Upcoming Events

Fort River Roasters Orders Due. Friday, March 7th. Order form here. Original Works Orders Due. Friday, March 7th. Beach Party. Wednesday, March 12th, 6:00-7:30pm. (Snow date March 13th). Fort River Cafeteria. See below for more information. Coffee with a Principal. Friday, March 14th, 8:30-9:15am. Please join Principal Vernon-Jones or Asst. Principal Lianne Suarez-Werlein for coffee, light breakfast foods and casual conversation in the cafeteria. Younger siblings are welcome to attend. In the cafeteria. Teacher Curriculum Workday. Monday, March 17. NO SCHOOL. Parent Council Meeting. Thursday, March 20th, 6:30pm. In the libary. Babysitting provided. Diversity and Social Justice Committee Meeting. Wednesday, March 26th, 8:45am. In the library. Book Swap. Week of March 18th. More info here.

Principal Candidates Nights--Strong Parent Turnout

Fort River had an excellent turnout this week on each of the three evenings with the principal candidate finalists. It's great to know that so many parents are taking an interest in the process of finding our next principal! Superintendent Jere Hochman is hoping to make offers to the top finalists as early as next week. He assured the Fort River parents on Wednesday evening that he will take all of our feedback into consideration as he makes his decision. I'll keep you all posted! --Ann McLaughlin

Beach Party

Click on the picture to see it larger!

The Beach Party will be held in the cafeteria. All Fort River families are welcome. Please plan to attend with your children. This is not a drop-off event.

6th Grade Graduation More Volunteers Needed!

I want to thank everyone who volunteered, but we still need a lot more help to make this run. We are especially in need of someone to chair the cafeteria decorating committee, volunteers to join that committee and the gym decorating committee, and a few individuals to help solicit donations. The other committees have sufficient members. We have very good records from previous years to help with the planning. Interested individuals should return the form sent home a few weeks ago or contact me at 253-7072 or ekaren@comcast.net. Thanks, Karen Zilberstein

Of Interest to Fort River Families

Please note that these events are not sponsored by Parent Council. Do You Know a Family that could be a Friendly Town Host? The Fresh Air Fund is trying to recruit more Friendly Town host families for Summer 2008. If you know a family that you think would be willing to welcome a Fresh Air Fund child into their home this summer, please tell them about our important Friendly Town program! Here are a few things you might want to mention to prospective Friendly Town families: * Children starting out in the Friendly Town program are six to 12-years old, and stay for one to two weeks. * Most of the children in the Friendly Town program have never been outside the city. With your family, every day will be an adventure. Your Fresh Air Fund child will love learning to swim, hike, cook, play cards, and do all the things your family does. * Children and families are carefully matched to ensure the highest probability of a wonderful experience for both. And local volunteers work with and support families to help make sure things go smoothly. * Over 65% of children are asked back again and again, showing that the experience is rewarding for host families as well as the children. * It costs less for a child to spend part of the summer with a host family than at our summer camps. This means that the more host families we have, the more kids get a chance to escape the city. To help The Fresh Air Fund find new hosts, please send your friends and neighbors to http://www.freshair.org/becomingahost.asp. Parent Council President Catherine Sanderson (email: casanderson@amherst.edu) has been a host for the past 2 summers and would be happy talk to any Fort River families who are interested in participating. Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience at the Mullins Center. Discounted Ticket Offer: Enter the code "GSMC" to receive a $5 discount off Thursday (March 27) and Friday (March 28) night shows! For groups of 10 or more please call 413-545-3332. Buy tickets at http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/cwv89l. For more information visit http://www.dinosaurlive.com/. Contact: Scott Sasenbury, Director of Marketing Mullins Center, email: ssasenbury@admin.umass.edu; web: http://www.mullinscenter.com/. Family Outreach of Amherst Sixth Annual "Salute to Families." Title: "Another Place at Our Table: Simplifying Parenting in Complicated Times" by Kathy Harrison, author of Another Place at the Table and foster mother to over 150 children. A reading and discussion followed by a reception and book signing. Moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Madeleine Blais. Thursday March 6, 2008, 7:30-9:00 pm. At the Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall, Amherst College. Tickets: $25 Benefactor, $10 General, $5 Seniors, Free to students. All proceeds will benefit Family Outreach of Amherst. Family Outreach: http://www.famoutreach.org/. A note from Parent Council. We will publish information about non-Parent Council sponsored events with the following conditions: 1. The event should be of interest to Fort River families. 2. The information should be sent to Ann McLaughlin at damclaughlin@comcast.net in the form of a short blurb of 100 words or less. 3. Contact information (name, telephone and/or email address) must be included. We add new information to the blog every Friday during the school year. Please note that we do not accept announcements of items or services for sale (with the exceptions of children's classes/lessons). Inclusion in this section does not imply any guarantees or endorsements by Fort River Parent Council or Fort River School.

Schedule for Principal Candidate Finalists

Please note the schedule for the upcoming "Meet the Candidates" nights at the Amherst Regional Middle School. This schedule is for Fort River Families. We will be meeting in the cafeteria. Mon. Feb. 25 8:00-8:40pm Tues. Feb. 26 6:30-8:00pm Wed. Feb. 27 6:30-8:00pm Candidates will answer questions. Parents and guardians will be invited to complete feedback forms. There will be one candidate on Monday night, and two candidates at each session on the other two nights.

Article from the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Amherst names five finalists for open elementary school principal posts Posted At : 4:24 PM Posted By : newsroomRelated Categories: Amherst, Education, News By MARY CAREYStaff Writer AMHERST A Crocker Farm Elementary School assistant principal, three Massachusetts educators and a doctoral candidate at New York University are the finalists for three elementary school principal posts within the district. All five candidates will be visiting Amherst schools and meeting with students, staff and parents as well as community members through Wednesday of this week. One or two candidates will meet with community members beginning at 6:30 p.m. each evening at the middle school. Principal posts at Crocker Farm, Wildwood and Fort River elementary schools are being filled this year, as is the principal post at the middle school. Sandra Delaney, who was in town Monday, is currently assistant director of curriculum and instruction in the Newton public schools, a position she has held since 2003. She began her career there as a language arts specialist, followed by a five-year appointment as a kindergarten through eighth-grade academic challenge coordinator. Delaney, who graduated from SUNY-Buffalo and has a master's degree from SUNY-Binghamton, has also been an elementary classroom teacher for five years. She has conducted national workshops on academic challenge and differentiation of instruction, standards-based learning and English language arts and literacy. Michael Morris, who meets with school officials, staff, students and parents today, is currently an interim assistant principal at Crocker Farm, after teaching there and at Fort River Elementary School. A graduate of Amherst College, he has a master's degree and certification in educational administration from the University of Massachusetts. Morris is the director of the Pipeline Project, a collaboration with Amherst College and the schools aimed at giving children extra social and study skills support. He has taught mathematics and language arts to special education students and taught in the Summer Institute for the Gifted at Amherst College. Catarina da Silva, who is also in town for interviews today, is a doctoral candidate at the Steinhardt School of Education at NYU. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island and has a master's degree in reading education from Boston College. Da Silva taught for one year in the Providence public school system and for four years in Boston public schools and was literacy coordinator for four years at John Marshall Elementary School in Dorchester. Jill Pasquini-Torcia, who visits Amherst on Wednesday, has been a teacher in the Brockton schools and became the instructional resource specialist there. From 2004 to 2007, she was assistant principal of Gilmore Academy, a public school in Brockton, and has also supervised the summer academic support program there. Pasquini-Torcia graduated from Boston College and has a master's degree in literacy and language from Framingham State College and certification in educational leadership from Bridgewater State College. Ray Sharick, who will also be in town Wednesday, is current principal of Fisher Hill Elementary School in Orange. He was an elementary teacher in Vandergrift, Penn., and taught sixth- and seventh-grade at Colonial Beach Schools in Virginia. Sharick was a field coordinator and supervisor of Elementary Teacher Education at UMass and a lecturer and advisor to students entering the teaching profession. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, received a master's degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has a doctorate in education from UMass.