Join us for our Back-to-School BBQ & Open House on October 4^th at 5:30.  You’ll have the chance to go through your student’s schedule and meet her or his teachers.

If you haven’t been through the building yet you may enjoy the chance to view the new wildcat colors throughout the facility.  Here’s the full Open House Schedule for the evening.  We’ll provide you with a copy of your child’s schedule with teachers and room numbers when you arrive.  We’ll be working on our first Progress Report this week and you’ll get them at the beginning of  next week.  Teachers will not have the time to talk about individual student issues at Open House, so if you have any questions about a class you should email or call your student’s teacher.

There are a lot of new faces at the White River Valley School this year.  Two that you’ll see often are Elementary Principal David Wells and Administrative Assistant Donna Burkett.  You’ll see David most mornings and afternoons at the front entrance as he makes sure our little ones get on and off the bus safely.  Donna handles our front office systems.  Among her many responsibilities include addressing parent needs, coordinating substitute teacher responsibilities, and handling all ordering and invoices.

The Wildcat Girls Varsity Soccer Team pulled out a 1-0 overtime victory against Blue Mountain Union for their first win of the season on Friday.

Junior Grace LaFromboise and ninth grader Sarah Howe contributed to the Wildcat win.

Meanwhile the Boys Varsity team fell to Woodstock 1-0 for their first loss in what otherwise looks to be a promising season.  

The boys show their game faces as they headed off to Woodstock on Wednesday.

Fall Season Results: 

Mornings begin with some friendly hoops in the gym before Morning Meeting.

Starting on Monday,  9/10 a tuned up schedule gives students a full five minutes passing time between classes to visit their lockers and talk with teachers.

Groups of students enjoy lunch in the courtyard.

Chorus and Art engage students during fourth period.

Students from Bethel and beyond take the cross-town bus while Tim Perreault travels from Bethel to teach Driver’s Ed to another group of students at 3:10 pm.

Late buses are now running cross-town at 5:30 pm each afternoon.  After the cross-town run, the bus to Bethel continues on to Stockbridge and Rochester, while the other bus heads to Tunbridge and Chelsea.

We opened each day last week with activities and announcements at Morning Meeting.  From here on out we’ll have Morning Meeting on the first and last day of each week.  Here’s a selfie from Friday’s meeting:

Our Boys and Girls Soccer teams put on their final exhibition games of the season this past Thursday.  It was terrific seeing student-athletes who used to be rivals playing together as a team.  I was proud of how far they’ve come since their first practice and their continued efforts to be their best.  The girl’s first regular season game is Tuesday, 9/4 vs. Proctor at the College of St. Joe’s.  The boys’ first game is at home this Wednesday, 9/5 at 4:30 pm vs. Sharon Academy.

Our Cross Country Team travels to Lyndon this coming Thursday, 9/6 for their first competition.  I can’t wait to see everyone’s new Wildcat uniforms.

The Wildcat Music Boosters will hold their first meeting this Tuesday 9/4 in the Bethel Chorus Room at 6 pm.  Follow this link for a letter from Josh Pauley about Music Lessons.

Many details went into preparing to open school this past week. From fresh traffic safety striping to our new sign which went up the day before welcoming students.

Last month we were awarded over $19,000 from the VT School Safety Grant program.  As a result all card swipes have been re-coded and new locks are in place to protect our kids.

Behind the scenes Lori Eggum, Willy Walker, and Julie Mabey make sure our building stays healthy and safe.  Take a look at the tasty meals on our September Menu.

While the pace quickened at school this past week, it was slow without all of our faculty and students in the building.  We looking forward to the return of staff on Monday 8/27 and all of our students on Wednesday 8/29.  Here are this past week’s highlights:

A Work In Progress.  Sophomores Toni Turner and Fiona Vaillancourt suggested we add a little inspiration to our bathrooms…and they offered to paint them!  Thanks to Toni and Fioni who finished brightening up their third bathroom this pastThursday.

Librarian Kate Lucia deserves recognition for her Heruclean effort packing up and unpacking the library to give it a whole new renovated look:

Here’s a sneak peak at the new gym floor:

Ninth graders will get their own preview on Tuesday 8/28, from 1-2 pm when we meet in the gym for an optional orientation and tours of the building.

Among the new sites on the tour is our new Science Lab.  This lab will house our ninth grade Integrate Science I classes, Computer Science, and our Engineering and Robotics class.  Unfortunately some work remains to be finished after the start of school.

Throughout the summer we’ve relied on Ray Ballou to provide expertise and institutional knowledge invaluable to getting the school ready to roll.   Thanks Ray for all your hard work and dedication.

Also thanks to all our new faculty: Jessica Greiner, Shajen Lichtenstein, Don Morrill, Nalani Sutton, and Josh White who attended two days of new teacher orientation last week.

One Final Note:  To make this blog great, I’ll need your help.  Use your cell phones to capture images of student and staff events and send them to me at rmccracken@wrvsu.org with the subject: “Blog News” and I’ll do my best to share them in our newsletter.  You can also help by reminding me to take pictures when I’m at events!