A Look Towards the 2016-2017 School Year

Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE) and Swan Valley Elementary School (SVES) are looking forward to another school year with a few new faces in the classroom, continuing many activities funded through the 21st Century Grant and new services being offered.

Seeley Lake Elementary

SLE welcomes five new teachers this year. Jama Mauldin will teach preschool. Mauldin worked with Altacare last year. Ericka Pitman moved from SVES to teach fifth grade at SLE. Andrew Wyatt, who taught fifth grade last year at SLE, will be the new Title One and International Baccalaureate® (IB) Director. Brett Haines will not coach again this year, he is also the new physical education teacher. New to the Seeley Lake area, Erin Lynch from Livingston, Mont. will teach second grade.

The 21st Century Grant activities at SLE will continue before-school tutoring and kids’ club. The after-school clubs continue as well, starting with soccer for kindergartners through fourth grade.

The Ortenberg Foundation has agreed to fund preschool for another two years.

The music program under the direction of Kaytee Ambrozich continues with fifth grade beginning band and combined sixth through eighth grade band Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

SLE received grants through Jobs for Montana Graduates and the Montana Department of Labor that will provide funding for wages for four high school students enrolled in the business co-op program through Seeley-Swan High School. They will be working at SLE Outside as a part of their elective and on weekends.

SLE continues to work towards its IB certification for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Each grade level will complete six units of inquiry with a project that is tied to the six transdisciplinary themes of IB. Each unit will be completed in six weeks. The themes, critical teaching elements and the project for each grade level will be on display near the front entrance.

“The idea is that if you are truly an IB school and you walked into a classroom, you would never hear anyone say, ‘Now it’s time for math class, now it’s time for reading or science.’ You are constantly working for these six weeks on this particular topic and [your math skills, reading and science] are integrated into that,” said Superintendent Chris Stout. “Each of the themes should have an action piece at the end of it.”

At the end of year, sixth and eighth grade students will choose a community-based service project from one of the six themes. They will work with a community mentor to complete their final project.

“I really like this program because it is a way of making us do what we want to do,” said Stout. “In order to be certified IB this is what you have to do. IB is a systematic way to accomplish what we want to do. There are materials provided that we can use and access. It is a way to have programs and training that allows people to see it is official. This is a way to formalize what we want to be doing. If it is worth doing, let’s put it in place.”

Along with SLE Behavior Therapist Angela Harris, there will be two Altacare teams providing mental health services to students. Harris, Julie Haines and Maggie Burwick developed the PIECES Framework last year as a way to integrate mental health services into the climate of the school. The framework is being implemented at SLE and has been presented at national conferences as a model for other schools to follow.

“This has opened the gates for community services as well,” said Stout. “It has helped bridge the gap between the county services available and people actually accessing those.”

Swan Valley School

Swan Valley Elementary School (SVES) welcomes Shereé Jenkins as the new junior high teacher. She will replace Erika Pitman who took the fifth grade position at SLE.

Supervising Teacher Susan Bracha is looking forward to Blackfoot Telephone Cooperative upgrading the school’s Internet in the first couple of months.

“This will really improve our technology offerings,” said Bracha.

Bracha said the board is also working towards getting a computer for every student. Last year with a technology grant, the school was able to purchase five new Chromebooks. Currently there are enough laptops, tablets and Chromebooks for half the students.

Altacare behavior health services will be offered for SVES students for the first time this year. More information will be available to parents on how they can take advantage of the services in the next few weeks.

Preschool is being offered three days per week. Students must be three-years-old by Sept. 1 to attend.

SVES changed their schedule to start at 8 a.m. allowing early out at 2 p.m. on Thursday. Bracha is looking forward to the new schedule. Now that SVES’s schedule matches SLE’s on Thursday, she is hoping they will be able to collaborate on more activities including skiing in the winter.

Even with the earlier start time, Bracha said they still plan to offer Homework Club 30-45 minutes before school, depending on students’ needs as a part of the 21st Century Grant. They will also be incorporating new ideas for the after-school club.

Students from the Swan are invited to join SLE for flag football and volleyball this fall. SVES will offer soccer this fall for kindergarten – fourth grade, basketball this winter and track in the spring.

Kaytee Ambrozich will continue as the music director working with the band and choir students and offering music classes for all ages two days per week.

Because the Mission Mountains Mercantile burned this summer, SVES has worked out arrangements to get their milk from SLE.

Bracha said they received a transportation grant to take the entire student body to Glacier National Park this September.