April 1, 2022
Brunswick School Board Meeting
Special Meeting on the Budget
Wednesday, April 6th
7:00pm
Brunswick Town Hall/Zoom

You can access all of the Brunswick School Board meeting agendas and minutes by visiting our website or by clicking here.

To view future meeting dates or for more information on the budget, click here.
Health & Safety Updates
COVID-19 Cases
Between March 25 and March 31, there were 34 new COVID-19 cases in the Brunswick School Department:
Cumulative statistics on all COVID-19 cases during the 2021-22 school year are available on the COVID-19 Dashboard. 
Additional Home Tests Available
The Maine DHHS is making more COVID home tests available through Project ACT. All Maine households are eligible to receive 5 COVID home tests.
 
You may also order two sets of four free at-home tests from the federal government through www.COVIDtests.gov or by calling 800-232-0233.
Pooled COVID-19 Testing
You can still register your children for pooled testing. The directions can be found here.
Reporting Positive COVID-19 Test Results
Please remember to notify your school nurse when your student tests positive for COVID. This is important because schools need to monitor those who are COVID-positive and must notify the Maine CDC of positive test results. Also, individuals who test positive must be excluded from pooled testing for 90 days. Otherwise, they will cause their pools to be positive when there is no one in the pool who is actively positive. This causes unnecessary stress and work for those who are in the pools or who are monitoring the pools.

To help streamline the notification process, we have developed school-specific forms to complete when your/your child tests positive for COVID. Links to the forms are on the school webpages. Simply click the REPORT POSITIVE COVID-19 TEST RESULTS on your school’s webpage.

Links to each form can also be found on the district webpage and below:
Brunswick Community Night at the Maine Mariners
Saturday, April 16th is Brunswick Community Night at the Maine Mariners! Click here to purchase tickets for April 16th at a discounted rate. Discounted tickets are available through the above link until April 15th.

All tickets purchased will be available for pick-up at the will call window on April 16th.

FMI on the Maine Mariners, visit their website!
The Thrift Delivers Style & Substance
BHS students and social workers partnered with The Emergency Action Network (TEAN) to collect a wide variety of wardrobe and personal essentials, that are available for all students for free in The Thrift. On a recent Thursday, Seniors Mia Klimash and Sarah Johnson described the inventory as they made final preparations for opening. “There’s shoes, clothes, hygiene products, - anything you could need to just stop in and grab real quick,” said Johnson. Klimash speculated on which items will be most in-demand: “‘I think water bottles are a hot product. Students love being able to have their own water bottle throughout the school day. And I think some of the normal clothing items will be fun to pick through.” Students can shop at The Thrift during Flex periods on Mondays and Thursdays. Gently used donations, and volunteers, are welcome to Mrs. Kunhardt in room 205.
VR Lab Enables Immersive Learning
This month the BHS library debuted its virtual reality immersion lab, a project funded by the Brunswick Community Education Foundation (BCEF) and initially envisioned by students almost two years ago. Students and teachers recently tried out several interactive 360° HD video simulations, including a tropical reef dive, a close-up volcanic eruption, and a trip through the human body. The specialized hardware and software run on a custom-built computer that students Ashton Thiboutot and Seamus Bowdish have worked on all year, along with Bowdish’s father and library technology assistant Ryan Weed. Thiboutot said he’s excited to bring VR to classes, especially for students who don’t absorb information as well from the page. “If we can see everything hands on, work with it, I feel that it will better prepare people.” He hopes students will be able to use their coding classes to develop new simulations that could be shared to other schools, and librarian Daurene Jerome expressed a goal that the lab will eventually be integrated across the curriculum.
Observers in the VR lab can watch a wall projection of what
the headset users are seeing.
Employee Spotlight
April Doane
Special Education Teacher,
Brunswick High School

April lives with her daughter, mother and their dog, Mango. Mango is a rescue dog from Puerto Rico! She attended Husson College as well as the University of Presque Isle.

What makes you proud to work in Brunswick? #BSDProud
The overwhelming support from faculty and staff.

What do you like to do outside of work for fun?
I love to hike, garden and mostly go to the beach.

What is your favorite line from a movie?
"Life's like a box of chocolates, never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump

If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you meet?
Harriet Tubman

What is something you learned in the last week?
Every day brings a new challenge.
Employment Opportunities
Click the button below to view current employment opportunities within the Brunswick School Department.
Merrymeeting Adult Education Update
Brunswick School Department | https://www.brunswicksd.org/