Welcoming Students, Families Back to School
By Xavier Botana
August is a time to savor the last weeks of summer. It’s
also a time to for students – with help from their parents – to start getting
ready for the new school year.
Those two statements aren’t contradictory. There are a few
simple things that students and parents can do to help make the transition to
school easier while still allowing time for summertime fun. They range from
making sure students are registered before the first day of school to gradually
switching to school sleep routines a week before school starts.
In Portland, the first day of school for students in grades
1-12 is Wednesday, Aug. 30. There is no school on Friday, Sept. 1, so everyone
can enjoy a long Labor Day weekend. Then school resumes on Tuesday, Sept. 5, for
all students, including pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Sept. 5 is
their first day.
To view the Portland Public Schools’ 2017-2018 calendar, go
to our website, http://www.portlandschools.org,
and click on “News & Calendars.”
If your child is new to the district and not yet registered
for the new school year, please make an appointment at your neighborhood school
to enroll your child. For more information, go to “School Enrollment” under the
blue “Parents” box on our website.
Please don’t wait for the first day of school to register
your child. It’s difficult for our schools to plan if they don’t know how many
students they’ll have in the fall.
Also, many of our schools hold back-to-school barbeques, ice
cream socials and other welcoming orientation events before the first day of
school. You don’t want your child to miss out on those! Familiarizing students
with their school and teachers beforehand helps quell first-day-of-school anxiety.
Also, families are our valued partners when it comes to educating our students,
so we look forward to meeting students’ families!
To find out about the events at your child’s school, go to
that school’s website. You can link to school websites from the district
website under the “Schools” tab.
I’d also like to remind parents of a new addition this year
to the immunizations that Maine state law requires for students. Effective for the 2017-2018
school year, all Maine students entering seventh grade will need to receive one
dose of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) vaccine before attendance is
allowed. Pertussis (whooping cough) is a very contagious and potentially
serious disease, so this new requirement will protect your child and others.
Also, families
should be aware that this year’s ninth-graders will be the first to comply with
a new state’s new proficiency-based high school graduation requirements. The
Class of 2021 must demonstrate proficiency in language arts, math,
science, and social studies.
This year, all high schools in Portland will align to common
baseline expectations related to moving in the direction of a proficiency-based
system. To facilitate that transition, we have decided that course grades and
report cards won’t change. Instead, ninth-grade teachers will keep track of
students’ mastery of graduation performance indicators in a system that parallels
the traditional grade reporting.
I’ll be explaining this transition in more detail in an
upcoming letter to parents. I want to stress here that we see great value in a
proficiency-based learning model – which ultimately is about being clear about
what our students need to know and be able to do in order to graduate from high
school.
Finally, as the new school year begins, I want to remind
parents how important it is that students attend school, starting from the
first day. The start of school is a critical time when students and teachers
get to know one another, build relationships and establish important classroom
routines.
Students also need to continue attending throughout the rest
of the year. According to Count ME In, the Maine affiliate of the national
organization Attendance Works, “students who miss school frequently are
less likely to read proficiently by third grade, more likely to fail in middle
school and eventually drop out of high school. Missing school, even in
kindergarten, has consequences.”
Schools, students, families and the Portland community: Let’s
all work together to have a great start to the new school year!
