Hall-Dale School District

Welcome to the new Hall-Dale webpage.  Please visit our website regularly for information about our school which serves students in Hallowell, Farmingdale and tuition students from Dresden and other surrounding communities. Please visit our school links to learn more about our schools and activities. Hall-Dale Schools is a community of learners enriching lives through teaching and learning. We work together and strive to prepare our youth to be responsible, motivated, and productive citizens who aspire to reach their individual potential. Our schools are active and supportive centers of learning that encourage personal challenge and growth for individuals at every age. We value learning and take pride in our efforts and achievements.

Don Siviski - Superintendent of Schools, RSU2

The 2009-2010 NCLB Report Cards are now posted and available for the public to review.  The reports contain information on two years worth of student achievement data from the Maine Educational Assessment, the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), as well as information on Highly Qualified Teacher status.  The following summary highlights some interesting information.  If you would like to see a copy of the actual NCLB Report Card, please click on this link.

http://www.maine.gov/education/nclb/reportcard/reportcard09.html

Click this link for an Adobe PDF file of the report for our schools:
2009-2010 NCLB Report Card for Hall-Dale

Apple Vice President John Couch and Maine DOE Commissioner Susan Gendron visited Hall-Dale High School to celebrate the expanded MLTI program into Maine high schools. 

This tutorial will walk parents and guardians through the simple process of creating a portal account on our Infinite Campus student information system (SIS).  First, you should have gotten a letter with your initial access code.  You will need this code to identify you within the system so you can complete the registration process.

The KIDS RSU (Kennebec Intra-District Schools Regional School Unit), Hall-Dale School District and the towns of Hallowell, Farmingdale, Monmouth, Richmond and Dresden were honored today by the Maine Department of Education for being the first successful consolidated district under the school consolidation law.

DOE Commissioner Susan Gendron was present to award the KIDS Regional Planning Committee and each town with a plaque thanking us for our very successful efforts to improve education while reducing education costs.  Commissioner Gendron even brought a cake!  Congratulations to the RPC members, school board members and the voters.

Last night, the School Board approved a motion to use standards-based grading and reporting at the middle school grades 6-8 beginning this fall 2008.  They approved the initiation of standards-based grading in grade 9 for fall 2009.  The motion also approved the creation of an “Implementation Team” consisting of some administrators, teachers, parents, and students to focus on developing timelines and answering the many questions still being asked by the community. 

Thanks to so many of you at Hall-Dale who worked hard to support this initiative.  We’ve seen what it can do for kids at ES.  Now the middle school students will benefit from standards-based instruction and grading!

-Christine Chamberlain

Please remember to vote on Tuesday, June 10.

School consolidation is one important question on the ballot.  Hallowell, Farmingdale, Monmouth, Richmond and Dresden have submitted a plan to consolidate into the Kennebec Intra-District Schools (KIDS).  Read more about it at www.kidsrsu.org.  If you have questions feel free to contact any consolidation committee member.  Names and contact information are listed on the web site.

Click the “Read More…” link below to read the ballot language.

The Regional Planning Committee or RPChas been established to produce a plan for the consolidation of the schools in Dresden, Farmingdale, Hallowell, Monmouth and Richmond.  While everyone would agree that this represents a significant challenge, we feel that such a move could benefit our schools.

This plan will provide a framework upon which we can build a collaborative, mutually beneficial and excellent yet cost-effective school system and the very best educational environment for our children in the years to come.

Visit the RPC section of our web site here.

A webcam view of the outdoor conditions at the High School…
(note: If the date and time at the top of the image is not current, please press the refresh button on your browser to clear any cached image)

November 11-17th

Join National Geographic and Google and explore Asia!

http://www.google.com/educators/gaw2007.html

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize—much less cultivate—the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: “If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk, please stop whatever you’re doing and watch it now.”

From Wired News:

“Suffering from its exorbitant price point and a dearth of titles, Sony’s PlayStation 3 isn’t exactly the most popular gaming platform on the block. But while the console flounders in the commercial space, the PS3 may be finding a new calling in the realm of science and research.

Right now, a cluster of eight interlinked PS3s is busy solving a celestial mystery involving gravitational waves and what happens when a super-massive black hole, about a million times the mass of our own sun, swallows up a star.”

Astrophysist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStations 3s

The help wanted ads of 2012 will have a scant resemblance to today’s classifieds. Job titles more common in sci-fi novels such as space tour guide and molecular engineer will soon become common place.

By Jenny Lynn Zappala, MSNBC contributor

Read the whole article here.

Need help packing your child’s lunch box with healthy foods each day?
It’s not easy when your rushing out the door, but a little thought and planning can make it easier, and healthier!

This article from the Portland Press Herald can help!

Healthy snacks include fruits and vegetables, healty grains, log-fat dairy foods, nits and trail mix.
Healthy beverages such as water, seltzer or sparkling water, low-fat and fat-free milk or fruit juice are also some great at snack time.
Click here for a list of some healthy snack ideas!

For further reference, click here for our student wellness policy.

On Wednesday, September 26, 2007 school districts across the state will participate in Maine Harvest Lunch—a day to celebrate the bounty of Maine’s harvest by featuring local foods on the school menu. Many resources are available to make this not only a tasty, but also an educational and community-building event.

Read more here!