WMS Family Smore

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I want to begin with a sincere apology for the many inaccuracies on the paper mailings of student advisory assignments this week. Thank you to families for your patience, especially with pre-teens and teens anxiously waiting to find out what cluster they are in. We had some clerical errors, and are working hard to ensure this does not happen again. We are also hoping to work on transitioning away from paper mailings for placement information to digital emails in the next year.

On Tuesday morning, our whole admin and counseling team will be ready to help any student get to their advisory so they can meet their teacher and receive their full schedule. Teachers are also ready to help students adjust to the new schedule, and help students get to where they need to be. We are beginning and ending our day in advisories on Tuesday, to ensure students feel a sense of community from day one.

Here is the cover letter with general information, and here is a list of teachers' room number, advisory, and cluster for the year: Advisors 2023-2024. Please note that this advisors document has been updated since the paper copy was mailed. We will help all students get to the right advisory on Tuesday morning. All students will receive their full schedule on the first day of school. As a reminder, Grade 6 students will meet their Advisory or cluster teacher in the cafeteria and will be guided to their advisory classroom. Grade 7 and 8 students will go directly to their new Advisory classroom. Teachers will be out in the hallways to welcome students and give directions. For access to the handbook that families are signing off on reading, click the red button above: WMS Family Handbook 2023-2024.

In the meantime, if you need assistance, the best place to start for scheduling help is with our grade level counselors:

• Grade 6: Thomas Cloherty, thomas.cloherty@watertown.k12.ma.us
• Grade 7: Jody Gladstein, jody.gladstein@watertown.k12.ma.us
• Grade 8: Amanda Skypeck, amanda.skypeck@watertown.k12.ma.us

Finally for scheduling, here is the WMS Bell Schedule 2023-2024, which has important dates and times for the year.

This year the District is launching a new way for parents/guardians to report student absences. We will be using this google form to streamline the process and to be sure we are correctly determining excused and unexcused absences. There will be a button to this form at the bottom of future WMS newsletters, including this one.

In the event that a student is absent, a parent or caregiver must call the absence hotline at 617-926-7783 or submit the absence form before 7:45am. Please state the name, grade, homeroom of the student and the reason for their absence. In the event that the absence is not reported, a Robocall will automatically go out to the student’s home or the place of employment of the parent or caregiver to inform them that the student is absent. Students are responsible for working with their teachers to make up work they missed while absent.

It was great to see some students and families for popsicles with the principal on Wednesday! Huge shout out to our WMS PTO for sponsoring that and for providing our teachers with breakfast on Thursday as well. If you are interested in joining with PTO this year, reach out to our new co-PTO Presidents Elena Poillucci <elenapoillucci@gmail.com> and Melissa Parker <melissapisces@yahoo.com> with any questions or to express interest in joining next year.

The rest of this newsletter is just a repeat of the one sent on August 28th. See you on Tuesday!

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We hope you are as excited as we are for the first day of school - Tuesday, September 5, suggested 7:35am student arrival for our new 7:45am start time!

Please see this message from our nurse Lisa Gallagher: WMS Nurse S’more - August 28

Free Breakfast & Lunch! We are excited to share the news that Massachusetts has now permanently made breakfast and lunch free for all students! This is great news for our school, District, and State! Breakfast will grab-n-go in the cafeteria as students head to Advisory to start their morning each day.

Are you moving? If you are moving out of Watertown, please let us know so that we can plan accordingly by contacting our administrative assistants laurie.brackett@watertown.k12.ma.us and kelsey.johnson@watertown.k12.ma.us.

I want to give a huge shout out to our custodial, technology, and administrative staff who has been working hard this summer to get the WMS building ready to start the school year next week! Please know that we are in continuous communication with the Watertown High School and district administration about the adapting we will all be doing in these coming weeks as we prepare to be good hosts for the next few years. We, along with high school administrators, will be working with teachers to set and maintain appropriate boundaries between 6-8th and 9-12th grade.

All teachers are joining for our opening days of professional development tomorrow. We will be planning to help students next week adjust to our new schedule, and establishing a strong sense of community as we begin our year.

Until next week, encourage your pre-teens to SOAR like a WMS Eagle (Service, Ownership, Achievement, Respect) as we prepare to get back into the routine of school.

Respectfully yours,

Ms. Jennifer Chen Fein, Principal

Ms. Susan Carle, Assistant Principal (Clusters 1, 3, 5)

Ms. Jennifer Sarmiento, Assistant Principal (Clusters 2, 4, 6)

Doors open at 7:30am for students to get free breakfast if they need to, and get to their advisory classroom. We strongly suggest that students plan to arrive by 7:35am every day to give themselves time to prepare for the day.

Regular school day: 7:45am-2:15pm

Half day (see district calendar below in "Upcoming Dates"): 7:45am-11:45am

We will be offering many club and sports opportunities for after school, with more information coming soon.

Families will receive information about bussing from the district in the coming weeks.

This WMS Summer Work website is where students will find ALL summer work (including math and English assignments in addition to OSOB) and a list of school supplies needed for the school year. Students can bookmark this site.

Here is our WMS One School, One Book Reveal Video! Our choice is: Alone by Megan E. Freeman!

The WMS Site Council is a body of students, faculty, parents, and caregivers that plays a strong role in the vision and direction of our school. For example, the WMS School Improvement Plan 2023-2024 was written in collaboration with the Site Council, teacher, and district leaders last year, and will be informing our work as a staff and school this year. We are looking for caregivers, especially those who can be with us for two or more years, to join!

This year, the WMS Site Council will be meeting on the following Wednesdays from 4-5pm, virtually, unless otherwise listed.

• September 27 (in person at WMS)
• October 25
• November 29
• January 3
• January 31
• March 27
• May 1
• May 29 (in person at WMS)

The WMS PTO is starting the year strong by sponsoring the Popsicle Social tomorrow on the WMS Waverley front lawn!

We will likely be meeting on Mondays this year. The PTO focuses on supporting WMS students and teachers in opening days, end of year celebrations, field trips, and spirit throughout the year.

Reach out to our new co-PTO Presidents Elena Poillucci <elenapoillucci@gmail.com> and Melissa Parker <melissapisces@yahoo.com> with any questions or to express interest in joining next year.

Reach out to Sarah Seldomridge at sarah.seldomridge@watertown.k12.ma.us with any questions or to express interest in joining next year.

• September 5: First Day of School, Trimester 1 begins
• September 20: School Picture Day
• September 21: WMS Open House (6-8pm)
• September 27: Early Release Day (11:45 dismissal, students will see all classes for shorter periods)
• October 1: monthly update from teachers in WMS Smore
• October 2-5: i-ready diagnostic tests for math, reading (Special Schedule)
• October 9: No School - Indigenous Peoples' Day/Columbus Day
• October 18: Trimester 1 Progress Reports sent to families
• October 19: Early Release Day (11:45 dismissal, students will see all classes for shorter periods), Teacher-Caregiver Conferences
• October 24: Early Release Day (11:45 dismissal, students will see all classes for shorter periods), Teacher-Caregiver Conferences
• October 30: monthly update from teachers in WMS Smore

• Watertown Public Schools Calendar 2023-2024
  

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Website: https://wms.watertown.k12.ma.us/
Location: 68 Waverley Avenue, Watertown, MA, USA
Phone: 617-926-7783