In the black box at the top of the newsletter, select Translate Newsletter to pick the desired language.

· Portuguese: Na caixa preta na parte superior do boletim, selecione Traduzir Boletim informativo para escolher o idioma desejado.

· Spanish: En el cuadro de Negro en la parte superior del boletín de noticias, seleccione Traducir Boletín de escoger el idioma deseado.

· Arabic : في المربع الأسود في أعلى النشرة الإخبارية، حدد ترجمة الرسالة الإخبارية لاختيار اللغة المطلوبة.

· Vietnamese: Trong hộp đen ở phía trên cùng của bản tin, chọn dịch ký nhận để chọn ngôn ngữ mong muốn.

· Swahili: Katika sanduku nyeusi juu ya jarida, chagua Jarida la Tafsiri ili kuchagua lugha taka.

On behalf of myself and the entire Parker Staff, I welcome you to the 2023-2024 school year! As a true middle school community, we support our students in feeling accepted and safe, experiencing success and fostering love of learning. School staff and families collaborate to support our students, including consistent communication between home and school to ensure students have the best experience possible. This is one of the first of many communications you will receive from me throughout this year and in-turn, I encourage families to contact the school as needed, get involved, and be active participants in the school community. I am excited for the opportunities that a new school year brings to all of us!

I send all of my mass communication via the portal, including the link to the weekly newsletter which also lives on the W.S. Parker Middle School website, so all of the emails will be saved in your parent portal for future reference as needed (if you accidentally delete an email, you can still access it in the portal). Please also know that sometimes the emails from the school end up in your SPAM folder.

As we continue preparations for the first day of school, I’ve included some reminders and general information below, so please take some time to read through.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer. I look forward to seeing students on Aug. 30 and parents for Back to School Night on Sept 21. We also have our first PTO meeting scheduled for Monday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Rochelle Rubino, Principal

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, Aug. 19

Friends of Reading METCO Fun Family Breakfast

10:30 a.m. at Burbank YMCA in Reading

Tuesday, Aug. 22 and Wednesday, Aug. 23

Welcome to Parker Sixth Grade Orientation

9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 30

First Day of School!

Thursday, Aug. 31

Second Day of School and School Picture Day!

To access the 2023-2024 District Calendar, click here.

School begins for all students on Wednesday, Aug. 30 and Thursday, Aug. 31 (there is no school on Friday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 4). Both days are full school days, 7:50 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Student schedules have been uploaded to the portals and the portals will open at 4 p.m. for viewing purposes. Please see this document for directions on how to access schedules. Please contact Meg Powers at meg.powers@reading.k12.ma.us for any help with the Portal. For those new to Parker, don’t worry, as we will help students make sense of the schedule during the first days of school (and students can then help their parents). Please note that students in grade 6 do not travel with their homerooms throughout the day. They will be mixed up with students from their team as they move from class to class. Teachers will support students with this transition, knowing that they moved with their homerooms in grade 5.

The process of creating a schedule is a team effort in which multiple factors are considered. Teachers, administrators, school counselors, special education teachers, and others meet in order to form balanced teams and classes. This is a careful and deliberate process that considers academic strengths, social maturity, and special needs. Please understand that the placement process takes all of these aspects into account; our primary objective is to ensure that each student is assigned to a team in which they can learn and grow. Due to the effort taken to carefully place students, team assignments will not be changed.

Schedules are 95 percent complete, which means that it’s likely you will not see classes such as specific reading and math interventions on the schedule just yet. Additionally, your child may not have been placed in their first choice for elective or enrichment. As we specified during the class selection process, we would do our best to honor requests but they are not guaranteed as we work to balance multiple scheduling constraints. Also, please note that students are viewing their semester 1 classes.

We have an exciting new change this year at Parker. New team names have been created in order to align with our core values of kindness, community, and personal best.

Grade Six - Community (joining a new community)

Team Unity (formerly 6 Red) - Team Leader: Ms. Elisabeth Bean elisabeth.bean@reading.k12.ma.us

Team Synergy (formerly 6 Blue) - Team Leader: Jane Costa jane.costa@reading.k12.ma.us

Grade 7 - Kindness (working on a culture of kindness now that we are established in the Parker community)

Team Integrity (formerly 7 Red) - Team Leader: Steve Olivo steve.olivo@reading.k12.ma.us

Team Justice (formerly 7 Blue) - Team Leader: Andy Spinali andrew.spinali@reading.k12.ma.us

Grade 8 - Personal Best (How can we bring our personal best to be leaders of our school and bring it forward to high school?)

Team Endeavor (formerly 8 Red) - Team Leader: Brian James brian.james@reading.k12.ma.us

Team Inspire (formerly 8 Blue) - Team Leader: Kim Peterson kimberly.peterson@reading.k12.ma.us

Weekly communication with parents will be done to a great extent through the Parker website, so please take a moment to check it out and bookmark it for easy access! The website will provide weekly news, photographs, a link to the weekly newsletter, and a link to the Twitter feed. It is also a resource for parent questions about Parker as well as the district. The page can be found at: https://parker.reading.k12.ma.us/en-US

For students who are new to the school, you should be receiving a separate email with an activation link to set up your portal account.

The portal will be used as a primary resource and method of communication including the calendar, Parker News, school resources, your child’s schedule, grades, homework and report cards. Also, any email I send, is saved in your parent portal for future reference. When you access the portal, please make sure you go to the header that says forms and fill out the forms that are under that tab.

• The Technology Agreement is necessary for both a parent and the student to fill out in order for students to then be assigned a personal 1:1 computer to use for the year (students must be logged into the Portal to see their agreement; they will be guided in this process once back at school). Computer use will be limited until both the parent and the student have signed this contract.

• The primary parent should fill out the Pupil Information Form.

• All adult-type contacts should update the Contact Form. If you don't see a Pupil Information Form or the Technology agreement, that just means you aren't the Primary Parent (but make sure the Primary Parent fills out the proper forms!)
  

Access to the portal can be found on the Parker website (https://parker.reading.k12.ma.us/en-US) by clicking on the PlusPortals button. Your username should be your personal email. If you have questions about your account, please contact Meg Powers: meg.powers@reading.k12.ma.us.

There will be on-going communication throughout the year:

• The Weekly Newsletter will be emailed and posted on the Parker website.

• Follow Parker Middle School on X (formerly Twitter) @WSParkerMiddle

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time throughout the year. The staff list will be available on the website at the start of school. Parent conferences are available and can be set up by contacting your child’s team leader.

During the school year, the building is open to students beginning at 7:15 a.m. each day. From 7:15 a.m. to 7:40 a.m. students will report to the cafeteria. At 7:40, they will be allowed into the corridors of the school. If a student needs to see a teacher prior to 7:40, they may do so by signing in at the main office desk (if the teacher is available). All students should be in homeroom by 7:50 each morning and will be considered tardy if not present in homeroom at that time.

Drop off will occur both on Temple and King Streets starting at 7:35 a.m. Only staff may enter the school parking lots, so please do not pull into either of the school parking lots to drop off or pick up students. Stay right and allow traffic to keep moving on the left (both Temple and King Streets). Students may enter or dismiss through the main doors in the front of the building or the cafeteria doors in the back of the building.

Please take the time to read through the handbook to review our policies regarding school attendance.

The best way to report any attendance issues (absence, tardy, or dismissal) for your child is by sending an email to the Parker absentee line – wspabsences@reading.k12.ma.us

Please make sure to give us:

• Student Name

• a reason for the absence or tardy

• expected date of return

• for dismissal, the name of the person who will be dismissing your child

Students are dismissed at the end of the day at 2:30. When there is an early release day, students are dismissed at 12:30 p.m. Throughout the year, Parker also offers a variety of after school activities, and further information regarding those will be available in upcoming communications.

Students will participate in a 20 minute advisory period on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The advisory program is designed to strengthen connectedness between adults and students and to “foster a personalized and supportive school culture.” Students will also develop an understanding of Parker’s core values and what it means to be a Parker student. This is the space where students begin to develop anti-bullying skills and learn how to navigate peer conflict. Conversations and relationships built in advisory contribute to a caring, responsible and responsive school culture. Students develop a sense of who they can become, exercise their voice, explore relevant ethical and social issues, then be more disposed to contribute to school and the larger community.

On Monday and Friday, students will participate in extended homeroom period. This will be used for, but won’t be limited to, team activities, executive functioning support, small group intervention, weekly goal setting, and conferencing with teachers.

• Students may achieve high honor roll by achieving all As or all As and one B.

• Students may achieve honor roll by achieving all As and Bs (more than one B).

• Student may achieve merit roll by achieving all Bs.

Students are also graded on their effort and conduct.

Effort grades: Outstanding, Above Average, Satisfactory, Inconsistent, Unsatisfactory

Conduct grades: Satisfactory, Inconsistent, Unsatisfactory

While our cell phone policy is included in the School Handbook, I want to remind all parents that during the school day, student cell phones should be turned off and kept in lockers for all grade levels. SMART watches that act as cell phones are also not allowed. Please help us to maintain this policy, and do not call or text your child during the school day (and expect a response). Phones are available for student use in the main office at any time, and if a parent needs to reach a student, please call the main office to do so.

In the event you are in discussion about your child’s first day “attire” and would like to review the dress standards, please refer to the School Handbook, which is located on the website under school information.

If you are interested in serving on the Parker School Council, please contact me via email or phone.

From 6:45 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21, we welcome parents to our “Back to School” Open House. This is an opportunity for parents/guardians to meet their child’s teachers and to hear about the upcoming school year. We strongly urge and welcome all parents to participate in this night, starting with the Principal’s Welcome at 6:45 p.m. Paper schedules for the evening will go home with your child that day.

In order to qualify for financial assistance with field trips and other school-based financial demands, please apply and be sure to check off YES to SHARE WITH OTHER PROGRAMS.

In order to get the group up and running as soon as possible, applications will be due by Friday, September, 15. CLICK HERE for the application which can also be found on the website. This is open to grades 6, 7, and 8. The Parker Service students facilitate and lead school-wide community outreach as well as some of our grade level and school-wide activities. Applications will be reviewed and advisors will follow up with chosen members.

Applications to become a member of this organization, which uses resources from the Anti-Defamation League, will be due by Friday, September 15. CLICK HERE for the application which can also be found on the website. AWOD’s mission is to make Parker school a safe place for everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, or physical and mental abilities.

Please welcome the following people who are joining the Parker Staff this year:

• Kerrilynn Rawding - sixth-grade math teacher

• Elizabeth Harrison - speech pathologist

• Vanessa Kaddaras - special education teacher

• Christina Solitro - Spanish teacher

• Nick Fischiella - special education teacher

• Jill Story - assistant principal

• Jennifer Finkle - special education teacher

• Jerika Santiago - METCO SAC (shared with Coolidge)

• Paige Guerra - para educator

• Marissa Martell - science teacher grade 7

• Kymberly Bryson - team chair

• Kate Tigelaar - social worker

• Erica Freeman - para educator

• Emma Gualtieri - para educator

• Lilly Queenan - health teacher

More information will be sent out about these field trips as school begins, but please be on the lookout for the following information regarding two field trips that occur early in the school year.

• Nature’s Classroom - Oct. 18 - 20 - Grade 7 - total cost $374

• 8th Grade Boston Field Trip - Thursday, Oct. 19 - approximately $115

In order to qualify for financial assistance with field trips and other school-based financial demands, please fill out forms below, including the share form so the school is notified.

METCO unites suburban towns with Boston to engage in a reciprocal learning partnership in support of all students. Because of this, every child who attends school in Reading Public Schools is a METCO student and every parent or guardian who has a student in RPS is a part of the METCO community.

"Since its founding during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, the METCO program has enrolled tens of thousands of Boston students of color in predominately white school districts, creating the opportunity for those districts to experience the advantages of learning and working in a racially and ethnically diverse setting."

Parker hosted new student day to welcome new-to-Parker/Reading families to Parker Middle School. Current students will serve as student mentors all year long to ensure a smooth transition to middle school.

Coming soon!

*Join our mailing list to receive info about summer get-togethers, including patio socials for parents/caregivers and popsicles on the playground for families.*

About Reading SEPAC

SEPAC works for the understanding of, respect for, and support of, all children with special needs in the community (including ALL children on IEPs or 504 plans and children who may require specialized supports).

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Join SEPAC's mailing list

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Please email wspabsences@reading.k12.ma.us to report your child absent or tardy. You can use this email address to report dismissals too.

Ms. Rochelle M. Rubino, M. Ed., CAGS

Principal

Dr. Jill Story

Assistant Principal

Email: rochelle.rubino@reading.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.reading.k12.ma.us/parker/
Location: 45 Temple Street, Reading, MA, USA
Phone: 781-944-1236
Twitter: @WSParkerMS