August 10, 2017

          With the warm days of August upon us and the new academic year on the horizon, I thought it would be helpful to update the community on a few important items we have been working on in preparation for September.  This time of year brings lots of changes as we switch over from Summer Mode to School Year Mode here at SCS, and lots of transitions happen now for students, staff, and the school itself.

  Seacoast Community School C.A.R.E.S.:  After some good, long, and fruitful sessions with faculty and administrators we have settled on five “Values” that best reflect the SCS experience, and ones that we want every child to know, understand, and apply as they go forward from our school.  We will be working as a faculty at the Professional Development Day in August to brainstorm how we can apply these values in the daily life of the school year ahead.  One way we know for sure will be to celebrate one value each year as a theme, and we will start with "Cooperation".

The values are: 
Cooperation - Working with others
Acceptance - Understanding others
Respect - Valuing others
Empathy - Feeling for others
Self-Confidence - Holding oneself with certainty amongst others

  New Classroom Coming:  Recent changes in the Portsmouth Public School schedule will affect SCS after-school Kindergarten as kids will no longer be bused to Community Campus in the afternoon.  Fortunately we will be able to staff and run afterschool kindergarten classes in the public elementary schools, so you can be sure that the good SCS programs and people you know and love will be there for the kids.  The change will also open up one full classroom at our main facility for expansion.  Although plans are not definite at this time, that class will potentially be infants if we can adjust classroom spaces to accommodate them.  We have long wanted to add an infant room and now just might be the time.  More information will follow.

  DayCare Works:  The new registrar system will be up and running in September and should greatly improve the flow of information to and from home and school.  We expect improvements in enrollment, information tracking, forms, permissions, billing, and a wide variety of other areas.  Please look for more information in the days ahead.

  Behavior on Campus:  As we are guests of the Foundation here at Community Campus it is important that we keep in mind respectful behavior at all times.  Please do not allow your children/charges to run down the hallways, and be especially mindful to use “walking feet” on the tiles in the main entrance.  All teachers and classes practice this during the day so please support them.  Also, we ask that do not allow children to slam the automatic door openers as they are more delicate than they may seem.  Please use them with care.

  New PEAK Program Offerings:  As school will now open and dismiss earlier at Little Harbour and Dondero Schools, we have adjusted our offerings to reflect family needs.  Traditional PEAK will run from dismissal to the new 4:30pm bus, while the “PEAK Plus” program will run from dismissal to 6:00pm.  Kindergarteners will no longer be bused to the Community Campus location after dismissal, and they will have their own “K-PEAK” space and programming at Little Harbour and Dondero.  Options and rates for the programs will be posted on our website in the coming weeks.