Dear RSU 71 Students, Families, Staff, School Board, and Community Partners,
A Valentine’s Day Reflection
Love is good. And there are so many different kinds: love for learning, love for students and their families, love for colleagues and outstanding community partners, and love of the work itself, despite its many challenges. I continue to feel privileged to serve as your superintendent of schools and am animated with a deep sense of purpose. The RSU 71 Team – its staff and school board members – are an exceedingly hard-working team. One of the things I am trying to model for staff, in addition to hard work, is self-care and putting our families first, even as we give the work of public education our all. I remember being in a graduate class of grown adult administrators who unexpectedly began weeping at the extent to which giving their all in public education had come at a cost to their health and the well-being of their families. I think this is unnecessary, and we do our students, their families, and colleagues a disservice when we neglect our own lives. In the words of William Butler Yeats, “things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” So I’ve been trying to exercise before coming to work and set aside quality time for my husband, children, siblings, and close friends. Beginning this weekend, I pledge to use the email schedule send so that folks don’t get my messages until Monday. Love for others is enhanced by love for oneself. Elevator Speeches This year I’ve been visiting staff meetings to cultivate district-wide ownership of our RSU 71 Education Plan (see graphic next page) by all RSU 71 students, families, staff, and school board members. While hundreds of people – students, parents, staff, directors, and community partners – had a hand in its creation, not every one of our 1,449 students, their thousands of parents and caregivers, and over three hundred staff members participated. So the leadership challenge is to provide opportunities for everyone to “make it their own.” Toward that end, when visiting schools, I have asked staff to identify two aspects of the plan that resonate deeply and genuinely with them and to articulate one question or concern about the plan. Then, I invite staff to craft a short 'Elevator Speech’ in their own words. Here is one example:
I encourage every member of the RSU 71 community to take a crack at creating an elevator speech of their own. With warm wishes for a fun and healthy February break.
Mary Alice McLean, Superintendent mamclean@rsu71.org 1-207-338-1960 
Printable version of RSU 71 Education Plan
Good News, Reminders, Information
BELFAST AREA HIGH SCHOOL
TROY HOWARD MIDDLE SCHOOL
RSU#71 STUDENTS SHINE AT THE REGIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH MEET On Thursday February 2, 2023, thirty-two students from Troy Howard Middle School and Captain Albert Stevens School, competed in the second regional Math Meet of this school year held at the China Lake Conference Center. Six other schools from China, Winslow, Messalonskee, Searsport, Vassalboro, and Waterville participated. Awards are given to the top scoring students and top scoring teams at each grade level. Three RSU#71 teams went home with team ribbons and three students placed in the top 4 at their grade level. | 6th Grade Team Gold: 3rd Place Soyoon Ahn (THMS - 6th)
Yan Lozanov (THMS - 6th)
Pierson Dietz (THMS - 6th)
Rose White (THMS - 6th)
Avery Adams (THMS - 6th) (Alternate) 7th Grade Team: 3rd Place Avery Gobin (THMS - 7th)
Brady Winslow (THMS - 7th) - Tied for 2nd Place Individual
Rhiannon Larrabee (THMS - 7th) | 7th Grade Team Blue: 1st Place Lucas Canning (THMS -6th)
Maxton Sinagra (CASS -5th) - Tied for 2nd Place Individual
Reagan Mitchell (THMS - 6th) - 4th Place Individual
Glenn Bitely (THMS - 6th)
Ella Chase (THMS - 6th) (Alternate) 8th Grade Team Gold - 3rd Place Aidan Howard (THMS - 8th)
Connor Faulkingham (THMS - 8th) Justin Massey (THMS - 8th)
Gabe Wagner (THMS - 8th) | Math Team Coaches: Nicholas Hills (THMS) and Jessica Young (ELP)
Congratulations to all our RSU#71 Mathletes for a job well done! Special thanks goes to our parent volunteers who helped the organizers with scoring: Jake Fleming, Lisa Chase, and Susan Adams. There will be one more math meet this school year scheduled for April 6th, and students are looking forward to another day of intellectual fun! |
SUPPORT THMS PTG A portion of the sales will go to the THMS PTG.
FROZEN THE MUSICAL
CASS
#LOVETEACHING
News Center Maine asked the county teachers of the year to make a short video about why they love teaching. They are playing the various videos throughout the #LoveTeaching week.
Here is a sneak peak at what we came up with. https://youtu.be/TJnrX-9fKlQ | 
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WESTERN EXPANSION
4th graders in Mrs. Nickerson's class shared and performed their learning for the community in an event which highlighted the partnership between the school and Belfast Flying Shoes, led by Chrissy Fowler. | 
| Pioneers of education Belfast Flying Shoes partners with school for an adventure in education. Read entire article here >>
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MATH MEET IN CHINA, MAINE
CASS 5th graders went to a wonderful middle school math competition on February 2nd in China Maine. We represented well with our 5th graders competing on a sixth grade team for Troy Howard. Max S. competed with the 7th grade and came in 2nd place in the individual round. And his 7th grade team came in first place. Wow! Amazing! Our 5th graders in the team round would have been 4th scoring right behind the the Troy Howard Gold team, who got 3rd. 5th graders who competed were: Raleigh Tietje, Hazel Badgett, Maxton Sinagra, Weston Engstrom, Annette McCue-Hafford and Griffin Stover. Belfast really competed well against many very competitive middle schools. Very Proud of this crew.
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ARTSONIA ARTIST OF THE WEEK FINALIST FROM CASS
This week, CASS fourth grader Matthew Wisniewski was nominated as an Artist of the Week finalist on Artsonia. The work was selected from thousands of entries from around the world, so we were very proud of him! Although he was not selected as the final winner, he collected 294 votes for his picture. The work was inspired by learning about the art of Australian Aborigines. You can see how he was inspired by the vibrant colors and patterns, and how he really put his heart into it. Awesome job Matthew!
Read entire article here >>
https://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?school=179847 |
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AMES
AFTER SCHOOL FLOOR HOCKEY
A BIG thank you to Mr. Campbell, our P.E. teacher, for offering floor hockey after school! Grades 2 & 3 and then 4 & 5 spent two afternoons each learning the basics and playing floor hockey games. Three-minute game rotations were a blast for the many students who attended. The Ames gym was full of sportsmanship and teamwork! A wonderful opportunity for our school community!
EAST BELFAST
ADVENTURES OF THE EAST BELFAST KNUFFLE BUNNIES Miss Jen's Kindergarten class read the Knuffle Bunny series of books by Mo Willems. As an extension to the books we explored Mo Willems illustration style using digital photo collage. Each child colored, cut out and pasted together a Knuffle Bunny then used their iPad to take photos around the school. The children chose which picture they wanted to use and where to place their bunny. The last step was coming up with the adventure their bunny would have. They recorded their story and the text was then added to the story. Big thank you to Mrs. Larrabee for her help and support. | 
| Click to watch the video >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ri0dy1bME |
PDF Version of this update is available here for download:
RSU 71 Monthly Update - February 2023
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