UES Swoop Scoop

Educators are back and we have had an amazing week of preparing for the school year ahead, together!

• UES Back to School Drop In Meet & Greet Info
• First Day of School Info
• MRPS Bus Routes and Expectations
• UES Embarks on LETRS Training
• 2023-2024 MRPS District Calendar
• UES School-Wide Expectations
• Universal Meals & Menus
• Montpelier Fall Festival Info

This year, we will hold a drop in Meet & Greet, tomorrow, Tuesday, August 29th. This will be dedicated time for learners and their families to stop in to visit their new classroom and meet their new teacher before the first day of school. Learners must be supervised by the adult(s) who bring them to the event at all times. There will be no supervision provided by UES faculty members at any point in time during this event.

Please Note: We will open the main entrance doors promptly at 1:30pm but learners and their families can arrive any time within the hour. We will be asking all families to leave promptly by 2:30pm though as all faculty members have a final meeting together at 2:30pm to kick off the year.

There will also be Back to School Information booths set up at the event for learners and families to visit:

• UES Admin Team: Katie Barea & Linda Beaupre will be welcoming learners and families back to school!

• UES School Nurse: Megan Spaulding will be assisting families with; medication drop off (please bring in original container and with accompanying doctors order), asthma action plans, general health form drop off, and other health needs/questions.

• PickUp Patrol Support: UES Registrar & Attendance Specialist,Taylor Fair will be ready to support families with our new PickUp Patrol attendance and dismissal program.

• UES Caregivers Alliance: Learn more about UESCA and how you can get involved.

• MRPS Community Liaison: Nick Connor will be available to meet families and provide a general overview of his supports & flood related help

• MRPS Volunteer Sign-Up: Anna Hipko will be available to share information about volunteering in our schools and help caregivers begin the process to become an approved volunteer. If you think you might be interested in becoming a volunteer, please bring a photo ID with you. Visit our volunteer webpage to learn more: https://www.mrpsvt.org/volunteer

• Part2 After School Program: Meet the staff and learn about the after school program.

• Kellogg-Hubbard Library: Library card sign up

We are beyond excited to be welcoming learners back to school on Wednesday, August 30th.

UES Kindergarten-Grade 4 School Day

8:15am-2:50pm

Morning Arrival

• Buses will arrive at UES each morning and drop learners off on Park Ave.
• Learners who get dropped off by car should be dropped on Loomis Street inside the Jersey Barriers.
• Learners who walk should go directly to the playground. Grades K-1 Lower Playground. Grades 2-4 Upper Playground.

Your Wise Owl should not arrive at school before 7:45am. From 7:45am-8:15am learners are permitted to be at school but must remain on the playground, where they will be supervised by UES staff members until the school day begins at 8:15am. If your Wise Owls gets breakfast from school, they will be permitted to enter the cafeteria by a staff member. All UES doors are locked and monitored at all times for security purposes. Learners will be escorted into the building by staff members at 8:15am to begin their day of learning.

Afternoon Dismissal

• Learners who ride the bus will leave school promptly at 2:50pm each day.
• Learners who get picked up by car should be picked up on Loomis Street inside the Jersey Barriers at 2:50pm.
• Learners who walk home will be dismissed between 2:50-2:55pm. Grades K-1 on the Lower Playground and grades 2-4 on the Upper Playground.
• Learners will be escorted out of the building each day by staff members and brought to their dismissal locations.

Please note, there is no staff supervision for learners after dismissal each day. If you decide to remain on school grounds after picking your learner up, all children must be actively supervised by the adult who has picked them up to ensure safety for all.

2023-2024 bus routes are now posted! You can review them here.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE

• Regular buses service:

  • Union Elementary School students

  • Roxbury Village School students

  • Main Street Middle School students

  • Main Street Middle and Montpelier High School students living in Roxbury

  • Montpelier High School students attending the Central Vermont Career Center

• Students are picked up at bus stops as opposed to the buses providing door-to-door service.

• Please discuss proper bus behavior with your child prior to them getting on the bus for school.

All K-4 Classroom Teachers, Special Educators, Multilingual Learning Educators and Speech Language Pathologists at Union Elementary School will complete their LETRS training over the next two school years. UES is adopting a collaborative training model, in which faculty will engage in this work alongside their colleagues from their grade level Collaborative Team, on a weekly basis.

What is LETRS?

LETRS is a professional development course of study for instructors of reading, spelling, and related language skills. LETRS is NOT a literacy curriculum. It provides knowledge and tools that teachers can use with any good reading instruction. LETRS contains:

• In-depth knowledge based on the most current research regarding what, when, and how language skills need to be taught

• Ways to assess student language development for prevention and intervention

• Guidance on how to plan and balance word recognition and comprehension instruction

• Information on how to differentiate instruction

What does LETRS training look like?

• Asynchronous online modules and print resources

• Bridge to Practice opportunity to try out concepts and discuss during CT

• Face-to-Face trainings several times a year

• Weekly themes that include:

• Volume 1: Focus on Word Recognition

• The challenge of learning to read

• Why learning to read is difficult

• What the mind does when it reads

• How children learn to read and spell

• Using assessments for prevention and differentiation

• The speech sounds of English

• How phonological skills develop

• What phonological skills should be taught

• How phonological skills can be assessed

• Teaching beginning phonics, word recognition, and spelling

• The role of phonics in early reading instruction

• The predictability of English orthography

• How to assess phonics and word recognition

• Advanced decoding, spelling, and word recognition

• When and how to teach morphology

• How to teach spelling

• How to build fluency

We began this training last week during our first full day session. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to grow our collective knowledge over the next two school years.

Please take some time to familiarize yourself with our 2023-2024 district calendar. A digital version can be found here. Please note we also mailed a paper copy home as part of your back to school mailing.

At Union Elementary School, we strive to ensure that every child has a positive experience every day and every family feels connected to school every week. Our school-wide expectations that we ensure all learners and families know and understand are; We are Kind, We are Responsible, We are Safe.

We make sure each of our learners feels supported in learning about these expectations at school and encourage families to also practice them at home. Working together to promote positive behavior helps increase student achievement and supports our learners on their journey to developing the skills to have a limitless future.

Starting August 30th, we will be using a system called PickUp Patrol to help us track dismissals. Elementary schools across the state of Vermont have been using this for the past few years with great success. You should have already received the registration email. If you have not received any emails from Taylor Fair, UES Attendance Specialist, or Pick Up Patrol, please contact Taylor immediately: Taylorfair@mpsvt.org and she will send you a new registration link.

It is imperative that you sign up for PickUp Patrol (PUP), as it will be the only way to submit attendance and dismissal changes going forward. This system will help us ensure that our learners are accurately accounted for each day and safely dismissed to their correct after-school destinations.

Notes, emails or phone calls will no longer be accepted for attendance/dismissal changes. Starting August 30th, all changes should be submitted through PickUp Patrol.

Please visit the MPRS Nutrition Site for the UES August Menu.

Thank you to the VT Legislature for passing the Universal School Meals Bill! This provides free meals for all VT students this school year. There are exceptions though, please read on.

According to VT AoE and USDA regulations; each school day, each VT student is entitled to one breakfast and one lunch, free of charge, regardless of eligibility status. These meals must consist of at least three items one of which must be a minimum half cup portion of fruits or vegetables. Individual items, like milk or fruit portions, are not free of charge. A student's first full breakfast and lunch is free of charge. Individual items and second meals will be charged to student accounts at the a la carte rate. Meal charges may be avoided by selecting a complete meal. All items available in our school’s cafeterias are eligible components of a free school meal, no strictly a la carte items will be offered.

Funds may be added to student accounts with cash or checks made out to MRPS Food Service at school or online at Myschoolbucks.com. Negative balance notifications will be system generated and emailed automatically to avoid surprise charges.