School Year 2016 Update

Pine Glen Elementary School

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Pine Glen Way Burlington, MA 01845 781-270-1712 John Lyons, Principal

August 22, 2016

Dear Pine Glen Community:

I hope you all have had a sunny, fun, and enjoyable summer! It has been a very busy month of August.  During this month we have had several retirements and many recent new student registrations.  These developments have resulted in changed roles and placement.

Last week, enrollments, particularly in first grade increased tremendously.  This has created the need for 4 first grade classrooms.   Christine Sheppard will be moving from fifth grade to teach first grade.   Mrs. Sheppard has taught first grade in the past and will be a great addition to the team.    As a result, the fifth grade will be combined into two classrooms.    Class sizes in first and fifth grade as this time will now range between 18 and 19 students a class.   We are currently working on adjusting the placement of students at these grade levels.  Students in first and fifth grade may have a different homeroom teacher than the teacher listed on their end of year report card.  Notifications of changes in placement will be sent to parents by the end of this week.

     We enthusiastically welcome not only new staff but, also some staff to new roles at the school too.  Karen Potts announced her retirement this summer.   All of us at Pine Glen Elementary School wish the best of luck in this new stage of her life and will greatly miss her.    Ashley Petelle will be our new kindergarten teacher.    Mrs. Petelle was a kindergarten teacher at Fox Hill Elementary School and prior to that was a RTI tutor at Pine Glen for many years.  We are thrilled to have her back!  Mrs. Petelle and her husband will be welcoming their second child during the month of September.   Stacey Gordon will be the instructional assistant with Ashley and will be covering the maternity leave beginning in late September.   Emily Miliano will be joining our staff this year as a new kindergarten instructional assistant and working with Karen Hoyt.    Kathleen Kearney will be working alongside Melissa Parnell in our kindergarten classroom.

Due to a recent retirement at the Middle School, Sarah Hayes is leaving third grade and moving to the Middle School to teach sixth grade Social Studies .   We wish Ms. Hayes all the best as she transitions to the middle school.   She is very excited to have some former Pine Glen Students.   Kim Hayes is excited to have some of her former first grade students too as she will be moving to the third grade to take over Sarah Hayes’ classroom.  We welcome Emily Jackson will be one of our new first grade teachers.  Emily was a RTI tutor at Fox Hill Elementary School and is very eager to work with the first grade team.

As a result of retirements we  saw the move of  instructional technology specialists and librarians across the district.    Michelle Ardizzoni and Megan Carney are moving to Francis Wyman Elementary School.  We will greatly miss them.  We are welcoming Rachel Small from Memorial Elementary School as our new librarian and Dan Donoff from Fox Hill Elementary School as our new instructional technology specialist.   

Lindsey Bourgault has moved to Peru and is looking forward to volunteering and exploring this beautiful country.  Paige Burke will be our new speech and language pathologist.

Mike Kippenberger from Francis Wyman Elementary School will join Christie Govoni on our physical education team.  We wish Carol Nicholas a great year in her new role at Francis Wyman.

  Our new permanent substitute teachers will be Katharine Trahan and Nicole Calvino.  Colleen Matai has joined our community as a new part-time secretary working alongside Julie Gosselin.   

I am very grateful to the town of Burlington for providing us the resources to maintain class sizes that envy of other districts everywhere and enable  us to attract amazing teachers to work at our schools.  This month we will be enthusastically preparing for your children’s arrival to Pine Glen.  As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at jlyons@bpsk12.org.   

Kindergarten

Mrs. Parnell Room 101

Mrs. Pettelle Room 102

Mrs. Hoyt Room 103

Grade 1

Ms. Mills Room 104

Mrs. Bourgeois Room 105

Ms. Jackson 106

Mrs. Sheppard Room 107

Grade 2

Mrs. Beaulieu Room 201

Ms. Anderson Room 210

Ms. Varrell Room 211

Grade 3

Mrs. Cunha Room 203

Mrs. Doherty Room 204

Mrs. Hayes Room 205

Grade 4

Mrs. Finn Room 206

Mrs. Visocchi Room 207

Ms. Merlino Room 213

Grade 5

Mrs. Fitzpatrick Room 208

Ms. Lane Room 209

Yours Truly,

John Lyons, M.S. Ed.