OMS Pirate Press Newsletter

It's hard to believe but it's time to head back to school on Tuesday, August 27th! Thank you to those who were able to attend Popcorn with the Principals/new student info and tours. It was great to see our students and families and meet so many new students and families. We are looking forward to an awesome year ahead and can't wait to see our students on Tuesday! The info you'll need to prepare you for the first day and week are below. Please have patience this week as we navigate many changes to start the school year. . We are looking forward to having students join us Tuesday morning for a 7:20 start! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

This is a jam packed issue as we prepare for school opening!

• Schedule for the Week of August 26-30th
• Info regarding student schedules
• How to be prepared for school--School Supplies
• Transportation/Morning Drop Off and Afternoon Pick Up/After School
• Breakfast and Lunch Info
• Fall Sports Info-LAST CALL
• Be The 3/Advisory
• OMS Welcomes new staff
• From the Health Office
• Save the Date info for upcoming events
• Helpful district and school resources

• Monday, August 26th:
• OXPS Staff 1st Day
• No school students. Get a good night's rest tonight!

• Tuesday, August 27th:
• First Day of School for Students
• Doors open 7:20 a.m. Students report to the following locations upon arrival on 1st day:
• Grade 6 report to cafeteria
• Grade7 report to auditorium
• Grade8 report to gymnasium
• Students will be picked up by their first period teachers from these spaces.
• Class Meetings by grade in Auditorium
• School documents and materials sent home with students for parental review, signatures, and submissions.
• Wednesday, August 28th: Regularly scheduled day
• Thursday, August 29th: Regularly scheduled day
• Friday, August 30th: Regularly scheduled day

Student schedules are available to students and families through the Power School portal. If you are having difficulty accessing portal, please email tech support for OXPS techsupport@oxps.org .

Note:

• OXPS may make changes in individual student schedules based upon student support needs.
• Grade 7 and 8 students were either scheduled for Reading and Literacy OR Spanish . This is a full year class. Those students enrolled in Spanish were recommended for Spanish as they are at grade level skills in ELA and found success in Exploratory Spanish.
• Students will be scheduled for choral and band classes as we begin the school year, as we've done in the past, so you will not necessarily see that on your child's schedule currently.
• Unified Arts courses will run daily for 30 day cycles.

Besides getting a good night's sleep, limiting screen time, making sure you have breakfast and hydrate, and have a positive attitude for a great school year, the following is recommended for school supplies:

• Bring your chromebook and charger to school daily, charged and ready to go.
• Store your chromebook in a computer case cover. Carrying them loose or stuffing into back packs with other belongings can result in damage to computer--loose hinges, cracked screens, etc. These damages could cost you money, so please care for your Chromebook!
• Grade 6 students will be supplied with new chromebooks during the first week of school.
• Have a writing utensil with you daily--pencils preferred.
• Have a refillable water bottle with you daily to fill up at our water stations--refillable clear water bottles preferred.
• Have the right school equipment. See the recommended school supply list below, created by grade level teams.
• The Supply Lists are located on the district website linked here https://oms.oxps.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2070226&type=d&pREC_ID=2128527 and below is a list of suggested school supplies for OMS students by grade level.

• Grade 6 Supply List Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cS3n1ujmEw_JMFu-FmRo5jCSScvBzWeLmUaIUkMl1sE/edit?usp=sharing
• Grade 7 Supply List Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r0BL-b7clmjGBu_oOjjsib1PvzU9wfaeJdjkH9T7igE/edit?usp=sharing
• Grade 8 Supply List Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19z7FHoImS0aF2wEDra7keOo43ZD6ZJMU0BMjlSYrA4s/edit?usp=sharing

• Bus Transportation
• Bus routes and transportation are linked here: https://www.oxps.org/apps/pages/transportation
• Bus Riding info-seating, drop off time and afternoon dismissal time:
• OMS students ride the bus with OHS students. OHS students will sit in the rear of the bus and be dropped in the morning and picked up in the afternoon first.
• OMS students will sit in the front of the bus and be dropped at 7:10 at the Middle School, when doors open.
• Bus riders will be dismissed at 1:50 ahead of walkers and private transportation pick up line as buses need right of way to depart first so that the buses can make their afternoon elementary runs in a timely manner. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
• Bus stop safety: All school rules apply at the bus stop and on the bus. Students should be waiting at the bus stop, visible, and safely off the roadway.
• Morning Drop Off: Please pull into the lot, using the cut off between front drive and open field to travel and park facing Main Street in the 3 parent drop off lanes parallel to Carbuncle Drive to drop students. PLEASE BE COURTEOUS OF ALL STUDENTS AND FAMILIES AND PULL ALL THE WAY UP TO DROP OFF. This is very important for us to get all students into our building on time. Do not park head into curb. Do not pull out mid-lane, but wait for line to move forward. Do not pull forward to front doors as that is reserved for buses and specialized transportation. Please do not park in parking spaces next to building as that is reserved for staff. Doors will open at 7:05 a.m. daily. Classes begin at 7:20 daily. Buses have the right of way.
  
• Afternoon Pick Up: Students riding bus will be dismissed first at 1:50. Student walkers and private transport riders will be dismissed at approximately 1:55. This is to be sure that buses can get to their elementary runs without issue in response to the busing changes in Oxford. Just like morning pick up, please pull into the lot, using the cut off between front drive and open field to travel and park facing Main Street in the 3 parent drop off lanes parallel to Carbuncle Drive to drop students. Do not park head into curb. Do not pull out mid-lane, but wait for line to move forward. Do not pull forward to front doors as that is reserved for buses. Do Not park in parking spaces next to building as that is reserved for staff. Please do not block Main Street. Buses have the right of way. Please also do not drop along Main Street, Carbuncle, or Rear lot by Project Coffee for traffic safety reasons.
  
• After School: Students must be in a scheduled, supervised activity after school. Students are only permitted to stay after school if they are on a OXPS sport or have been invited by staff to stay for help session, detention, or a club or activity AND have a signed permission slip to do so.
• Late Buses: We will have late buses for the school year, which will run at approximately 3:15-3:30.

Student meals are free this year and available daily to students.

Our breakfast for the first day of school will be grab and go.

Students arriving late to school will be able to obtain a grab and go breakfast daily upon arrival.

The lunch menu is linked here: https://www.oxps.org/apps/pages/food_menus

Registration for Fall Sports is Now Open! Please use the following link to register: https://sites.google.com/oxps.org/athletics/registration

Here are the sports offered for OMS students:

• Boys and Girls Soccer (grades 6-8)
• Boys and Girls Cross Country (Grade 6/7 at OMS and grade 8 at OHS-there will be an 8th grade waiver for OHS cross country)
• OHS Golf - (7th and 8th grade only)
• OHS Field Hockey - (7th and 8th grade only, but there is a grade 6 club, see below)
• OHS Football - (8th grade only)
• OHS Volleyball - (8th grade only)

Contact Kevin May, Athletic Director, with any questions. mailto:kmay@oxps.org

Want to be involved and learn more about Field Hockey? Please consider joining the OMS Grade 6 Field Hockey Club. Information is below.

Students will have a student advisory once every 5 days. Advisory will be a place where we work together on important school community based topics. We will discuss The Big 3 and the qualities-Respect, Responsibility, and Safety. We will work on our community, team building, anti-bullying, goal setting, study skills, etc. We will use the research based curriculum Character Strong.

Oxford Public Schools has implemented The Big 3 in all district schools as a way for us to focus on the following objectives in our community: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Safe. We've provided an opening draft of this to share with you that we'll be discussing with students and staff throughout advisory and classroom discussions. Staff and students will have a voice annually to contribute to our goals so that we can work together to have common language to discuss common goals to create a positive learning environment. https://docs.google.com/document/d/15-060yNVgDZMH7NFR0tDz-Rlx8Hk-ZkTxzBQlSHX0Yg/edit?usp=sharing

New to OXPS:

Mr. Keller, Assistant Principal

Ms. Cronauer, LTS Nurse

Ms. Hannon, ELA Interventionist and Reading Teacher

Mr. Krajcik, Information Technology Staff

Mr. Lucibello, Grade 7/8 Reading Teacher

Mr. Mayotte, grade 8 Civics

Ms. Mead, Special Education Instructional Assistant

Ms. Nasis, grade 8 ELA

Mr. Standrowicz, Title 1 Math

Ms. Souza, Special Education Teacher

OXPS Staff New to OMS This Year:

Ms. Illoven Instructional Assistant, grade 6

Ms. Hinckley, Nurse

Mr. Craig, Grade 8 Math

Ms. Tallis, Math intervention

Mr. Salonich, evening custodian

am excited to introduce myself, Amanda Cronauer, as the new OMS school nurse for the 2024-2025 school year!

Please if you have not done so already, send in a current physical with update immunization records It is important we have update information in our system.

Those wanting to drop off medication for your child to take during the school year please contact me. You will need a doctor's order and a signed parent/guardian consent form when dropping off the medication. We cannot accept medication from a student. This includes students requiring inhalers and epipens.

Feel free to reach out anytime with questions or concerns: acronauer@oxps.org.

We are excited to continue our work with Animal Assisted Therapy Services Massachusetts (AaTs) Therapy dogs will be visiting us on Wednesday mornings at OMS. Please see the attached letter that provides information about therapy dogs.

OMS is in need of 4 parents/guardians/caretakers to join us on the School Advisory Council, as outlined in DESE Ed Reform Act of 1993. The Council is instrumental in discussions surrounding our school. The focus of this group is to discuss means to continually be reflecting and evaluating ongoing ways in which we can be improving our schools. We will have 4 meetings per year, held at 3:30 p.m. If you are interested in serving on this council, please email Principal Leigh Joseph at ljoseph@oxps.org

• First Day of School for 2024-2025 School Year: Tuesday, August 27, 2024
• OXPS School Year 2024-2025 Calendar: https://4.files.edl.io/4acb/01/24/24/145713-e7ec4bb5-ee84-4575-880d-b5dc3f62160b.pdf
• Upcoming Calendar Notes:
• No School Monday, September 2nd (holiday)
• No School for students Tuesday, September 3rd (state elections at schools-Teacher PD Day)
• Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conference Dates:
• Monday, November 25th afternoon and evening times available
• Tuesday, November 26th: afternoon times available
• Thursday, March 6th: evening times available
• OMS School Picture Day: Tuesday, October 8th
• Halloween Dance: Friday, October 25, 2024 6:30-8:30

• Are you getting text messages of our automated calls/texts/emails? If you are not currently receiving text prompts about school and district news, please send a message to the number 22300 and type ALERT in the message in order to receive texts in the future.
• Our District Calendar can be found via the following links:
• District School Day Calendar: https://4.files.edl.io/4acb/01/24/24/145713-e7ec4bb5-ee84-4575-880d-b5dc3f62160b.pdf
• District Events: https://www.oxps.org/apps/pages/district_calendars
• School Hours The link to the school hours is here: https://www.oxps.org/apps/pages/school_times
• • At OMS, doors will open to students (buses and drop-off) at 7:10--this is a change of 5 minutes from 23-24 school year. All OMS classes will begin at 7:20 a.m.
    
  • At OMS afternoon dismissal will run as follows: bus riders' dismissal 1:50; walkers, bike riders, and private transport dismissal 1:55
• Electronic Backpack: Please be sure to remember to check the electronic backpack for forms, letters, community announcements as well. The link to the electronic backpack for OMS is as follows: https://oms.oxps.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2070226&type=d&pREC_ID=2128528
• School Transportation Information: https://www.oxps.org/apps/pages/transportation
• School Breakfast and Lunch Menu: https://www.oxps.org/apps/pages/food_menus

Please support OMS and FOMS (Friends of Oxford Middle School) by attending Feast for FOMS at Papa Gino's in Webster on Thursday, September 12th 11 a.m. -8:00 p.m. 20% of all qualifying sales during this time will be donated to FOMS, who supports OMS! The flyer is below.

OHS Nothing Bundt Cakes Fundraiser runs through September 6th. Cakes are $7 each and come in a number of different flavors. See the attached pictured.