From apssou at list.aps1.net Thu Aug 21 14:20:36 2008 From: apssou at list.aps1.net (South Elementary School Mailing List) Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:20:36 -0400 Subject: [Apssou] Welcome Back to School Ltr from Dr. Claudia Bach [Scanned] Message-ID: Good afternoon, Hope you are all enjoying your summer vacation. When you get a chance, please read the following letter from Dr. Bach. Thank you! Alison Phelan Exec. Asst. to the Superintendent of Schools Andover Public Schools 978.623.8501 The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard. ~Sloan Wilson August 20, 2008 Dear Parents, Ten years ago I sent out my first back-to-school parent letter. As I frequently do when I get set to write this letter, I go back to read letters I've written in the past. My first letter to parents is interesting, because to some degree I could have written it today. In it I say that when I first heard that Andover was looking for a new superintendent, I knew I wanted to be here, because Andover was such an exceptional community with an outstanding school system. I wrote about the remarkable parent involvement. I also noted that we had problems to tackle, the central one was overcrowding (and that led to the construction of High Plain and Wood Hill). I concluded by stating that the School Committee and I had an over-arching goal: to make our schools exemplary in every way. All of this is true today. Daily, I feel honored and privileged to work on behalf of children in this community. Your countless contributions are a major reason for the excellence of our school system. You give so much - your time, your energy, your talents and skills, and your financial support. Like 10 years ago, we have problems to tackle, and a major one - once again - is space needs. Most urgent is Bancroft School, where this year the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will work with the newly appointed School Building Committee to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether we need to renovate or replace the school. We are most grateful to Town Meeting for providing the funding to undertake this study. Our enrollment has increased too (in a state where many communities are losing students) which means some of our schools are becoming overcrowded. A problem we didn't talk about 10 years ago was global competition and the need to prepare our students for a future greatly different from the world in which we now live. Our budget challenges continue, as you well know, because you pay the fees and do so much fundraising. As the School Committee and I have said many times, there is a financial structural problem that is fairly simple, but daunting - the Town spends more money for its programs and services (both school and town) than it takes in, and each year that gap gets larger. So, we face a dilemma: in a time of greater challenges for our students, which increase the cost of our programs and services, we face a real and significant financial crunch. For this reason the School Committee and I believe that once again the time has come to ask you to help us set priorities and do some strategic planning. We need to hear from you about the direction our schools should be going over the next 3 to 5 years. In the coming weeks the School Committee and I will lay out the process for these discussions. We will find ways for you to have maximum input. I hope all of you will be willing to join in this discourse. In the meantime, the start of the new school year is just around the corner. We have a number of new administrators and nearly 50 new teachers. I can't introduce them all to you in this letter, so I am including here just the names of our new principals: Ms. Francine Goldstein - Bancroft, Dr. Colleen McBride - South, Ms. Liz Roos - West Elementary, Ms Theresa McGuinness - Doherty, and Mr. Steve Murray, who became principal of West Middle mid-year. I personally am so excited to have these talented and experienced administrators joining this district. The fact that they elected to come here says much about the fine reputation our schools and town enjoy throughout Massachusetts and beyond. First day of school is Thursday, September 4. For us who work in schools, the start of school is a joyful time. It is when we return to the work we love. We are now preparing to greet your children. And I pledge to you, as I did 10 years ago, that I will work hard every day to make our schools exemplary in every way. I look forward this year to working with you to that end. Sincerely, Claudia L. Bach P.S. In order to save some money in these times of scarce resources and to be more environmentally responsive, I am sending this letter by surface mail to our Pre-School and Kindergarten parents only. All other parents are receiving this letter via our Listservs. If parents tell you they didn't receive the letter because they aren't on a listserv, please tell them that it is also on our Website, and encourage them to contact their schools and/or PTOs and PACs to request joining a Listserv. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.aps1.net/pipermail/apssou/attachments/20080821/d43a469a/attachment.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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