4th graders Zoe, Phoenix, and Raleigh showed off the nature mandala they made to classmates and 5th graders during their weekly Birch Buddies time. |
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Greetings!
We hope you soaked up as much of the beauty of this season and this region as you could over the weekend!
Happy Tuesday!
Nelia
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School picture day was this past Friday; many students were absent. Please stay tuned for the date for make-up and re-take pictures. |
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8th grader and student council Vice President Jeremiah Watson is coordinating a bottle drive at Riverside, with a goal to collect 10,000 returnable bottles and cans. Proceeds will be used support the Lyndon Area Food Shelf. A 6-cent incentive is being offered by Lyndonville Redemption in support of this effort. All returnables are accepted including, soda, liquor, beer, wine, cider, most tea, and seltzer water. Single use water bottles with ME markings will be collected from October 12 - October 24. Individual returnables can be deposited in the “Bottle Drive Box” behind the house and the dumpsters; full bags may be left near the dumpsters. If you have any questions please ask Jeremiah.
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CLUBS AND THE EXTENDED DAY PROGRAM |
Most clubs have no fees associated with them, if there are fees it would be communicated clearly as part of the sign-up process. We are extremely grateful to the teachers, parents, and friends who are volunteering their time to lead these focused activities with our students.
If your elementary child is supervised by the EDP staff only from 3:00 dismissal until the club begins, there will be no charge. Those children should be picked up at the club's ending time, and not return to the EDP staff. If picking up at that time is not convenient for you, please coordinate with the volunteer club leader about how to resolve that.
Students who are in clubs are not receiving a snack from the EDP, and should pack something extra in their lunches to have after school. Or, if parents of students in the club would like to coordinate snack donations to the group, that might be very helpful, and could be planned in communication with the volunteer leader.
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As we begin our two-year Self Study process, which we hope will culminate in being re-accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEAS&C) in the summer of 2023, we need broad input from the whole Riverside community.
The surveys linked below are designed to elicit feedback from various constituencies about the areas addressed by the NEASC standards. Insight and understanding gained from the survey results will be used to inform the discussions and reflections of the standards committees, which are about to begin their work. (Thank you committee chairs: Emily Spring, Ellen Moore (8th grader Macy), Laryssa Fortier, Dave Kennedy and Alison Kennedy (5th grader Conall), Sean Fortier, Joel Gilbert, Peter Sahlin, Marie Sullivan (8th grader Sam), Caroline Thompson, and Jim Newell (trustee and grandparent)!)
These surveys must be completed online. While it automatically scales to mobile devices, it is recommended that respondents use a desktop or laptop. We estimate they will take no more than 15 minutes to complete and must be completed in one sitting.
Student Survey (just FYI, teachers will be facilitating older students completing this survey during school)
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We are still in the process of planning our Friday afternoon winter programs at Fenton Chester Arena, Burke Mountain, and the KTA/Dashney X-Country Trails.
Skating: We hope to take half of our K-8 students ice skating each week (November and December), and to provide alternate, outdoor physical activities on campus for the other half of the students. This will allow us to skate more safely while still providing the mixed-age experience in which we believe so strongly. Stay tuned for more details.
Skiing: We plan to downhill ski/ride at Burke Mountain and XCountry ski as we did pre-COVID (further info within linked survey below) in January and February. Please complete this two question survey ASAP to let us know your family's program preference.
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Please inform us as soon as possible if your child will be missing school time repeatedly or for an extended period during this school year.
Repeated Planned Absences: This might be because of regular counseling appointments, athletic training such as ski race practices, or a passion pursuit of another kind. We ask that you let us know by emailing Krystal, Roy, and the relevant teachers, or by filling out this Repeated Planned Absence form and returning it to Krystal or a teacher. Thanks for being clear and proactive with us, so that we can support each of these cases individually.
Extended Planned Absences: If your family is planning a trip that will mean a multi-day absence from school, we ask that you let us know by filling out this Extended Planned Absence form. Doing so at least a month in advance will allow us to support teachers, collaborate with parents, and communicate with students about how to keep up with missed learning at school.
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LYNDON INSTITUTE OPEN HOUSE |
Lyndon Institute will be hosting an in-person Open House for 8th grade families on Wednesday, November 3, from 5:00-7:30 pm. Throughout the evening, you will be able to explore academic, artistic, athletic, and extracurricular opportunities. Faculty and current students will be available for tours and questions. The evening will commence with fall refreshments and giveaways.
Registration will be available on the LI website, by clicking this link until November 1st at midnight. If you would like to register via phone, please call 802-535-3700. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to call or email admissions@lyndoninstitute.org.
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Air Handling: Last year, we upgraded our house air filtration system to include a UV filter. The barn has modern, state-of-the-art air filtration. Both systems run all day every day. We also anticipate receiving several more portable HEPA filtration systems from the state. Like last year, Roy will look at the wind direction in the morning and strategically place vent fans and crack windows to ensure maximum cubic feet per minute of air exchange, in addition to the circulation and filtration systems, which will also be running. This will enable us to run the heat while ensuring maximum ventilation as it gets colder. As the seasons change, we will be closing more of our windows, as we did last year.
Stay Home Guidelines and Testing: If your child has any symptoms at all, we are asking you to keep them and their siblings home, and have the ill student tested, regardless of vaccination status. They may return to school with a negative test result and improvement of symptoms (including 24hrs fever-free). We anticipate these guidelines changing very soon, as we begin test-to-stay (see below) procedures as guided by the state.
Support for Elementary Remote Learning: Because we understand the challenge of learning loss from school days missed due to our enhanced stay-home policy and because of the effect the multi-year pandemic has had on elementary students’ learning, we have hired an Instructional Assistant Emily Dunn to help coordinate at-home learning with elementary teachers, students, and families. She will also work with John Trocchi to supplement our system of interventions. Please give her a warm welcome if you see her around campus.
Positive Case on Campus: If this happens, we will do a school-wide robo-call letting you know there has been a positive case, and that you should check your email for specifics. There will be three categories of emails: a message to students who were close contacts and exposed; a message to students who may have been exposed and need to await our more careful contact tracing; and a message to students who are “all-clear."
Test to Stay: In order to reduce the number of precautionary absences, it is our intention to enroll in the Vermont A.O.E “test to stay” program. The details of that are just coming out but in essence, it looks like the state will provide us with tests (rapid antigen, in-school PCR, and at home PCR) to use in a variety of scenarios to reduce or eliminate the need for exposed or potentially exposed students to miss school during quarantine. We are waiting for further details on the timeline for this to be available, and whether this supersedes or works in parallel with our surveillance testing.
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MAHJONG CLUB FOR PARENTS AND MIDDLE SCHOOLERS |
MahJong is cancelled this week/today, but will resume next week, October 19:
If you are interested in learning MahJong, or if you have played before and would like to play again, alumni parent and former board president Rebecca Hill Larsen will be leading a MahJong beginner’s game on Tuesdays at 5:00 on campus. We will play outside unmasked, or if the weather is bad we’ll play inside masked. Because of the complexity of MahJong (it can take several sessions to learn how to play), this is probably a best fit for adults and middle schoolers. This may become a series and develop into a regular game. Please bring a MahJong set if you have one.
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Students may order slices of pizza on Wednesday mornings from the choices of cheese, pepperoni, sausage, green pepper/mushroom (alternating weekly), or pineapple. $1.75/slice will be added to your family's School Store account, which is billed monthly. If you want to limit your child's order in any way, please make those agreements at home (and younger elementary families may want to inform teachers as well). |
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We will only release students to their parents/guardians, the other names you added on the signed pink biography form, or someone you call and tell us about verbally for a specific day or tell us to add to the list. If you'd like to update your list, please reach out to Krystal. This policy includes when your child is carpooling to soccer or another after-school activity; please call us to let us know.
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Practice this week: no practice Tuesday because of the game; optional practices on Thursday for 3-5th grade from 3:00-4:00 and for 6-8th grade from 3:45-5:00.
Games this week:
- Tuesday, Oct 12 @ Home vs Waterford - 6-8th grade at 5:00 pm.
- Saturday Tournament: The 6-8th grade team will be participating in the Waterford tournament this Saturday. Please discuss as a family and have your child let Sean know by Thursday if they will be able to attend. Our first game is at 12:30, so if we could aim to be there at 11:30, that would be great. We will play at least two games, with the potential to advance and play more if we win. The Championship game is 3:30-4:15, so that is the latest we would go.
Remainder of Game schedule:
- Thursday, Nov. 4 @ BMA - time TBD
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Crazy 8s club for 3-5th graders will meet this Wednesday from 3:30-4:30. |
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Nature club for K-8th graders will begin this Wednesday from 3:30-4:30. It's being led by parent Melanie Finn (7th graders Molly and Pearl). Email Sean if you'd like to sign up. Be sure to bring clothing suitable for all weather, the club group will definitely be outside.
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Mountain bike club will meet again this Wednesday. The advanced group will ride at East Haven this week, setting out around 4:00 pm. The beginner/Intermediate group will meet at East Burke Sports again at 3:45.
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30 Lily Pond Road, Lyndonville, VT 05851
phone: 802.626.8552
fax: 802.626.4156
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