Daily Hampshire Gazette: "Fort River Elementary School students benefit from collaboration between UMass scientists and Amherst art teacher"

Did you see this wonderful feature in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about the incredible collaboration between the UMass Amherst Center for Evolutionary Materials and our own Art teacher Nicole Singer? Thanks to Fort River parent Jenn Green for coordinating this amazing experience for our students! Please read the article … this is 21st century education in action … "STEAM"!

Fort River Elementary School students benefit from collaboration between UMass scientists and Amherst art teacher

GAZETTENET.COM

ACAC Sale

Amherst Community Arts Center is closing and selling all art materials, office supplies, equipment and furniture. For further information or an inventory list, please contact Hillary Milens at hm.acac@gmail.com Or, stop by during the following hours: Tuesday 11am-5pm Wednesday 10am-3:30pm Friday 10am-3pm -- Hillary Milens Executive Director Amherst Community Arts Center

Amherst's Community Choices: Let Your Voice Be Heard!

The Facilitation of Community Choices Committee was appointed by the Amherst Select Board last May with the task of reviewing the components of Amherst's budget, formulating alternative scenarios for the next 5 years, and presenting their results to us, the citizens of Amherst. In turn we are being asked to study and debate their findings, and to provide our own feedback. The Committee with then use these results to make recommendations to the Finance Committee and Town Meeting. At last night's Parent Council meeting, Fort River parent and committee member, Alison Donta, gave an informative presentation about the outlook for our Town's budget for the next 5 years (hint: it's not pretty!). It is important that we, as parents of children in the public schools, be aware of the budget outlook, not only for the town as a whole, but also of the schools, which make up a large portion of the town's overall budget. If you weren't able to attend last night's meeting, you can view a lot of information about the budget and the various funding scenarios on the committee's website: www.amherstchoices.org. Please take some time to look at their site and to give feedback on their online questionnaire. You can also download paper copies of the questionnaire from the website. The deadline for submitting feedback is November 4th. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same! There are also several more upcoming budget presentations by the committee that are open to the public: Monday October 20, Bangs Center Room 101, 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. Tuesday October 21, ACTV Studio with the TMCC, 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Tuesday October 28, Amherst Club, 12:30 p.m.

Welcome (Back) to the Parent Council Website!

Dear Fort River Families, Welcome (back) to Fort River and the Parent Council Website! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and a great start to the new school year. It was wonderful to see so many of you at this morning's Coffee With a Principal, where we all got to greet Ray Sharick. I'm sure you all join me in wishing him well as he gets to know us and our children. Welcome to the Fort River Community! I am looking forward to working with our new Parent Council President, Sue Borden, and the rest of the Parent Council officers and members this year. Please bear with Sue and me as we work out a schedule for updating this website. I have already made quite a few updates, but you may find that some of the links and features may not be functioning yet. Please be patient: I intend to get them working as soon as possible! If you haven't already subscribed to our Parent Council email list, you can easily be added to the list by sending me an email at: damclaughlin@comcast.net. You'll get weekly email reminders to check the updates on this blog, and you'll also get automatic calendar reminders before the various Fort River events such as the Family Fair and Parent Council meetings. All Fort River families, staff and faculty are welcome to sign up! Have you been getting Parent Council emails this year? Make sure I have your latest email address or else you won't! Once again, just send me an email with your updated address. Also, please let me know what your old email address was so I can remove it from the list. If you no longer wish to be on the list, please send me an email as well, and I'll unsubscribe you. Or, send any email to: fort_river_parent_council_newsletter-unsubscribe@npogroups.org and you will be automatically unsubscribed. And finally, as always, I make every attempt to keep the website and calendar up-to-date and accurate. If you notice a mistake or omission, please feel free to send me an email with the correction and I'll fix it as soon as possible. Thanks, Ann McLaughlin Fort River Parent Council Secretary and Website Editor

Attention Google Calendar Users

Did you know that you can add the Fort River Parent Council calendar to your Google calendar? Just go to Google Calendars and sign into your Google account. In the search box, type in "Fort River Parent Council" and hit "Search Public Calendars." When "Fort River Parent Council Calendar" pops up, just click on "Add to Calendar." When you view your Google calendar, all the Fort River events will already be there!

2008 AEF Grant to Russ Vernon-Jones & FR Cambodian Culture Class.

Congratulations to Principal Vernon-Jones for winning a $500 grant from the Amherst Education Foundation. This grant will be used to establish a Center for Racial Justice for the town of Amherst and its schools and to gather educational resources on race, racism and white privilege, and provide workshops for educators, parents, students and community members.
Another Fort River grant went to Seiha Krouch to fund the Fort River Cambodian Culture Class, in which the Cambodian student population learns about and prepares for a Cambodian New Year Festival for the entire Fort River Community. This also funds a dancer to perform as part of the Festival, and informs the community about Cambodian life.


Principal Vernon-Jones participating in
Field Day race
June 12, 2008


For a list of the other 2008 Grants from the AEF, click on this link: AEF 2008 Grant Allocations.

Planning for 2008-2009

As the school year draws to a close, we are starting to make plans for next year, and the continued success of Parent Council – and we need some help! Thanks to those who have already stepped up to help with an event, including Ann Becker (Fall Festival), Jan Kelly (6th Grade Graduation), Cathy Cullen (6th grade representative), Gloria McCann (5th grade representative), Catalina Arrubla (4th grade representative), Diane Caraker (3rd grade representative), Morgan Lord (2nd grade representative), and Amy Rose (1st grade representative). We also welcome Navneet Marwaha as a Vice President. And it’s not too late for YOU to volunteer - we still need parents to coordinate the Family Fair (September event), Holiday Gift Wrap Sales (fall event), Election Day Bake Sale (November event), the Beach Party (winter event), and Celebrate With a Book (year round). We also are looking for co-chairs for Savings Makes Sense (year-round) and the Book Fair (timing to be determined!). Please contact Catherine Sanderson (casanderson@amherst.edu, 256-4977) if you have any questions about what a particular position involves. Chairing an event is not as much work as you might believe (truly!) and is a lot of fun (really!). We could also use room parents (although we can’t assign room parents to classes until the fall when classes are set, it is VERY helpful to have a list of willing parents so that these matches can be made quickly in August).

Upcoming Events

School Vacation. December 24-January 1, 2008. School reopens Jan. 2, 2008. Fort River Roaster's/Deans Beans Coffee Orders Due. Friday, Jan. 4, 2008. Please send orders in to the Parent Council mailbox in the front office. Order forms are available for download in the "Parent Council Forms" section on the right-hand side of the page or at the Parent Council bulletin board in the school lobby. Parent Council Meeting. Monday, January 7th, 2008, 6:30-7:30pm. Library. Babysitting will be available.

AboutAmherst: A Local Amherst Blog by Mary Carey

AboutAmherst: School day

This is an adorable picture of some of our Fort River kindergarteners who were selling homemade ornaments yesterday to raise money for charity. This picture appears on the "AboutAmherst" blog by Mary Carey, a reporter who covers the Amherst schools for the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Amherst Bulletin. Click on the link to check it out!

Early Dismissal on Thursday, Dec. 13, Due to Snow

Amherst and Pelham ELEMENTARY Schools will DISMISS EARLY today at 12:45. Also, The Amherst-Regional MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS will be CLOSED today.

Amherst Regional Middle School Principal Search

Dear Amherst Elementary School Parents, At the next meeting of the Amherst Middle School Family School Partnership, Dr. Jere Hochman (School Superintendent) will speak on the ARMS principal search. The meeting is on Wednesday December 19 at 7 PM in the Middle School library. All elementary school parents are invited to attend. If you have questions that you would like Dr. Hochman to address please send them to the ARMS Family School Partnership: armsfsp@yahoo.com. Thanks & Best Regards, Kate Troast and Lise Halpern Co-Chairs, ARMS Family School Partnership

Upcoming Events

Teacher Curriculum Workday. Friday, November 30th. No school. Fort River Roasters Orders Due. Friday, December 7th. Please place in Parent Council Mailbox. Coffee With a Principal. Friday, December 14th, 8:30 to 9:15am. Join Principal Russ Vernon-Jones and/or Vice Principal Lianne Suarez-Werlein for coffee, light breakfast foods, and casual conversation in the cafeteria. Younger siblings are welcome to attend. Diversity and Social Justice Committee. Friday, December 21, 8:40am. Library. Parent Council Meeting. Monday, January 7th, 2008, 6:30-7:30pm. Library. Babysitting will be available.

Fort River Parent Council Email List -- An Update

Hi All, We currently have a total of 168 subscribers to our Parent Council emails! I'd love to have as many parents as possible subscribe, so please help me spread the word about this website and about the email list. Feel free to forward this website address to other Fort River families, and let them know that they can get all kinds of great information here! Click here for more information about subscribing to our emails. Thanks, Ann McLaughlin Parent Council Secretary damclaughlin@comcast.net

Fall Festival Tonight

Just a reminder that tonight's Fall Festival is NOT a drop-off event! All children must be supervised by their parents.

Also, for those of you who are new to Fort River, the kids (and some parents!) do indeed wear their Halloween costumes.

This is one of Parent Council's most popular and fun events. We hope to see you all tonight in your costumes!

Stop and Shop A+ Bonus Bucks

There's some good news and some bad news about the Stop and Shop fundraiser. The Good News: Fort River already has 13 people signed up. The Bad News: Crocker Farm has 22 people and Wildwood has 37! Help Fort River get the most money out of this program and sign up today! It easy and painless for anyone who regularly shops at Stop and Shop and has a Stop and Shop card. Here's a link to all the information you need: http://ftriver.blogspot.com/2007/09/attention-all-stop-and-shop-customers.html. Thanks!

Science Demonstration Day Update

Unfortunately we have reached (and surpassed!) our maximum capacity for the Science Demonstration Day tickets, and hence we can no longer accept ticket reservations. We are delighted with the enthusiasm for this event, and will certainly consider adding other similarly-themed events in the future. Please contact Catherine Sanderson (casanderson@amherst.edu, 256-4977) if you have ideas for such events and/or would be interested in helping plan an event.

New Section Added to Blog -- Parent Council Forms

I've added a new section to the right-hand side of the blog page. It's called "Parent Council Forms" and it contains copies of all the various Parent Council forms that are supposed to come home in the backpacks. Just click on the link and you've got a copy! -- Ann McLaughlin, Parent Council Secretary and Keeper of the Blog.

A message from Parent Council President

We hope you and your kids are settling in well to the new school year‹and we hope to see you soon at various Parent Council events! Please contact any of the Executive Board members if you have questions or suggestions about Parent Council. Executive Board President: Catherine Sanderson (256-4977; casanderson@amherst.edu) Vice Presidents: Sue Borden (253-1608; szborden@yahoo.com) Elly Hosea (259-1334; elly_hosea@yahoo.com) Secretary: Ann McLaughlin (256-3768; damclaughlin@comcast.net) Treasurer: Lynn Hayes (253-7207; hay3bay@comcast.net)

Welcome to the New Fort River Blog!

Hello to All Fort River Families, Staff and Friends! I hope that you all had a great summer and are now settling back into the school year. I have been busy making some changes to the way the Parent Council will communicate with all of you this year. Instead of sending out The Fort River Front Page every week, I will be updating our brand-new Fort River Parent Council Blog. In case you don’t already know what a blog is, it’s basically an easy-to-maintain website. Some of the advantages of the blog are: (a) it’s a good place for parents to monitor the Parent Council news (b) it’s a good resource to check on things like the Parent Council calendar events (c) people who use RSS readers can subscribe to it (d) it’s much less hassle for parents than keeping old email newsletters around (e) it’s a great repository for Parent Council institutional knowledge. The advantage to me is that it takes a lot less time than the newsletter! Please fee free to bookmark this page, send the link to other Fort River families and friends, and to check it at any time. I will update it at least once a week (on Fridays) and I will continue to send out weekly email reminders to you every Friday to check the updates. If you use a news reader program (such as iGoogle or Netvibes) you can add the feed to your page. I will also continue to send out automatic calendar reminders (via email) to remind you of upcoming events. Please feel free to send me any questions, suggestions, or corrections. Thanks! Ann McLaughlin Fort River Parent Council Secretary and Blogger (!) damclaughlin@comcast.net

A quick reminder from the Parent Council President

Hi Fort River Families, Just a quick reminder that we are hosting the New Family Welcome on Monday, August 27th, from 6 to 7:30 -- we'd love some current families to come and meet the new families, so please come if you can (and RSVP so we can plan popsicles appropriately). We have new kids (as of now) in ALL grades except 5th. Also, we are still in search of some important volunteers for the upcoming school year! Please remember Parent Council is run entirely by volunteers, and we can't do it all -- we need YOUR help! Please contact Catherine Sanderson (256-4977; casanderson@amherst.edu) ASAP if you can help in any of these ways. Family Fair Coordinator: The Family Fair is the school's way of welcoming everyone back to school, and helping fund the 6th grade camping trip at the end of the year. The 6th graders work to create fun games for the fair, run the game booths, and/or sell pizza. The 6th grade teachers work the fair into the beginning of the year assignments, and work shifts on the day of the fair (Mr. Wallace is a key contact!). A few people are needed to set things up and write announcements and letters before, and work the day of the fair to help get pizzas to the kids from the ovens, and do set up and clean-up. This event is coming up in September and we urgently need one or two people to coordinate it! 6th Grade Graduation: We need many parents to help in various ways: organizing the spring musical/play; the camping trip; the class gift; plus the decorations, program, and reception for graduation. We need volunteers to take on small tasks PLUS one or two brave and organized coordinators (and we have a huge binder with very detailed information about what to do/when/how, so there is much guidance). Resource Coordinators - Resource coordinators provide information/support to families with particular needs (this position takes little time and provides a valuable service). We need coordinators for: single-parent, same-sex parent, and ALANA [African-American, Latino(a)/Chicano(a), Asian/Pacific American, Native American] families. Grade Representatives: Grade representatives find a room parent for each of the teachers in your grade, contact new families to welcome them to the school, and work with the room parents to organize one grade-wide event (which brings together all kids in a grade during an out-of-school time, such as Story Night, Game Night, a Science Fair, or a picnic at Groff Park). We need grade representatives for Kindergarten, 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades. Room Parents: Room parents check in with their teacher monthly to see what he or she might need (e.g., help with an event, field trip volunteers, etc.), organize a class potluck at the start of the year, and work with their grade representative to plan one grade-wide event. They might also organize a class gift in December and/or at the end of school. We need room parents for all the kindergarten classes, Davis in 2nd grade, Davis and Fournier in 3rd grade, Jackendoff in 4th grade, Cantillo and Klass in 5th grade, and all the 6th grade classes. Savings Makes Sense Program: Volunteer Ron Miller has agreed to coordinate this program (which is designed to encourage savings habits and goal settings in children--anyone can open a bank account with Florence Savings Bank and bank weekly in the cafeteria, and only $1.00 is needed to open an account). However, we could use one volunteer to come to school some Tuesday mornings from 8:20 to 8:40 to assist kids in depositing their money. Thank you in advance for your assistance, and I look forward to another great year. Best, Catherine **************************** Catherine A. Sanderson, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Psychology Amherst College Amherst, MA 01002-5000 413 542-2438 (phone) 413 542-2145 (fax)