Dear Brown MS Community,
I hope you and yours have enjoyed the summer thus far! For some parents, teachers and students, August can feel like one big Sunday in terms of thinking about school. I am working hard to not see it that way and am enjoying the slower pace, being outdoors and seeing friends and family. This newsletter is intended to provide you with some information about the upcoming school year. There will be more specific information, including student team assignments, the last full week of August. Until then, enjoy the remainder of the summer!
Our custodians and office staff have been working all summer to get the school ready for opening day. Head Custodian, Steve Peruzzi and his team continue to empty classrooms, give them a thorough cleaning and waxing, and then put them back together again. All of this without air-conditioning! We owe them a huge thank you. Administrative Assistants Courtney Ross, Nandine Timperio and Dianne O'Sullivan Gard have been organizing student records, helping with scheduling and ordering all of the supplies needed to run our school. They will be joined on August 23 by our newest administrative assistant Marinela Golemi in the main office. Welcome, Marinela! Finally, my administrative team of Julian Turner, Ruthe L'Esperance and Samantha Bracy have been creating our teams, student schedules and planning for next year. There is much that happens in the summer at Brown and I am thankful to all of them for making it all happen!
This summer my family was lucky enough to be able to spend 2 weeks by the ocean in Maine. The first week was a family reunion which was fun and exhausting. The second was just my immediate family and time to recover, unwind, read and sleep. My daughter heads back to North Carolina for her second year of college in a couple of weeks and my son continues to look for an internship for this fall in computer science (a graduation requirement for his college). Parenting continues to morph for me as my "adult" children of 19 and 22 continue to both impress me with all they can do while also frustrating me by ignoring items I leave on the stairs. (See this video for a depiction of what I am talking about from the Holderness Family.) I am trying to balance giving them freedom with holding them to our house rules. It continues to be a work in progress.
We are looking forward to welcoming all of our students back on September 5th! Whatever you do for the remaining weeks of the summer, I hope it is filled with whatever it is that you love most.
Best,
Kim Lysaght, Principal
Summer Reading
The selections for this summer's reading for middle schoolers are below. There are still about 4 weeks left of the summer so students still have a chance to complete this! Students are expected to read a minimum of 2 books this summer. See below for each grade level.
6th grade: Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom by Booki Vivat + one more book (student choice)
7th grade: Linked by Gordan Korman + one more book (student choice)
8th grade: Select one book from this list and one more book (student choice)
Suggestions for books to read:
The MS Library Team put together an expansive list of summer reading suggestions! Visit our Summer Reading webpage, to see suggestions organized by genre. The list is a mix of middle grade and YA (marked as such) titles, and they linked books to SORA (free ebook/audiobook app) whenever available.
Bus registration for the 2023-24 school year is now open. All students who wish to ride the bus MUST register for a bus pass. Bus registration will close on August 20, 2023 to allow adequate time for review of bus routes and to ensure buses are not overcrowded.
The following information is only relevant to students who wish to purchase a bus pass in order to ride the bus:
The bus fee has increased to $400, with a family cap of $800.
All elementary students who reside LESS than 2 miles from their elementary school must now pay a bus fee.
Students in Grades K-6 who reside MORE than 2 miles from their school DO NOT pay a bus fee.
All students in grades 7-12, regardless of their distance from the school, pay the bus fee.
Please use this link to determine your distance from your school.
Registration and payment for the bus is done through your MySchoolBucks account. Follow these bus registration instructions to register. More information on bus registration can be found on our NPS Bus Registration webpage.
Installment payment plans will be available. Financial assistance is available for those who qualify. Please visit the financial assistance webpage for information and instructions on how to apply.
To ensure your student has a seat on the bus on the first day of school, please register by August 20, 2023.
Questions? Please email bus_transportation@newton.k12.ma.us or call (617) 559-9051.
We will have detailed information to share regarding how lunches will work this coming year soon from the district. In the meantime, if you are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, we encourage you to apply. Please click this link to apply: Food Services/How to Pay for Meals/Financial Assistance tab
As a result of budget challenges, all fees have increased for the 2023-24 school year. Please see the annual fee letter linked below for details on district wide fees, family and super cap information, and financial assistance.
District fees are paid through MySchoolBucks (MSB). MSB has two sides of its website - Lunch Account and School Store. Once you create an account, you must add your students in order to access the school store and lunch accounts.
- Lunch Account is used solely for food purchased at school. This account can hold a balance and is completely separate from the school store. You are not allowed to use your lunch account balance to pay for products or invoices; however, you can request a refund of your lunch account by submitting a form on the NPS website Lunch Refund Request
- School Store is where you will pay for activities and fees. Families are able to pay for an activity/fee by either purchasing “products” or receiving invoices, depending on the activity/fee.
Please watch the video How to create a MSB account to learn more.
Financial Assistance
If you believe you may qualify for financial assistance, or if any of the fees present a financial hardship, please visit our financial assistance webpage. You may apply for financial assistance using our Aspen student information system portal.
More Information
More information regarding fees can also be found on the NPS fee website. For help with MSB or questions regarding fees, please contact the business office at 617-559-9025 or email feepayments@newton.k12.ma.us.
