West Elementary Weekly Update

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 ‘24 - '25 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. We use Weatherbug.com to determine the temperature.

• On questionable, cold days the office will make an announcement before the first recess announcing outdoor or indoor recess. If no announcement is made then it is outdoor recess.

• 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. A reflection form will be used to re-teach and discuss the safety concerns if a student does not follow this rule.

• 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.

The West Elemetnary, Andover Girls On the Run has opened enrollment to female identifying students in grades 3-5. The program meets twice a week for eight weeks and is led by parent, community and teacher volunteers. Coaches lead fun lesson and games, group discussion and physical activities. In addition to this, each team will dream up and complete a Community Impact Project and end the session with a celebratory 5 K run. Please see registration information below.

Site/Team Name: West Elementary, Andover

Grades: 3rd-5th

Practice Days & Times: Thurs/Fri 3:30pm-5pm

First Practice: Thurs April 3rd

Celebratory 5K: TBD (either 5/31 or 6/1)

Program Fee: $225 Financial Assistance available!

GOTR Contact: please forward questions to Danielle Cogliano , dlcogliano@gmail.com or visit https://www.girlsontherunboston.org/

to learn more about this program.

We are all working to manage the age of technology and are looking for support between school and home. Many children have new smart devices and the elementary schools have some guidance.

A kind reminder to our families that cell phones must be turned off and in students’ backpacks at the start of the school day. Smartwatches may be worn as regular watches, however, students are not allowed to text, communicate with others, use applications, take pictures or videos, or access social media services and websites.

Should parents/guardians urgently need to reach their child during the school day, we ask that you call the main office. Students are also allowed to come to the main office if they need to contact someone at home. If a cell phone or watch becomes a significant distraction, school administrators will reach out to parents/guardians. The Andover Public Schools is not responsible for lost, stolen, damaged, or broken devices.

To promote healthy digital habits during the school day, the resources below may be helpful to use. We appreciate your partnership as we work to keep interruptions to the school day at a minimum.

Resource for Apple Watches:

How to set a School Time schedule

• Open the Watch app on your iPhone. Tap All Watches, then tap your child's watch.

• Tap Done, then tap Schooltime.

• Turn on Schooltime, then tap Edit Schedule.

• Choose the days and times when you want Schooltime to be active.

• Tap Add Time if you want to set up more than one schedule in a day.

Resource for Gizmo Watches:

How to set up School mode

• Open the. Gizmo Hub app.

• Tap the. School mode switch. turn on or off. If necessary, set up a School Mode schedule.

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.

APS Redistricting - Interactive Map

APS Redistricting - Interactive Map - Introducing ARCGIS - Online mapping tool for APS families by Andover Public Schools Communications | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, businesses and more

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