001i think we're live hey we had a little bit of technical difficulties there trying to get on and situated and get the volume correct i want everybody to um to be well informed of of what's going on at fort river this year um i want to introduce myself i have been introducing myself to the staff a little bit as they're trickling into my office once one by one kind of introducing themselves and and learning who i am and i'm learning who they are but i also wanted to introduce myself to the to the community um that haven't they haven't seen me yet um and all this and students i hope there's students out there that are watching also so they can see who uh the new leaders are for this year at four river we
002have a lot of exciting new things going on there's a lot of information also i have my little cheat sheet here so i don't think i haven't memorized it um so i'll be looking off to the side kind of remind myself of things that i want to share with the community with the students with the staff um but we're going to start off with i'm going to introduce myself and then i'm going to introduce tammy and her new role um we're going to talk a little bit about um our leadership style and our philosophy um as school leaders um and then we're going to move forward and and i'm gonna give some information on some new changes some really important information um that all the the the community should know the parents should know um
003and then we're gonna share kind of our vision of of what fort river is going to look like this year okay so let's get started tammy are you ready i'm ready yeah so we've been myself and tammy have been working really hard together um to to have a really cohesive collaborative um well thought out effective plan for for our students um because first and foremost they're um you know number one uh at the school we we like to you know the way i am as i like to pride myself and how students are treated are um the the services that are given to them and academically what what we are we provide to them so first and foremost if there's kids out there hello we think of you you're first at fort river and i
004know that tammy agrees with with that thought so for myself i'm michelle hernandez um the new principal really wow that's exciting right the new principal at fort river and um i just wanted to share a little bit about my background and what brought me here to fort river um and my experience in education i've been in education now almost 15 years i started off as a para then i became a teacher i then i moved on to my career in leadership started as a dean of students and then became an assistant principal for the last few years and now here i am that has led me and i've brought all that skill set and all that love for education and students um here to fort river rivers um my leadership style is a collaborative style
005um i feel that not just one person can lead the school i think there needs to be voice from everyone all stakeholders should be a part of of decision making as as much as possible and so um with the staff i like to get the feedback and voice from the staff um from the students because ultimately everything that we do affects the students and then when possible as much as possible have the community the family parents voice their concerns and their suggestions give me as much feedback as possible to the new things that we're doing anything that we're implementing anything that's new um existing um and so that they can be part of what's going on at the school and so just so this the the families know that you will be receiving emails from
006me there will be surveys i want to hear everything what has worked what you felt didn't work um what things have to be kind of tweaked and then some new suggestions new things that you want to see um implemented at the school i want to hear all of that not only from the the staff but also from the the students and the families and so my philosophy is that every child can learn um no matter what level they are i feel that as educators we have to kind of like it's our job to peel back all of those later layers that make up your your children and and find out their needs and be able to then address those needs where they are and meet them where they are um i feel that is that's
007truly my philosophy and education and so you know the love of children i love what i do i've loved it for many years um and i will continue loving it and so and and and knowing that always putting the child first and um showing them that that acceptance um being working hard and being kind to one another um that all comes with the love of the community um the community as a whole the school community and us at fort rivers as a educational family so i'm gonna pass it on now to uh tamara and then i want uh tamara to kind of share she's gonna be sharing her um education background her her leadership style and her philosophy there's one thing that i missed my education background i have my bachelor's in education from westfield
008state university i'm here in massachusetts then i moved on to get my master's in education at american international college in springfield mass and then continued for my second masters and i received that at endicott college and that second masters is in school leadership um so i have um many years of education and experience working with children um in teaching and with um school leadership so tamara it's all yours jeez thanks michelle i've really enjoyed working with you um for these last few weeks um so many of you in the community know me as miss tammy i've taught at fort river for 18 years i can't even believe it uh prior to that i had worked at yankee candle and even before that i had worked as a kindergarten teacher in west springfield i've spent many
009of my years in education i'm absolutely passionate about what i do i had gone to school at wheelock college in boston and had a lot of really great experience there from working at shriners burns hospital all the way to working in an inner city school which was a really great learning experience for me uh from there i decided to go back and earn my master's degree at umass amherst um in special education which was the best decision ever and it really was following my heart in that in that way and from there i've worked in greenfield sunderland deerfield i've worked in a lot of schools in in the area before really settling in and and making the leap to to work in amherst which has really been a true calling for me and i've really
010chosen to stay at fort river because it truly um encompasses all the things that i i believe in um which which includes social action and if we think about way back in 1989 when barbara rothenberg got her second grade students to really advocate to change the turnpike sign into now and working collaboratively in the sixth grade to really um keep that legacy of social activism alive uh i you know i think when i think about um having you know working with michelle and then my work for 18 years at fort river i really think about the amount of collaboration that that i've done um and what i believe in because i think that working in isolation is really limiting and when we sort of open our doors and open our hearts we can really do
011amazing things together and i've really seen that especially since um our district moved towards a co-teaching model and i know that especially at fort river because that's sort of been my home and so i really know it um you know we really embraced it and it's been really transformative to see the the student the level of student engagement um the level of collaboration that's really changed and really i think um has you know um forced fort river to really um stand out i believe i mean i think that definitely we're a unique school in that we have combinations and aims and building blocks and that really i feel like those having those programs is really like livens us up and i think really um begs that we think about how to include all students all
012day long and we also have experts at our school that really know so much and i think tapping into those resources and collaborating with those teachers and para educators and all the staff is really going to um help propel us and build on prior leaders uh work at fort river and so you know i think developing uh relationships with positive relationships with everyone building a really strong community both in and out of fort river um and just really empowering everyone to find their voice and and work you know work with us because i think that we can be really dynamic i mean we as a collective we all of fort river in the community and so i i'm really excited about this opportunity and i really hope people come and talk to me and share
013their ideas and things that they loved and things they're like hey what you think about this i i would love to hear it and and um and move from there thank you so much tammy you know it's it's amazing how close we are like our philosophy and our leadership style i think we're kind of like a perfect match i really have to tell the community tammy has been in a a huge help with kind of like teaching me how fort river is the community the school as a whole all the services all the resources um that we have that you know available to all the students and she has been such a great help in the last a couple weeks i i kind of started a little bit late in the game um so i
014you know i walked in not really knowing um what i was walking into or you know that the the way that the school was built in the community and tammy has been such an amazing help that we just i think we just we kind of took off kind of running together we knew exactly uh you know after our first conversation i i think we kind of knew exactly where we needed to go with the next steps at full report river and what the students really deserve in in our community so with all of that said and i and i hope everyone is enjoying again um if you just you know tuned in hello michelle hernandez the new uh principal uh tamra the new assistant principal at fort rivers we are so excited for this school
015year and now i'm i'm gonna move on to some of the changes some new information that um parents you know and families should know so they can be prepared um and kind of like eat some of those first day jitters uh tammy i think you can kind of you know agree with me that even as leaders even as after so many years in education we still get those those jitters just like you know families uh students and coming back to school especially the way that school has been remote and then coming back you know late in the school year not having that real feel of a true full year of education um and so it is a little nerve-wracking and i want i want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and feels supported and
016know that that that all the staff including us are here to make sure that all students feel as comfortable as possible as safe as possible um and as supported as possible at the school right from day one so let me share some new things that that some families might not know have changed we do have new hours at the school students will be coming in at 8 10 in the morning and the day will be over at 2 40. um with that said the bus drop off at the school will be right at 8 10 and arrival will look about the same as last year um i know there's there might be parents out here that stayed fully remote last year and did not come back to the school students will be arriving to their
017classroom doors and please tamara if i get anything um if you know if i make a mistake anywhere in relating all of this information please immediately stop me i want the community to be fully aware and uh and have all the correct information so they will be coming in in their classroom doors um that's what what happened at fort rivers when they returned at the end of last year and we feel that um with the you know the spikes and numbers and things like that that to keep the students all extremely safe we're gonna continue that practice um the bus stops now i wanted to tell all the families that bus stops um have changed a little bit uh the schedule should be up in the um the district website so please take a moment
018and check that out if your child is a bus child please make sure that you look at those schedules and you know where uh the pickup times are um what the pickup times are what the pickup locations are and also the drop-off um and then this year as it happened last year there will not be any before school program um we are trying to work out some little glitches there to see if there's uh we we can't afford some staff to be um to kind of watch the students as they're being dropped off we want to keep in mind that there's many parents out there that are working have to drop off the kids you know 20 30 minutes before school opens and we want to make sure that the children are completely supervised outside
019and they're safe and so we're working on that and more information about that will be sent out now um the there also i wanted to also uh let everyone know there is a meet and greet so if you want to meet us in person next thursday august 26 from 4 to about 6 p.m we're gonna be outside of fort river right underneath that the big tent on the side and it's gonna be a meet and greet ice cream social so kids if you guys like ice cream come on down we're gonna have ice cream i am working closely with the pgo to um finalize those of those details but um we are uh the district has uh approved an ice cream truck um uh the ice cream truck and there's gonna be an ice cream
020chip providing ice cream to all the students so that's gonna be nice we're gonna have ice cream together we're gonna chit chat we're gonna talk if any parents have any concerns any questions about myself or tammy or what's going on in the school you'll be able to meet us in person that is a meet and greet ice cream social next thursday august 26 from 4 to six at the school right outside of the school underneath our tent okay and then also um students from grades school starts on um monday uh august 30th um and that will be from grades one through six and uh school starts again monday august 30th for grades one through six and that dismissal will be at 12 30 it's an early dismissal the very first day that monday and so
021students will be coming out of school at 12 30 so mark your calendars and make sure that that you kind of set up pick up and and and someone there at the bus to pick them up so we want to make sure that you have plenty of time to make those arrangements so that it works for your families um kindergarten starts uh september 2nd um we will welcome all our brand new little babies to the school our kindergartens uh students um it's gonna be all new and and and wonderful they'll they'll be a little bit nervous but um i would like for them to also be a part of that ice cream social on the 26th so they can see who i am and get to see tammy and their teachers um so it won't
022be so nerve um so they won't be so nervous and it won't be a scary um situation for them that very first day also um a letter i'm going to be sending out a letter soon to all the the families it's going to be all of this information again and probably even some more i think you know the district is is every day giving us more information and more guidance of how we're reopening and so as soon as i get more information and every all the information that i have shared today that will go out to all the families um by email uh a letter from me so look out for those of emails from the um from our administration um also placement letters so that the all the students know who their teacher is
023what classroom they're going to be in and those placement letters are going to be sent out by our fantastic school secretary maria torres she has been a wonderful help also um and she will be sending out those letters on monday so look out for those letters that are coming um out on monday so that all the students know exactly who their teacher is the parents are completely informed of the teacher and what location they will be in the school and what door they should be coming into the school okay also parents the parent drop-off um in car will look the same as last year um they will be coming into that side parking lot and kind of like looping around dropping off and then continuing don't worry we're going to have all all of that
024is going to be coned off for any family that has not done that and has not experienced that car drop off it will be all coned out there's going to be staff out there kind of directing traffic and so that don't feel nervous we're going to show you exactly that first day how that works um and pickup will look exactly the same the pickup will be in that same area you're going to drive in loop around and we're going to show you how you're going to exit um that parking lot so don't feel nervous this is to the parents that did not come back returned last year and stayed fully remote we'll show you how that system works and then all the the families that did come back the system's going to be the same
025there's not really much change when it comes to that i know tamara that she has uh shared with me that that system truly worked last year it was effective um and it was quick and so we're gonna continue that same practice this year and now moving forward to just kind of like sharing our vision and our goals for the year we're gonna be really focusing on closing that achievement gap like tammy had said and meeting those students and and meeting their needs where they're at we're kind of starting to kind of peel back those layers the teachers are going to get to know who the students are what their needs are any gaps that may have happened or may have grown or have were created because of remote learning and the challenges that that brought
026us last year with this whole pandemic that is our focus this year is truly uh making sure that those students get the um the instruction interventions if possible if needed that they need to close those gaps and make sure that they are completely and um prepared for the next grade to be successful um first and foremost in this grade and then be completely prepared for next grade for the next grade we want them to not only be successful here in school but in high school college and career this is their foundation of course in their education we wanted to make a make it to be a very positive foundation so that that we instill in them the love of school the love of learning the love of education are us as educators we are lifelong
027learners i don't stop learning i think i i learned something new every day constantly building my skill set as a leader tamara can can agree with me i think we're kind of on the same page with that and we want to instill that love of learning to the students and helping also a focus will be helping the teachers you know building their skill set making sure that they are uh aware of the uh the curriculum and making sure that they um know the standards and know where their their students should be um throughout the school year also we're going to continue promoting comenantes i myself as a am i i'm an english language learner um so i i have practiced to speak a little bit slower in english because when my spanish starts coming out
028it's super fast that was my very first language and then i learned english in um when i started kindergarten and i've mastered both um throughout my years of education i know uh firsthand the importance of being a dual language to being biliterate bilingual um and that is something that we truly wanna promote we wanna be the you know the the the face of that dual language program in in fort rivers and and instill that love in our families and in our students to know both languages and master both of them by the time they you know go off to middle school um they're going to be fluent in both and that is our goal also alongside the the current um services that we have and and that are being implemented at fort rivers we have
029our aims program which is going to continue it's very strong our building blocks and also our bright program that started last year right tamara started last year on bright program i have worked with my program in another district and i truly believe in the bright program um and um i i want to see it flourish i want all of these programs to flourish here at fort river so um with i want to uh kind of defer now to tamara and and you can add um anything that else that she would like to add that i might have forgotten i've gone through my notes i think i've gotten everything for the camera i think take it away a little bit um and kind of let us know that um i think um i think we covered
030everything i also want to say and and share with the um uh with with the community that um that uh um they can come and um call the office if they have any concerns um and set up a time to come see me come see tammy um and and kind of like you know if they have any uh suggestions any concerns any issues that might arise that they're not happy with um please come our doors is open and want all the all the uh the families to understand that that you are more than welcome to come to the school and and voice your your concerns with us we want to work together with the with the community and with the families and make sure that everyone is getting uh the get out they're getting the
031the services and the interventions that they need and deserve not only need i want to stress the word deserve all our students deserve a um a rigorous um academic experience and that is our goal here at fort river so i'm getting a message here and i think there's some questions um if i see sasha if if she could add some of the questions we're we unfortunately don't see the question so if you're adding any questions we don't see it we're kind of waiting to to have the questions kind of sent to us um and we have we would like to okay i see some of the questions now i missed what you said about the after school oh there is after-school care oh i'm so glad that a parent asked that there is after-school care
032um that's going to be provided um i believe it's 40 spots am i right tamara i think there's 40 spots those applications or to kind of apply for the the after school program will be in the front office i will have them we should probably have them for the meet and greet so that parents hold of those um as soon as possible um let me see some of their i'm just looking uh please forgive me because i have two screens open kind of looking at some of the messages um will you be making the recording on this session available in spanish um i can make this available in spanish once we're done here i can go back and make a a second video and make and give all that information in spanish also the the
033appearance that needed in spanish all this information will be in spanish [Applause] absolutely they can it's their first day this is their first experience in school of course i i'm a parent also when my students first started um school um i absolutely wanna perfect so yes um um anything that is that anything that can be translated so i think i think those were all the questions i see something for me i want to make sure that everybody is really close and again um please i apologize so okay so there's also link okay thank you sasha um so everything will be communicated thank you so much thank you so i think um tell me if you have nothing else to add i don't you are very thorough i think you covered everything well certainly sending out
034all the information in an email in both spanish and in english we'll also update families about covid protocols as it relates to face coverings and and all the other things just know that teachers and the custodial staff are working really really hard at making our school look beautiful and ready for your ready for your kids on when we see you on uh august 30th holy moly so i know it's coming up so quickly right i'm starting to lose will be sleep ready for the return of all the students that's right that's right so at this time tamara thank you so much for being part of this conversation i want to thank the community i want to thank the staff um for welcoming me and making me feel i feel a part of fort rivers already
035and i'm loving it and i'm really looking forward to this whole school year of just wonderful wonderful opportunities and growth not only for our students but us as educators also so i want to say goodbye thank you everyone and um please don't forget the ice cream social meeting group come out yes august 26 thursday from 4 to 6 right after school come down say hi we'll bump elbows because in october okay so thank you so much guys i truly appreciate um everyone that could not see and and um visit us a little bit you know you know my video but but i but i hope that everyone comes out next tuesday okay thank you guys i appreciate all of you