Dear Rumney Friends and Families,

Thanks very much for joining Miss Dillon and our students at the concert last night. We have many, many enthusiastic student musicians and I love seeing their enthusiasm and hearing their new skills. And how about that Miss Dillon? She's the music teacher at Rumney and Doty, and also coaches the J.V. Girls Basketball team, who are having an undefeated season.

Our February board meeting will be a special meeting held on February 15, a Wednesday. Much of our business that meeting will be to hear comments from the public about our configuration of next year's Kindergarten and also looking at the big picture of the primary unit as well. With help from the school board, we have developed several different scenarios for our instructional pattern for next year. The school board members and I, both individually and as a group, value input from Rumney parents. The foundation of the school is community and community support, so it behooves us to listen thoughtfully when important decisions are at stake.

Some of the consideration for next year's configuration in the primary unit are the location of the pre-kindergarten program, class size in the primary unit, and kindergarten configuration. We expect 24 (plus or minus a student or two) kindergarteners next year. This either makes one very large class or two very small classes, and, in addition to those two options, we are considering various configurations that include a kindergarten/grade one multi-age classroom.

Those of you with children in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten or first grade have a particular stake in this conversation and I encourage you to attend the school board meeting of February 15. Materials will be available in advance, both in the school lobby and on our website.

Next Tuesday is the 100th day of school! Zero the Hero may make an appearance! Be sure to ask your child how we recognized the 100th day of school!.