Happy New Year, South School Families!

Welcome to 2025! We hope your holiday season was filled with joy, relaxation, and time spent with loved ones. As we return to school, we’re excited to start a fresh chapter in our One Team, One Dream journey.

The first half of the school year has been filled with incredible moments of learning, growth, and connection. Our students continue to amaze us with their enthusiasm and dedication, and we’re so grateful for the support and involvement of our families in making these experiences possible. As we look ahead, the second half of the school year promises even more opportunities to come together as a community, celebrate our achievements, and support our students in reaching their full potential.

Thank you for being an essential part of what makes South School such a special place. Here’s to a fantastic start to 2025—we can’t wait to see what we accomplish together!

Warmly,

Brenda Lee, Principal

Olivia Goodrich, Assistant Principal

This year, APS is engaging in a comprehensive literacy K-8 review. The goal of this work is to improve our systems so that we can effectively support teachers and families in the hard work of guiding literacy success for all students.

To help inform our strategy, we want to learn more about your family’s experience with literacy curriculum, materials, and assessments through a brief, anonymous survey accessed here: bit.ly/APSfamily. Please complete one survey per household. We hope to have all feedback completed by January 10th. Thank you!

As we continue the K-8 redistricting process, we are pleased to invite the community to highlight areas of interest (i.e., neighborhoods, streets), with an interactive, online mapping tool - ARCGIS. This resource will allow the community to provide visual feedback, written comments, and communicate current challenges to DillingerRAD, the consultant supporting APS with this process.

In Spring 2025, the School Committee will review the proposed redistricting options and vote on the preferred redistricting plan. The approved redistricting plan will be implemented in the 2026-27 school year. This allows the district sufficient time to operationally plan for the new school zones.

Please provide all feedback prior to January 10, 2025. Instructions (video & text) on how to use the interactive tool are below. If you need further assistance, please reach out to Nick Stellitano at nstellitano@dillingerrad.org

See the S'more below for more information and directions on how to use the online mapping tool.

With the upcoming first day of Bradford Ski on January 9th, we wanted to go over the equipment drop-off procedure with you. The Kindergarten Lobby doors will be supervised by a staff member on Thursday mornings from 8:30am - 8:45am. Please enter here and put your child’s ski equipment on the cafeteria stage (look for signs per grade).

Please make sure your child(ren)'s skis, boots, poles, and bag are labeled with their name. This will help with us returning them to you if they are left behind.

Keep in mind that students cannot be left at school until 8:45am so please keep your child(ren) with you until then.

Please remember to change your child’s dismissal each week in PickUp Patrol to “Bradford Ski”. As a reminder, look for communication from DCS as to whether or not it will take place each week (due to weather conditions).

Thank you to all those who donated to our Holiday Toy Drive. As a school community, we made the holidays a little brighter for many children. Thank you to our Community Service group for organizing this effort.

We want to share these dates in advance as we prepare for the upcoming Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing.

MCAS Testing Dates:

• 3rd Grade: ELA 4/8 & 4/10, Math 5/13-5/14
• 4th Grade: ELA 4/3-4/4, Math 5/15-5/16
• 5th Grade: ELA 4/1-4/2, Math 5/8-5/9, STE 5/20-5/21

More information will be shared closer to our testing time.

As we enter winter, we want students to have a consistent outdoor experience between grades and classrooms. To support this, we have set guidelines for temperature/weather type when deciding outdoor vs. indoor recess for all classrooms. Below are guidelines for outdoor recess for ‘23-24 school year.

• Students will be outdoors if the temperature (including wind chill) is 20 degrees or warmer and it’s not raining, sleeting, hailing, or blizzarding.

• If students want to play in snow, they must be wearing snow pants, boots, jackets, and gloves/mittens. If students do not wish to play in the snow, they will remain on the blacktop.

• With a large amount of students out on the playground at each recess, we need to be extra vigilant about safety. There is no throwing of snowballs or ice.

• Label each article of clothing so that if something is misplaced, it can be returned to you as quickly as possible.

Please be aware that all students go outside when the weather meets these conditions. Thanks for taking the time to remind students of the winter expectations. Snow play is beloved by many and we want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to safely enjoy their recess time during these months.

If your child is in need of appropriate recess gear, please reach out to our Social Worker, Andrea Goodman at andrea.goodman@andoverma.us

Communication with our families is essential to the success and wellness of our students. To assist our families and help them connect with the appropriate staff who is best suited to answer questions, we have updated our “Who We Are” page on our website. The information will guide families to resources on how to reach staff with concerns and how to stay connected to news and events across the district.

Want to stay up to date with all the latest PTO news?

Visit www.SouthPTO.com

All students are able to receive 1 free breakfast and 1 free lunch daily during the 2024-2025 school year. Breakfast will be served in the cafeteria from 8:45 - 9:00 and does not need to be ordered ahead of time.

Lunches will need be preordered. It is very important that our cafeteria has an accurate lunch count each day. Please review with your children each morning what you have ordered for them.

Please click below for the monthly menu and more information about Andover's Nutrition Program including how to sign up.

JANUARY DATES

• Mon, Jan 6th: K, 1st, and 2nd Grade Visit by Jerry Pallotta

• Tues, Jan 7th - Tiger Academy Winter Session begins

• Tues, Jan 7th & Wed, Jan 8th: 5th Grade Visit by Paul Revere House

• Mon, Jan 20th: NO SCHOOL ~ Martin Luther King Jr Day

• Wed, Jan 22nd: 3rd Grade Visit by Sheryl Faye

• Thurs, Jan 23: 3rd Grade Field Trip to Lexington Symphony

• Wed, Jan 29th: Early Release - 12:15pm dismissal

FEBRUARY DATES

• Wed, Feb 12th: Grade 5 Choral Concert at Collins Center (evening)
• Mon, Feb 17th - Fri, Feb 21st: NO SCHOOL ~ February Break
• Fri, Feb 28th: Discovery Museum Visits 2nd Grade

Email: brenda.lee@andoverma.us
Website: https://www.aps1.net/405/South-Elementary-School
Location: 55 Woburn Street, Andover, MA, USA
Phone: 978-247-9800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southschoolaps