School Board Town Meetings

December 2016 School Board Update from the School Board

This e-mail was sent from the School Board to Parents.

Welcome to the first Rye School Board monthly email communication. In these monthly emails you can expect to see the following information:

  • Date, time & location of the upcoming School Board meetings. Meetings are typically held the third Wednesday of each month at 6pm in the Rye Junior High cafeteria
    • Our next Board meeting is Wednesday December 21st in the RJH Cafeteria. This month’s meeting will begin at 5:30 as it will start with the SAU 50 Budget Public Hearing. The Rye School Board meeting will begin immediately following at 6pm
  • A link to the meeting agenda as well as a link to the draft minutes from the previous meeting. Please note that occasionally, other discussions will arise as a result of new information or questions which are typically addressed within the “other” section of the agenda.
  • A “Did you know?” section. Each month we will highlight information from the Rye School District we believe you, as our parent community, would like know.
    • Did you know that one of the Rye School District’s goals for this school year is to “Increase the focus, depth, and rigor of learning and assessment tasks so students can engage with meaningful content and skills.”? Here are examples of how each school is actively working on this goal:RESThe Fourth Grade recently completed The Global Read Aloud program during which they read “Pax”. Immediately upon completion, a student asked if they could rewrite the ending. As it happens, Mrs. Garcia had been planning that as a collaborative writing experience with their partners in Belgium and India. They also had a Google Hangout discussion with a gifted and talented 5th grade class in Arizona. Following their meeting with this class, the 5th Grade teacher sent the following email to Mrs. Garcia: “By the way, please let your student who asked about, “Two but not two,” that it became the topic of a beautiful conversation with our entire group of 113 today. I had written it on the white board for the Google Hangout group, and the rest of them saw it. They really delved in and tried to unpack what it meant. Then, I read chapter 20, and… GASP! There it was. It was one of my favorite connections they’ve made for this year’s Global Read Aloud.”

      RJH
      8th grade students in Dr. Ellwood’s Science class recently completed an inquiry-based project in which they conducted research in Wedgewood.  Students began by forming a research question that could be answered by observation and experimentation on the property.  After peer review and feedback, they designed and implemented an experiment that would answer their question.  Motion sensing cameras and sound equipment were used to collect data, which was then graphed and analyzed to determine if a null or alternative hypothesis was supported.  The students also did statistics tests to see if their conclusion was supported.  Some of the topics included the different species of birds that are attracted to different genres of music, the type of habitat and how it affects the number owls are found in Wedgwood, and the time of day in which a moderately dense forest is most active for squirrels.

      We hope you find these monthly updates informative.

      Best,

      Your Rye School Board Members

      Kevin Brandon
      Kate Hillman
      Margaret Honda
      Jeanne Moynahan
      Scott Marion