Tuesday, February 5, 2019

NewsNotes 1/20/2019

Reflections on MLK Jr. Day -  Each year at this time, schools and cities across the country take time to reflect on the life and contributions of Martin Luther King Jr.  While we do spend time as a school talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and his efforts to promote equality for all, we truly believe that the values he stood for are things we need to work on every day.   As such, we devote time throughout the year at each grade level (and whole school meetings) to talk to our students about equality, fairness, diversity, courage, civic duty, empathy, and treating people with kindness.  
On occasion, I also try to bridge the work we do at school with the opportunity to have similar conversations at home.  I came across an article that might help families at home talk about Dr. King's  life and his contributions to society.  The following link has information, video clips, and tips for families with children of all ages.  I hope you find it useful - 

Peek Week - Last week, Mr. Tynes invited families and friends to all 36 sessions of his sessions demonstrating the skills and fitness levels of the students who have been participating in our annual 6 week gymnastics unit.  Students showed balance, upper body strength, flexibility, core strength, a willingness to take risks, and more.  Thank you to Mr. Tynes for teaching students about healthy living and encouraging good exercise habits. Support from the families in attending the sessions was tremendous throughout the week.  Thank you for your support!

Geography Bee Finals - The following 10 students were finalists in this year's HM geography final:  Rowan Hood, Alaun Howell, Elia Chiacchierarelli, Kyle Dewing, Willa Gaebler, Aaron Knaian, Richard Lu, Harry Wilson, and Ivan Luptak.  The finalists were  selected after participating in a series of classroom geography contests that involved both oral and written responses to knowledge about geography around the globe.  This year's Horace Mann champion is Rowan Hood.  Congratulations to Rowan as he moves on to try to qualify for the nationwide competition later this winter and spring. 

School Committee/Superintendent visit with the Horace Mann Community and PTO - 
On Wednesday February 6th at 6:30pm, Horace Mann will host a meeting for all families to hear about the latest citywide news and to talk about issues relevant to Horace Mann.  All are welcome and we encourage parents and caregivers to attend.  This is an adult only event.

Nevada St. Update - I met with the facility planners last week for an hour and we talked about the following topics:
  • Construction/Renovation - All of the design proposals were accepted as feasible.  This includes all of the room modifications, addition of a storage room on the 2nd floor, plumbing, etc. Architects are still working on the final designs. Once designs are complete, the hope is to start a portion of the work during the current school year.
  • Interior Design - We've begun work with a designer around the new staff room space, school wide storage, lockers, hallway storage, etc.  
  • Traffic - Discussions have begun on traffic flows, drop-off and pickup procedures, placement of crossing guards, creation of a bus lane, and more.  Meetings for this will continue through the spring.
  • Technology - An additional $100k is being requested for new technology purchases for the Nevada St. building.

Kindergarten Registration Information -  We are beginning to work on Kindergarten screening for the 2019-2020 school year.  If you have a child who will be 5 years old on or before August 31, 2019, please contact Mrs. Mariano in the school office at 617-559-9510 so that she can gather your child’s information for our Kindergarten list. 

Citywide PTO Funding Conversation -  The Equity Working Group has been tasked with considering the feasibility of pooling PTO funds to achieve a more equitable distribution of resources among the schools. As part of exploring this, in the next several weeks the working group will be sending out surveys to the community and holding focus groups of elementary school parents/guardians to solicit feedback.  The working group is looking to get a small sample of folks from across all of the elementary schools to participate in the focus groups.  
Details of the focus group meeting are as follows:  

Thursday, February 7, 9:00-10:00am, Ed Center, Rooms TBD - Burr, Bowen, Franklin, Horace Mann, Lincoln-Eliot, Memorial Spaulding, Underwood   
If you are interested in participating, please email me at mark_nardelli@newton.k12.ma.us

Co-Parenting Tech Time - The following article talks offers advice for helping adults work together to support technology rules at home: