Newsletter

 Spring 2016 MSAD 55 SCHOOL DISTRICT SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF BALDWIN~CORNISH~HIRAM~PARSONSFIELD~PORTER Hawks Corner
MASL ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR Suzanne Day was awarded the Maine Association of School Libraries Administrator of the Year Award for 2016. The Maine Association of School Libraries seeks to honor an administrator who has made worthy contributions to effective school library media services. The award is also intended to recognize the influential role of a school administrator in developing successful school library media programs. Sue was recognized as being a strong advocate for literacy and for assisting the growth of every aspect of our library services. By encouraging collaboration and supporting innovation in library programs and technology, she is well deserving of this award. MSAD 55 INTRODUCES OUR NEWEST NBCT NORA JOHNSON Congratulations to Nora Johnson on becoming a Nationally Board Certified Teacher! Nora is the eighth grade English Language Arts teacher at Sacopee Valley Middle School where she is finishing her 17th year. Nora began her undergraduate work at Clemson University where she double majored in psychology and philosophy. Her desire to become an educator was rekindled while working at a preschool in New Orleans, LA. This motivated Nora to make the move to Maine and enroll in the ETEP program at USM. Since being hired in as a 6th grade language arts and social studies teacher, Nora has earned her Master’s in Education. As an educator, Nora works to inspire curiosity, challenge her students to think critically, and expand their worldviews. Nora was congratulated on her achievement at an evening celebration in March. CLASS OF 2016 FUTURE PLANS Pomp and Circumstance will soon be echoing throughout the Valley. With graduation day for Sacopee seniors only days away, our seniors are currently being recognized with a bulletin board constructed by the Sacopee Guidance Department as seniors finalized their future plans this spring. As our students take that next step towards their future, we are recognizing that forty­four of our students are going onto post secondary education, nine will be attending college in the future, eight are entering branches of the military, and twenty students will be joining the workforce after graduation. Staff in the Valley work tirelessly to provide students with the education they deserve in order to find their own path. Follow us on Twitter @SacopeeProud A huge thank you to our community as this year’s seniors raised over $10,000 in their annual Sacopee Scholars campaign. Issue 3 ∙ Spring 2016 Online at W
​WW.SAD55.ORG SACOPEE VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL CAREER DAY SMVS hosted the first annual Career Day on Friday, April 29, 2016. More than twenty­five presenters gathered representing various careers including a game warden, a filmmaker, a restaurant owner, an architect, and a recreation director. Special thanks to Amy Vacchiano for coordinating and organizing this event for our students! VALLEY COLLABORATION This past winter, Silas Hagerty of Smooth Feather Productions, Charlene Manchester of Across the River Collaborative, and Stuart Mayer of Sacopee Valley High School all came together to create a six­week program at the Kezar Falls Theater working with students at Sacopee who had all recently been placed on probation. Funded in part by a grant from the Department of Corrections, they met weekly on Tuesdays after school at the theater. They engaged in many group discussions, learned about filmmaking by doing interviews, and went on a hike up Devil’s Den. During the last week of the program, they traveled to Portland to see a theatrical performance at Long Creek Youth Development Center put on by Maine Inside Out, a non­profit organization dedicated to collaborating with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people to create and share original theater, inside and outside the correctional facilities. The experience proved to be eye opening and incredibly powerful for the members of the group. JAMES DAY’S EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT Thanks to senior James Day, Sacopee Valley High School has a new sign to match the middle and elementary schools. In order to achieve his Eagle Scout ranking, James raised money for the sign by selling personalized engraved bricks to be used in a walkway from the flagpole to the sign. Over 250 bricks were sold to support his Eagle Scout project. James coordinated the entire project including purchases and site work. Bricks are still available for purchase at ​
www.brickmarkers.com/donors/jdep.html COUNT ME IN! Sacopee Valley joined the Count ME In attendance initiative to help decrease the number of student absences. Research shows that students who miss more than 10% of school often struggle to meet grade level benchmarks. Teams meet weekly to review attendance data and to work with students and parents to support better attendance. More information and research can be found at ​
www.countmeinmaine.org​
. GRADE LEVEL READING CAMPAIGN Did you know that reading on grade level by the end of third grade is the most important predictor of high school graduation? Sacopee Valley is one of three school districts in Maine working to address the three factors that impact students’ reading proficiency: attendance, school readiness, and summer learning loss. The Sacopee Valley Literacy Collaborative (SVLC) has been working on a Community Solutions Action Plan (CSAP) to address these concerns. The SVLC is always looking for more community members to join our team. If you are interested, please email Suzanne Day at ​
[email protected]​
. NATIONAL ESSAY CONTEST ­ HONORABLE MENTION Congratulations to sophomore Raven Davis­Bailey for his honorable mention in the World Wide Walden essay contest. Raven submitted an essay in response to ​
“Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” ­Henry David Thoreau, ​
Walden. ​
The Prompt for the essay was: Thoughtfully convey a time when you either experienced or witnessed the type of “miracle” that Thoreau describes in the quotation above. For more information, or to view Raven’s essay go to: ​
http://www.worldwidewaldens.org/essay­contest/ Issue 3 ∙ Spring 2016 Online at W
​WW.SAD55.ORG SACOPEE SPOTLIGHT ON BRANDON GASSETT Since graduating from the Valley in 2005, Brandon Gassett has been blazing his own trail. Brandon went on to study at NESCOM and graduated in 2009. During his time at NESCOM, he worked at two local television stations (WABI TV5 and MPBN) as well as a few events for ESPN and Fox. Soon after working an event for Monday Night Football, he was offered a job. In order to accept the job, he would have had to quit college, so he turned down the offer. After graduating from college, he continued to work at NESCOM for about six months before moving to Florida. While in Florida, he traveled around the country installing and maintaining broadcast equipment for horse track racing. Brandon was soon bored with this job and moved to New Jersey to work for EVS Broadcast Equipment, which is known as an industry leader for instant replay. While at EVS, Brandon has travelled to many countries for different events, such as the NBC London Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics, and the ESPN Women’s World Cup in Germany. He has worked for many well known television shows and sporting events such as Big Brother, Thursday Night Football, MLB Network, Saturday Night Live, Access Hollywood, Jerry Springer, Monday Night Football, NBC, CBC, and CBS. After being at EVS for six years, he now manages the Technical Service Team for the Americas. We could not be more proud of this Sacopee graduate, and can’t wait to see where this trail takes him! Featured in the news: http://bangordailynews.com/2014/02/24/living/nescom­graduates­assisted­with­olympic­broadcasts/ http://nescomblog.husson.edu/2012/07/20/video­production­grads­go­for­the­evs­gold­at­the­2012­london­olympics/
KORA SHRINE LOBSTER BOWL Roderick Maynard, a Sacopee Valley senior, from West Baldwin, has been selected by coaches and a th​
committee from the Maine Athletics Association to represent Sacopee Valley in the 27​
Annual Kora Shrine Lobster Bowl on Saturday, July 16th at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford, Maine. The chosen all­star football players are responsible to raise funds in order to attend a weeklong camp at Foxcroft Academy and participate in this prestigious football game. These players are raising awareness in their respective communities for the Kora Shrine Hospitals. This is not merely another football game, but also a wonderful opportunity for these young men to be involved in something much bigger by helping all the children and their families who cannot afford medical care. All proceeds will benefit the 22 Shrine Hospitals for Children. These players will commit to train hard, make new friends, and compete against their peers, but their most important lesson is to learn why they play the game, just like the Kora Shrine motto says, “Strong Legs Run…So that Weak Legs May Walk.” FIELD DAY Sacopee Valley Field Day was once again a success! Grades K­3 had fun partaking in 16 different events, including favorites such as the sponge squeeze and tug­of­war. The SVHS seniors did an amazing job leading stations, being team captains, and hosting an exciting event for our elementary school students. TV2 UPDATE TV­2 recently received an $80,000 equipment grant from Time Warner Cable. For the first time in fifteen years, the program was able to update equipment and cameras. They were also able to purchase a remote broadcasting cart and trailer. TV­2 is excited to make the streaming of local events even more accessible to everyone in the community. Issue 3 ∙ Spring 2016 Online at W
​WW.SAD55.ORG PAPER TIGERS In the summer of 2015, a team of teachers and administrators had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Jim Sporleder at the National TURN Conference. Jim served as the principal of Lincoln High School, an alternative public high school in Walla Walla, Washington, until 2014. His message focused on how to work with students that experience trauma outside of school. He used the term ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) to define trauma. Based on his work as principal, it was very clear that students who experience trauma have extreme difficulty accessing academic work. The MSAD 55 team that heard the presentation was extremely moved. Based on the tireless effort of our teacher leaders, the district was able to show the documentary to the entire staff on April 1, 2016. It was a very powerful film that caused the entire staff to reflect on how to best meet the needs of our students. The video had so much impact that some teachers and administrators are developing an in­district course emphasizing the benefits of trauma informed schools. Their effort is another example of district educators demonstrating a high level of commitment to improving our schools. QUEBEC TRIP The class of 2017 was given the opportunity to go on the annual Quebec City field trip thanks to generous grant funding from the Maine Community Foundation PF Fund. After gathering at the school early on Thursday morning, the group boarded buses and headed to Quebec. Once there, they visited old and new Quebec and learned about the history of the city. The students and chaperones also visited the Museum of Civilisation, the Citadelle, and the Hotel de Glace. Students visited Montmorency Falls at Parc de la Chute­Montmorency and the Basilica of Sainte­Anne­de­Beaupre. This trip was an incredible opportunity for Sacopee students that has graciously been provided to the students. The trip was very successful and not something anyone will forget for a very long time. ­ Contributed by junior, Stephanie Moore SHREK THE MUSICAL In April, the Sacopee Valley Middle School stage was transformed into Shrek’s swamp and Fiona’s tower for Sacopee Valley High School’s production of ​
Shrek the Musical. ​
“I think the fact that we did ​
Shrek the Musical​
made it appealing to both the audience and the cast members, because it's such a silly and fun show that almost everyone knows,” said Arielle Rivard, “This is by far the most fun I have ever had on stage.” “I was blown away by the number of people who came to each show,” said Director Leigh Bivens. “On Saturday night, we had over 200 people in attendance.” Ethan Parker, too, was pleased with the turnout, “Our shows were completely packed; more packed than the musical has been for a long time, which I am very proud of. I am proud of the cast and crew, and I'm proud of the general success in which this show brought to the Drama Department.” “We all worked very hard to make it the best performance possible,” said Alex McNulty. “But we couldn’t have done it without Mrs. Bivens.” ­ Contributed by Cindy Matthews UPCOMING EVENTS ● Sacopee Valley High School Graduation ­ Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 1:00PM ● Eighth Grade Celebration ­ Monday, June 13, 2016 at 7:00PM Issue 3 ∙ Spring 2016 Online at W
​WW.SAD55.ORG