Catamount Newsletter November, 2013
Feedback From Parents Sought
Ninety parents completed Parent Surveys on Back to School Night in October. We are off to a great start but our goal is 100% participation. If you did not have the opportunity to complete a survey, you may do so during parent teacher conferences.Computers will be available to take the survey in the library and on the second floor computer lab. Paper copies will also be available. If you have more than one child in the St. Johnsbury School and your experience is different for each child, feel free to complete a survey from each perspective. The purpose of the survey is to analyze how our school is performing. In addition to academic data, we want to know how parents and students view our school. Students will be taking an online survey in November.
Thank you for helping us move our school forward! Survey results will be shared with the School Board and community once the survey window closes. If you have questions, contact Dr. Ranny Bledsoe, (802) 748-8912.
The St. Johnsbury School Improvement Team
Monthly Outstanding Character Awards
During each monthly school wide assembly, one student from each grade level will be recognized for their exemplary demonstration of one of our St. Johnsbury School character traits:
R for Responsibility,
O for Outstanding Effort,
C for Citizenship,
K for Kindness, and
S for Safety.
Last month we recognized students who were models of the Responsibility trait. This month we will recognize students who showed exemplary Outstanding Effort. In November we will highlight students who demonstrated Citizenship. December's highlight will be on students who showed Kindness. In January we'll showcase students who demonstrated Safety in school. Then we'll rotate through the traits again.
Let's keep up the great behavior, St. J students!!
-the PBIS team
The 2012- 2013 sixth graders received answers to letters they wrote to Congress with their concerns about the health of white pine trees in Saint Johnsbury. The students had participated in collecting and processing samples from white pines that were sent to the Forest Watch at the University of New Hampshire. When Forest Watch notified the students of concerns about our local white pines, the students chose in turn to notify our members of Congress. Congressman Welch's office called and left a message that he appreciated being alerted to the problem. As the most senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Senator Leahy wrote the students of his work to preserve environmentally sensitive forest lands. He informed the students that "United States forests support 2.9 million jobs and contribute $115billion toward the gross domestic product. Forest Watch is a great program for bringing science to schools. It is important for us to better understand the calamities that are impacting our white pine trees, and the environment." The students could not agree more with Senator Leahy. Last year's sixth graders have passed the torch to this year's sixth graders who have already begun a continuation of the Forest Watch process. We look forward to contacting our members of Congress this year with updates from Forest Watch. We should all be proud of the excellent work performed by our citizen scientists.
Mr. Wurzburg, Ms. Ingram & Ms. Foehring
What’s for Lunch? More locally grown food!
By Louisa Driscoll, RN
Food Service Director, Carolee Stuart, has a goal to serve as much locally grown food as possible. In order to meet that goal she met with local farmers last fall to plan for the 2013-2014 school year. She told them what she needed to have grown for the students of the St Johnsbury School and they agreed to grow it.
Students from St. Johnsbury are enjoying the fruits (and vegetables) of that agreement. They are eating locally grown berries in their muffins and pancakes from the Cushman farm for breakfast. Pancakes are served with real maple syrup from the Burt farm and often include apples and apple cider from the Burt farm as well.
For lunch the salad bar is very popular. Each week students eat 75 pounds of lettuce from Mountain Foot farm and 50 pounds of lettuce from Harvest Hill farm. In addition, students eat different vegetables and fruits from Joe’s Brook farm and Harvest Hill farm including beets, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, squash, cabbage, carrots, watermelon, onions, and brussel sprouts. On Fridays students enjoy corn on the cob grown at the Burt farm. Each week the Burt farm is also selling 1500 apples to the school for breakfast, snack and lunch.
Locally grown beef from Timberlane farm is also frequently on the lunch menu. St. Johnsbury school students eat 300 pounds of ground beef and 100 pounds of stew meat a month from that Lyndonville farm. As winter approaches, look for the St Johnsbury school menu to include root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and rutabagas that local farmers are storing now for our students.
Fresh local food provides healthy food for our children and benefits our local economy. Keep up the good work,Carolee!
St. Johnsbury School Library will host a Scholastic Book Fair in November. The fall theme is: Reading Oasis: A Cool Place to Discover Hot Books! One of our classroom challenges is a food drive to benefit Kingdom Community Services Food Shelf. The classroom or advisory bringing in the most pounds of food will choose $50 worth of books for their classroom library.
The book fair will be open at the following times:
Tuesday, November 12 from 2:30-6:30 p.m. (during PTO meeting)
Wednesday, November 13 from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 14 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Friday, November 15 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Grandparents’ day 9:00-11:00 a.m.)
Monday, November 18 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
If you cannot join us at the book fair, you may shop online at
The online fair is available from November 7 to November 27.
The newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book will be available, as well as lots of bargain books. We hope to see you there!