Knightly News

Dear North Andover Families,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. I am excited to welcome you back to a new school year. As much as I love summer, ever since I was a little girl, I've always cherished those moments when the night air turns a bit cooler, signaling that the return to school is just around the corner. It’s no wonder I made public education my life's work—this truly is the most exciting time of the year for me.

As we embark on this new school year, I want to share my deep optimism for the fresh opportunities ahead. Together, we will continue to prioritize our students' needs, ensuring they grow into confident, capable, and happy individuals. Our collective efforts will shape an environment where every student can thrive.

This year, I am particularly looking forward to engaging with our community and students and listening to your hopes and dreams for the future of North Andover Public Schools. Your insights and experiences are invaluable as we work to create a bright and inclusive future for all our students.

Thank you for your partnership and the continued trust you place in us. I wish you all a wonderful conclusion to the summer break and a fantastic start to the new school year.

Warm Regards,
Pamela Lathrop
Interim Superintendent

• Wednesday, August 28: School Opens for Grades 1-12

• Friday, August 30: No School

• Monday, September 2: No School- Labor Day

• Tuesday, September 3: Kindergarten Orientation

• Wednesday, September 4: School Opens for Kindergarten

• Wednesday, September 4: Preschool Orientation

• Thursday, September 5: School Opens for Preschool

With the new school year comes new bus routes. All bus routes are posted online on the district website (linked here). Please be early to the bus stops for the first few weeks until the drivers get the routes down. Make sure you check your mail for information on school transportation; we've mailed out hundreds of letters. If you signed up, you would have received an envelope in the mail with a student bus tag and ties for backpacks. Have those read for the first day of school. Please reach out if you have any questions at all. Thanks for your support!

The North Andover High School track is being redone in the coming weeks. Thanks to the Town of North Andover, we were able to secure the funds that will allow for the full renovation of the track, which, if you've used it recently, shows incredible wear and tear and is in a state that is unsafe for our students and community. From August 30 through October 10, the track area will be completely closed so that the contractor can do their work without disruption. Please respect the signage and stay away from the area for your own safety over that 5-6 week period. Thank you all for your consideration and support with this important project!

Dear NAPS Community,

I hope you have all been able to take some time to enjoy this summer with your students. It’s hard to believe the excitement of a new school year is already upon us! On behalf of the School Committee, I’d like to welcome our faculty, staff, and students back to the 2024-2025 school year and wish you all a year filled with joy, curiosity, new experiences, laughter, friendships, and of course, all the learning that comes along with each of those moments.

This summer the School Committee has been hard at work. Normally we take the summer off only to meet for our summer retreat, but there is so much work to do and we are steadfast in that work. We were pleased to appoint Ms. Pamela Lathrop as Interim Superintendent at our last meeting. Ms. Lathrop has been the Acting Superintendent since April and has been an exemplary leader to our district. With her help the district has been working to secure our financial footing coming out of the FY24 deficit. We are still awaiting the financial audit from CLA and hope to have it soon.We know we have more work to do to secure financial stability, but are keeping an eye toward building a positive future for our district. We will be working to begin a Superintendent search and will be seeking community input throughout that process.

As a district, we have been through some challenging times recently. A favorite quote I often remind myself of is “if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” If we want to be a better district, if we want to be better for our students, and if we want to be better for ourselves, challenging times will get us there. Together let’s bask in the aura of hopefulness for the future of NAPS and the excitement of a new school year.

With kind regards,

Alissa Koenig

School Committee Chair

While a quick look outside tells us that there is still some summer left to enjoy, here at Community Programs, we are gearing up for the fall.

The Kids Stop after-school and Breakfast Club before-school programs will, once again, be offered at the ABECC and at all five of our elementary schools. We are also hard at work planning a full slate of enrichment programs, which we are excited to share with the community. You can look forward to a wide variety of courses, including arts & crafts, cooking, science, sports and yoga to name a few!

The fall excel enrichment list of activities will be released for registration on October 1, 2024 with classes starting the week of October 21, 2024. Please see our link to the excel programs page: Click Here. Have a great start to the school year. Best of luck!

As the new school year begins, supporting our youth's mental health is more important than ever. The new school year can bring feelings of both anxiety and excitement as students transition into a new grade, perhaps a new school, and are all in turn learning and growing into who they are. We have provided a Back to School resource packet for parents who are navigating through this time. Click here to access the flyer.

By working together, we can create an environment where our children thrive. Remember, Care Solace offers valuable mental health care coordination services to connect you with community-based providers for counseling, therapy, and more.

To access Care Solace: Call 888-515-0595: Their multi-lingual helpline is staffed 24/7/365. By joining hands as a community, we can provide a nurturing environment that supports the mental health and well-being of our youth. Let's prioritize their emotional growth and create a brighter future together.

North Andover Public Schools has partnered with Care Solace in order to help support the mental health needs of our community by connecting families with therapeutic supports. More than 500 dedicated multilingual Care Companions are available 24/7/365 to ensure the perfect fit for each person’s unique care needs and insurance requirements. The organization has a network of more than 420,000 licensed providers, serving more than 800 organizations across the United States.

Welcome back to school! We hope you had a great summer vacation. Our department has been hard at work this summer cooking up new recipes that we know our students are sure to love!

Over vacation we were pleased to partner with Project Bread and offer our Summer Eats Program. Breakfast and lunch were offered daily at Atkinson and Franklin as well as lunch at Thomson. We serviced an average of 50 kids a day at each site. Kids ate a well-balanced nutritional meal and participated in a variety of lawn games and raffles, too.

Permanent free meals for all students in Massachusetts continues for the 2024-2025 school year. The first breakfast and first lunch of each school day is free of charge. Should a student want double lunch for instance, the second lunch must be paid for from funds in the student's debit account.

As a friendly reminder all ABECC and elementary school families need to register for an account on LINQConnect.com. Families will need the student's ID number to register. Student ID's can be found in PowerSchool. Once registered, families can then register for an online ordering account using the portal family.onlineordering.linq.com. Once your online ordering account is established families can then start pre-ordering meals.

We do not accept cash at any of the Elementary Schools or ABECC. Ice cream will be offered for purchase on Fridays of each week at all elementary schools, except Kittredge. Ice cream costs $2.00. Your student's LINQ account must have funds available on the day of service to purchase ice cream. Only parent online ordering accounts have the authority to preorder ice cream. If you rely on your student's teacher to pre-order meals for you, please note that teacher online ordering accounts do not have the ability to order ice cream on your student's behalf.

Although all meals are free, a new meal application must be completed annually to receive free or reduced bussing, Community Programs and/or Athletics. You can fill out an application online at LINQConnect.com. Direct Certification letters are being mailed out this week. If you are in need of any assistance or have any questions you may contact Wil Herrera at herreraw@northandoverpublicschools.com

The school district is always looking for energetic and caring people to join our pool of substitutes in our eight schools. We are instituting a new program to make the process as efficient and user-friendly as possible. The Frontline Absence Management platform will allow you to get notifications of daily coverage needs via a mobile app, online portal and/or telephone. Another change is that subs will be able to work in all schools or select one or more preferred locations. Interviews for new substitutes will take place every Thursday afternoon during the school year. Background checks and a new part-time employee packet will need to be completed prior to starting in this important position. More information is on the district HR webpages (linked below). Thanks for your consideration and have a great school year!

In accordance with Massachusetts Special Education legislation, North Andover Public Schools is making every effort to locate, identify, and evaluate children who may have a disability and may be entitled to specialized educational services. Regardless of the severity of the disability, it is the North Andover Public Schools' responsibility to determine if the child is eligible for special education or related services under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) or 306 CMR 28 (Massachusetts Special Education Regulations). Referrals may come from a parent, physician, preschool program, or early intervention services. The age limits include three-year-olds (preschool) through twenty-one year-olds up to the twenty-second birthday. All inquiries or new referrals should be sent to Lyn O'Neil, Interim Director of Special Education, 566 Main Street, North Andover, MA 01845.

oneill@northandoverpublicschools.com

Thank you!

Judy Nigrelli and Tony Reynolds were inducted into the School Committee Educator Hall of Fame in 2023. Judy will be the keynote speaker at our opening day events just before school begins for students in August. This October, we will have another ceremony to honor an incredible long-time North Andover teacher. Mark your calendars and please join us on Wednesday, October 30 at 7pm. Thanks for your support!