YES Newsletter

Yarmouth Elementary School March 2025 Newsletter

March 2025

From the Principals

Dear YES Families,

We hope you all had a wonderful February break! It has been great to welcome our students back to school this week.

We want to take a moment to recognize the partnership between our families and school. Your participation in parent-teacher conferences is a powerful example of how working together makes a difference in your child’s growth and success. Many conferences have already occurred with several more taking place over the next few weeks.

These conversations allow us to celebrate progress, set goals, and strengthen the connection between home and school—ensuring that every student feels supported and encouraged. Your involvement, feedback, and collaboration are truly valued by our staff.

This month, we are also sharing the bittersweet news with you that at the end of this school year, we will bid a fond farewell to four wonderful educators. Meg Pachuta, Gina Rollins, Rich Smith, and Nancy Jones are retiring after many years of dedicated service to Yarmouth schools. While we will deeply miss them, we are grateful for their invaluable contributions and wish them the very best in retirement. We are currently in the process of hiring for their positions and will keep families updated as we move forward.

March is shaping up to be a busy and exciting month, filled with opportunities to engage and learn, have some fun, and celebrate our school community!

Best,

Ryan Gleason, YES Principal & Molly Kilpatrick, YES Assistant Principal

March Dates/Events to Remember

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YES Spirit Days 2025!

Our annual "YES Spirit Days" are back!  This year will once again feature fun spirit week dress-up days on the following Fridays: 

Friday, March 14: Yarmouth Spirit Day!

Wear your favorite Yarmouth gear or the colors blue and white.

Friday, March 21: Comfy Clothes Day!

Pajamas or whatever clothes are your favorite "comfy" ones are the theme for the day.

Friday, March 28: Favorite Day!

Wear your favorite color, sports team, activity…anything that is one of your favorites!

Friday, April 4: Wacky Outfit Day!

A day for mismatches, wacky clothes, and hats.

March Book Madness

The YES Library celebrates Read Across America with a March Book Madness challenge! Our theme changes every year, and this year's challenge is "The Greatest Chickadee Winner of All Time."

The Maine Chickadee Award is a student choice award given to one picture book each year, with Maine students in grades K-4 participating. Students have probably read more of the Chickadee Award winners than they realize - there are 20 in all, starting from 2005. The winning book that first year was Diary of a Worm.

Voting starts next week, and students will have a chance to fill out brackets with their guesses, write persuasive arguments for their chosen champion, and of course read and celebrate all of these excellent books!

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NWEA Winter Scores: PowerSchool Platform

The NWEA winter testing window has closed this week. Your child’s NWEA winter reading and math scores will be available for viewing on the PowerSchool Parent Portal on Friday, March 7th. We will send a reminder to you on that day once they are posted. As you know, these assessments provide valuable insight into your child’s progress and help guide instruction to support their continued growth.

To access the scores, simply login to your PowerSchool account and follow these steps: Accessing Online Test Scores

If you have any difficulty accessing the information or have questions about your child’s results, please reach out to us.

Family School Alliance: March 4 at 6:00 pm

The Family School Alliance meeting that was postponed in February has been rescheduled to Tuesday, March 4 at 6:00 pm. Learn about adolescent brain development and why the brains of teens and young adults can be damaged by the use of high-potency marijuana. The event will be held in the YES cafeteria and you can RSVP here.

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remote

Remote Learning Reminder

Now that we have had two snow days the possibility of Remote Learning Days may occur in the future. We will be putting our "weather watcher" hats on for the remainder of the winter! If there is a possibility of a remote school day, we will send school iPads home with students the night before anticipated weather issues that may impact school travel. There will also be a communication home that will let you know to look for the school iPads and what the expectations are for their use while at home. The school iPads will need to be returned on the next in-person school day. Here is a link that provides an overview of what a remote day will look like: YES Remote Learning Plan 2024-25

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Spread the Word Campaign

The Special Olympics Spread The Word Campaign is coming to YES in early March. This is a campaign that is all about INCLUSION! Civil Rights Team members will attend Morning Meetings in March to spread the word about inclusion! Students will learn about this and sign a pledge to agree to commit to being part of an inclusive and welcoming community. We look forward to this meaningful work!

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Sunday, March 9: Daylight Savings Time

We look forward to the time when our days start getting longer. Don't forget to set the clocks one hour ahead when you go to bed that night!

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Third Grade CoGat Testing

In March, we will be administering the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to all third-grade students. It is a series of short assessments that are a part of our universal screening process for gifted and talented instructional support. As you are aware, our Talents instructional support is consult-based at the elementary level. Beginning in grade four we have additional pull-out groups that represent 3-5% of the total grade-level population. 

The CogAT is a multiple-choice K-12 assessment that measures reasoning skills with different types of verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal questions. There will be three 30-minute tests administered on March 11, March 18, and March 25. 

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5th Grade School Play: Friday, March 21 at 6:00 PM

On Friday, March 21 at 6:00 pm, YES will present the 5th-grade school play! The play will be held in the gymnasium and students will be performing Annie: The Musical. Under the direction of Ms. Pride students have been practicing for several weeks. It promises to be an exciting night of acting, singing and fun!

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Yarmouth's Got Talent 2025!

It's Time to Get Ready for Yarmouth's Got Talent!

YGT is open to students with any kind of talent: music, dance, arts, magic, comedy, or any other creative endeavor that will win over the audience!

 Entry Forms: Click here for the YGT 2025 Entry Form

Entry forms must be submitted by Thursday, March 20. 

 Auditions on Monday, March 24

Starting times:

  • YHS - 3:00 

  • HMS - 3:15 

  • Rowe and YES - 3:45

Show Date and Times

Friday, March 28, 4 pm and 7 pm 

(Snow date Saturday, March 29)

Prizes

Cash prizes based on audience votes.

A first and second prize will be awarded for each age group. 

View official rules and links to the entry forms at YarmouthsGotTalent.org

Pre-K-5 Parent Teacher Organization

PTO

NEWS FROM THE YARMOUTH PTO

JOIN US! 

As we look ahead to the 2025-2026 school year, we will be working to fill roles in leadership positions and on committees. We'd love to have you join us! Please email Allison at yarmouthpto04096@gmail.com and/or keep an eye out for a leadership interest survey to follow. 

FEBRUARY MARCH SKATE DATE

We're giving this one last shot this winter! Please join us for ice skating at Blake Pond on Sunday, March 3rd from 12-3 PM. We'll bring the hot cocoa! Some things to note:

-All abilities are welcome. There will be designated areas for beginners versus skating pros.
-Ice skates are available to rent/borrow at the YCS offices. Please plan to reserve skates prior to the event.
-Know a little something about skating or hockey? Volunteer to referee or teach kids how to skate.
-Have used skates or sticks to unload? Feel free to bring them down and we’ll pass them on to Yarmouth Community Services.

Questions? Suggestions? Email the PTO Welcome Committee: yarmouthpto04096@gmail.com

SUMMER CAMP SIGN-UPS

As you look ahead to summer plans, we have some information on Yarmouth-area camps that should help! This camp packet is brought to you by the Yarmouth PreK-8 PTO in an effort to familiarize families with local camp information.

Please contact Becca Maltais at rebeccamaltais@yahoo.com with any questions or if you have additional camp information. 

NEXT PTO MEETING

Our next meeting is Thursday, March 20th at 4 pm in the YES library. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. We hope to see you there!

WANT TO KEEP IN TOUCH?

Click here, scroll down to “Join Our Email List" on the right hand side, fill out your information, and never miss a piece of PTO news!

 

World of Change Fundraiser: Begins March 3

As we shared in the newsletter last month, our YES community is participating in a school-wide fundraiser by partnering with the Maine-based “World of Change”.

Since 2017, WOC change makers have gathered millions of coins for more than 300 nonprofit programs worldwide. This year students will have a choice to donate to one of six chosen focus areas (Education, Housing, Food, Health, Animals & nature, and Play),

All of our funds that are raised for healthcare will be donated to the Time to Compete Foundation. Established by former YES student Gibson Harnett, who passed away in 2024, this non-profit helps build support teams for young adults who have been diagnosed with debilitating illnesses.

Funds raised from our other focus areas will go to local agencies that support each of these causes.

When visiting the school, you will see that the World of Change kiosk is located in the lobby, where change-makers can deposit their donations each day during the fundraiser. Students will also have change jars in their classrooms to fill the kiosk.

This is an opportunity to live our YES core values of caring and citizenship, and in April, we will celebrate the total amount raised for Time to Compete.

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Ultimate Frisbee March 10 - April 3

The Ultimate Development League of Maine introduces ultimate frisbee to elementary schools in the state, and YES is thrilled to have Yarmouth parent Shea Gunther conduct three lessons for students during physical education. With Shea's enthusiasm and expertise, combined with the supportive atmosphere of the YES program, participants are expected to have a successful and enjoyable experience.

New YCS Middle School Day-Trip Summer Camp

This summer, sign your young teen/pre-teen up to Get Out and GO! YCS has added a middle school day trip camp to the summer program list! Available for rising 6th-8th graders, Get Out and Go! – Middle School Day Trip Camp will run M-Th, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM for the month of July (6/30-7/31). Each day your middle schooler will meet at HMS and embark on a different adventure – lakes, beaches, hiking, adventure/amusement parks, etc! Research shows middle schoolers still need adequate adult supervision and what better way to get them out and off their screens then spending the day adventuring with their friends! You can find more info at yarmouthcommunityservices.com under Summer Camps! We hope to see you there!

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Project Graduation 2025: Kids Night Out

On Friday, March 7 from 6 to 8 pm the YHS Senior Students and Parents will be hosting a "Kid's Night Out" fundraiser in the Harrrison Middle School Gym/Cafeteria. This event will be for YES students only. It costs $20 per chiid or $30 for the family.

STEAM Family Night- April 9

Remember that YES will be hosting its second family STEAM Night on the evening of Wednesday, April 9th! Join us again for an evening of engineering design challenges, science experiments, math activities, programming and robotics games, and team-building challenges. More information to follow as we get closer to the event. 

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