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Dear Newmarket parents, teachers, students, and community members,
I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying a relaxing summer. So far, the weather has been near perfect for the enjoyment of outdoor activity. In my mind, there is nothing better than a day outdoors to relieve stress and promote health and wellness. For me, I really enjoy time on the Maine coast.
As of July 1st, all of our newly hired Newmarket School District leaders are on board and are actively involved in planning for the start of school this fall. NJSHS Principal Andrew Korman and Assistant Principal Jeanne Civiello have begun their new roles. Andrew comes to Newmarket from Portsmouth High School with a wealth of experience in school leadership. Jeanne is moving from her role as a Speech Language Pathologist at the school to her new role as Assistant Principal. Both Andrew and Jeanne bring tremendous knowledge and enthusiasm to the NJSHS leadership team.
At the SAU level Patty Wons, our new Director of Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Professional Learning, has joined the district leadership team. Patty is actively engaged in planning curriculum and professional development efforts for the district. Her vision for how curriculum planning, and professional learning can be promoted across the system is great to see.
As a new district leadership team, we are in the process of reviewing ongoing district initiatives and priorities to determine how best to roll things out to staff and community in the fall. For the 2022-2023 school year our approach is to keep the list of priorities short and be very clear about what to expect. As I have learned in my first few months in Newmarket there are a lot of good things happening across the district. The challenge for the Newmarket Schools moving forward is to focus our collective efforts in order to maximize the positive impacts we can have on our students. In the coming months you will hear more from the school district about efforts to better support students, improve curriculum and instruction, and the accreditation process at NJSHS. Newmarket is a small school system and I am confident that with more focused efforts we will see positive results very quickly.
Finally, as part of my ongoing effort to promote communication and to connect with Newmarket Community members I am offering a series of “Coffee and Conversations” with myself and other members of the leadership team. This format will provide an informal opportunity for me to meet community members and to hear what is on your mind in relation to the Newmarket School District. As the name implies, we will provide coffee and other refreshments. The dates, times and locations for these meetings are listed below. Patty Wons and I will be present at all of the events. Andrew Korman will join us for the events at NJSHS and Sean Pine will join us when we are at NES.
- Friday, July 22nd from 9AM-10AM in the NJSHS Library Media Center
- Tuesday, August 2nd, from 6PM- 7PM in the NJSHS Library Media Center
- Wednesday, August 10th from 3PM-4PM in the NES Library Media Center
If you can make it to one of these meetings, we would enjoy seeing you. If not, there will be more opportunities to meet once school starts again in the fall.
I hope you continue to have a great summer,
Todd Allen