Be Responsible Be Prepared Be Respectful

Welcome back to the 2010-2011 school year. I am truly excited about the upcoming school year. As the new principal to Ellis School last year, I took the opportunity to spend the year observing and evaluating what the needs of Ellis are. I look forward to the opportunity to hit the ground running this fall. Some of the changes/programs being implemented this year are:

A new schedule – The middle school unified arts schedule has changed. The 7th and 8th grade will have unified arts first period in the morning as usual, and 5th and 6th grade will now have the last period of the day.
Response to Intervention – Our new schedule allows us to have one period during the day for grades 5-8 to have RTI time. This will allow us to have more staff available for intervention and enrichment.
PBIS – The staff has been working over the summer to improve the PBIS program at Ellis School. One of the major changes is the elimination of the Gold Card. It has been replaced by the Eagle Card. You will get more details about our new PBIS program as the school year starts.
Title I –We began offering Title I services last school year in February and offered summer tutoring. Now that we have an established program in place we will be able to expand our program and begin addressing student’s needs in September. We will also be offering Title I services to grades 7 and 8 this year.
REMINDER – Information is sent home every Friday with the students. Also, continue to check the Middle School website: www.sau83.org/ms.

I hope you will take an active part in your child’s education and don’t hesitate to contact me or your child’s teacher with any question. You may contact me at the school at 895-2511 or by email at jsafina@sau83.org. Let’s work together to make this an excellent school year in every way.

Sincerely,

John Safina

Principal

Ellis Middle School