CHICHESTER CENTRAL CONNECTION

As we move through the heart of winter, CCS continues to be filled with energy, learning, and community connection.

January and February have been busy months across academics, athletics, and school-wide celebrations. Our students have shown strong focus in the classroom while also embracing opportunities to connect through special events and traditions.

We celebrated an exciting READBowl season, with students logging an impressive number of reading minutes schoolwide. The competition was fun, but the true success was the enthusiasm for books that filled our classrooms and homes. Read Across America Week was another highlight, featuring guest readers, themed days, and our much-anticipated Masked Reader reveal. Watching students guess, laugh, and engage with stories reminded us how powerful reading can be in building both skills and community.

Our winter athletic programs wrapped up a strong basketball season with 77 students participating across grade levels. The commitment, teamwork, and perseverance demonstrated by our student-athletes over the past several months are commendable. We are proud of their growth both on and off the court.

Behind the scenes, our staff continues to engage in professional learning. We are completing training in Responsive Classroom, strengthening our focus on building positive, predictable, and engaging learning environments. Staff are also implementing Zones of Regulation to support students in recognizing and managing their emotions. As we look ahead to next year, we will continue refining schoolwide expectations and instructional priorities to ensure consistency and clarity for all students.

Kindergarten registration has also opened for the 2026–2027 school year, and we already have 17 students enrolled in less than a week. We look forward to welcoming our newest Rams!

Thank you for your continued partnership and support. CCS is a special place because of our students, families, staff, and community working together. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions, ideas, or feedback.

Warmly,
Tanya Teeboom

Based on the CCS Strategic Plan and through collaboration with all stakeholders, including students, staff, families, and community members, we refined our Mission and Vision to clearly reflect our shared priorities and aspirations for our school.

These statements guide our daily work from academic instruction and student support to extracurricular opportunities and community engagement. They reflect our belief that learning should be rigorous and meaningful, relationships should be strong and supportive, and every student should feel both challenged and valued.

We are proud of the direction CCS continues to move and grateful for our families and community partners who help bring this mission and vision to life.

Our students read an incredible 202,962 minutes during READBowl, that’s 3,382 hours and 42 minutes of reading! What an amazing accomplishment! We celebrated last Friday at our READBowl Assembly. The Quarter 4 Winning Team was the Green Bay Packers, who were honored with prizes and applause. The Green Bay Packers also took home the Super Bowl Championship for the highest total minutes across all four quarters, with 22,204 minutes read, that’s 370 hours and 4 minutes! Incredible dedication!

We recognized the top 5 readers in each grade level, who received special prizes for their outstanding effort. The celebration was filled with pom-poms, music, football bracelets, and foam finger signs for all participants. To top it off, our Super Bowl champions enjoyed a team lunch on Monday with pizza and popcorn! We are so proud of our readers and the excitement they showed for building strong reading habits. Way to go, CCS!

Our READBowl Super Bowl Champions, the Green Bay Packers, celebrated their big win with a well-earned pizza and popcorn lunch! With their coach and CCS admin joining in the celebration, it was a great way to recognize their incredible accomplishment, reading a total of 22,204 minutes across all four quarters! We are so proud of this team’s dedication, teamwork, and love of reading. Way to go, Packers!

What a Wonderful Ending to Read Across America Week! We wrapped up an incredible week of celebrating literacy by gathering together to unmask our Masked Readers! Mrs. Rowell, our Reading Specialist, brought the entire school together for the big reveal. Students had some impressive guesses and a few were completely surprised! The excitement and laughter filled the gym.

After the big reveal, Mrs. Bidwell, Middle School SS teacher, worked with our middle school students to create short skits based on popular books. Students performed while the audience tried to guess the title and it was so much fun watching creativity, teamwork, and a love of stories come to life on stage.

This week reminded us that reading is more than just words on a page, it builds imagination, connection, and community. As Dr. Seuss once said, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go."

Cross-Grade Collaboration at CCS! Our 8th graders teamed up with Mrs. JZ’s 4th grade class to work on editing and strengthening narrative writing. Fourth graders are in the process of writing their own narrative stories, and today they partnered with an 8th grade buddy for help with editing, feedback, and brainstorming story ideas. It was truly awesome to watch the collaboration, encouragement, and leadership happening in real time. We love seeing our older students mentor and support our younger writers. What a great example of learning and community at CCS!

The CCS Basketball season has officially come to an end, and what a fantastic year it was! We had incredible participation across all grade levels and are so proud of the effort, sportsmanship, and growth shown by our student-athletes.

K–2 Skills Clinics
Our youngest Rams participated in Saturday skills clinics beginning in January. Thank you to AJ Cipriano (K–1) and Brad Chase (Grade 2) for focusing on the fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting — and most importantly, having fun!

Grades 3/4 Boys
Coached by Tim Buzinski, Joe Berthiaume, and Clark Thorne, the boys competed in the Merrimack Basketball League (MBL). They won their opening playoff game against Epsom and battled in a close 14–12 second-round loss.

Grades 3/4 Girls
Coached by Dave Hussey, the girls finished the regular season 3–4 in the MBL and qualified for the North Division bracket. They earned an exciting 14–13 playoff win over Londonderry before narrowly falling to eventual champions Henniker.

Grades 5/6 Girls
Coached by Eric and Dave Hussey, the girls competed in the MBL Silver Division, finishing 1–6. They delivered a thrilling 22–20 playoff win over Weare and were crowned 5/6 Girls Silver Division South Playoff Champions when Outing Club was unable to play in the championship game!

Grades 5/6 Boys
Coached by Tony Cipriano, the boys had an outstanding season in the MBL Bronze Division, finishing the regular season undefeated and earning a first-round playoff bye. Their impressive run ended in a tough semifinal matchup against Bow.

Middle School Boys
Also coached by Tony Cipriano, many 6th graders played up due to numbers. The team showed tremendous growth and effort throughout the season, playing hard until the final buzzer every game.

7/8 Girls
Coached by Eric and Dave Hussey, the girls competed in both the MBL and the Suncook Valley League (SVL). A season highlight was a 32–11 win over ICB (Merrimack Valley). In SVL play, they finished 4–4 with wins over Epsom, Pittsfield, and Nute before facing the eventual tournament champions from Farmington in the playoffs.

For many of these athletes, the season meant 3.5 months of dedication, often practicing or playing 5–6 days a week. Their commitment, teamwork, perseverance, and growth extend far beyond the win–loss column, and we are incredibly proud of them.

We would also like to recognize our 8th grade players and thank them for their years of dedication to CCS Basketball. We wish them continued success as they move on to high school:

Wyatt, Aisleigh, Aubrey, Kaylee, Faith, and Stella.

Thank you to all of our coaches, families, and supporters who made this season such a success. Go Rams!

Our first Robotics Club meeting was a tremendous success! Volunteers came ready to support our students, and their encouragement and positive energy helped create an engaging and welcoming environment.

Students were highly focused and excited, and it was especially rewarding to see different grade levels collaborating naturally and problem-solving together. As the session ended, we heard enthusiastic comments like, “That was amazing!” and “We get to do this again next week?!” a true sign of a successful launch.

During the first meeting, students worked on building a structure that could extend off the edge of a table, learning how pieces connect and beginning to think like engineers.In the weeks ahead, they will begin constructing actual robots and the excitement is already growing!

February Edition from our Newspaper Club!

Music Enrichment

Our Grade 4 students have been hard at work in music class and were so excited to share a short song they learned on the xylophones! Students read the music right from the presentation board and confidently played their individual parts.

It was wonderful to see their focus, teamwork, and pride as the song came together. Moments like this show how music builds not only skills in rhythm and reading notation, but also confidence and collaboration. Great job, Grade 4, keep making beautiful music!

CCS is preparing to implement Zones of Regulation schoolwide. A team of teachers has completed formal training and is now working collaboratively to determine the most effective and developmentally appropriate way to roll this out across grade levels. This framework helps students recognize their emotions and develop practical strategies to regulate themselves throughout the school day.

In addition, we will be strengthening our focus on Growth Mindset instruction in upper elementary (Grades 4–5), helping students understand the power of effort, perseverance, and learning from mistakes.

At the middle school level, we are preparing to implement a stronger focus on Executive Functioning skills, including organization, planning, time management, and task initiation which are all critical skills for success in high school and beyond.

These initiatives reflect our commitment to supporting students not only academically, but socially and emotionally as well.

Students in Kindergarten through Grade 5 completed mCLASS DIBELS assessments, which focus on foundational literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and reading accuracy. These brief assessments help us monitor early reading development and identify students who may benefit from additional support.

Families of students who scored below grade-level benchmarks on DIBELS received an Intervention Plan. This plan outlines:

• The specific skill areas that were not yet met

• Who will be providing the intervention

• When and how often the intervention will take place during the week

Our goal is to provide targeted, timely support and partner with families to ensure students make steady progress.

Aimsweb (Grades K–3)

Students in Grades K–3 also participated in Aimsweb benchmarking, which measures early literacy and math skills, including fluency and computation. This provides additional data points to track student growth over time.

These benchmark assessments are not graded. They serve as important tools to help teachers personalize instruction and celebrate growth while addressing areas of need.

If you have any questions about your child’s results or intervention plan, please reach out to your child’s teacher.

As instructional practices continue to evolve, it is important that our reporting tools accurately communicate student progress in a meaningful and easy-to-understand way. The committee is reviewing models from neighboring districts and gathering feedback to ensure our final product supports both transparency and student growth. We look forward to sharing updates as this work progresses.

We continue to focus on maintaining a safe, clean, and efficient learning environment at CCS. Recent efforts include custodial training to strengthen sanitation and operational efficiency, changing HVAC filters to support healthy air quality, and completing required fire inspection and kitchen safety updates. Our team has also addressed various classroom repairs, including sinks, shelving, floor tiles, and equipment maintenance. Welding repairs are scheduled over break to complete dumpster, chair rack, and art room stool repairs. In addition, we are finalizing our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for presentation. We are grateful for the ongoing behind-the-scenes work that keeps our building safe, compliant, and ready for learning each day.

Our art teacher, Mrs. Mason, along with two of her students, Gideon and Teagan, recently shared with the School Board about what students have been learning in art class this year. Gideon and Teagan proudly presented pieces of artwork they created, while Mrs. Mason highlighted the exciting projects and skills each grade level has explored throughout the year. We are so proud of our students for sharing their creativity and of Mrs. Mason for the wonderful art experiences she provides at CCS!

CCS Athletic Director Anthony Cipriano attended the School Board meeting and brought along two outstanding student-athletes, Brody and Jameson. Mr. Cipriano shared highlights from a strong year across our cross country, soccer, and basketball programs. Our cross country runners demonstrated incredible endurance and growth throughout the season. Soccer teams showed teamwork, sportsmanship, and competitive spirit on the field. Basketball participation was high this year, with exciting playoff runs and tremendous development across grade levels.

Brody and Jameson spoke about what they enjoy most about athletics at CCS, teamwork, school pride, and the opportunity to grow as athletes, and shared their plans to continue playing sports in high school. Mr. Cipriano also shared that at this time, we do not have enough numbers to form a softball or baseball team this spring, but we appreciate the Board’s continued support each year as we work toward making that possible in the future. Thank you, Mr. Cipriano, for your dedication, leadership, and commitment to building strong athletic programs at CCS. Our students benefit tremendously from the opportunities you help create!

We were grateful for the strong community involvement during Read Across America Week. Parents, staff, and community members joined us to share their love of reading with our students. We were especially thrilled to welcome Mrs. Rousseau, School Board Member, who read two wonderful books to different grade levels. Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and love of reading with our students. Opportunities like these strengthen the connection between our school and the broader CCS community.

Chichester History Comes to Life at CCS! We were thrilled to welcome Gloria Beachy and Fred Shaw from the Chichester Historical Society to work with our Grade 3 students! Through their “Traveling Trunk” presentation, complete with costumes and a skit-style format, students had the opportunity to explore fascinating artifacts and learn more about the rich history of our town and community. The interactive format made history come alive in such a memorable way.

We are so grateful for the partnership with the Chichester Historical Society and their commitment to helping our students connect with local history. Students were even encouraged to visit the museum with their families to continue learning! Thank you, Gloria and Fred, for sharing your time, creativity, and passion with our third graders.

Chichester Central School recently earned a new outdoor bench through a schoolwide plastic recycling initiative, thanks to the incredible support of students, families, and staff. Over several months, the CCS community collected and donated qualifying plastic materials as part of the NexTrex recycling program. By reaching the required collection goal, the school received a durable composite bench made from recycled plastic. The project not only resulted in a new addition to the school grounds, but also provided students with a hands-on lesson in environmental responsibility and community collaboration. Students helped collect donations learning how small actions can make a meaningful impact.

The school extends special thanks to Heather Taluba for supporting and coordinating the program, as well as to the many families who consistently brought in plastic donations. The new bench serves as a visible reminder of what can be accomplished when a community works together toward a common goal.