Byam Newsletter

September 24, 2021

All School Roar

On Friday we celebrated our all-school roar from last week's fire drill. Our entire school showed their 3 R's and conducted an efficient and safe drill. Our exit time was extremely quick for the beginning of school and for the first drill for many of our students. To ackowledge this great deal we presented the roar during each grade level lunch and showed a fun animated short called Dustin.

Chelmsford Professional Development

This week staff participated in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Professional Development. IDEAS, a Massachusetts based company who specializes in working with schools led an informative session on Wednesday with the district. Over the course of the year the Chelmsford Public Schools will engage in two more PD sessions on this topic with the goal of making our community accessible and welcoming to all.

Notes from our Byam Nurse Pool Testing and Test and Stay

We will begin weekly pooled testing next week!

Our testing day will be on Tuesdays. Our testing team will go door-to- door to each classroom and perform a lower anterior nasal swab. Test samples will be placed in a vial and sent to the lab. If a positive test result is obtained, all testers from that vial will be tested again with a Binax rapid antigen test to determine the positive individual. From there, school contact tracing will begin for that positive individual.

As a reminder, pooled testing is only for those who are not experiencing Covid symptoms, so if your child is not feeling well please do not send your child to school or come for testing.

If you had signed your child up prior to Thursday Sept 23, your child will be tested on Tuesday Sept 28.

If you would still like to sign your child up for testing after Sept 28, the link is below.

I would also encourage you to sign your child up for Test and Stay, which is also in the provided link. In this program, if your child is identified as a close contact to a positive individual from a school exposure, your child may remain in school during their quarantine period provided they are without symptoms and their daily Binax test result is negative. You can find more information about both programs by reading the CPS Covid-19 Health Protocol on our school and district website.

Pool Testing Consent and/or Test and Stay Consent Google Form Link Below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfSHazJ4EQvmKRfes5QkMmCdcjOjrqpTlecVxPd6PXMlmLZA/viewform

Thank you for considering your child's participation in these testing programs.

Our goal is to to keep our students and staff healthy and safe at school!

Good Health to All,

Nurse Regan

Flexible Seating Library Reading!

Library Volunteer Sign Up

Thank you to all to signed up to volunteer in the Byam Library! It has been wonderful to have parents helping. The students and I are grateful for the support, and it allows for a smoother and more fruitful library experience for everyone. It is not too late to sign up. Even if you can only come a few times a year, we'd love to have you! Grandparents are welcome too. Please make sure you have an up-to-date CORI form. If uncertain about your Cori status, please email or call one of our great Byam office staff members Anne Dossin or Stella Murphy to inquire.

Library Sign up Link: https://tinyurl.com/ex7vcvhf

Thank you!

Betsey C. Driscoll

Byam School Librarian

"Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true." Ruth Bader Ginsburg

BSA Update News

Boo Bash - October 16, 2021, 4:00-7:00pm! $10/child

The BSA would like to cordially invite you to the 7th Annual Boo Bash, at Byam School on October 16th from 4-7PM. Wear your costume and get ready for some spooky fun! We need YOU to make this a successful fundraising event. Cost: $10 ticket per child buys access to the Trunk or Treat, the Haunted Library, Creepy Courtyard and one time around the Cake Walk. Cash and PayPal/Venmo accepted via GiveButter. No refunds. Additional activities for $1: Fortune Tellers, More Cake Walking, and games! Cash only & no refunds.

Event coordinators are also looking for community members with specialized vehicles (dump trucks, excavators, old-fashioned cars, etc.) that would be willing to participate. Email Amy Domow at aktdomow@gmail.com if you are interested, or if you would like to help plan for next year! Let’s get spooky!!!

Sign up to participate at the Boo Bash:

Trunk-or-Treat (link updated)

Pumpkin Carving (FREE! New this year!)

Cake Donations & Volunteers

School Picture Day Fundraiser

School Picture Day Fundraiser 10/13/2021!

School photos are October 13th! Did you know that school photos are a PTO fundraiser for the whole district? Each school’s PTO receives proceeds from the company that help bring out enrichments to the schools! Members of the BSA were on the search committee last year as we looked to renew/evaluate vendors. We worked to being a new vendor to the district this year! We are excited to work with geskus! Order forms will be sent home soon, and you will have the option to order online.

Save the Date for Bandingo 11/3/2021!

Mark your calendars for Virtual Family Bandingo Night on Wednesday 11/3! More information and sign ups coming soon.

Save the Date for the Byam Hootenany 3/26/2022:

Byam's got talent... so Lions, get your acts ready! Signups for the 18th annual talent show will be emailed home in the next week!! Act previews will all be done virtually starting in November/December. Hopefully performers will be live on stag, but if not, we will record again as we did last year. We will have Art Cover Contest, 4t Grade EMCEE’s, 4th Grade Ukulele’s – let’s see what we can do!!

Hootenanny Questions? Email: ByamHootenanny@gmail.com

BSA Meeting 10/13:

Our next BSA meeting is on October 13th at 7:00pm in the Byam library and streamed virtually for those who cannot attend in person. There are lots of ways to get involved other than attending the meetings. Consider signing up to collect tickets or helping at a concession stand for a future event.

Stay Connected to the BSA:

bsa.chelmsford@gmail.com

www.fb.com/byamschoolchelmsford