Welcome to the Marie V. Duffy Elementary School. We are a community coming together to see students become responsible, productive, life-long learners. This year our district is working on specific goals to further the pursuit of academic achievement and success for all students. First, we want to continue to improve the climate of the school and increase parental communication and involvement in the greater school community. One way we are doingthis is through our new parent liaison position. The parent liaison has already improved the climate of our school by being an accessible source of information in English and Spanish. We are also continuing last year’s parent workshops and adding more opportunities for parents to have hands-on support.

We started the year off implementing Positive Behavior Supports strategies in our lunchroom, which has already improved the organization, safety and ultimately climate of the All Purpose Room. We are moving forward to encourage kindness, thoughtfulness and positive behavior within as well as outside the classroom.

Our second graders helped us to get off on the right foot by participating in an artist residency program on multicultural dance completely funded through a Morris Arts Community Foundation Artist Residency Grant Award. They learned a lot about cooperation and patience with themselves and others. The performance, at the end of September, was to a packed house. The entire school benefitted from starting the school year off enjoying an educational and entertaining performance together.

Another goal we are working on is improving integrated Language Arts achievement. The students at Marie V. Duffy are learning about reading through clear instruction on reading strategies and extended practice applying those strategies while reading. We are focusing on developing students’ reading and writing stamina as well. Finally, we are using data analysis to inform and enhance instruction to improve student achievement. Individual teachers, grade-level cohorts, and teams of administrators, teachers and specialists, meet regularly to analyze student achievement data and adjust plans accordingly. Please join us in our challenge to meet our district goals for the benefit of our students.