Power Returns to Washington Avenue in Time for School's Start

After spending more than half of the past week without power or communication capabilities due to Hurricane Irene, faculty and staff at worked hard to prepare the campus for the start of school.

Mary Quigley, the principal of Washington Avenue, said power returned to Washington Avenue on Thursday afternoon. The teacher initiation Thursday morning took place in the library at Chatham High School. With only one full day to prepare, Quigley said the school is in good shape for students to arrive on Tuesday.

Some roofing improvements at Washington Avenue are still underway. "We don't know when that's going to be done," she said, "but I don't think it's going to have much of an impact [on the students]."

Other than the roof improvements, which were delayed by Hurricane Irene, Quigley said school is ready to begin. "Our campus is looking great now," she said, just in time to welcome the 453 new students and three new staff members.

"[We have a new] third grade teacher, Denise Gangaware," Quigley said. "Rebecca Sheasley [will be] our Pre-K Special Ed teacher, and Lindsay Feldman [will] be a guidance counselor." Feldman will work at both Washington Avenue and .

Washington Avenue will also retain Mary Szoke, who worked as a librarian at both Washington Avenue and Milton Avenue schools last year, parttime at each school. Szoke will return to Washington Avenue this year as the school's fulltime librarian.

“We’re excited about that, because we’ve been three years without a fulltime librarian,” said Quigley. “[Szoke] has good technology skills [and] her knowledge of books is amazing and [she] loves sharing that with the kids.”

New and Expanded Programs at Washington Avenue

In addition to gaining about 96 new kindergarteners, who begin school on Sept. 12, and about 20 to 23 new students, Washington Avenue will also start a Chatham Inclusion Program (CHiP). One feature of the CHiP program, Quigley said, is that "some regular ed students ... and some special needs children [will] be integrated with them in one classroom."

In keeping with the new statewide anti-bullying legislation, Washington Avenue has also revised its bullying policy along with the rest of the school district. “We’re going to be doing staff training, parent training, children training on looking at the signs of bullying, how to create a positive climate in the building so that people don’t want to bully,” said Quigley.

Quigley said Washington Avenue will also expand on its program “Superflex and the Unthinkables.”  

“[The program’s] really about developing a community where you eliminate these unthinkable behaviors. We’re going to add another dimension this year, called 'Thinkables,' which is ... about things that we do to make people feel good about being here,” Quigley said.

Events Throughout the Year

Samantha Ekert, the president of the Washington Avenue Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), said the orgamization has several activities planned for families throughout the year.

“We have two new fundraisers this year, which are interesting,” said Ekert. “One of them will be for families. It will be maybe a concert or some kind of sporting activity. … And in the spring we’re going to have an adults only fundraiser, which is new to our school.”

The PTO is also planning a Character Education Day, and Ekert said “we’re also hoping to have a school-wide service activity." Ekert's idea is to have students and families make "breakfast bags to donate to Bridges, which will then give those to the homeless," she said. "We have almost 460 students in the school and if we can get all of those students involved that’s almost 500 people that we will have the opportunity to feed which is a neat thing for our students to be a part of."

As per tradition, Washington Avenue will have a Halloween Parade where the children will visit in their costumes.

The school is also planning an Author’s Day, currently scheduled for April 25. This year's guest author is Eileen Christilow, whose titles include "Don’t Wake up Mama," "Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car" and "Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree."

The kids will also perform a play. This year they will perform “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” a musical based on the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl.

For New Parents at Washington Avenue

The school has a New Family Picnic planned for Sept. 9 at 6 p.m., and Back to School Night on Sept. 20 at 6:45 p.m. Parents new to the school are invited to the New Parent Coffee at 9 a.m. on Sept. 28.

When asked if she had any tips for new students and kindergarteners Quigley said “I think … the important message for kids [is] to ask questions and [that] everyone here wants to help them. That’s the nice part about being here at Washington Avenue.”

Chatham Patch brings you everything you need to know for the start of the school year with several stories over the course of the week to get students, and parents, ready for the year to begin.

In case you missed it:
Wednesday—The parking lot  
Thursday—Chatham Middle School has a ,  
Friday—What parents and students at need to know.
Saturday—
Sunday—Milton Avenue School has .

Coming up next:
Tuesday—School begins today, and we'll have photos from schools throughout the district as kids start another year. We'll also look at 9/11 curriculum in the district this year.
Wednesday—A look at the district's new anti-bullying policy.