Saturday, May 14,  AUTOworks, the Kittery, Maine shop owned by Stephen Kosacz will open for its 16^th Annual Garage Dance.  Join in the merry-making, featuring the wildly popular Ben Baldwin & the Big Note, and help support the Marshwood Education Foundation.

Saturday, May 14, 2011, 8 PM to Midnight
AUTOworks garage, 107 Government St., Kittery, Maine.

The event is BYOB -  Tickets are $30 each

Tickets are available at:
Bull Moose Music, Portsmouth, NH, AUTOworks, Kittery, ME, P. Gagnon & Son, Inc., South Berwick, ME
To purchase tickets or for more information, contact:  Mimi Abell at 603.969.9650 or mabell.mef@gmail.com

To learn more about the venue visit www.auto-works.com/dance.htm. To learn more about Marshwood Education Foundation, go to www.marshwood-education-foundation.org/

All to benefit Project Graduation–a safe, chemical free celebration for the Marshwood Class of 2011!!

Just a few of the items – 100 gallons of heating oil, many handcrafted items, original art work, certificates for massages, weekend get-away, teeth whitening, exercise club memberships, tickets for the Thomas Leighton, mulch and loam, The Links at Outlook Golf Course- foursome with cart, 1 cord of firewood, Hackmatack Playhouse passes, hand-made Adirondack chair, horseback riding lessons, auto detailing and many more items.

FMI, please contact Teri Riendeau 207-384-5000 or triendeau@comcast.net.

Last Wednesday evening at the School Board meeting, Superintendent Gail Sullivan presented her FY 11/12 budget proposal to the Board and to the public. She went over the revenue projections, outlined her priorities, and gave a list of proposed cuts. After that meeting, it became the job of the Board of Directors to take her proposal and finalize it.

We started with a budget workshop this past Saturday (something we do every March). From 8:00 am until 4:00 pm we met with each administrator to learn specifically how the proposed budget would impact every school and every department. We heard from all 5 principals, the Athletic Director, the Special Education Director, and the Facilites,Transportation, and Adult Education directors. The budget workshop day is always a day well spent, and this Saturday was no exception.

Next the Board will begin to analyze, to balance and consider and question and deliberate. We must, as always, look at student needs and taxpayer wants. We must continue to care for our assets: our 5 properties, our busses, our fields and of course our staff. We run a $26 million dollar budget, we employ over 300 staff members, and serve almost 2500 students. It’s a big operation.

We very much want to hear from you all during the budget season. Please email us with your opinions and questions. Please also know that you are invited to speak to us at our meetings. For the next several meetings, we will reserve a portion of time right at 7:00 when you may voice your budget concerns without signing up in advance. You need not stay for the entire meeting; once that portion is over, you are free to leave.

Some additional information:
Here are the Board Members’ email addresses:
Ellen Breed – ebreed@msad35.net
Jeff Donatello – jdonatello@msad35.net
Tom Flanigan –  tflanigan@msad35.net
Martha Leathe – mleathe@msad35.net
Laura Leber – lleber@msad35.net
Fred Wildnauer – fwildnauer@msad35.net

Website for the School Board

Timetable for the FY 2012 Budget

Seacoast Online Coverage of Budget (requires registration):
SAD 35 to see 15 layoffs to reach flat budget

The next Board meeting is April 6th at 7:00 pm.  Meetings are generally on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month at 7:00 in The Learning Center at MHS.

The cast includes some 50 students in grades 6-8. Tickets are available at the door.

Marshwood High School Project Graduation 2011 fundraising is in full swing.

Project Graduation is a chemical free event to celebrate our seniors. This is a gift from the parents and entire community to let our seniors know how proud we are of them.

All Project Graduation expenses are covered by fund raisers:

Mar. 23rd, 6:00 pm-Senior vs. Faculty Basketball Game at MHS
Apr. 4th- Weathervane Restaurant, Kittery-percentage of your check donated
May 13th, 5:30 pm-Project Graduation Community Auction

The Community Auction is our largest fundraiser. There will be a wide variety of auction items for all pocketbooks. This year we will have those “big” ticket items as well as special events and auction items for the much younger shopper!

Please plan on attending any or all the fundraisers. Your presence alone sends a message of pride, “a job well done” to our graduates.

If you have questions or wish to make a donation of any kind, please contact Project Graduation Coordinator, Teri Riendeau, 207-384-5000 or triendeau@comcast.

On Thursday, February 3rd, the Central School Outdoor Classroom committee invites the community to “Dine Out South Berwick,” an all-day fundraiser which includes local restaurants The Early Bird, Black Bean Cafe (Rollinsford NH), Pepperland Cafe and The Lodge at Spring Hill. A portion of their proceeds will go towards the Central School project.

“I knew this project was ambitious and would only be accomplished by the hands of many in the community,” said Terrence Parker, a South Berwick resident and Landscape Architect leading the outdoor classroom. “What I had not anticipated was just how energetic and generous this community actually was.”

Parker’s landscape plan was carried out by hundreds of volunteers last summer, as parents, school board members, business owners and others came together to plant over 200 trees and shrubs as well as create log walks, a rain garden and an outdoor amphitheater to enhance the school’s grounds.

In addition to the outdoor classroom project, local chef and author Kathy Gunst adopted Central School as part of “Chefs Move to Schools,” a national initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama to educate students about healthy food. With the help of other local chefs, farmers and community members, Gunst has brought a Hoophouse to Central School and hopes to begin growing vegetables with students as part of their curriculum. Gunst is thrilled these local restaurants have offered their support for this project. “The idea of bringing good food and nutrition awareness to young children is something that everyone can get behind,” she said. “It’s been hugely rewarding to see how many people have lent their talents and time to make this project happen!”

Dine Out South Berwick is just one of several fundraisers planned to support the Outdoor Classroom and Hoophouse. For more information or to make a donation, contact Lisa Jones or Amy Bevan at cesoutdoors@gmail.com.

During the October work day volunteers planted trees in Central School's Outdoor Classroom

The Central School Outdoor Classroom is a community effort to improve the grounds of Central School for outdoor learning.  The plan includes a custom-designed landscape architecture plan as well as an on-site hoop house for the school garden. South Berwick residents Terrence Parker, a landscape designer architect, and Kathy Gunst, chef and author, are joining with the Central School PTO to make the project happen.

The garden is being built by community volunteers during a series of work days. The second work day is coming up and the PTO has put out a call for help:

What: OUTDOOR CLASSROOM WORK DAY
When: Saturday Nov 13, 2010, from 10 am on
During the second volunteer work day, we will be building the hoop house and working on the stream bed for a rain garden, raking in grass seed and tackling other fun tasks. If you have an hour or two (or four) on Saturday the 13, come join us – we’d love your help!  Please email  cesoutdoors@gmail.com if you are able to help.

Find out more about the project at Central School’s Outdoor Classroom blog

Berwick Academy has become the first school in Maine to circulate Amazon Kindles to its faculty, staff, and Upper School students. The Kindle is a portable electronic reading device which uses the latest technology to deliver a unique reading experience. The school will carry six Kindles, which were purchased for the library by the Technology Department, the Berwick Academy Parents Association, and the BA Administration. The availability of the Kindles has several advantages to the Berwick Academy community, including the immediate access to any number of titles including books the library does not carry.

The Kindles will be loaded with hundreds of books including popular fiction and non-fiction bestsellers. In addition to these titles, millions of out-of-copyright titles are available for free download via the web through organizations like Open Library, Project Gutenberg, and Internet Archive. Currently available on all six Kindles are titles like The Host by Stephenie Meyer, and Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and multiple works by Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and Edgar Allan Poe. It is the goal of the librarians to ensure that the collection grows, evolves, and responds directly to student needs.

Upper School Librarian Darcy Coffta commented, “We are thrilled to be the first school in the state of Maine to circulate Kindles and to have this opportunity available for the Berwick Academy community. Upper School students will be able to come to Jackson Library and check out a Kindle for two weeks. Reading on a Kindle can be a lot of fun and it greatly increases their immediate access to the written word. I see it being used for both research purposes as well as for leisure reading.”

The night promises to deliver terrific music, fancy footwork, and lots of fanfare, as each hard-working but fun-loving high school band puts on a full program of music, marching, percussion and color guard performances. Enjoy delicious hot apple cider, chili, burgers and baked goods in the crisp autumn air. All proceeds benefit Marshwood’s music program.

Music by the Sea is a rain-or-shine event. Admission is $5 for adults; $3 for students. Come feel the beat: it’s band-tastic!