Milton Public Schools Update For May 12

Milton MA

13 May, 2022

11:21 PM

Description

Press release from the Milton Public Schools: May 12, 2022 To: Parents/Guardians and StaffFrom: James F. Jette Re: Superintendent's Weekly Update Date: May 12, 2022 FROM THE DESK OF THE SUPERINTENDENT The next School Committee meeting is Wednesday, May 25 , 2022. All information about attending School Committee meetings can be found on the Town of Milton webpage under School Committee. You can watch regular School Committee meetings live on Milton Access TV online, live on Milton Access cable channels (Comcast 22, RCN 15) or watch on-demand in the days following the meeting. IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS May 13 MHS Spring Fling May 14 Varsity Banquet May 17 MHS Spring Concert May 19 MHS Music Awards Dinner May 25 School Committee Meeting May 26 MFE Teacher of the Year May 30 Memorial Day, No School May 31 Senior Awards Night June 5 MHS Graduation MPS Calendars 21-22 One Page School Year Calendar 2022-23 One Page School Year Calendar (Draft) District-Wide Calendar of Events for times and details on current events. Parent/Guardian English Class: The class will meet at MHS from 6-7 pm on Tuesday and Thursday between May 17 and June 23. This class is free for MPS parents/guardians. Interested? Email [email protected]. Milton Summer Enrichment: Registration is open and all details on classes and the program can be found at this link. Please email [email protected] with any questions. We are looking forward to a fun and enriching summer! Ready, Set…Kindergarten! Please visit Ready, Set…Kindergarten! to learn about all the Kindergarten events planned that will have you and your child excited and prepared for this new chapter. We are excited to welcome the Class of 2035 to the Milton Public Schools! Save the date for the Cunningham and Collicot Art Show on Thursday, May 19. Cunningham and Collicot Art Show HEALTH AND SAFETY COVID Updates: MPS has reported 73 new student cases and 12 staff cases to DPH for previous reporting period (May 5- May 11) with the following breakdown per school. Cunningham -12; Collicot -17; Glover- 1; Tucker-24 Pierce-13 and MHS- 6. Local and Norfolk County data can be found here: CDC COVID data tracker and Milton COVID 19 Dashboard. We have seen our COVID positive numbers climb in recent weeks and a concern we are hearing from parents/ guardians is that it is hard to distinguish symptoms of COVID from other illnesses and it's difficult to know when to test. Is it COVID, allergies, a cold or the flu? is a great article published in March 2022 from the Mayo Clinic that addresses the differences between COVID 19, the common cold, allergies and the flu in an easy to read chart form. When your student presents with symptoms, please test to help keep our MPS community safe! You can still opt-in to the state's at home test kit distribution by filling out this consent form and having your student bring it to the school nurse Student Opt-In Form. While previous guidance provided a differentiated symptoms list for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, the new symptoms list (updated March 2022) below applies to all individuals, regardless of vaccination status. Parents/guardians should continue to screen students daily prior to school and keep students with these symptoms home, testing prior to returning to school. COVID-19 symptom list: Fever (100.0° Fahrenheit or higher), chills, or shaking chills Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath New loss of taste or smell Muscle aches or body aches Cough (not due to other known cause, such as chronic cough) Sore throat, when in combination with other symptoms Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea when in combination with other symptoms. Headache when in combination with other symptoms Fatigue, when in combination with other symptoms Nasal congestion or runny nose (not due to other known causes, such as allergies) when in combination with other symptoms For those looking for COVID Testing and Vaccines, we have found the Randolph, MA site linked here to be a reliable provider. INSIDE OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS It's sock monkey mania in the Collicot art room! Thanks to a generous donation from the Collicot PTO, 5th graders have been on a roll stitching these adorable sock monkeys. Students have learned how to transform a pair of socks into a stuffed animal by using a pattern, threading a needle, tying a knot, and using the whipstitch. ______ Cunningham 5th graders have been learning about radial design and printmaking. Students started by drawing a design on a 6×6 square with an X and Y axis, mapping out their design to make sure lines connected to the adjacent side of their square. Once complete, they traced their drawing onto styrofoam using a wooden dowel, causing the lines to "sink" into the foam, making a perfect printing plate. You can see that they used a brayer to ink their plate and printed their design four times making sure to rotate their styrofoam clockwise to create a radial symmetrical design. The beautiful results are evident in the pictures! ______ Glover 1st graders are working on their "Days of the Week" project in Spanish class with the help of former Glover Kid Katherine Heavey. Katherine is volunteering her time throughout May at Glover as she completes her senior service project before graduating high school. Senora Brown, who had Katherine in her class when she was a Glover Kid, said it was the week's highlight for our 1st graders! ______ EARLY CHILDHOOD This family survey is a brief, but essential part of our community needs assessment of early childhood programs and the needs of families with young children. This effort is supported by a Community Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) grant from the MA Department of Early Education and Care. For more information, please contact Dr. Elaine McNeil-Girmai or School Committee Chair Ada Rosmarin. It only takes 2-3 minutes to complete and the deadline to respond to the survey is May 15th, so please don't delay! All who complete the survey will automatically be entered into a raffle to win one of two $250 gift cards. ART AND MUSIC The MHS music department's final concert is coming up on Tuesday, May 17th at 6:30 PM in the high school auditorium. We hope you'll join us for the performance to celebrate the accomplishments of our MHS musicians, especially our graduating seniors! Thank you to everyone who contributed to Tri-M's musical instrument drive — the event was a huge success. We collected dozens of instruments that will be able to be used throughout the Milton Public Schools, both in classrooms and for independent music practice. Your generosity is greatly appreciated! Listen here! MHS Tri-M students have also been busy paying visits to the performing ensembles at Pierce to make music together and share information about what it's like to be a part of the MHS music department. Our hope is that building these relationships early on will encourage continued participation in performing ensembles throughout students' academic careers. Thanks to all MHS and Pierce students who participated in these before and after school events! Check out this video of Tri-M and Pierce chorus students singing "We Don't Talk About Bruno" after three short rehearsals! The students in the MHS Music department along with Milton FAME ran a successful mattress fundraiser in April, raising over $10,000 for the MPS music department. The money from the mattress sale will continue to help FAME with providing excellent opportunities and assistance to all of our MPS music students. Bravo! FOOD SERVICE SEPAC Participate: Mark your calendars as Tuesday, June 14 will be our final SEPAC meeting and we will be meeting live with refreshments and a guest speaker, while we connect before the summer and plan for the 2022-23 school year. Location TBD. Advocate: SEPAC board members welcome new school committee members Celina Miranda and Anna Varghese and look forward to working with them as the budget is passed and plans are made for next year. Further, look for a survey soon to assess needs and goals for next year. Our next ZOOM board meeting is on May 24 6:30pm ImpactParents ATHLETICS The Varsity Athletic Outdoor Celebration TODAY Unified Track & Field Team Boys Lacrosse Girls Tennis Team Boys Tennis Softball Girls Lacrosse Rugby Baseball Susi Athletes of the Month for April Katie O'Toole: Despite the cold weather Katie O'Toole has been on fire during the month of April. Katie placed second in the 800m at Wellesley racing against the reigning 1000m state champion from this past indoor season. Katie followed up that strong performance with a first place finish against Braintree in the mile. The next week Katie won the mile at home against Walpole. Katie is currently ranked number nine in the state in the 800m and is top 25 in the mile. Katie has continued her strong running into the month of May with more great racing. As anchor leg she led the team to a victory in the 4×800 meter relay at the Division III State Relay event at Olive Ames. Katie also anchored the 4 x mile team to a strong second place finish. This press release was produced by the Milton Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author's own.