We've had a strong start to the 2025-2026 school year, and I am incredibly Mustang Proud to share our Quarter 1 in Review!
Our students and staff have worked hard to embody our core values of Caring Culture, Community, and Achievement. Please take a moment to read over the full review to see the impact and join us in celebrating these achievements and being Mustang Proud!
Kelly Sheers and Jason Potten
We remain dedicated to providing excellent instruction and finding innovative ways to support our students’ learning and growth.
Parent University for Literacy:
We recently hosted a successful Second Grade Parent University, where families gained valuable insights into our Language Arts curriculum and Benchmark literacy instruction.
Math Instruction:
Teachers have launched math routines that strengthen number sense and problem-solving skills. Instruction is intentionally differentiated, with teachers using pre-assessments to target standards students have not yet mastered. Additionally, “walk-to-math” flexible grouping has been implemented, and all students in grades 3–6 are receiving exposure to and opportunities to advance in grade-level and above-grade-level math standards.
Language Arts Instruction:
Students have completed Benchmark Unit 1 and are progressing through Unit 2 with great success. Overall, our students are performing at or above the district average on Benchmark assessments.
Our school is committed to creating a warm, inclusive, and supportive environment - and the results are clear. We’ve focused on building community from the classroom up, engaging families, and celebrating belonging.
Building a Sense of Belonging
Increased Sense of Belonging: Student feedback on the Fall SEL Screener shows a positive 5% increase in “Sense of Belonging” since Fall 2024, demonstrating that students feel more valued and included as members of our school community.
Responsive Classroom Approach: Teachers consistently use the Responsive Classroom approach - such as Morning Meeting and collaborative rule creation - to intentionally foster independence, curiosity, and cooperation. These practices build essential social-emotional skills and support greater academic focus.
Strong Classroom Community: We maintain a strong emphasis on building community within our classrooms. This includes explicitly teaching routines and expectations, helping all students get to know one another, and ensuring every child feels like an important part of our classroom family.
Fostering a Caring Culture
Sustainability & Upcycling: We successfully implemented an upcycling program for unwanted food not consumed in the lunchroom, promoting environmental responsibility and resourcefulness among our students.
Get2Green: Our Get2Green team has been hard at work! They harvested pumpkins and turned them into delicious bread and soup, planted fall crops (most of which were eaten this week, who knew Mustangs love radishes!), and even created a self-sustaining ecosystem bowl for the library.
Student Ambassadors: We now have 27 Student Ambassadors in grades 4–6 who help welcome and support our new Mustang students, ensuring everyone feels connected from day one.
SCA Canned Food Drive: Our SCA hosted a successful canned food drive, collecting more than 200 items to support our community.
Expanding School-Wide Community Initiatives
Mustang House System: Year 2 of our Mustang House System launched with great enthusiasm, celebrating each house and building community across all grade levels. This year, we expanded student leadership opportunities to include House Leaders, House Spirit Leaders, House Buddies, and House Representatives. Congratulations to the Resilio House for winning the 1st quarter token count with an exciting comeback from last place!
Engaged Family Volunteers: We are proud to have 280 registered volunteers ready to support the school through chaperoning and other volunteer opportunities, demonstrating the strong commitment and partnership of our families.
Watch D.O.G.S. Program Success: Our Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) program continues to strengthen positive male mentorship at our school. This quarter, we welcomed two new D.O.G.S.- JJ Reagan and Kevin Lewis - and are thrilled to have five returning volunteers from last year: Ben Wolak, Josh Jessup, James Richardson, Eugene Choi, and Tony Fuchs.
Celebrating Our Community
We hosted several highly-attended community events this quarter:
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A successful school-wide Heritage Night.
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A moving Veteran’s Day Celebration event with over 50 veterans joining us.
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The PTA hosted a tasty Ice Cream Social and Glow Night.
We continue to prioritize regular attendance to maximize learning time.
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Absenteeism Rate: We continue to monitor absenteeism on a regular basis as lowering chronic absenteeism across the division continues to be a goal. If you have any questions about your child being absent or any notifications about absenteeism that you may receive, please contact the main office and they will direct your call.
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Chronic Absenteeism: Our chronic absenteeism rate is 4.4%, which is a 1% decrease from last year. A student is considered chronically absent when they have missed more than 10% of the school year to date. A student is considered chronically absent for the year if they have missed 18 or more days of school.
Our dedicated Professional Development Days and Early Release Wednesdays, have provided meaningful opportunities for staff learning and growth. This quarter, our professional development has focused on high-impact instructional practices, including:
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Culturally Responsive Teaching: Strategies for cultivating culturally responsive learning environments.
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Multilingual Learner Support: Techniques for effectively supporting multilingual learners in the classroom.
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Inclusive Practices & Differentiation: Implementing inclusive practices and differentiation strategies to meet the needs of all learners.
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Scaffolding Instruction: Developing effective scaffolds to support students’ academic access and success.
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Student Discourse: Fostering academic conversations and student discourse to deepen understanding.
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Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Applying UDL principles and inclusive practices to strengthen lesson design.
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Classroom Management Technology: Using Lightspeed Classroom to efficiently manage student learning and device use.
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Data-Driven Instruction: Analyzing performance data from ST Math, Lexia, and MAP to inform instructional planning.
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Collaborative Planning: Engaging in POG/POL Quarter 1 reflection and collaborative team planning.
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Instructional Alignment: Conducting vertical meetings on best practices to ensure curriculum coherence across grade levels.
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Accessibility & Emotional Regulation: Implementing C.A.L.M. (Choose Accessible Learning Materials) strategies to support accessibility and promote emotional well-being.
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Curriculum Updates & Expansion: Providing training on curriculum updates, including the expansion of ELA for grades 4–8.
As we move forward, our focus will be on sustaining our high performance while ensuring equity for all students.
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Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): We will use SEL screener data to inform our school practices to maintain our focus on inclusion, culturally responsive pedagogy, to include student voice, particularly with our diverse demographics.
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Family Partnership: We plan to expand our Parent University opportunities to include how to review academic data and student MTSS goals to keep everyone informed.
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Student Academic Growth: We will continue to analyze student performance data to implement targeted instructional strategies, extensions, and interventions to accelerate academic growth for all students.
West Springfield Elementary has set a strong foundation this quarter, and we look forward to a successful Quarter 2!
To read this newsletter in other languages, please visit our website.
Para leer este boletín en otros idiomas, visite nuestro sitio web.
ይህንን ዜና መፅሄት በሌሎች ቋንቋዎች ለማንበብ፤ እባክዎን ድረ ገፃችንን ይጎብኙ።
اس نیوزلیٹر کو دوسری زبانوں میں پڑھنے کیلئے ، براہ مہربانی ہماری ویب سائیٹ ملاحظہ کیجیئے۔
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