JW Killam Principal's Corner

This newsletter is full of information regarding opportunities for our families. Please take the time to read through the information on how to get involved in our schools!

Best,

Ms. Leveque

Wednesday, September 25th: PTO sponsored Killam Day of Service

Thursday, September 26th: Killam School Picture Day

Our new cafeteria staff have done an outstanding job getting our cafeteria fully up and running! This week, we are transitioning to a full lunch menu. The daily lunch options for this year are as follows:
Students: hot lunch special, pretzel, bagel, sun butter and fluff sandwich, and sun butter and jelly sandwich.

The Killam Day of Service will take place on Wednesday, September 25th from 1-3 pm. All are invited to attend!

To help make the 2019 Killam Day of Service a success, please consider making a donation from the items listed on the Sign Up Genius. We are especially in need of black mulch and fall potted plants. All donated items can be left in front of the school during drop off on Wednesday.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f49aca72ea1fc1-killam

Please send any questions to:

Lee Farris leeanne@bu.edu

Christie Proctor: phebe99@yahoo.com

Attention Reading Families: If you have a child born between September 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015, we are looking for you. The registration process for the 2020-21 school year will begin soon.

Please contact Linda Engelson by phone (781 944-5800) or email (linda.engelson@reading.k12.ma.us) if you have any questions or would like to be sure your child is on our preliminary list. If emailing, please provide your child’s name, date of birth and address.

Calling all parents who wish to join the Killam School Council! Teachers Kate Splaine and Tonia McGuire, along with parents Nick Marrangoni and Jennifer Vogelzang, were acting members of the 2018-2019 School Council. They did an outstanding job engaging in discussions to promote our school and establish a home-school dialogue.

By law, the School Council is tasked with four responsibilities:

-Adopting educational goals for the school that are consistent with local educational policies and statewide student performance standards

-Identifying the educational needs of students attending the school

-Reviewing the annual school building budget

-Formulating a school improvement plan

This year, the Killam School Council will meet four times. The dates are as follows:

-October 7th, 3-4 pm

-January 6th, 3-4 pm

-April 6th, 3-4 pm

-June 8th, 3-4 pm

If you are interested in joining the School Council, please email Ms. Leveque at sarah.leveque@reading.k12.ma.us by Friday, September 27th.

Help Wanted: The Reading Public School Food Service Department is seeking kind, friendly people with a positive attitudes to work in our cafeterias. This job comes with excellent family-friendly hours. Looking for a flexible schedule? We have that also!Apply to be a substitute cafeteria worker. Please call Jerri in our Food Services Department at (781)942-9134.

As promised, we have monitored the travel time for the morning bus routes to determine if there can be a shift in bus run pickup times. We are happy to inform you that beginning on September 16th the runs will change to the following:

Middle School Begin at 6:55 a.m.

Elementary Begin at 7:25 a.m.

High School Begin at 7:50 a.m.

We thank you for your patience in this matter.

Over the next week, there will be teachers, students, and their families who will be celebrating and observing two major religious Jewish holidays where they will be missing school. During this time, families will be attending temple services and gathering with families during the evening hours. The full School Committee Policy, IMDA and the implementation regulations, IMDA-R are found here.

For planning purposes, the following upcoming holidays are recognized by the Reading Public Schools as major religious holidays:

Rosh Hashanah: Begins at sundown on Sunday, September 29th and ends at sundown on Tuesday, October 1st.

Yom Kippur: Begins at sundown on Tuesday, October 8th and ends at sundown on Wednesday, October 9th.

State and federal laws require schools to make reasonable accommodation to the religious needs of students in observance of holy days. With respect to students, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151C, section 2B reads in relevant part as follows:

“Any student in an educational or vocational training institution...who is unable, because of his religious beliefs, to attend classes or to participate in any examination, study or work requirement on a particular day shall be excused from any such examination or study or work requirement, and shall be provided with an opportunity to make up such examination, study or work requirement which he may have missed because of such absence on any particular day….No adverse or prejudicial effects shall result to any student because of his availing himself of the provisions of this section.”

As a result, the following accommodations will be in place for ALL students on the following dates:
No assignments will be due for any student the day of or the day after the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays. Therefore, there will be no assignments due in any classroom in the Reading Public Schools on September 30, October 1, October 2, 9 and 10.

No tests or quizzes will be scheduled on the days of Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. Therefore, there will be no tests or quizzes scheduled on September 30, October 1, and October 9.

No one-time events such as field trips, music performances, theatre plays and productions, auditions, and back to school functions will be scheduled on the days or eves of Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. Therefore, there will be no one-time events scheduled on September 29th (evening), September 30, October 1st, October 8th, and October 9th.

Absences on Religious Holidays

Parents and students (if age appropriate) are encouraged to notify the school in advance when their child will be not be attending school because of religious or ethnic observance.
Discrimination against any student, because of such individual’s religious/ethnic belief or practice, or any absence based on said belief or practice is prohibited.

1. Any pupil absent from school because of a religious holiday may not be deprived of any award or eligibility or opportunity to compete for any award because of such absence;

2. Students whose conscientious observance of a religious or ethnic holiday conflicts with participating in a school-scheduled event such as tryouts, athletic contests, theatricals, or concerts, will not be required to participate nor penalized for their non-participation;

3. Any absence because of religious or ethnic holiday must be recorded as an excused absence for religious observance in the school register or in any group or class attendance record.

4. Parents should follow the normal procedures when their child is going to be absent to observe the religious holiday and call the parent verification system at the school on the day of the absence or notify the school in advance by email, written note, or phone. If a child is to receive an excused absence for religious observance, the parent must indicate that information in the correspondence with the school.

The RPS Pupil Information Card is located within your PlusPortal account. To review and update the form, login and locate the Forms Tab. As guardians fill these out, they update in both our PlusPortals and our Admin. Plus databases. This will be our database for the year. These are our emergency cards and how you will receive notices all year. Please fill these forms out and keep them up-to-date throughout the year. Paper emergency contact forms will NOT be going home.

In order to volunteer for school activities (for example: chaperoning field trips, volunteering in school events like Halloween Bash or Field Day, volunteering in the library, classroom helper) you must have a current CORI (Criminal Offender Record Check) on file. CORIs are valid for three years and cannot travel between districts or locations. (For instance, if you have been CORI'd for your work it cannot transfer to Killam, you have to do a new CORI at Killam). They can travel between schools in the Reading Public Schools; if you have submitted a CORI form at Parker and are approved we can honor that at Killam. If you are new to the Reading Public Schools or had your last CORI completed three years ago, please come by the office and complete a CORI. You must have a valid government issued ID with you. The office is open for CORI checks from 7:30 to 3:30 each day.

The Town of Reading contracts with William James College to offer a special service for our residents. The William James INTERFACE Referral Service maintains a mental health and wellness referral help line Monday through Friday, 9 am-5 pm, at 888-244-6843 (toll free). This is a free, confidential referral service for individuals across the lifespan living in Reading. Callers are matched with licensed mental health providers from our extensive database. Each referral meets the location, insurance, and specialty needs of the caller. Click here to learn more!

Email: sarah.leveque@reading.k12.ma.us
Website: http://reading.k12.ma.us/killam/
Location: 333 Charles Street, Reading, MA, USA
Phone: 781-944-7831
Facebook: facebook.com/JWKillamSchool
Twitter: @Killamnews