Plainfield School
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Principal's Page
Plainfield Elementary School Vision Statement
PES is a community school that is committed to student growth and achievement through a rigorous education that reflects the New England values of sustainability, integrity, ingenuity, collaborative spirit and stewardship of the natural environment.
Dear Students & Caregivers,
“When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.” Susan Sarandon
As the 2024-25 school year gets underway, we are eager to open our worlds through the school wide theme chosen by the class of 2025. Our 8th graders are challenging us to explore ways to “Engage with Empathy” as we continue to cultivate a sense of community and belonging. Our school community is eager to embrace this theme throughout our curriculum and programs. Teachers are helping students explore and live into this theme during our morning meeting and advisory programming, class projects, and schoolwide activities. The theme also fits perfectly with another important initiative - our AY25 Storytelling Artist in Residence. We are partnering with the Plainfield Library to learn all about sharing in one another’s stories - both as storytellers and as listeners. This initiative will include multiple opportunities for the public to join us as we practice “engaging with empathy” throughout the 24/25 academic year.
I will continue to share the weekly Blackhawks Bulletin this year and will send important reminders and updates via Alma. As is our practice, we will also post news and upcoming events to our website - www.plainfieldschool.org - as the information becomes available. You will find the following:
“News” - for more in-depth information about programs and recognitions.
“Live Feed” - quick timely blurbs and reminders
“Events” - Upcoming events at the school.
There are also links to the school calendar, lunch information, handbooks, athletic info, bus routes, and much more. Please be sure to download the App (which can be found in the footer of the webpage) so you will get push notifications of upcoming events. Please reach out via our office email - office@plainfieldschool.org - with any feedback or questions. Speaking of our office, while both Katie and Amanda are always happy to provide support, you might be interested to know about their distinct roles as follows:
Amanda Jewell supports student and family side of our school systems:
Annual registration process
Management of Alma (our Student Information System)
Daily attendance procedures
Student transportation/Pick Up Patrol
Student & Family Communications
School lunch program
Educational software rostering/access
Katie Lowery supports administrative systems related to:
Budgets & Ordering
Facilities (space requests, compliance, reporting)
Staff hiring and onboarding processes
Staff certification processes
Emergency Operations Plan
Professional Development Master Plan
Staff payroll and time off requests
Scheduling of all substitute coverage
They are a well-oiled machine and between them, they’ve got all of us covered!
We are in the third and final year of our three year goals related to the District’s Strategic Plan. The attached Action Plan related to these priorities provides a comprehensive look at what we’ve accomplished in the past two years as well as where we’ve set our sights for the year ahead.
As always, please reach out if you ever have any questions or even if you would just like to chat about the importance of strong public education and community involvement…two of my favorite topics!
Audra Bucklin