Opening of the New School Year
We welcomed teachers, staff, and students back since the last School Board meeting. The district had three productive workshop days, the first workshop day was a school-based day, the second day was the district workshop day with keynote speaker Jon Wortmann, and the third day was a school-based day. During the third workshop day, there was a new student orientation at Alvirne High School where new students and families had an assembly in the gym, followed by students becoming familiar with the class schedule.
On the Friday before the start of school, each building held meet & greets for students and families. The Early Learning Center Community Fair was modified due to heavy rain in the morning. Families at Library Street School and Dr. H.O. Smith School visited their classrooms and met their teachers. At Library Street School, the Lion’s Club conducted student vision screenings, the PTO had information for families, and the social-emotional coach provided a SEL resource for students and families. At Hills Garrison and Nottingham West Elementary schools there were student and family-teacher meet and greets. Hudson Memorial hosted a sixth-grade orientation where students visited classrooms and became familiar with the middle school schedule.
We welcomed students last week; it was great to have students back in the schools. On Monday, I had the ambitious goal of visiting all the schools and successfully did this starting my day at Alvirne and finishing at HGS in the afternoon for school lunch and recess. While it was a lot of moving pieces, we had a great start to the new school year!
Hiring Update
The district is still hiring a variety of teaching positions and paraprofessional positions. The district has 46 paraprofessional vacancies. The district completed the hiring for a special education teacher at NWES however there are still 2 special education vacancies at Alvirne and 2 special education vacancies at HMS (Hudson Memorial School). The district continues to post a Music Teacher at Hills Garrison, and we are exploring alternatives due to the difficulty of finding music teacher candidates.
Communication Update
Mr. Gasdia, Ms. Cavanna, and I recorded a “back to school” show for Hudson Community Television last Thursday. I enjoyed highlighting the first week of school, talking about school district priorities, hiring updates and challenges, and long-term district planning. It was great to participate and thank you HCTV for having me to highlight the new school year.
The Alvirne High School football team had a big win for the first game of the new season. This awesome photo was also in the Sunday-Union Leader. Congratulations to the football team.
Respectfully submitted,
Daniel Moulis, Ed. D
Superintendent