The 2024-2025 school year has started off strong at Mason Elementary School.  

We have the highest enrollment numbers that we have had since becoming our own district in 2009. We added a second preschool session this year to meet the demand for preschool. 

We have found over the last few years a need for before- and after-school care, and with limited options in Mason for that type of program, we decided to partner with Healthy Kids this school year. Healthy Kids originally started in New York but has been growing its program throughout surrounding states to provide before- and after-school care. We are also looking at adding child care during non-school days and summer vacation.   

Building bridges

The Mason School Club has also been growing over the last couple of years, and the members have been very busy with fundraisers as well as providing teachers and students with fun opportunities. The club paid for transportation so that the entire school could attend a field trip at Windy Hill Orchard. They are also planning and running the Fall Festival and organized the Halloween parade around the center of Mason.

They have brought back family night out events by partnering with businesses such as The Range, Altitude Trampoline Park, Bailey’s Bar and Grill and Panera to provide the club with a portion of the sales on select dates. These nights out give families and staff  the opportunity to connect with each other and strengthen the school community.  

Mason Public Library hosted the Scholastic Book Fair during open house in September. Not only did they organize and run the event, they also donated all proceeds back to the school so that we can buy more books for the classrooms. We are so grateful to the library staff that worked to make the book fair a wonderful success.  

Mason Elementary was also awarded the Farm to School grant this year. This grant will allow us to grow our after-school Garden Club run by our school nurse, Danielle Fisher.  With the funds, we have already added four new garden beds, giving us a total of eight beds. The Garden Club will work closely with the food service director to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables that can be used in the school lunch program. We also have parent volunteers and community members that volunteer to make this program a success.  

Seven houses, one school

This year, Mason Elementary continued with their house system initiative by placing 40 new students into their houses. The house system, which was established in 2022 and adopted from the Ron Clark Academy, is a unique and creative cross-age group approach to building a community that will strengthen the social and academic lives of the Mason students.

By implementing this system, it provides students with a culture of belonging and assists in building their character. Each house is named after one of the seven essential character traits Mason Elementary believes students need to possess to be successful students: self-control, honesty, gratitude, self-reliance, determination, responsibility and respect. 

House meetings occur every six weeks, and they give children a chance to meet new staff and students outside of their core grade. These meetings consist of activities, games, competitions and opportunities to give back to their community. At October’s house meeting, students participated in a friendly Olympic competition along with taking the time to write holiday cards for the NHDOE Holiday Cards for our Military Challenge. The hope with this fairly new initiative is that it will teach students the skills, traits and tools they need to be successful beyond their years at Mason Elementary. 

With only a few short months into the school year, Mason Elementary, with the help of its community, has already witnessed success within their students. The new initiatives, partnerships, programs and collaboration have all taken part in the excitement and hope this school year has to offer. As the school year continues we hope the motivation and inspiration will continue to carry on. 

Kristen Kivela is superintendent/principal at Mason Elementary School.