Shaw Community Update

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, and Community Members,

As we embrace the opportunities of 2025, we are delighted to warmly welcome back all our students, parents, teachers, and staff. Together, we embark on a new chapter, confident that our combined efforts will keep Shaw a hub of inspiration, exploration, and achievement. Thank you for your continued support—let's make 2025 a year of academic excellence, joyful experiences, and cherished memories!

Your input and support continue to be invaluable to us. Our doors are always open, and we encourage you to reach out to us at any time.

Warm regards,

Andrew Tuccio & Erin Rosenkranz
Raymond E. Shaw Leadership Team

Charleston Wrap Fundraiser: We raised $1,842 for our school store! Thank you so much to all who helped us raise these funds to enhance our Shaw Spirit!

Our visit with Jarrett Krosoczka was a day to remember! Thank you so much to the Parents Club for funding this absolutely EPIC experience for our students. And…congratulations to our 4th graders for winning the Lunch Lady themed hallway decorating contest! Everyone’s efforts in making this day a success are much appreciated. Jarrett loved seeing all the little (and big) ways we showed off our #wooliebooklove and made him feel welcome. Looking forward to more fun celebrations as we kickoff #wooliebooklove month in February!

Millbury Public Schools School Calendar 2024-2025

The use of personal electronic devices is prohibited in school. Devices that are in school shall be turned off and placed in the student’s locker for the duration of the school day. This applies to all personal electronic devices including but not limited to cell phones and smartwatches. The expectation at Shaw is that students keep their devices turned off and kept in their bag while it is stored in their locker for the duration of the entire school day. Students are also not allowed to use such devices on school buses. We appreciate your support.

The following can be be found on page 98 of the Millbury Public School District Handbook:

Consequences:

• 1st offense
• Item will be confiscated and given to an administrator.
• Parents/Guardians will be notified of action and may be required to retrieve the confiscated item.
• Student may have a consequence deemed appropriate by administration.
• 2nd offense
• Item will be confiscated and given to an administrator.
• Parents/Guardians will be notified that the next infraction may result in an in school suspension.
• A parent/guardian must retrieve the confiscated item.
• Student will have a consequence deemed appropriate by administration.
• 3rd offense
• Item confiscated will be given to an administrator.
• Parents/Guardians will be notified.
• Student will have a consequence deemed appropriate by administration.
• Parent/Guardian must retrieve the confiscated item on the last day of school.

We have confirmed the dates for this year's Nature's Classroom trip, April 9 - 11. We are offering three options again this year.

• Nature's Classroom Informational Meeting: To Be Determined
• Cost: $350 Overnight / Ext. Day $265 / $120 Days Only

• The Millbury Parents' Club fully funds transportation

• Overnight: Depart 8:30 Wednesday April 9th & Return 1:30 pm Friday, April 11th

• Day: Depart at 8:30 am and return at 1:30 pm. Daily

• Ext. Day: Depart at 8:30 am and return at approximately 9:15 pm. Daily

• (Depart Charlton at 8:45pm)

• Students will be able to take a bus to and from school and have breakfast at Shaw

• Lodging and all meals (Overnight / Sleep Away)
• Lunch (Day)
• Lunch & Dinner (Ext. Day)

• Limited financial assistance is available for students. If you are in need of financial assistance, please contact Mr. Tuccio at (508) 865-3541 or atuccio@millburyschools.org

  
  

The Shaw Spirit School Store is open, and we need your help to keep it going. Shaw’s school store allows students to use their Woolie Bucks to purchase various fun and educational items. We're seeking your support to help start keeping it stocked. If you’d like to help enhance our selection, please consider donating items from our Amazon Wishlist. Your generosity will benefit our students, giving them more choices and encouraging DREAM behavior. Some more expensive items will be used for school-wide raffles as part of the school store. Thank you for supporting our school community!

The Millbury Parents Club will have its January meeting on Tuesday, the 14th, at 7 p.m. location TBD.

As usual, they will have our Kidz Korner open. It will be staffed by members of the National Honor Society, who will be available to play and do crafts with small children. We hope to see you there!

This month in our STEAM classes, students are diving into exciting hands-on projects and problem-solving challenges that connect the dots between technology, creativity, and real-world applications.

Our youngest innovators are exploring programming patterns in everyday life! By reviewing games like Get 10 and Dots and Boxes, students are discovering how strategy and coding connect to decision-making and problem-solving. They’re learning to see technology as a tool for creative thinking.

The Scratch wizards in 4th grade are stepping up their coding game! They’re animating and coding characters to create motion and tell stories. From moving characters to interactive animations, they’re bringing their imaginations to life while building a strong foundation in computational thinking.

Our 5th graders are pushing the boundaries of innovation! They’re diving into robotics through the VEXX curriculum, learning how machines and code come together. They’re also exploring the fascinating world of generative AI and quantum computing to understand how these emerging technologies are shaping the future.

The 6th graders are engineering Skimmers—hand-built vehicles designed to glide across the floor for over 100 feet. With just a manila folder, some creativity, and teamwork, these students are mastering aerodynamics and testing the limits of their designs.

Through these engaging projects, our students are discovering how science, technology, engineering, art, and math come together to inspire innovation and make learning fun. Stay tuned to see what they’ll create next!

This month’s community meeting was all about the A in DREAM: actively participating in learning. We focused specifically on perseverance and how to use a growth mindset when tasks get challenging or it gets more difficult to focus this time of year.

In their recent science unit, fourth graders showcased their understanding of how internal and external animal structures contribute to growth and survival in various environments through an engaging STEAM activity. Each student was assigned a habitat and tasked with inventing an animal equipped with at least three structural adaptations to thrive in that environment.

As part of the project, students explained in writing how these structures supported their animal’s survival, created detailed diagrams illustrating the structures, and brought their ideas to life by building a model of their animal.

The unit concluded with an Animal Adaptation Showcase, where students proudly presented their projects to family and friends. This event provided an opportunity for students to share their learning and demonstrate how external structures enable animals to adapt and thrive in their environments.

This month, 5th Graders started their Project Lead the Way unit focusing on Matter: Properties and Reactions. Students conducted experiments to investigate the Law of Conservation of Matter. Everyone loved being hands on scientists and participating in this hands on lab!

We want to extend our sincere gratitude to each and every one of you who attended and supported our 3rd Annual Winter Breakfast event. Our volunteer sixth-grade servers did a phenomenal job. It was a joy to witness the spirit of unity and community as we gathered to celebrate the season together.

A big thank you to the kitchen, custodial, and office staff members whose dedication and hard work were instrumental in organizing and ensuring the success of the winter breakfast. Your efforts behind the scenes do not go unnoticed.

Furthermore, a special acknowledgment to the staff from other grades and subjects who joined us in this celebration. Your presence and support from different areas of our educational community enhanced the sense of unity and collaboration, making the event a true representation of our diverse and vibrant school spirit.

We very much appreciate the raffle basket donations from members of our community. They were built with sincere thought and care and were a huge hit!

We want to express our heartfelt thanks to the following businesses who generously supported this endeavor by means of monetary/supply/table donations:

• Boxdrop Mattress & Furniture
• Vaillancourt Folk Art, Inc.
• JT's Corner Store
• Total Muscle Therapy
• Goretti's Supermarket
• H & H Dance Academy Inc.
• Joshua Morin - Life Skills Martial Arts
• ACCESS TCA Inc
• Algieri & Sons Masonry Inc.
• Susan Dineen
• Douglas Fire Association
• Treehouse Brewing Co.

A special thank you to Goretti’s Supermarket for the orange juice donation. Your support not only added to the success of the winter breakfast but also demonstrated the strength and unity of our local community.

And of course, a huge thank you to our amazing sixth-grade teachers, especially Mrs. Wuerthner and Mrs. Plaud! You all went above and beyond, and it truly showed at the winter breakfast. Your support and enthusiasm made the event so special. We all truly appreciate your dedication to creating a welcoming and inclusive space for all our students.

Do you want to help promote the love of reading for students at Shaw? This year at Shaw we will once again have The Birthday Book Cart. Every day after a student has their birthday recognized during morning announcements they will get to choose a book they WANT to read and keep from The Birthday Book Cart. If you would like to support The Birthday Book Cart you can purchase a book from our Amazon Wish List or please feel free to drop off new books or donations to purchase new books at the main office at any time.

We are thrilled to continue offering lessons from the Choose Love curriculum to all students at Shaw. This curriculum teaches foundational concepts and skills of social-emotional learning through lessons on courage, gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion in action. Click the following link for an introduction to Choose Love.

Curriculum information can be found on the District's Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment website.

• District Curriculum Resources

• MA Curriculum Frameworks

School Nutrition Services is looking forward to a great year! We are mainly going digital. Please fill out the following information if you would like to sign your children up for half-day lunches or to sign off on sharing information with other departments in the district.

• Half-Day Lunch Order Form
• Millbury Nutrition Services Website
• Millbury Nutrition Services Facebook

Email: shawadmin@millburyschools.org

Website: https://shaw.millburyschools.org/
Location: 58 Elmwood Street, Millbury, MA, USA
Phone: (508) 865-3541
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raymond.shaw.3150

The Millbury Public Schools ensures equal employment and educational opportunities for its employees and students and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity (M.G.L. c. 151B and 151C, Title VI, Title VII, and Title IX), or on the basis of disability (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973/ADA) or homelessness. In addition, the Millbury Public Schools does not discriminate against its employees on the basis of age (M.G.L. 151B/ADEA) on the basis of veteran's status, or genetic information.