Roadtown News

Dear SES Community,

It's hard to believe we have already completed our third week of school! What a wonderful start to the year it has been. Each day, I get to see our school community grow stronger as students settle into routines, build friendships, challenge themselves and discover new things about themselves as learners.

This week was an important milestone. The excitement of the first few days have begun to turn into meaningful learning and a strong sense of belonging. I am especially proud of the way our students are demonstrating kindness, perserverence, responsibility and respect. I appreciate how much care our staff puts into our school to ensure it is a safe place for everyone.

As we look forward to the weeks ahead, keep choosing to be kind, safe and responsible!

We thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or would like to set up a meeting, please email me to schedule a time to meet.

Have a lovely weekend,

Principal Anne

To subscribe to our BrightArrow ROBO System, text 'YES' to 79041. If you do not subscribe, you will not receive text messages from the school's ROBO System.

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A note to K-6th grade caregivers who pick up and drop off their students via vehicle on the playground side of the building:

• We kindly ask that students are only dropped off at the sidewalk and not before.
• It would be ideal if students only exit from the passenger side back door.
• Please stay in your vehicle at pick up and drop off. A staff member is available to help your child safely into and out of the car. If for some reason you have to exit your vehicle, please do so quickly so as to not hold up the line. Goodbyes should be said before exiting the vehicle.
• You can safely pass the bus when their lights are OFF. Most days, there is a bus monitor to let you know when you can safely pass.
• On Wednesdays, when students are at recess, there will be traffic cones up before the playground. Please stop at the cones and the buses will pass on the left to turn around the island.

Thank you so much for assisting us to provide the safest arrival and dismissal procedures for your students.

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Did you know SES has a Bullying, Intervention and Prevention Plan? Here is how we talk about bullying with students:

Bullying is when someone:

• hurts, teases, or leaves someone on purpose
• does it again and again
• have more power in some way, making it hard for the other person to make it stop

If you would like to learn more about bullying, please go to our school website & click the Information tab. The Bullying Prevention & Intervention Plan is the 2nd choice on the drop down menu. (See screenshot attached).

In Choose Love, students learn about how to recognize bullying and how to advocate when they see someone being unkind. Please see below for the September Choose Love update. October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so look out next months for more updates. If you have any concerns related to bullying please email Anne at magilla@shutesburyschool.org

School Council is a group of staff, parents and the principal who meet to:

1. Adopting educational goals for the school that are consistent with local educational policies and statewide student performance standards

2. Identifying the educational needs of students attending the school

3. Reviewing the annual school building budget

4. Formulating a school improvement plan

The School Council will meet on dates and times that are most agreeable to the members. More dates may be added over the school year.

If you are interested in learning more about School Council, please reach out to Anne. Once I have 2 interested parents, we may meet. Thank you!

If you have not done so already, please make sure you fill out all of the required PowerSchool Forms for your student so that we can ensure we have correct contact information as well as necessary permissions for all students. As stated last Spring, moving forward, we will not be sending home folders with forms that need to be filled out and updated at the beginning of the year. We will be using the forms option through our PowerSchool system. This will help us ensure all information is accurate and families can update info as needed throughout the year.

Returning students were given their Access ID & Access Passwords at the end of the school year. If this information has been misplaced, please reach out to us ASAP so that I can get you another copy in order for you to complete this task.

Please note: New SES students, if you have completed the Pre-Registration, it was our understanding that you should not need an access ID & password. If you do, please reach out so we can get you that info. If you have forgotten your username, we are able to give you that as well.

Please use the information below to create your Caregiver PowerSchool Account (if you have not done so already) and fill out the requested forms.

1. Open the internet browser on your computer

2. The website location is: https://swiftriverschool.powerschool.com/public

3. Click on ""Create Account"" Tab

4. Fill in the information requested for your desired username and password.

5. Enter your student's full name (first, middle, last), Access ID and Password (a hard copy will be sent home with your student)

Please do not hesitate to reach out to Laura and/or Martina in the front office if you need additional information or support.

Thank you for your attention to matter.

Laura & Martina

The Bus Routes for the 2026 - 2027 school year can be found by clicking on the bus below.

Important Reminder: The buses are for students in grades K-6. PreK students are not permitted to ride on the bus at this time.

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For bus related questions, please reach out to the BUS CO. - Kuzmeskus - 413-863-2595 or Amherst Transportation 413-362-1854

• Monday, 9/14 - Student Picture Day
• Tuesday, 9/15 - Class Picture Day
• Wednesday, 9/16 - Make-up Picture Day (for students who were not in attendance on Monday)
• Friday, 9/25 - Grades 5 & 6 Morse Hill Field Trip (All Day)
• Thursday, 10/1 - SES Open House 5:00-6:00 PM
• Monday, 10/5 - Picture Day Retakes
• Monday, 10/12 - No School - Indigenous Peoples Day
• Thursday, 10/15 - UMASS Multibands, Grades 4, 5, & 6
• Friday, 10/16 - No School for Students - Curriculum Day for Staff

Breakfast and Lunch remain FREE for all students. No snacks are being offered this year.

All menu items are subject to change without notice.

Each lunch is served with Milk, Fruit, Vegetable, Protein, and a Grain.

For questions regarding food service, please email Katrina Kingsbury at kingsburyk@shutesburyschool.org or call 413-259-121 ext. 115.

If you have not already done so, please find our Moose Lodge Afterschool Program Information HERE.

(Be sure to sign the google form stating you've read the document)

IMPORTANT Reminder: Tuition must be paid prior to the 1st of the month in order for your child to attend. Please make sure Moose Lodge days are set as your child's default plan in Pick Up Patrol.

August/September bills will reflect the following info:
Mondays: 4
Tuesdays: 5
Wednesdays: 5
Thursdays: 4
Fridays: 4

Afterschool will run from 3:00-4:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays for grades K-6.

On Wednesdays the program will begin at 1:00 and run until 3:00 or 4:30, please be sure to pick up your student(s) at the appropriate scheduled time.

Preschool students MUST be picked up by 4:00 every day.

Students should bring a snack daily for Moose Lodge. Moose Lodge does not provide snacks. - Thank you.

At this time, we are no longer enrolling additional students for Wednesday afternoons.

Please send emails regarding Moose Lodge to moose.lodge@shutesburyschool.org for information regarding programming.

If you need to change your schedules for the following month, you must do so prior to the 20th of the current month. We will do our best to accommodate requests but cannot guarantee availability. If you need to make changes to your Moose Lodge schedule for your student, please use the google request form HERE.

PTO Meeting Schedule for 2025-2026

Meetings will take place on Monday's at 8:15 @ SES on:

September 14th

October 19th

November 16th

December 14th

January 11th

February 8th

March 15th

April 12th

May 17th

June 14th

July 19th

All meetings will be in person this year!

SHUTESBURY ATHLETIC CLUB INFO

The Shutesbury Athletic Club is serving community members dinner every Friday night!

Check out their Facebook events for more info!

Shutesbury Athletic Club

282 Wendell Road

Leverett Co-op Annual Harvest Festival, THIS Sunday, September 13, 1-4 pm.

Young people of all ages are invited to Bring Your Own creations to sell!
In addition to your wares, please bring your own small table or blanket on which to display your products.

SES staff, parents and friends!

Adults Actors sought for the new Shutesbury Library's first performance of script in hand community theater!

We are currently building a cast to give a Readers' Theatre style performance of a contemporary French farce at the library the evening Saturday, November 7.

Openings include one significant part for a 20s-30s woman and several smaller parts of various sorts.

Come join the fun!

Reach Christine at christinebenvenuto@hotmail

The Council on Aging has invited the Shutesbury Community to participate in developing a Town Puzzle Book. The goal is to create about 20 crossword puzzles based on anything Shutesbury!

• History

• Geography

• Organizations

• Activities

• Landmarks

There will be a worksheet available soon to submit your ideas! There will be more information to come on Town Announce and NextDoor.

***Not school sponsored events***

We hope everyone has had a wonderful 1st full week back. It is not unusual for students (and staff) to be tired! 🙂 As a mother of four, I always found it helpful to have calm activities at night as they ease into the new demands of their next grade level.

I received wonderful feedback about our technology policy. If your student has an smart watch, you can put it on "school time mode" so your child could use it as a regular watch at school. Here are the directions: School Mode

As students are getting into their routines, if they ride the bus please review our Bus Expectations with your child. If you have any concerns, please contact the bus company.

Students in grades 5 & 6 along with their teaching staff are going on our 1st field trip of the school year to Morse Hill! Morse Hill has welcome SES students for generations and was a long standing tradition before Covid. The focus will be community building, teamwork and building leadership skills, and self-confidence. Students will create a value agreement, followed by initiatives in the field and then activities on the low ropes course. They will finish with an exciting element at height on the high ropes course and conclude with a whole group circle. More information for Grades 5 & 6 to follow!

We will be starting the 2026-2027 school year off using a system called PickUp Patrol to help us track dismissals. PickUp Patrol provides you with a convenient way to make changes to your students’s dismissal plans and helps ensure that students are accurately dismissed each day.

How It Works:

1. Your students’s regular dismissal plan will be entered into the system. This is called their Default Plan.

2. Whenever your student is doing something other than their Default Plan, you’ll submit a Plan Change via PickUp Patrol. Examples of a Plan Change include:

   1. Your student normally rides the bus, but is getting picked up today

   2. Your student is getting picked up by someone other than yourself.

   3. Your student has a doctor's appointment and will be leaving early.

3. When the change is submitted, our school will be notified, and we’ll relay the change to your student & their teacher.

4. You can also use PickUp Patrol to alert SES that your student will be absent or tardy through this new system.

REGISTER: At this time, you should have received a registration email from PickUp Patrol with a link to set up your account. If you have not, please be sure to check your student's PowerSchool contact form. Pick Up Patrol will only send emails to caregivers with whom the student lives with and/or has custody of. If your information is not listed, Pick Up Patrol doesn't not have your contact information to send you the Welcome Email! The parent portal is free and can be accessed from your phone or computer. The link in your registration email will be live for 48 hours. As soon as you receive it, please log in and confirm your student’s default plan. If you have not completed your PowerSchool Forms, you may have not received the letter as PowerSchool shares caregiver information with Pick Up Patrol. If you need to request a new welcome letter, please let us know ASAP so that we can ensure smooth dismissals at the end of the day.

Thank you for using PickUp Patrol to make safety a priority and to ensure our dismissal process is efficient for all.

If you have any questions, please first check the PickUp Patrol Parent Guide & if you need additional assistance, let us know.

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Additional Info:

We will no longer be using our Yellow Notes system for dismissals.

There will be a 2:00 cut off each day (12:00 on Wednesdays) to ensure SES staff have time to get the end of day info and have it readily available in time for dismissal.

Reminder: In order for you to send your student to Moose Lodge, you must be accepted into the program.

Our mailing address is:

23 West Pelham Road, Shutesbury MA 01072

School Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday 8:15 a.m. - 2:55 p.m. & Wednesday 8:15 a.m. - 1:00 p.m

PreK Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday 8:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. & Wednesday 8:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.