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Salem Public Schools Update

News for our families

Salem PublicSchools UpdateNews for our families

Superintendent's Message

November 10, 2021


Dear staff and families,


The Salem Public Schools is committed to providing our students with equitable access and strong educational experiences across our 11 schools. This commitment is captured by our SPS equity statement that serves as the introduction to our core improvement work. As many of you are aware, to fulfill this commitment, Salem Public Schools has established a series of four strategic priorities and twelve initiatives that are accompanied by eight measurable goals. These priorities are intended to provide the strategic focus over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. See here.


With an established direction, it is incumbent on our school district to develop a structure for planning, organizing, monitoring, and reporting out about our school and district progress. We expect this to be an ongoing conversation with our community about how the district uses human and fiscal resources to accelerate outcomes for students.


Each of our schools has aligned its school improvement plans (SIPs) to these priorities, establishing school-specific initiatives and goals that speak directly to our strategic direction. These plans can be found here for each school.


Additionally, for the first time ever, the district has created district improvement plans (DIPs) that detail the key buckets of work associated with each one of our 12 priorities. While we are still building out the specific action steps, we wanted to be transparent about the focus of the various initiatives.


These are intended to guide district-level work, which means assessing the plans and determining the next steps on an ongoing basis. Part of the ongoing review process is to look at what's working, what's not, and adjust our approach accordingly. We look forward to sharing this work with the community.


As a next step, we would love to hear from you if you have any questions, suggestions or just want to talk about the exciting work ahead! More specifically, if you would like to be included in the conversations or provide feedback on the planning processes, please complete this form. Some DIPs will advance their work through formal working groups while others are more integrated into the ongoing work of the district. Thank you in advance for any input that you might want to offer.


Best,


Steve

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Cone of Excellence

At Salem Public Schools, we are recognizing one staff member a week who exemplifies our core values of celebrating differences, facilitating collaboration, fostering innovation, creating equity and access, growing all students, and upholding high standards for all. We are surprising a deserving SPS team member with a construction cone that displays the words: “Awesome,” “Well Done,” or “Great Job.”


The cone of excellence this week is presented to Mrs. Myra Caldeira. Mrs. Caldeira is the transition coordinator at Salem High School. You can find her every morning in the lobby at SHS greeting every scholar as they enter the building and consistently advocating for all students. Mrs. Caldeira is always solutions-oriented and has consistently volunteered to be on various committees to support Salem High School's redesign. Her energy, ideas and passion for Salem Public Schools is always an asset to our community!

SPS Vaccine Clinics

Thank you to all the families who are supporting the health & safety of our schools, community, and your families by ensuring their students get vaccinated! We hosted our first two successful pediatric vaccination clinics at Bentley & Carlton this week and have a clinic on Saturday at salts (slots are currently filled).


We are working with our partners to manage the supply of doses and distribution of clinics across our elementary schools. Our partners at Mass General Brigham (MGB) & Fallon Ambulance (through the state) are making it possible to have clinics at all of our K-8 schools by Thanksgiving.


There will be two types of upcoming clinics:

  1. MGB on-site vaccination van clinics during school: These clinics will be open to the school community first and then available to others if there is extra capacity. These clinics will have ~30-60 appointments each. Guardians will need to sign paper consents that go home with students, but do not need to be present. Sign up will take place through ParentSquare. Please watch your inbox.

    • Confirmed - Bates Elementary School - Tuesday, 11/16 from 7:30am-9:00am.

    • Waiting for confirmation - Saltonstall K-8 - Wednesday, 11/17 from 12:30-2pm.

    • Confirmed - Horace Mann Elementary School - Friday, 11/19 from 7:30am-9:00am

    • Confirmed - Salem High School, 12 and over only - Friday, 11/19 from 9:00am-10:00am

  2. Fallon state vaccination clinics: These will be larger clinics and Fallon does have an electronic consent option that will be shared when sign-up is available. Guardians will need to provide consent but do not need to be present. Sign-up will be announced through ParentSquare and will be directly through Fallon's online platform.

    • Confirmed - Witchcraft Heights Elementary School - Friday, 11/19 from 8am-11am, only pediatric (ages 5-11) vaccines. Appointments will be available to WHES families first then the public.

    • Confirmed - Collins Middle School - Friday, 11/19 from 1pm-5pm. Pediatric doses (5-11). Appointments will be available to CMS families first then the public.

    • Waiting for confirmation - Collins Middle School - Friday, 11/19 from 2pm-5pm. Adult booster doses. If you are interested in an adult vaccine on Friday 11/19, please complete this short form so we can share the information with our partners.

    • Confirmed - Saltonstall Auditorium - Saturday, 11/20 from 10am-4pm. Appointments will be open to all. Pediatric doses (5-11) only.

Note: All clinics will offer the second dose exactly three weeks later.


If your student needs the vaccine to meet our extracurricular policy that requires at least the first dose of vaccination by December 1st to participate in athletics, drama, band, or chorus, please be sure to sign-up for the clinic at Collins Middle School or Salem High School, visit the Salem Teen Health Clinic at SHS, or find an appointment at your doctor's office or a pharmacy.


We do encourage families to look for appointments at our local pharmacies (Walgreens or CVS) or your pediatrician, as the supply at those sites seems to be higher.

COVID-19 and Flu Vaccination Resources

Need more information or have questions about the Covid-19 vaccine?


The Department of Public Health has the following communication resources available about COVID-19 and flu vaccinations:

Salem High School Multilingual Newcomers family night

magic at leap

Are you interested in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields?! Are you hoping to explore a career field of interest, expand your experience, and engage in a meaningful relationship with a mentor? THEN, look no further!

LEAP has teamed up with MAGIC to offer middle school and high school girls an opportunity to have a 1:1 mentoring relationship with an inspirational and successful career woman in STEM. Starting in the new year, you meet on-line with your mentor who is from the field of your interest to develop a project of your choice. Examples include:

  • Interactive Phone Apps

  • 3D Modeling

  • Creating Programs with Python

  • Using Robots for Website Design

We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to build your resume and make a new professional connection that will help with your next steps!

PROGRAM DATES: January 2022 to May 2022 (2-3 hours per week)

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Monday, November 29th

VIDEO, FLYER & PRESENTATION: Click on these materials for more info!


Have questions? Contact LEAP volunteer (Steve Becroft) at sbr19541972@gmail.com.

Schedule a meeting with Superintendent Zrike

Dr. Zrike would love the opportunity to meet with any SPS staff or SPS family who would like to do so. It could be in a park, a coffee shop, your home, or anywhere else.


If you would like to schedule some time with Dr. Zrike, please email Mindy Marino to set up a time and place.

The virtual Backpack

Welcome to the Virtual Backpack. This is a space where we will place items that in the past may have been a flyer in your student's backpack from friends and partners to SPS.
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Download the ParentSquare app today!

A reminder that ParentSquare is the district platform for communication. You will receive communication from the district, your school, and your student's classroom all in one space. You can communicate 1-to-1 with teachers, sign up for parent-teacher conferences, and more.


This is how the schools will communicate with families districtwide going forward. Please be sure you are receiving messages from ParentSquare. If you are having trouble, contact your school's front office. You can visit www.parentsquare.com for more information.

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