Conferences, Food Shelf, and Placement Information

Just a reminder, tomorrow after school will begin our Student Led Conference schedule. We look forward to seeing you with your third grader during your scheduled time. There are many exciting things for students to share and celebrate!  Also, if you'd like to bring any non-perishable food items for the Student Leadership Food Drive that would be really appreciated!

Due to the fact many of you may have questions about placement for your 3rd grader moving on to 4th next year, we thought it might be helpful to explain the process a bit. In regard to classroom placement for next year, a team of educators at EMES will make placement decisions.  We will both be part of that team. The team generally includes sending and receiving teachers, U-Arts teachers, special education staff, as well as Alicia Lyford and often others such as Mike Sherwin and Mary Beth Langevin.

Later this Spring, you will have an opportunity to fill out our EMES parent input form in regard to your child’s placement for fourth grade.  The placement team will pay careful attention to and consider your input as a factor in the placement process. When placing students into next year’s 4~5 classes, we have to consider balance in the groups by grade, gender, academic skills, interests, social needs, etc.  It’s a pretty complicated, carefully orchestrated process with the ultimate goal being classroom configurations that have the best chance of meeting the needs of all of our students. Placement is always challenging, no matter the circumstances, but we also know with our long history at EMES, we have always done a pretty good job meeting students needs and creating balanced classrooms.

We hope this helps you understand the process, of how we reach these important decisions for all of our students in regard to placement. Thanks for your support in this important process.

Christine and Kathy