Dear Carmel Community,
It has been quite a busy few weeks in our district and it has been great to see so much excitement and enthusiasm among our students, staff and parents at the many events that have taken place. We had a wonderful Homecoming event that brought together the entire Carmel community for a fun-filled day where the Carmel pride was overflowing!
Thank you to our district Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) groups for hosting so many wonderful activities in the past month including the Color-A-Thon at the elementary schools, Halloween parties and Trunk-or-Treats, book fairs, spirit days and more. Seeing so many of our students and families gathering in new and fun ways has been amazing.
Here are a few updates and reminders from our district:
Interim Superintendent for Instruction
In the spirit of beginning the season of being thankful and expressing our gratitude, the District extends our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Mary Foster as she departs from her role on our administrative team. For the last several months, our district has been fortunate to have Dr. Foster serving as our interim Assistant Superintendent for Instruction while the position remained vacant. During her time with the district, Dr. Foster has been instrumental in so many of our great initiatives including the implementation of professional development sessions on the Science of Reading for our grade K-6 staff, a continued focus on our literacy programs in grades K-6 and more.
Our district has made so many positive strides forward during her time with us and we are grateful for all that she has done. We will surely miss having her as part of our administrative team, even if it was only temporary, and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.
As I announced in an email back in June, Lauren Santabarbara has transitioned from her previous role as principal of Carmel High School and is now serving as Interim Superintendent of Instruction for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year. Later this spring, we will re-evaluate the role and make a decision regarding a permanent hire in the role.
Inclement Weather Communications
While we are still in the height of the fall season, the winter season and possibility of inclement weather are not far off. The safety of our students and staff is always most important when making the difficult decision to delay, close or dismiss early due to weather conditions.
As a reminder, should there be a need to delay opening, close schools or dismiss students early from school due to inclement weather, a recorded phone call, email and text will go out from the District. In addition, this information will be posted to the District website as well as our Facebook and Twitter accounts after the phone call, email and text go out. Our goal is always to send these updates by 5:30 a.m. on school days to provide enough time for our families to prepare but as we have learned, weather conditions are sometimes ever-changing.
Our district certainly has a busy calendar of even more events taking place over the next several weeks and I look forward to the opportunities to see and speak to many more community members. I hope you will join us and continue to make some amazing Carmel connections!
As always, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office.
Best regards,
Mary-Margaret Zehr
Superintendent of Schools