WES students design window display

Congratulations to Westmere Elementary art teacher Mary K. Weeks and fifth graders who designed a window at the Little Bookhouse in Stuyvesant Plaza. This is part of the City of Albany’s Winter Festival, a family event held Saturday, December 29 from 11:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. in downtown Albany in various locations. The work began in September as the student’s imagination, creativity and excitement led to the development of a wide (and wildly colorful) variety of 3-D snowman characters. The students also had the thrill of using acrylic paints and canvas to create snowmen portraits. In the tradition of the project, many recycled materials were used reflecting Westmere’s commitment to global awareness and renewal of the planet. This is the third year that Westmere has developed an art installation for the Little Bookhouse window.

Principal’s Book Published

Congratulations to Jim Dillon, LES principal, whose book The Peaceful School Bus has been published by Hazeldon Publishing. Tom Lickona, author of Character Matters and director of the Center for the Fourth and Fifth R’s (Respect and Responsibility), SUNY Cortland, writes “In many school systems, the school bus is a traveling moral jungle. Peer cruelty, bad language, and even sexual acting-out are increasingly common. Little kids get nervous stomachs about riding the bus in the morning and dread getting back on it for the ride home. Some parents say that one of the reasons they home school is to spare their child the anxiety of riding the school bus. For all these reasons, the Peaceful School Bus Program will be a blessing to every school district in America that wants to extend a culture of character to this crucial part of the school environment.”