November is Native American Heritage Month - National Native American Month started off as an effort to get a day of appreciation and acknowledgment for the unique contributions made by the first Americans for the growth and establishment of the United States. The effort has now resulted in a whole month being celebrated for that purpose.
Below are some resources for you to engage in with your child at home. This site has a tone of informational links, read alouds, videos, and lesson plans for all ages.
https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/free-learning-resources-for-native-american-heritage-month
November School-wide Value - Kindness is Free, Sprinkle it Everywhere
This month, as a school we will be focusing on Kindness as one of our important school-wide values. Below is a link to some ideas about how your child can be kind, both at home and at school. One way to support our efforts is to go over these lists with your child and help them to choose some activities to try. At school next week, we will have morning announcements about kindness and we will be looking to catch students being kind.
Safety Drills Training with Staff - At our October staff meeting, we met as a staff to review our school safety procedures. We clarified processes for each of the different kinds of responses, including evacuation drills, shelter-in-place, and lockdown. We provided staff a chance to ask questions, discussed a range of different scenarios, and practiced the actual procedures. Members of the Newton Police Department were present for this training and were a valuable resource in answering questions and refining our steps.
Given the wide range of scenarios that could play out in a real life situation, as a staff, we felt that the most important thing for us to practice was a way of instilling a clear understanding of the expectations for student behavior during an emergency. This includes the need for silence and calm while explicitly following teacher directions. We will practice these essential skills numerous times this year.
I will be hosting a safety protocol Zoom session to go over our plans in more detail. Below is the meeting information and the Zoom link:
School Safety Overview Zoom
Friday, December 2nd at 8:30 AM
https://newton-k12-ma-us.zoom.us/j/2454370913?pwd=NVhVUzR6WVNCVkw3MVovTTNKSm1idz09
Meeting ID: 245 437 0913
Passcode: Hawks
Override Informational Roundtable at Horace Mann - There is a Newton Public Schools Roundtable meeting on November 29th at 7:00pm at the Horace Mann School to discuss the override which includes the Horace Mann School project funding. Please join us at 6:30pm at HM for tours of the school before the meeting starts. At 7:00 pm there will be a brief presentation before an ample question and answer session.
Meeting information can be found here.
For those that can’t make the meeting you can watch it on Vimeo here, and on the local NewTV channel on your television. You can also email questions to override@newtonma.gov. We will try to read and answer as many of them as we can during the meeting.
Regards,
Josh Morse
Public Buildings Commissioner
Public Buildings Department
City of Newton
Horace Mann Elementary School Council
CALL FOR CANDIDATES!
Are You Interested in joining the Horace Mann School Council?
The School Council is a great way to get involved with decisions that affect our children. Mandated by state law, the Council serves as an advisory board to the principal. Members include the principal, an equal number of parent and staff representatives, and a community member. School Council provides a forum to discuss and advise the principal on issues that arise throughout the year, including programmatic matters; the school improvement plan; safety and building maintenance issues; and other relevant topics. For this year, we plan to hold 3 meetings in the winter and spring of 2023, with 5-6 meetings being typical for a full school year. This year, meeting dates and times will be determined based on availability of the members. Options include mornings before school or shortly after school. Virtual meetings will also be an option.
The Horace Mann School Council is a separate entity from the PTO. School Council focuses on programmatic, operational, and budgetary issues, while the PTO provides social and community support and curriculum enhancement activities.
Parents are elected for 3-year terms to the School Council. The total number of parents will be dependent on the number of staff. Ideally, we will have 2-3 staff and an equal number of parents. If you would like to be a candidate for School Council for the spring of this school year, please complete the following School Council Google Form which includes: a short description of your background, why you are interested in the position, and what you would like to contribute to Horace Mann.
Completed Google Forms should be submitted by December 9th. If necessary, a School Council election will be administered by our PTO Board and will be held after we compile a list of interested candidates. The election will be conducted through an on-line survey.
If you are considering running for School Council and have questions, please contact any of the current representatives listed below or talk with Mark Nardelli for further information.
Playground Update - Our playground installation is underway (see below). A few details to note:
- The new play structure will be added to the area out by the Gaga Pit).
- The two swing sets WILL be removed.
- Trees will NOT be removed or impacted.
If all goes according to plan the structure should be open after the Thanksgiving break.
