Biddeford Primary School Newsletter

Dear Families,

The cold weather has definitely hit us as we are pushing through January. Please make sure to send your child with a hat, snow pants, mittens, boots, and a jacket each day. If your child is in need of any of these items, reach out to us and we can help. In addition to winter gear, I recommend sending in a change of clothes. Children often come in from recess wet and would benefit from having access to dry clothes. Our staff will be coming inside the building at 8:00 am in the morning and 2:05 pm in the afternoon.

Warmly,

Margaret Pitts

As expected and noted in Superintendent Ray’s update from last Friday (linked below), we received news today that there have been additional updates to the Maine DOE Standard Operating Procedures. Due to the significant increase in COVID cases throughout Maine and the high transmission of Omicron, it is now presumed that anyone can be a close contact. Therefore, school nurses will no longer be doing extensive contact tracing but rather focusing on communicating to parents for these scenarios:

• Positive Results: Personal phone calls will be made to individuals who test positive in a pool.

• Elementary Schools: An email will be sent if there is an individual who tests positive in your child’s class, as well as a school-wide email at the end of the day.

• Middle and High Schools: Due to students moving throughout the building to change classes, a school-wide email will be sent with the number of positive cases at the end of each day. Athletic team participants will also be notified separately, as needed.

• If you have a specific concern regarding your child, please follow up directly with the School Nurse.

We continue to ask families to please be vigilant in monitoring any symptoms of COVID (linked here) and if your child is not feeling well, they should stay home until COVID can be ruled out. PLEASE REPORT POSITIVE RESULTS via the Google Forms below or call the school directly. Although individuals who test positive may leave isolation on Day 6, we want to ensure our school community remains healthy. If your child is still not feeling well or if they cannot wear a mask appropriately 100% of the time, please keep your child home and rest assured it is an excused absence.

In closing, we have ordered additional masks and ear clips to help provide our staff and students with better-fitting masks as an added precaution. For tips from the CDC on improving how your mask protects you, click here.

• January 17th - Holiday - NO School
• February 2nd - Early Release
• February 21st-25th - Vacation - NO School
• March 2nd - Early Release

Mrs. Albert has been our STEM teacher for multiple years and began teaching first grade in the Fall. Mrs. Albert is an excellent advocate for her students and has created a classroom environment that promotes learning and social-emotional growth. Mrs. Albert's classroom is a community filled with student work and the excitement to learn. Mrs. Albert works hard to make learning fun and meaningful.

Willow- Ms. Palladino

Sarahi- Mrs. york

Sean- Ms. Bailey

Bryce- Miss Mara

Emerson- Miss Auman

Aspen- Mrs. Jolly

Saba- Miss Wear

Brayden- Miss Hanson

Harper- Miss Ginn

Cora- Miss Boisvert

Addison- Mrs. Harriman

Xavier- Miss Martin

Emma- Mrs. Donohoe

Daniel - Ms. Labbe

Natalie- Miss Landry

Isabella- Miss Andreychak

Violet- Mr. Molleur

Jayden- Miss Babcock

First Grade

Corbin- Ms. Pallandino

Adrianna- Mrs. Braley

Emmitt- Mrs. Towne

Second Grade

Amariah- Mrs. Wentworth

Winter Reading Challenge was a great success with 71 participants!

What is a Someday? A Someday is when a student or staff member is asked to select something they would like to see happen at school before the end of the year. Students and staff choose something fun and meaningful to them and our BPS team works together to give them this special moment before the end of the school year.

Ms. Domenico brought her dog Sophie to school!

Ezequiel, McKenna, Hussein, and Charlotte from Mrs. Albert's Class all enjoying extra recess for their Someday!

Mascot Design Contest: Youth in our community are invited to design a mascot that inspires and connects us to the pride and spirit of Biddeford Winterfest.

We appreciate families reporting vaccination information, positive cases, and close contacts during winter break. PLEASE CONTINUE TO REPORT POSITIVE RESULTSvia the Google Forms below or call the school directly.

Going forward, an email will be sent informing parents of positive cases and we will continue to make personal phone calls if your child tests positive due to pooled testing. We ask all families to pay close attention to their emails for the possibility of notifications related to their child(ren) and follow the instructions within the email for modified quarantine, symptom monitoring, and testing.. If you are not receiving emails from the school, please update your information in Infinite Campus or contact the school directly.