Pierce School Summer Newsletter

Thursday, 8/1/24

Happy Summer Pierce School Community

We hope your summer has been filled with all of the fun and wonderful things you love to do with your family! We have been hard at work learning new things, getting ready for the return of another school year, and preparing the building for everyone to come back on August 28th. We hope you have been enjoying your summer and that you're getting some time to swim, play and have fun!

Back to School Meet and Greet

On Tuesday, August 27th, we will host a Meet and Greet for students and families to come into Pierce School to see their new classroom and to meet their teacher. The times for the grades are as follows:

Kindergarten Meet and Greet, 1-2pm
Grades 1-4 Meet and Greet, 2-3pm

We have been busy getting the school and classrooms ready for the students to return, and are eager to see everyone for the return of school on Wednesday, August 28th. This Meet and Greet is intended to help students feel comfortable in knowing what their new space looks like before the first day of school, and to ask any questions that they might be thinking about. They will have a bit of time to see where their seat is and what they might need for the first day of school. We hope to see you at the Meet and Greet on 8/28!

Summer Playground Update

We've been hard at work finalizing details for the new playground at Pierce School, coming in October. Our plan changed a bit and we have chosen a vendor who will install the playground for us! This means that we will not have to construct the playground as a community build, which is an incredible undertaking, and we are so grateful to those who would have come to support a weekend long community build for the playground, but now we won't have to do that ourselves. This is a wonderful thing!

Our delivery of equipment and installation is on track to take place in October of 2024. We are grateful to all who supported the construction of a new playground at Pierce School, as it is going to be wonderful to have newly updated equipment, that will also be ADA compliant, so students have more accessiblity to the playground. We will continue to update the paving and walkway to the playground next summer after the playground installation this year. We thank you again for all of your support!

Summer Garden Care

We are looking for a couple of families are interested in helping to watch over the Pierce School gardens to ensure we have veggies in the fall to return to. If you are interested, please use this signup sheet to let us know you'd like to help with the garden at school this summer. The work that might need to be done would be to harvest produce, weed, water the plants and debug. The gardens are there for the benefit of our community, so let's use them!

We hope you have a fantastic summer and please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for your interest!

New STA Station Manager & Bus Routes Update

Effective June 17, 2024, the STA School Bus Peterborough terminal had a new manager in training. Her name is Amy Pratt, and transitioned into Amy Wing's role this summer. If you need to reach STA, please welcome Amy Pratt to the district as we wish Amy Wing well in her next chapter of her endeavors!

Bus Routes for the coming school year should be released in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes open for the published bus times if your student will be taking the bus. Communication will be shared with you as well, when we are aware of bus times and schedules being released. Thank you for your patience with this, as we have the new Station Manager this year, so we look forward to working with Amy Pratt this year!

First Day of School for Students, Wednesday, 8/28

The first day of school for all students is on Wednesday, August 28th.

Here is a School Schedule Overview:

Pierce School Daily Sample Schedule

K-4 - 8:40 - 3:25

Please note: Supervision of students is not available until 8:20 AM, so please refrain from dropping your student off prior to 8:20 AM.

8:20 Arrival

8:30 Enter the school

8:40 School day begins

12:00 Lunch

12:30 Recess

3:25 Dismissal

Our Pierce School Handbook for the 2024-2025 school year will be available shortly, it has been reviewed by the School Board, and will be posted on our school website which can be found at: https://bes.conval.edu and all School Board policies may be found in their entirety on the ConVal School Board page found here. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email, Principal Alisha Hansen-Proulx at ahansen@conval.edu or (603) 588-2131.

New Staff at Pierce School

We had some staffing changes this year, and want to share our exciting news about new educators at Pierce School for the 24-25 school year. We are very excited to welcome the following new educators to our community this year:

Sarah Kotwicki, School Counselor for Pierce School, Francestown Elemetary School and Temple Elementary School. She will be at Pierce School three days per week. She comes to us with a great background and rich history of experience. Her love of helping students get what they need is apparent when you first meet her, she is sure to help support all of our growing students!

Amy Powell, Second Grade Teacher, returning to us after having been part of our school community for years and is a former PTO president. We look forward to her continued dedication to Pierce School in a new role this year! She completed her certification program this past year through the Upper Valley Educator Institute, and will surely be a familiar face to students and families alike.

Meghan Stockhaus, First Grade Teacher, joining us after having taught in a private school in Concord, NH for several years. She has a Master's Degree from New England College in Literacy. We are excited for her addition to the Pierce School team!

Tiffany Legare, Library Media Specialist, coming to Pierce School after having worked at the University of New Hampshire for the past four years, and earned a Master's Degree in Educational Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She completed a yearlong internship in education at the seacost this past year, and we welcome her expertise and love of learning!

Meredith McGrail, Paraeducator, joining the Pierce School team after having worked in a private school for a number of years in Melrose, MA. She has a wealth of experience in student behaviors and supporting students to ensure they are successful. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Art from Salem State University, and we are excited to have her collaboration support our school, students and curriculum.

Please join me in giving these wonderful new educators a warm welcome, and when you see them, introduce yourself and share a story or something you love about Pierce School and Bennington!