Hello, North Adams Family! If you are like me, you have started (or thought about starting) back-to-school shopping. While there is that twinge of excitement as nothing marks the coming of fall like a fresh batch of school supplies (I wanted to say, "a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils", but I thought that would give away my Gen X status and the You've Got Mail reference would go unrecognized 😉), there is also the lament for another summer winding down. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, I want to assure you that the Bellmont staff has been working hard all summer and is truly excited to work with you and your student this year!

To that end, this newsletter is one way we will be trying to grow our communication with you. In the last three years, I have tried a couple different ways to get information to parents, ranging from videos, emails, phone messages, and even a short-lived radio spot. While you will still receive those communications at times from me, I have found that those methods may sometimes be too long and too hard to sift through to find things you are looking for, or just not at a time or format that work for busy people.

I get it. I'm a working mom trying to manage a family, job, extra-curriculars, and all the other things life expects of us. But, I also know I still want to know what is going on, what some big picture plans are for the schools, and how to help my children be the best they can be. I hope this new format will allow you to look through what you are interested in and be accessible to refer back to when you have time or a need to know. You can expect these once a quarter.

I'll have topics in each issue that address the five buckets of the North Adams Strategic Plan (Financial Stewardship; Meaningful Communications; High Impact Teaching and Learning; College, Career, and Life Preparation; and Operational Stability) as well as a "wild card" section for things that may be otherwise interesting or relevant. I'll try to minimize the text, but include links to different sites, documents, videos, etc. where you have the choice to dig in further should you wish.

With that, I am so excited to see your student (and you!) back with us in just a few days. Please remember the following key happenings coming up:

• BES Back-To-School Night, August 1st, 5-7 p.m.
• BHS Open House, August 5th, 2-6 p.m.
• BMS Back-To-School Night, August 6th, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
• First Student Day, Wednesday, August 7th (Early release at 2:30 p.m.)

If you haven't registered your student yet, please go to our registration site below. Help registering your child will also be available at all the back-to-school events. We look forward to seeing you there!

- Kim Hiatt, Superintendent

Our priorities under this area include improving the overall the quality of our communications, increasing our presence on all platforms, increasing our acknowledgement of students/staff/alumni, and providing more opportunities for our families. There are multiple ways you can receive and request information here at North Adams. Click this links below to follow or find out more:

1. Social Media--Search and follow North Adams Community Schools on Facebook and Instagram platforms. These are the most frequently updated locations to get the most current information and coverage of your student(s).

2. Athletic Schedules--If you are interested in the most current athletic schedules and coverage, bookmark bellmontbraves.com.

3. SchoolMessenger--Many communications are sent via SchoolMessenger, which sends information in either a voicemail, text, or email depending upon what methods you request to receive that information. The contact information is pulled from PowerSchool, so make sure you have supplied us correct contact information. This will be the quickest way to receive information on school delays, cancellations, safety issues, and/or eLearning.

4. Email--Many staff are best reached at their email. For most staff in NACS, that is their last name with their first initial followed by @nadams.k12.in.us. The Staff Directory on the North Adams website contains the current staff emails. Any general questions can be directed to pr@nadams.k12.in.us.

5. PowerSchool Portal--As a parent, please make sure you have access to your student's PowerSchool and are checking it regularly. From here, you can check their grades, attendance, fees, and bus information.

6. CANVAS--Our Student Management System (SMS) is CANVAS. This is where teachers post assignments.

7. Website--We recently re-did our website, making it much more user friendly. Additionally, it will contain announcements and other up-to-date information about the happenings of the district.

8. Teacher Communication Apps--Most elementary teachers use Class Dojo or Remind to communicate with their parents. If you do notify your student's teacher of an appointment, absence, or change in transportation, please call/email the front office, too. Teachers manage their classrooms superbly, but they may not get the chance to let the office know this information where it must be logged.

9. Phones--If you need to call the buildings, these are the main numbers. Listen carefully to the options after calling.

• District Office--260-724-7146
• BHS--260-724-7121
• BMS/BES--260-724-3137

Our priorities under High Impact Teaching and Learning include offering expansive, evidence-based programming from quality teachers. Here at North Adams, we have extensive options for our students, including:

• Cutting-edge approaches in reading instruction,
• Progressive math instruction approaches in middle and high school,
• Strong programming and supports, like our own behavior coach, autism teacher, job coach, and sensory room, for special education students,
• Hosting 3/4 of the Career Technical Education courses (Welding, Construction Trades, Criminal Justice, Digital Arts, Pre-Engineering, Human Services, Early Childhood Education, Education Professionals, Business and Accounting, Health Science Education, Radio/TV, Manufacturing, Transportation, Culinary Arts, Marketing) available in our county,
• Having a Paths to Quality Level 3 certified Pre-K and accepting vouchers so that many families receive free or reduced cost Pre-K from certified Early Childhood teachers,
• Offering childcare 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. year-round, which may be, again, free or reduced cost to eligible families,
• Being one of the first and most successful early college high schools in the State, boasting some of the highest SAT scores, number of transferrable dual credits, and rates of students receiving the Indiana College Core certificate in our area.

Want to know more? Check out a couple of our programs below.

Bellmont Elementary is in its fourth year of using OG. The OG approach involves teaching reading and spelling using sight, sound, touch, and movement. Each skill learned builds toward the next skill. It was originally designed to help children with dyslexia learn to read but was found to be effective for all children. We have a video series from last school year on our District YouTube page that walks through the concepts in more depth. The first episode is linked below!

Several members of our special education departments, including paraprofessionals, and elementary teachers participated this summer in a multi-day training with experts from Indiana University-Bloomington to learn about a teaching method called Structured TEACHH. This method, which may be helpful for all students, is geared toward designing one's classroom space, schedule, and instruction in a way that supports students who thrive with higher levels of structure. You may be hearing your student or teachers in some classes talking more about visual schedules, task boxes, or zones in their rooms. If you want to learn more about Structured TEACHH, see the articles and/or short video below.

This will be the second year our middle and high school math teachers and a few elementary teachers will be developing their understanding and implementation of a new approach to teaching math, called Building Thinking Classrooms. This method was developed by Dr. Peter Liljedahl and is centered around the idea that true learning is not about memorization or mimicking a process. It is in developing the process of learning, the problem-solving. After years spent observing classroom teachers struggle to get their students actively engaged in learning math, he set out on a research journey to determine how to improve student engagement and learning in mathematics. He had fourteen (14) key findings, which provide the basis of Building Thinking Classrooms. You may find more information about his findings below.

Under this priority, we focus on striving to use our resources wisely and responsibly so to sustain and grow our opportunities to best serve our students and community. In this edition, we won't go too much into this one, but more things will come in the October edition.

In this category, our strategies are centered around providing students opportunities, experiences, and programming to grow their resiliency, citizenship, work ethic, literacies, and post-secondary readiness.

In this edition, I will share a little about PBiS and a couple new State laws that may impact your child this year.

This strategic priority involves the things that go into positive teaching and learning: facilities, transportation, food service, technology, procedures, safety, etc. In this edition, we will briefly visit some of the things that have been happening around campus this summer as well as give you some key reminders about parking and traffic on campus. There is a video below that goes over the District drop-off and pick-up procedures. It is important that these are followed to allow for a safe and efficient process.

We ask anyone picking up high school students to NOT park along Stadium Drive by the west end of the pool at the high school. The pick up line for high school is in the front of the building and lining up there creates a danger for busses and other traffic as they enter and leave campus. Similarly, we ask drivers NOT to cut through the student parking lot to get to Stadium Drive. This has created several close calls with student pedestrians. Citations will be issued by our SRO if unsafe driving and/or parking is observed.

In working with law enforcement on safety measures at dismissal, also note that when busses are dismissed to leave campus at the end of the day, they will continue moving nose-to-tail until they reach the stoplight on 224. This is to keep drivers from trying to slip between the busses, which is more likely to cause an accident. This also means if you have parked in the softball lot (again, not the pick up protocol) to wait for your student, he/she should NOT cross Stadium Drive when busses are exiting campus. Our coaches hold middle school cross country runners by the high school until busses have exited.