for Books
Garret Schenck will hold a Bikes for Books assembly with the Masons on June 3rd. Students have been reading books and submitting forms on which they write about each book they have read. At the assembly, we will draw from all the forms that have been submitted to find a winning boy and girl from each class. Those students will win a new bike, helmet, and T-shirt from the Masons. We appreciate the support of the Masons every spring.
Field Trip
After studying insects and animals this spring, the Garret Schenck students in grades K-2 will take a field trip to Mt. Blue State Park in Weld on June 9th. They will explore the Nature Center, take a short nature trail hike, play games on the lawn, and enjoy a picnic lunch. On the way home they will stop for an ice cream treat.
STEAM Nights
The Garret Schenck School held a STEAM Night on May 22nd, and Solon Elementary School will hold theirs on June 9th. At Solon our Special Ed teacher Angela Dunton got a STEM pilot grant to build an outdoor learning space and garden, and that will be the centerpiece of STEAM Night. Many businesses and individuals also donated seeds, soil, building materials, and labor. Each class grew plants for the garden, using different methods. The garden won’t be in full bloom, but families will have a chance to see what’s growing. We will have help tending the garden over the summer from Solon residents who work in the Solon Community Garden.
Step-Up Days
One of the activities we do to ease students’ transition to the next grade is to hold Step-Up Day activities. Our PreK-4 students get a chance to visit the grade they will go to next year and to hear from the teachers a little about the curriculum and special activities they will do. Our fifth graders will visit CCS for Step-Up Day there with fifth graders from all three schools on June 10th. Fifth graders are usually nervous about moving to CCS after spending six or seven years at their elementary schools so this visit helps to make them more comfortable about their transition.
Flea Market
Garret Schenck will hold its traditional outdoor Flea Market on June 13th from 12:45-2:00. Families are invited to join the students and staff for this outdoor event. Each classroom will sponsor a booth such as a white elephant table, photo booth, plant sale, snack tables with treats such as fruit kabobs and popsicles, rock painting, bracelet making, games, and a book swap. Items are on sale for very low prices, and the students always have a great time.
Learning Carnival
Solon Elementary School is holding its second annual Leaders in Learning Carnival on June 11th. Students earn tickets based on their scores on the spring NWEA tests. Everyone gets tickets for each test they take, but they also get tickets for meeting or exceeding their target growth goals in reading and math from fall to spring and for meeting grade level benchmarks. The tickets can be used to play games, buy refreshments, and enter contests at the carnival. The concept behind the carnival is to motivate students to do their best work on these important tests.
Field Days & Awards Assemblies
At each school we are wrapping up the year with an outdoor Field Day and barbecue and awards assembly. The Field Days (June 4th at Garret Schenck and June 6th at Solon) will involve students working in multiage teams to participate in a number of activity challenges set up around the fields. Our physical education teacher Shelby Obert is collaborating with school wellness team members to plan and run our Field Days. We will hold awards assemblies (June 12th at Garret Schenck and June 13th at Solon) at which teachers will recognize students for academic achievement, good behavior, improvement, good attendance, helpfulness, citizenship, and hard work. Families are invited to join us for these assemblies.
Data Meetings
At the end of the school year we are holding data meetings at Garret Schecnk on June 5th and at Solon on June 10th. Each classroom teacher will attend a meeting also attended by our intervention and Title I ed techs, intervention coach Barbara Jordan, and me. At each meeting we will review the assessment data on each student in that teacher’s class to look at the progress each has made over the year and what if any services they will need for 2025-26. We also invite the teacher who will have those students the next year to the meeting so that she can learn about her incoming class to help with the planning process over the summer.
Peschool Graduations
Our preschool students are having graduation celebrations as they finish their school year and prepare to enter kindergarten in the fall. The teachers asked for parent input on the type of event they wished to have. On June 11th, the Garret Schenck preschoolers will have a traditional graduation ceremony in which they will march into the gym dressed in caps and gowns and listen to a guest speaker and their teacher Valerie Pinkham before marching out and enjoying refreshments with their families and friends. The Solon preschoolers will make tie-dyed T-shirts to wear for their graduation, which will be celebrated with an outdoor pot luck luncheon with their teacher Keane Carlin and their parents on the last day of school, June 16th.
Summer School
Despite the lack of COVID relief funds this year, Grace Cram and I are busy planning the fifth year of our Camp Carrabec Summer School Program for grades PreK-5 students. We will strive to organize the best program we can with fewer funds because the program has been so popular with students and families in the past. For three weeks starting June 30th, students will come to CCS from 8:00-12:00 four days a week to engage in activities in reading and math along with arts and crafts. The activities each week will connect to a theme for that week. We will provide transportation, breakfast, and lunch each day. We hope that involving students in learning activities during the summer will bridge the gap and prevent as much of the “Summer Slump” (a drop in test scores from the spring) that we often see when some students return to school in the fall.
If you have any questions about anything at either of my schools, please contact me. Have a wonderful summer!