Scituate Schools Thursday Thoughts
Our Home Away From Home - October 29, 2020
Sailor Shout Outs!
Shout Out to Denise Bowes of Gates who is retiring (last day this Friday) after 24 years of food service in Scituate Public Schools, primarily at Gates. She is one of the most caring and kind individuals that any of us have ever met and her impact on her students shows in their smiles when seeing her. When she became a Nana, that nickname even stuck at work, perfectly exemplifying her relationships with everyone she comes in contact with. Her loving and caring attitude will be sorely missed every day after she retires. We may need extra counselors for Louise once she is gone. Timmy and the Gates custodial crew already have the shopvacs ready for the flood of tears on Friday.
Submitted by: David Stevens
Shout Out to Liz Flaherty, Hatherly School Administrative Assistant. She went above and beyond this week to bring Halloween fun into all areas of the school. Liz continually does whatever needs to be done. Her efforts directly impact the community feel of the school and stays focused on kids.
Submitted by: Julie McKillop
Shout Out to Julie Concannon, Crossing Guard at the Hatherly School. As a young student was leaving school, the student began having trouble with her bike. Julie did not hesitate to help the student. It is so nice to know students are so well supported even as they leave school.
Submitted by: Principal Julie McKillop
Shout Out to the FACTS Coalition and Scituate High School for collaborating and forming The H.A.P.P.Y. Club . Teacher Mr. Blake returns as the club advisor with many returning students. This is a POSITIVE after-school opportunity! Students can earn Community Service hours working on FACTS Projects, spread good vibes throughout the high school, and work to promote mental wellness during "Stress Less, Laugh More" weeks. Many more clubs offered here. Great year to try something new!
Submitted by: Kim Peters
Shout Out to the iExcel students who worked with Scituate Garden Club to carve and paint pumpkins to be placed on the wildflower garden trails at the historic Mann House located at 108 Greenfield Lane. Teachers Gail Vassarro and Julie Meredith gave their enthusiastic “Thumbs Up” to the project. This Thursday the decorated pumpkins will be brought to the garden and will remain there for a week! So celebrate Halloween and give yourself a real TREAT! No charge- trails always open! Don’t forget your masks—costumes optional‼️‼️
Shout Out to Sue Egan, Elementary Technology Support. Sue is a wonderful resource to all the elementary educators. Her expertise and knowledge has helped to improve the technology experiences for our students and staff. Often times Sue is asked to resolve a specific technology issue for us over and over again and each time she deals with our lack of understanding or knowledge with patience and a smile. You Rock Sue! We’re so glad you’re on our team!
Submitted by: Principal Donna Moffat
Shout Out to Suzanne Dasilva and Robin Teague for going above and beyond to provide our elementary instrumental students with an exciting opportunity to share what they are learning. The combined Cushing and Jenkins Halloween parking lot concert was a huge success! It was great seeing our students having fun and confidently performing to parents and community members who were beaming with pride!! Thank you for all you do!
Submitted by: Rebecca Long, Donna Moffat and Jim Thomas
Shout Out to Jan Kerns, a para in the JEMS program at Jenkins Elementary. As well as a valuable member of the JEMS staff, Jan brings positivity and light to all of Jenkins through her upbeat attitude and kindness. Jan recognized a need for indoor activities for full day students during indoor recess. She took the time to shop for and assemble individual activity bags for them to use. In addition she decorates areas of the school where staff have lunch to make them festive, even during this stressful time. She puts others before herself and takes a personal interest in the wellbeing of staff and students alike.
Shout out to Molly and Bridget Thompson, as well as a few other members of the JV Girls Volleyball team, who have constantly stepped up to help on the game management side of things, during our home varsity matches. The duties needed to successfully run a volleyball match nowadays consist of helping run the scoreboard; to being in charge filling out the score sheets; to making sure, every volleyball that is rotated into the contest is correctly sanitized after each point (Just to name a few). While these game operations go unnoticed most of the time, I wanted to make sure that you all get noticed for stepping up to help handle these duties. So thank you!
Shout Out to Mr. Gruschow for creating the SHS Band virtual performance ofThriller. We are thrilled to share this performance with our community. Please listen below.
Submitted by Mr. Jim Thomas, Department Chair
Shout Out to these fantastic ladies rolling out the breakfast/lunch bags yesterday at Gates… so caring and committed to the kids and families – a true blessing to work with them.
Submitted by Ms. Jennifer Wade Baker, Teacher
MAC WEEKLY COMMUNICATION TO OUR COMMUNITY
Last week, the State of Massachusetts made a decision to release COVID town data on Thursdays by 4:00 pm. As a result, we are unable to include our weekly MAC communication in our Thursday Thoughts newsletter. We are committed to keeping the district informed and will send out a separate communication on Fridays.
We are proud to report that Scituate Public Schools has extended free staff COVID testing until December. We tested over 300 staff members in October. We look forward to providing this service to both school and town employees.
Friendly Reminder from the SPS Nursing Department:
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has announced that influenza immunization will be required for all children 6 months of age or older who are attending Massachusetts child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12, and colleges and universities. The new vaccine requirement is an important step to reduce flu-related illness and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information on this requirement may be found here.
Students will be expected to have received a flu vaccine by December 31, 2020 for the 2020-2021 influenza season, unless either a medical or religious exemption is provided. Please provide vaccine documentation to your student’s school nurse.
If you are having difficulty obtaining a flu vaccine for your student, or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your school nurse.
FROM THE DESK OF THE ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Search Committee
We have assembled our search committee, which is 20 members strong! It is a process that requires a significant amount of time, thought, and homework! The Committee comprises sudents, parents/caregivers, School Committee members, community representatives, and Scituate Public Schools educators and administrators. It is critical that we have the voices of all stakeholders.
In keeping with the searches for the Director of Business and Finance and the Director of Special Education, we will conduct this search with transparency. As you will see, we have scheduled forums for students, staff, and families. Each finalist will begin his or her session with their definition of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The feedback we received about these forums in our recent searches was overwhelmingly positive and people expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to meet our finalists. Next week’s Thursday Thoughts will include more information about registering for these sessions.
You can view the timeline here.
Feedback.
We truly appreciate the positive emails we receive daily. As we continue to refine this new way of schooling, your notes and conversations of support are extremely helpful. Thank you.
Earlier this week, we sent surveys to parents and caregivers of students in the District. The purpose of the survey is to collect your feedback regarding our two models of teaching and learning this year: Hybrid learning, Cohorts A and B; and Remote, Cohort C. If you have yet to complete the survey, please do so by tomorrow. Your feedback is critical, as the results will inform our current models.
We will release the results of the survey to the public. That feedback will communicate how well we are doing to support each student, both academically and social-emotionally. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact your school principal.
Links for the survey:
· Elementary Schools
Thank you, Educators and Principals.
Lastly, I would like to commend our educators; they understand that the relationships they build and connections they make with their students is the most essential thing we can do every day.
UPDATES FROM OUR GREAT SCHOOLS and PROGRAMS
CUSHING UPDATE:
First Grade has a fun way to practice important math and literacy skills AND have a well-earned movement break at the same time. During “Fluency Fitness,” children call out letter sounds or solve math facts as they flash on the screen, and then they burst into the squats, jumping jacks, and various dance moves prompted with catchy music. This is a safe and socially-distanced activity that the children really enjoy - and yes, in these photos, the children are in their pajamas to celebrate having earned all of the links in the class chain. Cushing’s Grade One students are crushing it.
HATHERLY UPDATE:
Hatherly students had a project based learning experience with the help of Jon Belber. Jon assisted the kids in planting Kale in the Hatherly gardens. He will be back to work with other grades as they additional plants to the garden.
JENKINS UPDATE:
WAMPATUCK UPDATE:
Sarah Ranahan, Wampatuck PTO President, and Courtney Johnson, PTO Event Coordinator, organized a Halloween Drive Thru event last Saturday. Ninety cars and 250 children enjoyed 15 decorated “trunks”, treats, music, dancing, and pizza as they drove through the Wampatuck parking lots. It was a wonderful way to reimagine our fall festival and bring the community together.
GATES UPDATE:
World Language teachers are capitalizing on the great weather to get students outside and practice using the target language with one another. They have reimagined in-class speaking activities to meet the safety requirements in place this year while also ensuring students are using their world language in authentic scenarios. Ms. Jewett’s 8th grade students partnered with several “chat buddies” to take turns asking and answering questions. Ms. Mavilia’s 6th grade students participated in “A chatear!” where they took turns greeting one another, asking for and stating names, and then saying goodbye. Students are expanding their second language skills while also enjoying some sunny weather and a break from screens.
SCITUATE HIGH SCHOOL UPDATE:
Mr. Maki is teaching his sports marketing class synchronously for students in school and at home.
Ms. Dwyer is facilitating the hands-on portion of CPR class.
Mr. Pumphrey and Mr. Parkins are co-teaching their math students, both in person and remote.
ONE COMMUNITY, ONE EVENT
Invitation to a One Community, One Event that Scituate High School is hosting.
· WHAT: A community-wide discussion of Grace Talusan’s short story
“The Book of Life and Death”
· WHO: All are welcome!
· WHERE: Zoom
· WHEN: Tuesday, November 17th, from 6:30pm – 7:30pm
· WHY: To come together as a community and to discuss what the story teaches us about ourselves, others, the world, and our place in it
Please simply register by clicking on the following link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAuc-6vqzstEtNMIera3XaiUSTal68I2ExF.
A pdf version of the story (in multiple languages) and an audio version read by the author are available at the following link, courtesy of the Boston Book Festival: https://bostonbookfest.org/one-city-one-story/#download-story.
EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER UPDATE
SCITUATE HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS UPDATE:
SHS Athletics – Thursday Thoughts
There is just one week remaining in the regular season for fall sports. All of our programs continue to compete at an extremely high level and we are looking forward to seeing our Varsity teams’ battle for the right to be crowned “Patriot League Cup” winners. On Tuesday, November 3, the Sailors golf team will be heading to Pembroke Country Club, where they will take on Hingham High School for the Patriot League Championship.
The following week, four of our varsity programs (Field Hockey, Girls Volleyball, Boys Soccer, and Girls Soccer) will enter into the Patriot League Cup. Please look at the YouTube clip created by the athletic director at Duxbury High School, which goes more in depth at what the Patriot Cup will entail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEhtyjlsqok&feature=youtu.be
Good luck to all of our teams as they wrap up the regular season. Let’s continue to follow all safety guidelines & regulations (especially this weekend!). We want to give our athletes the best chance possible to finish the season and display all their hard work they have put into the past few months.
FROM THE DESK OF THE METCO DIRECTOR
TEACHER FEATURE: Ms. Hickey
Memory Project 2020: Scituate to Syria
For the past several years SHS Art teacher, Ms. Hickey, has helped coordinate the participation of SHS student artists in The Memory Portrait Project. This Link will take you to portraits created as gifts and expressions of kindness and friendship for these children in Syria made this year, 2020. COVID-19 may have delayed the delivery of these portraits but it has not stopped it; the originals will be hand delivered later this fall!
NEW HIRE SPOTLIGHT
Introducing...
The High School is excited to introduce Ms. Julia Hoyt as a new Spanish teacher at Scituate High School. She is from Weymouth and just spent three years living and teaching in Spain. She is dedicated to creating an innovative, accepting and dynamic classroom as means of creating and fostering a lifelong passion for language, culture, and learning. She is thrilled to be working in such a welcoming community and is excited and motivated for this year!
We are also excited to welcome Ms. Nicole Clifford to our team as a Spanish teacher. Nicole is a native on Marshfield. She worked as a long term substitute teacher last year at Gates Middle School and then went on to teach Spanish at Marshfield High School. Nicole is a graduate of Holy Cross and brings great enthusiasm and excitement to our department. She is pictured here with her dog, Pumpkin!
We are lucky to have two great new members in our World Language Department!
HAVE A SAFE HALLOWEEN
The SHS Band is pleased to present to you a virtual performance of "Thriller" just in time for Halloween! This project involved our musicians practicing their individual parts and preparing and submitting a video recording. All recordings were then mixed to create our virtual performance! -
Town of Scituate and Superintendent Weekly Update
Update from the Town of Scituate on the COVID 19 Pandemic with Town Administrator, Jim Boudreau