Superintendent's Update

August 26th, 2024

Dear Lebanon School District Community,

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year! I hope you had a wonderful summer and enjoyed quality time with your loved ones. As we approach this academic year, we trust that your students are rested and ready for an outstanding school year.

I want to express our gratitude to the community for their support. We are thrilled about the new learning spaces at Lebanon High School and Hanover Street School. These upgrades, such as the new musical arts spaces, front entrance/common area at LHS, and the addition of four new classrooms, a dedicated cafeteria space, and improved student service spaces at HSS, signify a substantial investment in our student's future. These changes will offer our teachers, staff, and students modern, inspiring environments that foster creativity, collaboration, and well-being. We are sincerely thankful for the community's support in bringing these improvements to fruition and eagerly anticipate their positive impact on our school experience. Stay tuned for the Open House dates when the community can view our new spaces.

The District will begin the school year by involving community members and staff in creating a Strategic Plan. The input gathered from our educational partners will be extremely helpful in shaping the district's vision, mission, and top priorities. This strategic planning process will also establish criteria to gauge progress and act as a tool for managing the district's priorities. Once approved, the plan will be shared with the community.

As a hallmark of our District and community, we are ready to deliver an exceptional program, ensuring academic and social-emotional growth in our students. We are particularly excited to equip our educators with new tools to foster educational growth by adopting UFLY, a Science of Reading Based Program for students in grades PreK-2, and Spellography for grades 3-4.

We prioritize our students' and staff's safety and well-being. Last school year, we extensively reviewed our policies and systems to ensure we meet or exceed the best practice standards. We will provide additional training throughout the year. This reflective process has helped us identify and strengthen areas to minimize potential issues.

We are creating a district-wide communication plan to enhance the educational experience for everyone in our school community. This plan aims to improve communication at every level of our district operations, ensuring that information flows smoothly between administrators, teachers, staff, students, and families. Our goal is to promote transparency, collaboration, and trust by ensuring everyone can access timely and accurate information. By strengthening our communication channels, we can better support our shared mission of providing a high-quality education for all students.

Here is to a great new school year.

In partnership,

Amy Allen

Superintendent

Staff Shout Outs

Ben Nester is our new Director of Student Services at SAU 88, where he brings extensive experience working with students with disabilities across all grade levels. His career in education has been dedicated to supporting diverse student needs and ensuring they have the resources to succeed. Ben is passionate about his role in the Lebanon School District and is excited to contribute to such a talented and dedicated educational community. Outside work, Ben enjoys fly fishing, boating on Lake Sunapee, and spending time with his wife, Emily, and their four children.

Megan McFarland is the new assistant principal at HSS. She taught for eight years at Lebanon Middle School before becoming an administrator in Vermont. Megan states, "I am so excited to be back in Lebanon and joining the wonderful staff at Hanover Street." She received her Bachelor's Degree from Rivier University in Human Development/Elementary Education/General Special Education in 2013. She completed her M.Ed in Educational Leadership with Principal Certification from Keene State College. In her free time, she enjoys playing volleyball, watching pretty much any sport, baking, home decorating, and snuggling her dog, Bruin, and two cats, Kora and Kiara.

Ben Davis enters the upcoming academic year as the new Director of Athletics and Co-Curricular Activities at LHS. Most recently, he served as the Assistant Athletic Director and Varsity Boys’ Basketball Coach for the past two years at Hanover High School. Before Hanover, Ben worked at St. Johnsbury Academy for two years as the Assistant Athletic Director and Varsity Boys’ Basketball Coach. Before entering the world of high school athletics, Ben was a collegiate basketball coach at multiple institutions for thirteen years. He graduated from Wheaton College (MA) and was a four-year letter winner on the men’s basketball team. Outside of work, Ben enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, golfing, and spending time with his wife, Steph, and their two young children, Jana and Eli. Ben and his family reside in Hartford, Vermont.

Caroline Rooney is the new Assistant Principal at Lebanon Middle School. She grew up in Mendon, Vermont, and attended the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in English. After graduating, she taught middle school language arts in Seattle, Washington, while pursuing her M.Ed in Teaching from the University of Portland. She has worked for the Lebanon School District for four years as a 7/8th grade language arts teacher and graduated from Boston University with her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in 2023. She is very excited to continue to work with the amazing students and staff at Lebanon Middle School as the Assistant Principal. When she’s not at LMS, you can most likely find her hiking in the White Mountains, trying to cross off all the 4,000-footers!

We're thrilled to welcome these new leaders to our Administrative Team. Starting in September, this newsletter will feature a student shout-out section. If you have a staff or student shout-out, please email aallen@sau88.net.