“Burtonsville Elementary School: Home of the Brightest Stars in the Universe”
“Increasing Our Capacity to Soar.”
Melissa F. Smith
Principal
Bettye Sellman
Assistant Principal
Vol. 14
April 8, 2011
Spring brings Changes
makes to student success. Art instruction contributes to
"Success for Every Student" by increasing students’:
As you are now aware I will be retiring at the end of June. It
has been thirty-six years of many trends, changes, hit or
misses, and finally coming to the realization that educating
children is not a hard endeavor provided you have an
outstanding staff who share your vision of teaching and
reaching children by any means necessary; providing
necessary training as many times as they need; constantly
reflecting on your practices; and caring more than you ought
to. I have been so blessed in my latter years to have worked
with the B.E.S.T who share these characteristics!
• ability to use art as another language for expression and
communication
• knowledge about art from many cultures
• art production skills and abilities
• creative problem-solving skills and abilities
• aesthetic and environmental awareness
• art-related vocabulary
• ability to understand concepts from other subject areas
• knowledge about selves, other people, and art careers
Ms. Laura Tervo, our incredible first grade teacher, will be
leaving as well to get married and start her new life with her
husband.
Mrs. Karen Shrake, our excellent four grade teacher, will
retire along with Ms. Dottie Vancavage, our dedicated Art
teacher, and Ms. Antonia Zorrilla, our tenacious media
specialist. Mr. John Walllington, our awesome volunteer,
will also be leaving Burtonsville.
We recently received our staffing allocation for the 20112012 school year and have been blessed with being
identified as a Focus School. This designation is for those
schools who have a free and reduced meals percentage of
50% or higher. The additional allocations mean that we will
have a 20:1 student: teacher ratio in kindergarten through
grades two. We received additional staffing in ESOL and
Special Education. Our para educators’ allocation was also
increased and this will allow school small group support at
all grade levels. Currently the majority of our paras’ hours
were assigned to kindergarten and our special education
students.
Student Artists on Exhibit
Many Burtonsville artists will exhibit artworks at the 2011
Elementary and Middle School Arts Fair, which will be held
at White Flint Mall in Kensington from April 27th-May 1,
2011. The exhibit will show the contribution the art program
The following students will have their art displayed in this
years art show: Jason Kakesa, Maya Detlefsen, Safwan
Massod, Sarah Schrader, Ellen Hwang, Julia Wright, John
Mancia-Autry, Heldana Eskender, Kristine Woo, Sally
Eneh, Raven Curry, Marie-Ann Kemajou, Kidus Solomon,
Nathan Eskender, Charleen Woo, Michael Abakah, Leyla
Ayaba, Peter Hwang, Kali Melaku, Hana Gebru, Gabrielle
Wanza, Joshua Roa, Aliya Perrin, Christopher Hatcher,
Armanya Makkar. A limited number of works can be
displayed in this countywide exhibit and these students
demonstrated high level of thinking, sensitivity to design and
a creation of quality work.
A Night of Stars
Burtonsville Elementary School’s “A Night of Stars”, our
sixth annual talent show will occur on Friday, May 20, 2011
at 7:00 p.m. in our all-purpose room. Try outs will be
Tuesday, April 26th for students in grades kindergarten
through third and Wednesday, April 27th for grades four and
five. Acts should be performance ready.
Students must submit their lyrics at the time they submit
their interest sheets. Rehearsals will be on Tuesday May 3 rd,
10th, and 17th for kindergarten through grade three and
Wednesday, May 4th, 11th, and 18th. The dress rehearsal will
be Thursday, May 19th. Parents must provide transportation.
We do not have activity buses.
Book Fair Carnival
The PTA is sponsoring a Book Fair Carnival. It will run
from Friday, April 29, 2011 thru Friday, May 6, 2011.
Contact Aimee Sanders @240-491-7832 or
sandersa@washpost.com to join the volunteer team.
personally pick your child, plan to arrive at school at 3:45
when the dismissal traffic has thinned out considerably.
We have consulted with our MCPS security officer and the
Montgomery County Police to monitor and support this
safety situation. As always I thank you and appreciate your
support of this very important safety policy and issue.
Our Stars Shine
Elementary school is not what it used to be
We want to congratulate the following third graders on their
acceptance to the Center for the Highly Gifted at Drew
Elementary School: Yanalee Felicien, Alana Campbell,
and Azariah Seblu. Fifth grader, Laura Richards, has
been accepted at the Eastern Humanities and
Communication Magnet Program. We are extremely proud
of our STARs for their acceptance into there magnet
programs.
The courage recipients for March are: Donashia Crawford,
Yonathan Shimelis, Aja "Taylor" Godbolt, Newell,
Mulugeta, Mohammed Ali, Yanelee Felicien, Fatoumatta
Bojang, Lela Ayaba, Usman Abdullah, Priya Joshi, Gabriel
Lopez, Donayzia Hart, Donovan Santos, Joshua
Mohammed, Jadalyn Stroud, Loretta Ampomah,
Leo Rios, Jade Cooper, Dawit Asfaha, Marvin Jones,
Phoebe Kurang, Annmarie Akpan, Sean Kim, Keyla
Guiterrez, Cameron Brown, Annamarie Embrey, Nicole
Martinez, Seong Mo Shin, Farina Hussain, Charleen Woo,
and Chelsea Guzman. Congratulations to our stars.
STUDENT SAFETY
As you know the safety and security of our students have
always been a huge concern for me. It is our number one
priority. For as long as I have been principal we have
instituted practices to keep our children, staff, and parents
safe. We require identification for adults signing out
students; we keep all doors locked after arrival except for the
front door; throughout the school we periodically ask for
updated phone numbers; we call you when we need to verify
an early dismissal; and we remind you of respecting
yourselves and others in our traffic lines.
A major concern is dismissal procedures. In the interest of
safety we are asking that our parents remain in their cars
during arrival and dismissal. The parking lot is extremely
congested and we have been extremely fortunate that an
accident has not occurred. Cars backing into the traffic
looping out to head back to Route 198 create an increased
likelihood of an accident. Busses and cars departing at
dismissal along with the pedestrian traffic is an additional
danger we do not need.
I am going to ask everyone to PLEASE respect and follow
our arrival and dismissal procedures. Students are to be
dropped off and picked up at the curb where a staff member
is waiting to greet them. An additional staff member is at
the back door to ensure that they get into the building safely.
Please do not get out of your car. WE DO NOT WANT
ANY CHILDREN TO GET HURT. If you want to
When I look at the demands that we all face in this current
economy I stand in awe of all the success the children are
achieving. The staff and Mr. John Wallington do an
incredible job of teaching and reaching our STARs and
without your support the children wouldn’t be as successful
as they are. It takes all of us doing our absolute best to have
the children achieving at the highest levels.
We are providing our below grade level students additional
support in reading or smaller class size instruction and math
(at some grade levels) but it is not enough. We have infused
in our instructional program every best practice that we
know of that has been shown to make a difference in student
learning, yet we have students who need so much more. If
our students are going to be competitive in the future they
must be able to read and write. They must read at least 20
minutes each day. They must be able to summarize what
they have read, infer, and convey their understanding
through the writing process with information from what they
have just read. Require that your children answer in
complete sentences. This will help them to respond in
complete sentences when they write in response to a
Reading assignment. Oral language (speaking and strong
vocabulary) is the foundation for strong readers. Students
are developing as readers for as long as they are in
elementary school. They need to be reading in whisper
voices or aloud to you or a younger sibling.
We need the support of each of you to increase ours STARS
capacity to soar! Please follow up with suggestions and
homework with the children. There is absolutely no way we
can give the children all that they need. We are now in the
business of feeding, clothing, counseling, and teaching not
only our STARs, but our families. Times have changed and
we are required to do so much more. Thank you for all you
do to help your STAR and to support us!
Parent Academy Workshops
The Parent Academy will begin on April 11, 2011.
Registration is currently available for all workshops. Parents
can choose from a number of workshops addressing a
variety of subjects including: forging a strong partnership
with your child’s school, financing a college education,
MCPS Mathematics, and helping kids deal with anger.
Parent Academy workshops are free of charge. They are led
by MCPS staff members and representatives from
community organizations. Please contact Mr. Eric Davis,
director, Department of Family and Community
Partnerships, at 301-279-3100.
Kindergarten Enrollment
Kindergarten enrollment is scheduled for Monday, May
2, 2011 and Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Kindergarten classes
will be cancelled that day. Students with their fifth
birthday occurring beyond September 1, 2011through
October 15, 2011 will need to apply for early entrance to
kindergarten. Students with their fifth birthday occurring
beyond October 15, 2011 will not be allowed to apply.
Please inform Ms. Mejia if you plan to apply for Early
Entrance to Kindergarten so that we can make the necessary
arrangements to assess their readiness during the enrollment
process as required by MCPS. The Early Entrance to
Kindergarten form is 271-6 and it may be accessed from the
MCPS website. Please call Ms. Mejia to register for an
appointment for your child who will be five years old before
September 1, 2011 at 301-989-5654. We’re looking forward
to seeing you and our incoming STARs!
Upcoming Dates
4/5 – PTA
4/7 – Report cards distributed
4/15 – Booster Day
4/18 – 4/25 - Spring Break
4/26 – School resumes
4/27 – Aaron’s Army
4/28 – Kindergarten field trip
4/29-5/6 – Book Fair
Food for Thought
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you
say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson