Veazie Community School

EGGSTRAVAGANZA Community Breakfast! Saturday, March 30 from 8 - 9:30a.m. at the Veazie Community School Cafeteria. Join us for a FREE breakfast. There will be an egg hunt for children up to 8 years old. Sponsored by the Veazie Student Council, PTO, Police & Fire Depts.

IMPORTANT MEA TESTING INFORMATION: Grades 3 - 8 will be taking the Mathematics and ELA Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) on the following dates: March 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28; and April 2. Grades 5 & 8 will take the Science test after April Vacation. All public schools receiving State and Federal dollars are required to administer the MEA each year. Students will begin each testing day with a breakfast snack provided by our PTO, and a physical activity so that they can have food in their belly and to get their blood flowing! This will be followed by a single test for that day. We reorganized the entire school schedule for the remainder of the day so that students will not miss any core instruction as well as their beloved specials. We are hoping that our changes will provide students the best chance for success without shutting down the entire school during these mandated assessments. We also hope that by testing all grade levels on the same days and making these dates available in advance will allow parents greater opportunity to assist our efforts by helping to ensure students are well rested. While no single test can give a complete picture of student achievement and the amazing things happening everyday at VCS, the MEA combined with other information can and does help us better understand how to best meet the needs of our students. Thank you for your support! -Mr. Cyr

The VCS annual Invention Convention was held yesterday! Students have spent the last several weeks researching problems and finding solutions to many everyday problems. They all worked hard developing their inventions to solve some of those problems and to market them. A big thank you to this year’s judges, James Dunning, Dr. Julie Keene, and Valli Vel. Our top 5 participants will be moving on to the State Invention Convention next week and they are as follows: Will Francis, Camden Brown, Olivia Bragdon, Duncan Carlisle, and Lana Friess!!

Even more students stayed after school yesterday for winter carnival activities lead by our amazing Student Council!

Reminder: Monday, March 11 is a Teacher In-Service Day at Veazie Community School. There is no school on Monday, March 11.

Remember when you used to like to keep your winter boots and ski pants connected?

Winter Carnival after school fun! Excellent work by our Student Council on hosting this first of it's kind event!!! Thank you to the extra staff that stayed after to assist. 75% of the entire school (PK - 8) stayed after school tonight!!

Our Student Council kicked off Winter Carnival week with a fun assembly this morning filled with challenging games and winter trivia. There will be after school events tonight and Thursday, and a culminating afternoon celebration on Friday that will include a camp fire tended by the Veazie Fire Dept. so that our PTO can make S'Mores for all students to go along with their hot chocolate!

March is Youth Art Month! This great display featuring many different works from students in grades Pre-K - 12 all around the Bangor area will be up until Saturday, March 23rd by the old Sears entrance. The picture below includes the Veazie Community School panel! Great work by all of our artists under the guidance of VCS Art Teacher, Ms. Ashley Curtis.

Veazie Community School will be closed on Monday, March 4.

By now, many of you have probably heard about the "MOMO" Challenge on the Internet right now. Some say it is a hoax and some say it is real…... either way it has gone viral and is gaining a lot of media attention with several news reports showing disturbing pictures. This is a great time to discuss Internet Safety. The following Internet Safety guidelines should be followed by schools and homes at all times, and not just when things like the “momo challenge” present themselves: -Bringing up the MoMo Challenge (or other safety concerns) specifically may lead children to investigate it themselves. Instead, consider asking them whether they encountered anything online that caused them to be worried or upset. -If your child is aware of this trend, remind them that Momo is not a real person, cannot directly harm them and cannot tell them to do anything. -Remind children never to contact strangers online, regardless of the method, and never to give out personal information. -Tighten device settings and parental controls. -Report and block any content that is harmful or disturbing. -Supervise your child’s online activity, limit video games and YouTube use to shared family spaces and keep an eye out for unknown phone numbers or email addresses. As a school, we follow all federal rules and guidelines to keep children safe while using the school network and school devices. Unfortunately, as hard as we try, there always seems to be something new that trends with students and young people long before parents and school staff become “in the know" (such as the Momo Challenge). VCS will continue to use best practices and embed digital citizenship in all that we do. Students only spend a small portion of their day in schools, however, so we ask for support from the home front in monitoring the use of technology and more importantly, talking with your children about what they do online. Please stress that children should always report anything they see or hear that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Thank you for your support.

The VCS Student Council is hosting a Winter Carnival week, nest week. Many of the activities are after school, and require signed parent permission--these forms have been sent home. Here is a copy if you'd like to print. Reminder: Parents must pick-up students on days they stay after....the school does not provide after school transportation.

VCS Student Council Team Members delivered the donations they collected over the last few weeks to the Bangor Humane Society!! A big thank you to everyone who brought in donations! This was a great way to kick-off Feb. Vacation week! Stay safe everyone!

Laurali Parker and Martin Skacel proudly represented Veazie Community School at last night's Penobscot County Spelling Bee. Congrats to both students just for the honor of being there. Martin finished in 4th place!! WE ARE PROUD!!!

Art Fundraiser! Be on the lookout for materials related to an art fundraiser. Parents will be able to purchase a variety of items displaying their child's art work! All money raised will be used to purchase art supplies for our PK - 8 program. Please contact our art teacher, Ms. Curtis if you have any questions: acurtis@veaziecs.org

The Veazie Town Office is closed today. There will still be trash pickup.

Veazie Community School will be closed tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13. Be safe.

Veazie Community School is now accepting applications for our 2019-2020 full-day Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten programs. Please stop by our school to pick-up documentation and schedule a school tour with the Principal, Matt Cyr.

Our student council Boxtop collection goal is within reach!

Congrats to VCS spelling bee winner Martin Skacel, and runner-up, Laurali Parker. Both will represent our school at the County Spelling Bee on 2/13/19 at Center Drive School in Orrington (6p.m. start). All spellers were outstanding in today's school spelling bee!