End of Year Letter

End of Year Message 

As the year comes to an end I want to take this opportunity to celebrate, reflect, and look forward.  In spite of budget challenges and a significant lack of resources, the Lowell had another very successful and happy school year. I want to thank all of you for your support of our school, your student, and our staff throughout the year.

There is much to celebrate this year. We implemented the new Common Core State Standards smoothly and in such a way that our students were engaged and there was some amazing project based learning happening. With the adoption of this new set of standards came a new way of teaching math and with this we saw a marked improvement in student achievement. Our students not only wrote personal narratives but also had the opportunity to write to persuade! One of our students was so persuasive in a letter, that we received a personal letter in return from the commissioner of Major League Baseball! Our reading month in March (Reading Olympics) had the most involvement yet and we had our first all day school wide field day off site at Victory Field. The Lowell continued to be a positive environment for students to learn and grow!

Looking forward to next year, I am thrilled with what we have planned. Our school improvement plan outlines what our goals are for next year. Below you will find a very brief look at our school improvement plan. Action items on how we will achieve each goal are in italics below the goals.

School Goal 1: In the 2014/2015, 90% of Lowell students will show growth in both English language literacy and math literacy.

Implementation and support for parents and teachers of new “Math in Focus/Singapore Math” curriculum, intervention and challenge in grades 4 and 5, math intervention all grades.

School Goal 2: In the 2014/2015 school year, home-school communication about student progress and curriculum will be expanded and improved.

Revised report card, technology for all staff with professional development to improve home-school communication

School Goal 3: In the 2014/2015 school year, new awards, recognition, and school events will be implemented to improve school culture and student behavior.

Monthly awards and school wide experiences, changing awards and recognition to encourage character building behavior, monthly school assemblies

-School Goal 4: In the 2014/2015, teachers will have increased opportunity to collaborate with their peers and school administration.

Consistent consult times for all grade levels, teachers engaged in peer observation, formation school leadership team

I am also so excited about our teaching staff for next year. We are adding a classroom due to increased enrollment so there will be 21 classrooms at the Lowell. Below you will find the grade level classroom teaching teams for next school year. At the start of the school year you will receive a list of the complete Lowell staff.

I am so proud of our school and so grateful to be a part of it.  I have had many visitors to the Lowell-parents, professors from teacher preparation programs at universities, and student and substitute teachers- all mention to me that the atmosphere at the Lowell is happy and welcoming. I believe that it really is a special school community. As you know, I will be away from the Lowell for a bit while I am on maternity leave. I am looking forward to spending time with my family but will miss the Lowell so much. I know the school is in good hands and I look forward to seeing all of you in 2015!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I will be working for most of July and will send a message to all families when acting principal, Allison Donovan, should be contacted instead of me!

Happy summer,

Elizabeth

PreK	Lynne Tarr/Julia Bean Mrs Tarr will be covering Ms Bean’s maternity leave until her return in December
Kindergarten	Kristin Murray Lisa Morrison Nicole (Brown) Connors Haynes Altobello
Grade 1	Ann Cox Anthony Fiandaca Amy Peca Jen Peterson-Eacott
Grade 2	Jessica Hudon Stephen MacLellan Jen (Dalton) Seward
Grade 3	Sheri Park Kevin Shpritzer Emily Walsh
Grade 4	Erin (McCormick)Moriarty Tom Stezzi Adam Vachon
Grade 5	Debra Garabedian Rachael Levine Anne Sudbay