EMES School Newsletter
Welcome Letter
Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year, EMES families!
I am hopeful this note finds you enjoying the last few weeks of summer before sending your child(ren) back to school. It has been a very busy summer at EMES with both Community Connections and our district summer program happening here over the month of July. Our custodial and office staff have worked hard to get the building ready to start the new year - we can't wait to see you all again soon!
We welcome several new faces to EMES this year – both students and staff. EMES is truly a wonderful place to work and learn, and we hope you will find the same! Joining us on the U-Arts team are Rory Woodard (library/tech) and Kenna Lund (music). And, joining us in the health office is Amber Larrabee. Posted below, you'll find a picture and short bio about each of them. We are also finalizing new hires in our ESP department (para-educators). We've had many new families and students visit the school over the summer and are so excited to welcome you into the EMES community!
Please take some time between now and the first day of school to fill out the first day packets that were sent to you earlier this month. We recognize that it is a lot to go through and we appreciate you getting this information back to us! Shortly before school starts, you will receive information about the bus schedule. We will send the 2025-2026 Student/Family Handbook and the August/September menu out next week.
We hope you soak up these last days of summer before the school-year schedule begins. I know we all will be! We are excited to welcome you all back soon!
Best,
Alicia
Amber Larrabee
Hey, my name is Amber Larrabee, and I’m thrilled to be stepping into the role of school nurse at EMES next school year. For the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of serving many of your family members as a school nurse at U-32, and for the past year I have been deep into completion of my master’s degree in Public Health with a focus on School Nursing. I will be finished by the start of the new school year!
Born and raised in Central Vermont, I already know many of the wonderful students and families in this sweet school community, and I’m truly excited to deepen those connections. One of the most meaningful parts of my work is welcoming children into the health office for comfort, care, and support, and partnering with families and faculty to help keep our school healthy and thriving.
This new chapter brings not only a fresh professional opportunity but also a bit more time to enjoy with my own family, and I’m very grateful for both. I’m looking forward to getting to know you and working together to support the well-being of every student and faculty.
Kenna Lund
Hello! My name is Kenna, and I’m so excited to be joining the WCUUSD community as the music, band, and chorus teacher at EMES and Rumney. I studied music education at the University of Vermont and am passionate about creating joyful, inclusive, and engaging musical experiences for students of all ages. I’m a singer, guitarist, and trombone player, and I love making music in all kinds of ways. Outside of school, you can find me hiking, biking, running, reading, enjoying the lake, learning to cook, or seeing live music. I’m thrilled to be here and can’t wait to make music together!
Rory Woodard
My name is Rory Woodard (Ms. Rory at school) and I am beyond thrilled to be joining the East Montpelier and Calais Elementary schools as the school librarian next year! As a life-long book lover, sharing the joy of reading and learning with young people is one of the most delightful experiences in the world. (Although I'll never have an answer to what my favorite book is - there are too many that have been perfect in the time and place that I read them!) I grew up in Calais and attended Calais, Rumney, and U-32 myself, and now live in Calais again! I'm a second generation school librarian (my mom, Mrs. Woodard, was the librarian at Rumney and Doty for many years), and I've spent the last three school years as the PreK-12 librarian at Cabot School. When I'm not being a librarian, I love reading, knitting, swimming, fishing, making jam, and playing both tabletop and video games. I can't wait to meet you all (and especially to learn what books you have loved)!
Summer Reading!
A fun tradition in our school is a display of photographs of summer readers that we put up every year. Our school community loves looking at these photographs all year long. If you have a moment to snap a photograph of your EMES students reading we would love to add it to our display! These could be pictures of your student reading alone, with another human, with a pet, with a stuffed animal, outside or inside and reading anything! It could be a magazine, manual, recipe, book, or anything else they may enjoy reading!
Please send photos to either lbevins@u32.org or cchristiano@u32.org.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all soon!
Liz Bevins
Christine Christiano
