SUPERINTENDENT’S MESSAGE – AUGUST 2014
Hello Timberlane!
We are very excited about this upcoming school year and we look forward to receiving both students and staff next week. School for students begins on Wednesday, August 27th. Please log onto our school websites for busing schedules and school start times.
I want to personally welcome our new hires, ALL 65 OF THEM and wish each one of them a positive and productive first year with Timberlane. In turn, we also want to wish our parting staff members the very best and thank them for their service.
I’d like to acknowledge and ask you to welcome our new district administrators:
Brian Shawley, the new Assistant Principal at Atkinson Academy,
Michael Flynn, an Assistant Principal at the Middle School,
Heather Roy, the Assistant Principal of Operations at the High School, and
Rebecca Carlson, the Dean of Technology and ICT at the High School.
Brian, Mike, Heather and Becca are top notch professionals who I am confident will contribute to our many successes.
New this year is our full day kindergarten program. We are very excited about this tuition-based program and expect the educational impact to be far-reaching for our little ones. To date we have over 150 students enrolled.
In preparing for the opening of school, much has been going on in our buildings. Cleaning, polishing, repairs and general maintenance is done each year; however this summer we also upgraded the athletic wing at the high school. It looks great and we expect the functionality of that wing to improve immensely.
I want to thank our custodial and maintenance staff for an incredible job well done. They will literally work right up to the very last minute readying the schools for our students. These are some of the most dedicated members of the Timberlane family who take pride in our (and your) facilities. I also want to thank you, the taxpayer and stakeholder, for funding these improvements.
One of my goals for the 2014-15 school year is to increase the involvement of the community in the budgeting process. Although this involvement is typically done through your town’s Budget Committee representatives, I’d like to take it a step further. We will begin with an online survey developed by the Superintendent’s Leadership Team. The purpose of this survey is to collect information and individual preferences regarding the funding of district programs. We will use this information to help us tailor a plan for future community involvement practices as well as discerning budgeting priorities. We understand that you are financially responsible for supporting our schools and as such, you should be involved in how that money is allocated. I truly believe we can accomplish this TOGETHER; but not with an US against THEM mentality. These are YOUR schools and I am thankful for the opportunity you have given me to oversee, examine and improve them.
I encourage each of you to log onto www.timberlane.net and complete the online budget survey. And tell your neighbors. We will keep this survey open until Friday, September 12th and we will share the results by posting to our district website at a later date.
Remember, school starts August 27th. Thank you for your support.