Veazie Community School

Veazie Community School is featured in a Bangor Daily News Article: https://bangordailynews.com/2020/04/09/news/bangor/as-maine-teachers-grieve-loss-of-traditions-one-small-school-deepens-the-conversation/?amp=1&fbclid=IwAR3l8t9xEU6sMssdmxqywH-67PXOSmi6hB7c3CkcaJRzTxm3l2z-s7JsfqM

April 9, 2020 Morning Announcements with Avery Messer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTrgZBcgD84

Veazie Community School Virtual Book Fair! Mark your calendars: April 27 - May 10. Books-only orders of $25+ ship FREE and will be delivered right to your home. Each purchase earns rewards for VCS. Thank you for supporting our online book fair and raising a Veazie reader!!

Veazie Community School continues to track daily student attendance and engagement during remote learning. On Monday, we only had two "absent" students in the entire school! :) Thank you to all of our families for your dedication and support!

VCS 5th grade student Richard proudly displays his art assignment: a peace sign made from nature. Thank you, Richard! GREAT WORK!!!

April 8, 2020 8:00 a.m. EST COVID-19 MEMO #8 REMOTE LEARNING EXTENDED THROUGH REMAINDER OF CALENDAR YEAR Dear Parents and Caregivers, At approximately 8:30 p.m. last night, the following advisory was released by Maine Commissioner of Education, Pender Makin: “As you know…, US CDC guidance recommends an 8 to 20 week timeframe for avoiding large group/in-person instruction once there is evidence of community transmission of COVID-19. I am recommending, with the support of the Governor, that (Maine schools)….replace classroom/group instruction with remote/distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.” This announcement means that together with other districts across Maine, Veazie Community School will continue our current remote instruction model for the remainder of the school year. The current last student day of school is scheduled for Wednesday, June 10 (when counting the 3 make-up days due to early winter storms). Reminder of Grade Level Advancement: I want to emphasize that students in good standing will move to the next grade level for the 2020-2021 school year as would normally be the case. All receiving high schools are committed to enroll our graduating 8th grade students regardless of end of year circumstances. Snow Day on Friday?: No. The remote learning environment we currently have setup will continue as scheduled so that we can stick with our scheduled last student day of Wednesday, June 10. Food Delivery: Beginning Monday, April 13, we will deliver meals once/week. Instead of prepared meals, we will shift our coordination to providing food supplies for families to make the meals. This will reduce our need for essential staff to travel to school on a regular basis—this supports social distancing and helps to keep people safe. We will not be delivering food during April School Vacation. April School Vacation: VCS will honor April School Vacation as a true vacation. There will be no remote learning/instruction during the week of April 20 - 24. If you are concerned with how your child is doing emotionally you can contact NAMI MAINE HELPLINE at 1-800-464-5767—Press 1. Please continue to use your children’s teachers as resources for support with remote learning. Do not hesitate to contact me personally should you have further questions. Thank you for your continued support. I am proud of our students, staff, and families for our perseverance and grit during these difficult times. Please take care of each other. Sincerely, Matthew D. Cyr Superintendent & Principal

April 8, 2020 Wacky Wednesday! Avery is rocking these morning announcements. Thank you, Avery for making our mornings fantastic! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR977aPrY6w

It looks like grade 1 had a coffee talk this morning!

Happy Tuesday! VCS morning announcements by Avery: *Subscribe to her Youtube channel. Morning announcements will be scheduled to upload at 6 a.m. each school morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sPlj1fbiCg

Maddie & Maizy, these two beautiful therapy dogs, were supposed to visit VCS this week. I think we can all agree that the timing is uncanny as we are all in need of social/emotional support right now. We will reschedule the visit....but for now, enjoy this great pic!

VCS 8th Grade student, Avery Messer asked if she could continue with morning announcements "until we come back to school." ABSOLUTELY, AVERY!!! Thank you for your leadership! Morning announcements: 4/6/20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi6_T-l4pxY&feature=youtu.be

Please stop by school today to pick up your child’s cubby and locker belongings. Your help with this today will be greatly appreciated.

Mr. Cyr and Mrs. Thibeault are up and at em this morning making breakfast and lunch meals for Monday’s delivery! We hope you all have a great weekend!

April 2, 2020 3:00 p.m. EST COVID-19 MEMO #7 REMOTE LEARNING EXTENDED THROUGH MAY 1, 2020 Dear Parents and Caregivers, As I am sure you are aware, Governor Mills has announced that beginning at 12:01 a.m. today, April 2, Maine residents will be prohibited from traveling outside their homes for all but “essential personal activities” and also ordered all schools closed for classroom-based instruction until May 1, 2020. This extends our current remote learning model of instruction until at least that date. All school employees are considered “essential employees” and will continue to safely travel to and from school in order to help your children to learn and grow while enhancing our capacity to provide remote learning. We will also continue to provide meal delivery with the same Monday/Wednesday schedule but are presently examining a once per week delivery for reasons of safety for all involved. Grade Level Advancement: I want to emphasize that students in good standing will move to the next grade level for the 2020-2021 school year, as would normally be the case. All receiving high schools are committed to enroll our graduating 8th grade students, regardless of end of year circumstances. We are also exploring options for how we can creatively honor our graduating 8th graders should this closure extend through the remainder of the school year. Returning Student and School Property: We are presently cleaning out student lockers/cubbies and placing all belongings into clearly labeled plastic bags. Beginning Monday, during the hours of 8am and 2pm, we will have these bags set up outside under the school entrance canopy for pickup. We will bring unclaimed bags inside each evening and begin contacting parents towards the end of the week if there are items that have not been collected. If you are concerned with how your child is doing emotionally, you can contact NAMI MAINE HELPLINE at 1-800-464-5767—Press 1. Please continue to use your children’s teachers as resources for support with remote learning. Do not hesitate to contact me personally should you have further questions. Acadia Cares Parent Forum: VCS will be hosting a live Zoom session with Northern Light Acadia Hospital’s Chris McLaughlin, LCSW. Chris hosted our parent forums earlier this winter. He will share valuable information and resources on how to best manage your child’s anxiety, as well as offering ideas and suggestions that may be helpful in keeping your own parental worries in check during this unprecedented global COVID-19 crisis. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions. Tonight’s parent forum details: Thursday, April 2 from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Join Zoom Meeting Link: https://emhs.zoom.us/j/9371670089 Meeting ID: 937 167 0089 Thank you for your continued support. Please take care of each other. Sincerely, Matthew D. Cyr Superintendent & Principal

VEAZIE COMMUNITY SCHOOL STUDENT COUNCIL SPIRIT WEEK!!! Monday, April 6 - Friday, April 10

Thursday, April 2 5-6:30pm Join Zoom Meeting https://emhs.zoom.us/j/9371670089 Meeting ID: 937 167 0089 Veazie Community School will be hosting a live Zoom session with Norther Light Acadia Hospital's Chris McLaughlin, LCSW. Chris hosted our parent forums earlier this winter. Chris will share valuable information and resources on how to best manage your child’s anxiety, as well as offering ideas and suggestions that may be helpful in keeping your own worries as a parent in check, during this unprecedented global coronavirus crisis. Chris will share tips, facts, and recommendations on how we all can make it through this pandemic as successfully as possible and will be open to hearing any questions you may have in how to support your child (and each other!) through this challenging time.

Pete the Cat has been caught reading in the VCS library! We want to see our students reading at home, too. Share your pictures with Mrs. Shannon at mshannon@veaziecs.org.

Parents should pickup student work between the hours of 8-12 on Thursday and Friday of this week. Work will be on tables in the lobby as we had setup last week. Please be patient as we restrict the number of people entering the school. You can help by waiting in your car until the person in front of you has left. If you are taking a Chromebook, please sign and leave the attached form. Mrs. Hathaway will be buzzing people into the building.

Thursday morning sunshine. Some pics of our youngest learners doing sorting and letter work at home. And one of our middle school parents shared the at-home schedule she devised to keep her daughter on track. Keep up the good work, parents! Right now you are our heroes!

Our food delivery bus just left. Parents have been picking up student work since 7am as scheduled. Thank you for all the kind words of gratitude and support we have been receiving on a daily basis!