McGovern News!

Last week was our first week with a singular cafeteria and students could not be more excited! Faculty and staff did a great job previewing the expectations and new routines and our transition from two cafeterias and students sitting at their own table to one cafeteria and enjoying lunch with friends seemed seamless. A staff member shared that students were walking out of school and remarked, "The cafeteria is so sick!" I am certainly thrilled that students are so excited to eat with friends at a common table...something we have certainly taken for granted the last two years.

Today, we started a new mini-preschool classroom. We welcome our new friends to the McGovern School, they had a great first day!

It's really hard to believe we are only 8 days away from April vacation. When we return from break, this marks the final hurdle of the school year and when things really come together for students. It also marks the beginning of our planning for next year. As we communicated last week, parents/guardians have an opportunity to share information related to placement. Please see below for more information.

Have a great week ahead!

Best,

Amy McDonald, Principal

Dear Parents and/or Guardians:

During the month of April, we begin the process of constructing classes for next year. It is a very complex and time-consuming task, but it is, perhaps, one of the most important things we do to ensure a quality learning program for every child. Class lists are planned carefully, sensitively, thoughtfully, and with great deliberation. When placing students into classes, we base our decisions on the following goals:

• To balance classes with respect to the physical, academic, social, and emotional needs of the respective members.

• To ensure appropriate instructional groupings within each class.

• To provide a gender balance in each classroom, whenever possible.

• To consider the effects that individuals have on one another in order to provide an optimal learning environment for the entire group.

• To maintain an equitable teacher-pupil ratio.

While we believe that we are in a position to know your child’s learning needs, we recognize that parents have insights that may help us in the placement process. If you have information about your child’s learning style or needs that you would like taken into consideration, please share it, using one of the below Google forms, by Friday, April 8, 2022. Letters received after this date will not be taken into consideration. Please understand that this is not an invitation to choose your child’s teacher or classmates. We ask that you refrain from requesting a specific teacher or writing personal descriptions of staff members. Letters naming specific teachers or stating personal descriptions of staff members will not be considered.

Instead of naming or describing a teacher, tell us about the type of learning environment in which you feel your child will be most successful. If you have had a prior personal experience with a teacher through an older child, and prefer not to have a younger child be assigned the same teacher, you may include this information in your letter.

The decision for the placement of each child rests with the building principal based upon the goals listed above and on what is fair and equitable for all children. Please feel free to reach out to your child’s school administrator if you have any questions.

McGovern Forms:

Placement Parent Information- Entering K (current preschool students)

Placement Parent Information- Entering 1st (current kindergarten students)

Placement Parent Information- Entering 2nd (current 1st Grade students)

Burke-Memorial Forms:

Placement Parent Information- Entering 3rd (current 2nd Grade students)

Placement Parent Information- Entering 4th (current 3rd Grade students)

Placement Parent Information- Entering 5th (current 4th Grade students)

Sincere thanks,

Amy McDonald

John Kelley

We are excited to announce that Burke-Memorial Elementary will be hosting a clothing drive starting April 4th to support Project 351’s Spring Service mission. Project 351 is a non-profit youth-led organization for positive change in Massachusetts. Spring Service is a statewide campaign led by each town’s ambassadors. Our town is collecting children’s clothing in support of Cradles to Crayons, a non-profit that provides children living in low-equity situations with the essential items they need to learn and thrive. Donation bins will be placed near the main office for students to donate new or gently used clothing as they enter the building.

The drive is looking for:

• New or gently used children's clothing sizes newborn to 12-14.
• Socks or pajamas must be unused

We are pleased to share our Spring After School program offerings for students in grades K-8. Flyers will be in your child’s backpack on Thursday, March 31 with registration on FamilyID opening at 5:00 p.m. The registration links may be found here: McGovern School, Burke-Memorial School and Medway Middle School.

We are also happy to share our latest brochure with the community. Online registration on FamilyID for Spring and Summer programs opened March 4.

Spring After School Programs for students in grades K-8 will begin the week of April 25. Flyers will be distributed to students on Thursday, March 31, with online registration via FamilyID opening that same day at 5:00 p.m.

We are excited to announce the return of Summer of Discovery for all interested families of rising K-8 students! This program will take place from August 15-19 from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. with an extended day option from 2:00-4:00 p.m. The goal of this week-long experience is to support students’ successful transition back to school in the Fall. Daily activities include a combination of academic skills, social and emotional engagement opportunities, arts, nature, and fun. A light breakfast and full lunch are available for all participants. Transportation will be provided. Please mark your calendars and be on the lookout for information to be shared soon.

Kindergarten registration has started for the 2022-2023 school year. 2022-2023 school year kindergarten students must be 5 years old by August 31, 2022. Registration information will be available in the superintendent’s office, the McGovern School, and online.

You can find important information and events leading up to kindergarten in this document, the Road to Kindergarten. Finally, please mark your calendars that we will offer kindergarten camp from July 11-15, 2022. The link to sign up online is located on this document with all of the information about Summer Kindergarten Camp.

We will host a virtual event for incoming kindergarten families on April 26, 2022 from 6:00-7:00 PM. This will be an opportunity to learn more about our school, our curricula, routines, and how to get ready for the big day! You will need to register for the event which you can do, by clicking here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

We hope to "see" you there!

Clean Sweep

Join MEPTO for Medway Clean Sweep on Saturday, April 9th at Memorial

11-12:30! We will do light spring clean up and beatification tasks. Bring your families, work gloves, garden tools and MEPTO will provide the rest! Sign up using the link below. Any questions please email medwaypto@gmail.com

Clean Sweep sign Up

Yearbook

A reminder that the last day to order your 2021-2022 elementary school yearbook is Friday, April 8, 2022. To order your yearbook, please visit this link. Click “order yearbook” and use password BMYB2022.

Basket Raffle

Save the date! The MEPTO Ice Cream Social & Basket Raffle is taking place on Friday, May 6th at 5:45 at Medway High School. Please take a moment to read about MEPTO's Ice Cream Social and Basket Raffle

Hello Parents and Guardians,

Medway Parent Teacher Organization (MEPTO) is delighted to reintroduce our annual Basket Raffle and Ice Cream Social on Friday May 6th 5-7pm. This is a fun, elaborate event which involves staff, students, friends, and families of grades Pre-K through 4th grade. We are kindly asking for a volunteer from each classroom to coordinate the collection and assembly of the classes’ basket. This classroom coordinator places a collection bin for the children to fill with theme related products for about 3 weeks then retrieves the bin, purchases a basket which displays the items collected, wraps them in cellophane and drops them off at a designated location. Look out for more event details in the coming weeks!

If you’re interested in being a MEPTO Basket Raffle classroom coordinator or would like to be involved with executing this event please email Joy Bush at Bush.Joy@gmail.com and we will choose the coordinator based on the timestamp of the email.

With your email please include:

• Your first and last name

• Your child's name

• Child’s teacher and grade

On behalf of MEPTO, School Staff, and the Elementary School Community Thank You for your support.

Sincerely,

Angelica Crosby and Joy Bush

MEPTO Fundraising Chairs

Annual Campaign

After a two year hold on our annual campaign, the MFPA is embarking once again on a month-long campaign to help us reach our funding goals for the 2022-2023 school year. $5 for Fortissimo is our way of saying that by giving a donation of $5, we can make a big impact collectively! Every donor that makes a donation until Friday April 8th will be entered into a drawing to win a Season Pass - (2) tickets for one show of each of the following; High School Play, High School Musical, and Middle School Musical for the 2022-2023 school year! The winner will be announced at the MFPA Family Concert April 10th! For cash or check donations, utilize the attached form. There are collection boxes at the main office of each school to place the donations. The MFPA thanks you for your support as we continue our mission to foster and promote excellence in the performing arts programs in the Medway Public Schools.

Medway Family Concert 2022

The MFPA is so excited to bring back our Medway Family Concert after a year hiatus from the Pandemic. In partnership with Medway Marches, we are pleased to provide a free concert, open to all, on April 10th at 2pm in the Medway High School auditorium. We will be listening to the Caribbean sounds of the PanNeubean Steel Band. Members of PanNeubean Steel band have extensive resumes that include both National and International tours, Music Awards and Recordings. They have worked alongside numerous popular artists in the music industry. With the help of these fine musicians PanNeubean Steel strives to showcase the steelpan so that it may be heard in a variety of music genres and therefore secure its place as the latest and most versatile acoustic instrument. We hope your family will join us for a fun afternoon of music. Complimentary refreshments will be provided at the end of the performance.

We are pleased to offer weekend groceries for interested MPS families. If you would like to order groceries on a weekly basis, please complete this Weekly Order Form. Grocery orders can be delivered (within Medway) or picked up from 3:15-4:15 PM on Thursday afternoons. Pick-up takes place at Medway Middle School (door 24 via Kelly St. entrance). If you have any questions, please reach out to groceries@medwayschools.org.

We are excited to share that camp registration opened on February 1. The Summer Adventures Camp offers 7 weeks of social engagement and tons of fun for children entering Kindergarten through Grade 6 in September. Early drop off and late pick up options are available for families as well. For more information and to register, please click here.

Dear Allied Arts Families,

The Allied Arts Team (Wellness, Music, Art and Science) will be hosting Open House events for the McGovern School! Mark your calendars:

• PreK families

• May 4th, 3:30-4:15

• Kindergarten families

• May 4th, 5:30-6:30

• First Grade families

• May 18th, 5:30-6:30

More information will be shared as we get closer to the date, but we wanted you to mark your calendars for these fun upcoming events! Please reach out with any questions!

Brad Shoenfelt, Wellness

Elyssa Glassman, Music

Emma Wallace, Art

Stephanie Fogaren, Science

As you know, the district has communicated in the weekly COVID-19 Update, that we are continuing to see reductions in weekly case counts. As case counts continue to decline, we have updated our communication practices to reflect this reality. We will no longer be sending weekly COVID updates. Families can now access real-time data which is available for viewing via our website: COVID interactive dashboard.

The Parent Portal within Infinite Campus, our student management system, is a vital resource to help families stay up to date on students’ assignments, grades, and contact information. If you are a family that does not have an account, please email parent@medwayschools.org and we will forward a personal activation code to create one. ALL families are asked to please complete the Online Registration [OLR] option, better known as the “beginning of year packet,” within the parent portal system. This process allows parents to see the information we have on file and make updates if needed. We also require review and sign-off of our Responsible Use Policy and Handbook as part of this process. If you haven't already, please complete this process by selecting MORE (on the left menu) then Online Registration from the menu options.

Every child needs a healthy, nutritious meal to learn. Medway Public Schools offers nutritious meals to children each school day and breakfast and lunch will continue to remain free of charge through this school year. Please be sure to check out the menu here to ensure your child likes what is being served that day. You can find the menus by clicking on this link.

Due to the 2 snow days, the last day of school for the 2021-2022 school year will now be Wednesday, June 22, 2022. There is no school on Monday, June 20, 2022 in observance of Juneteenth. Should we need to cancel school again this year, this date will move again.

If you are not receiving email communications from the district or the schools, we are here to help. Please email parent@medwayschools.org and a team will work to ensure that you are connected.

April 15: No School, Good Friday

April 18-22: No School, Vacation

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