Welcome back! I hope that you all had an enjoyable summer and are as excited to be back to school as I am. The last two months have been very busy. The custodians have worked hard to get the building sparkling clean! Supplies have been checked in and put away, classrooms have been moved and rearranged and new staff members have been hired. This summer, I was able to accept 53 school choice students, increasing our enrollment to 232 students while keeping our class sizes below 19. I am very excited to inform you that we now have two classes at every grade level! This means that our original plan to combine third and fourth grade homerooms is no longer necessary.
There are a few changes in staffing that I would like you to know about. Ms. Patti Benson will be teaching Preschool with paraprofessionals, Mrs. Donna Moret and newly hired, Ms. Kelly Maginnis. Mrs. Betsy Conz will be teaching in our second Kindergarten and Mrs. Ann Marie Sicard will be her paraprofessional. Mr. Tim Graeme will be assisting Mrs. Susan Wright in her Kindergarten classroom. Mrs. Amy Hudzik will join Miss Keri Wilby as a first grade teacher and Ms. Kim Duffy will be the first grade para. Ms. Nancy Obertz and Ms. Laura Hoey will teach second grade and Mrs. Kathy Clark will work with Mrs. Marie Buell in the two third grades, along with paraprofessional, Mrs. Robin Vollinger. Mrs. Wendy Snape will move to sixth grade and Ms. Amy Braman will move to fifth grade, both working as paraprofessionals. Mrs. Julie Andrus will return as both our Physical Education teacher and Library paraprofessional. Mrs. Harriet Tetrault will work in the resource room with Ms. Maxine Denisiewicz. Our new speech pathologist is Ms. Coree Aussant.
Our hours have changed slightly this year, to accommodate the bus routes. We will start at 8:15 and dismiss at 2:30. This year we will offer before and after school care. The before school care will run from 7:10 to 8:10 and the after school program will be from 2:30 to 5:30. Both programs will offer homework help, playground supervision and organized games. Registration forms are available in the office.
I’d like to encourage everyone to visit our newly designed website, www.hatfieldps.net. The monthly lunch menu will be posted along with the newsletter and general information about the schools. We are asking that families provide us with email addresses so that we can send notices home and save on paper as well as printing. If you do not have email, we will be happy to send home a paper copy.
I would also like to invite everyone to join the PTA. Family memberships are just $5.00 for the year. Your contribution helps to fund class field trips, movie nights, dances and other school wide events. Last year the PTA was able to pay for all of the buses for every field trip! The PTA meets the first Monday of the month at 6:00 in the conference room. We need your help and support! Please consider attending the meetings and getting involved.
I want to remind parents that my door is always open. If you have a question or concern that can’t be answered by your child’s teacher, please don’t hesitate to call me or stop by. If I don’t know about it, I can fix it!
I hope that everyone will join me in welcoming our new families, staff and administrators to the district. I am confident that we will have another successful and exciting year at HES!!
Sincerely,
Jen Chapin