I recently joined the BTMES 7th grade team for their first Town Hall of the year, and it was a terrific and impressive experience!  7th grade teachers, BTMES principal Erica Pearson, and assistant principal Ted Mills led our students through an engaging session that focused on relationship building and social/emotional learning.  I found the presentation on Hazing, Harassment, and Bullying led by Mr. Mills to be particularly compelling, and our students had incredibly thoughtful questions to share with the group.  These Town Halls will be occurring across grades at BTMES all year; please reach out to the BTMES team if you'd like more information.  Check out our interview with the principals and some of our students.

Finally, we hope to see you at this weekend's Barre Heritage Festival!  The weather is looking great, and many of us from the BUUSD will be present for the fun on Saturday.  Check out this link with more information about the weekend.

We are now in the middle of our second week of school, and I hope your students (and you!) are off to a great start! So much of the first four to six weeks of the school year are devoted to building community and strong relationships, as you may recall from our Welcome Back video a few weeks ago that our school district's focus for the year is to "support all learners' development through improving relationships and building a sense of belonging." Our community is stepping up to help our students feel welcome and successful right out of the gate.

I'd like to thank Barre's own Renita Marshall for leading a backpack and clothing drive last month for our students and families impacted by the summer floods. As many of you know, Renita leads the Renita Marshall Helping Hands Foundation and I was able to catch up with her at last week's Concert on Currier Park to listen to her share her story. Check out our brief conversation in this week's School Showcase.

Healthy, trusting relationships. A Culture of Belonging. Strengthening relationships and building a sense of belonging for all clearly addresses our social/emotional well being of course, but the connection of this focus to strong academics is also a natural one. How does our effort in creating engaging and challenging lessons for all types of learners build happy relationships and make all students feel welcome? I think this is a perfect and very timely focus for our work this year! And one every member of our school community can benefit from. Please reach out to me and your principals and teachers to share your thoughts. We would love to hear them!

Our community is coming off three of the most challenging years anyone in public education has ever experienced, and we are now dealing with the incredibly complicated ramifications of the July floods and their impact on everyone's homes, livelihoods, and mental health. Our students, faculty and staff, and all of you will be looking to our school community to provide a safe and supportive environment for all, and we are putting all of our efforts into making this happen.

Our students and school community were honored to participate in this year's Memorial Day Parade this past Tuesday, and it was a powerful learning experience for all.  I had a chance to connect with BTMES, BCEMS, and SHS marching bands to hear their thoughts on participating in the ceremony, and we also go to catch up with the SHS J.R.O.T.C. program.

Command Sgt. Major Arianna Little (Junior, SHS) said it best:  "It's so important to honor those that have served our country and to show our patriotism."  Indeed it is, and all of our students respectfully honored our veterans on this perfect day for a parade!  Many thanks to our Band Directors Bobby Booth (SHS), Ally Tarwater (BTMES), and Angela Garcelon (BCEMS) for providing this opportunity for our students to shine on such an important day.  And of course, thank you to SHS J.R.O.T.C. Instructors Sgt. Danny Boone and Lt. Colonel Paul Stafford for leading our efforts in having our students be such an integral part of these events that honor our veterans.  It was a day to be truly proud of our school community!

This week's school showcase highlights a recent Math Night at BCEMS that brought the Barre Town and Barre City elementary communities together last Thursday night. BUUSD Math Coordinator Jen Bisson and Director of Curriculum Karen Fredericks put together a fun night for students and families, and this is just one example of how wonderful it has been to get the community back in our schools this year! Here is Karen's take on the night:

"We had an excellent turn out for our first post COVID Barre Math Night (with a count of 175 attendees). Jen Bisson, Barre UUSD PrK-8 Math Coordinator, organized the event in partnership with All Learners Network. It was such a pleasure to see equal representation of both Barre City and Barre Town families and teachers! Thank you for supporting our students, and the learning that is happening in the classroom."

On behalf of all of us in the Barre Unified Union School District, a sincere thank you to the Barre community for supporting our school budget!  As you can see here, the fact that the passing of our budget occurred in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week was a big deal to us!

SHS teachers Margo Austin and Pam Smith shared just two of many examples of the community stepping up to support our schools this year!  We've been saying all along that we don't take your support for granted and that your voice matters. You can count on that continuing!

Finally, many thanks to the BUUSD School Board for joining us and providing delicious breakfasts to the faculty and staff at all of our schools this week.  The support has been truly appreciated!

Happy Spring!  The month of April has been a remarkable one for the performing arts in the BUUSD.  Among many highlights, last Friday saw the first drama production at BCEMS in 15 years!  For those who got to see the kids' production of "Barre Poppins'' last Friday night in a packed house, it was a treat indeed!  First year BCEMS 5th grade ELA teacher Adam Jacobs saw an opportunity to get a drama club together this year, and he took it!

For the second Showcase in a row, we are happy to welcome back an SHS alum into our schools!  Last week, 2010 SHS grad and BCEMS dad Steve Rich visited BCEMS Art Teacher Kate Hawley's 1st grade class.  Steve was interested in sharing his experiences as an artist in the granite trades with these young learners, and it was a great visit!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  BTMES and BCEMS had a special visit today from Aldrich Library Children's Librarian Ian Gauthier, who doubles among many other talents as a gifted player of the bagpipes!  Ian put on a spirited performance for students at both schools this morning, and it was a treat for all.

We had a great visit with the SHS Interact Club yesterday, and I can promise that you will be impressed with the leadership skills of these Tide students!  Club Advisor and SHS Flexible Pathways Coordinator Margo Austin joined us with four of her club officers to talk about a "Tree Plenish" project they are conducting for the second year in a row.

For this week's School Showcase, we honor and celebrate our SHS Winter Sports teams.  What a fun and incredibly successful season this has been!  I will let you watch and listen to the team captains in the showcase below to hear all of the highlights instead of sharing them here, but many of our teams and athletes are among the top in the state.

Earlier this morning, we went to BTMES to prepare a school showcase updating the community on this weekend's water line break.  Though we're still going to share that with you, we also had an unplanned visit in Charlotte Baribault's 3rd-grade class and we wanted to share that with you too!

Last night we attended the Varsity Boys Basketball game against Hazen and spoke with four students to hear their thoughts on the past two weeks and how proud they are of their community for stepping up and showing their support.

As many of you know, young students in the BUUSD are very fortunate to have the opportunity to build positive relationships with our local police officers.  This week, new Barre City Chief of Police Braedon Vail joined BCEMS Special Educator Allison Courtemanche for a Q & A with a group of 7th and 8th graders on the PEAK team.  It was an informative and enlightening experience for all!