The Golden Gazette

• 12/2 - PTA Meeting at 6:00p in Rm. 1127
• 12/3 - Sign-up for Parent Teacher Conferences Begins TODAY
• 12/6 - Retakes of School Pictures if student was absent in October
• 12/6 - Coffee with the Principals (High School) 8:00a-9:00a (see Parent Square)
• 12/7 - SAT Exam (see your Guidance Counselor for info)
• 12/9 - Coffee with the Principals (Gr. K-2) 9:00a-10:00a (see Parent Square)
• 12/9 - Scholastic Book Fair begins (runs through 12/13)
• 12/10 - Sign-up for Parent Teacher Conferences Ends TODAY
• 12/12 - First @ Home Varsity Basketball Games - 5:00p and 7:00p
• 12/13 - Early Release (K-8 @ 12:30p, 9-12 @ 11:30a)
• 12/13 - Parent Teacher Conferences (K-8: 1:00p-6:00p) (9-12: 12:30p - 5:00p)
• 12/13 - Bake Sale Fundraiser during Parent Teacher Conferences 1:00p - 5:00p
• 12/13 - Scholastic Book Fair Ends
• 12/13 - Holiday Show "The North Pole Goes Rock & Roll" by Theater Club @ 6:30p
• 12/14 - Holiday Show "The North Pole Goes Rock & Roll" by Theater Club @ 12:00p
• 12/15 - Pictures with Mill City Santa 1:00 - 4:00p in the cafeteria
• 12/20 - Ugly Sweater Day for all students and staff
• 12/20 - Early Release (K-8 @ 12:30p, 9-12 @ 11:30a)
• 12/20 - Deadline to start paying for Prom tickets (Juniors and Seniors Only)
• 12/23 - No School - Winter Break Begins (School resumes on 1/2/25)

Planning ahead:

• 1/2 - School Resumes
• 1/7 - Adult ESL Digital Literacy Class Begins (see below for more information)
• 1/8 - Adult ESL Class Session 2 Begins (see below for more information)
• 1/13 - Mid-Term Exams Begin (High School Only)
• 1/17 - End of Quarter 2/Semester 1 (K-12)
• 1/20 - No School in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• 1/21 - Quarter 3/Semester 2 Begins
• 1/21 - Work Study/Internships begin for select Seniors
• 1/21 - Dual Enrollment course begins for select Juniors and Seniors

If your student was absent in October on Picture Day, retakes for those students will be on Friday, December 6th.

Open Enrollment for the 2025-26 school year begins October 1, 2024. Applications to enroll your student are available on the school's website - www.collegiatelowell.org. Applications will be accepted through February 2025. A lottery, if needed, will be held in March 2025. More details to come. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Sokolski @ ssokolski@collegiatelowell.org or 978-458-1399 x1130.

**If you have a sibling of a currently enrolled student, you must complete an application for that new student.

Recently information was shared with all Seniors about the planned senior activities later this school year, including the senior dues needed to participate in these activities. Seniors were notified that senior dues would be $200 and would include their prom ticket (5/30), senior week field trips (6/2-6/4), their cap and gown for graduation (6/5), their yearbook, and their class of 2025 senior hoodie.

Various payment arrangements are available to spread out the cost of these activities. Students can begin payments today and pay a little each week/month or pay in full when ready. Cash and credit card accepted. Students should see Mrs. Sokolski or Mr. Cameron to make payment.

**Payments for prom tickets ($50) must be started by 12/20/24 (start of winter break).

**Payments for ALL activities must be made by 4/1/25.

The Junior/Senior prom will be on Friday, May 30th @ 6:00 p.m. at Lenzi's in Dracut. Tickets are $50 per person. You must start payment for your ticket(s) by Friday, December 20th - BEFORE you leave for Winter Break. Payment arrangements are available. We accept cash, credit and Apple Pay. We will NOT be selling last minute tickets this year!

On Saturday 11/23 we were able to give 65 families of Collegiate students the opportunity to pick up Thanksgiving food assistance. It was an incredible outpouring of giving in our Collegiate family. This was partly made possible by over 40 of our students volunteering their time packing food earlier in the week.

A huge thank you to both Dwelling House of Hope and Building Blocks Preschool who donated all the food. On behalf of our families, we truly appreciate their extreme generosity this holiday season!

Senior Spotlight articles brought to you by Beatriz De Oliveira Valerio ('25) and Lara Vieira ('25)

Izabelly Serqueira is 17 years old and a very enthusiastic senior. Izabelly was born and raised in Brazil and moved to the United States not too long ago. She is known as Iza around the school and within her friend group. Izabelly has always embodied the Collegiate school spirit and has continuously shown it through cheerleading for the past four years. Iza stated that she has always had an unending passion for singing and dancing; she shared that it has always made her feel “alive and somehow free.” This upcoming cheerleading season, Izabelly is the captain of the team and is looking forward to seeing the team succeed and enjoying her last season with a very promising team. Izabelly is excited to see what happens in these next couple of months as she comes to the end of an amazing chapter of her life and anticipates what the future holds for her. As lively as ever, Izabelly describes the Class of 2025 as best represented by the song “Time of Our Lives” by Pitbull and Ne-Yo.

Tilak Patel is a 17-year-old senior who has been a great addition to our graduating Class of 2025. Tilak or Tili as his friends call him moved from Britain to the United States and found his home at the Collegiate. Tilak is very passionate about football (soccer) for hours on end. Some of his hobbies include the gym, watching soccer, and YouTube. He looks forward to graduation and starting a new life outside the classroom. When asked to describe his class as a song or a movie Tilak was left speechless, we will take that as the Class of 2025 being indescribable.

Victoria Costa, also known as Tori, is 17 years old and very proud of her Brazilian heritage. Her hobbies are very wholesome; she enjoys the company of her friends and family and listening to music. She is very excited to graduate and see where life takes her. Victoria plans to attend college and become an ultrasound technician. Victoria described her class as the color green. A very vibrant color telling you everything you need to know about the Class of 2025.

By: Dr. Katy Angelone, Curriculum Coordinator K-5 Social Studies

Social Studies this year includes a combination of the McGraw Hill curriculum as well as Project-based education. Students will culminate each quarter with a project, which will count as a major assessment. Social studies essential questions aligned nicely with the ELA Essential Questions for each grade, so teachers had students make connections across the curriculum as they incorporated both elements of ELA as well as Social Studies into their final projects, using it as an assessment for both subjects.

Students did a great job observing playground safety on our own playground and determining what makes a safe or unsafe playground. See below for pictures of their decisions:

The end of quarter project for Quarter 1 consisted of first graders examining different locations in their community, and thinking about different members of their community, including animals in nature who lived in the community. Students created a community map and included important locations in their neighborhoods.

Second graders worked very hard to think about locations in their community that were important to them. Additionally, second graders listed important events that happened in their community during the year and listed these events in chronological order on a timeline.

Grade 3 focused on making posters together about the geographic regions of the United States. Students researched major landmarks, food and other aspects of the region.

Grade 4 worked hard to find how their own cultures have an impact on the United States. Students began the project by learning about visible and invisible aspects of culture using an iceberg model. Many students had the opportunity to conduct interviews with family members and friends who had experience living in another country other than the United States. Additionally, students researched about a country they wanted to focus on, and created a slideshow that describes important aspects of the culture of that country. Students who chose to interview someone focused on the country they chose to speak about in the interview. Students were very excited about this project and really appreciated the ability to research cultures that were important to them and to make connections to their impact on the United States’s culture.

Grade 5 researched Native American cultures throughout the United States during Quarter 1. Their hard work culminated in a Game Board Project focused on the life and culture of one of the Native Americans in one of the major regions of the United States. Students created event squares or question cards about Native American cultures. Students designed the game play including game directions, game tokens, and any other components they chose to include in their games. These games were great fun to play and students did an amazing job, showing off their creativity and knowledge of Native American culture in the final projects. Students also included questions about parts of speech and other ELA skills as part of their games.

Grades K-5 created stars and cards for our veterans during the first week of November. Students were visited by either veterans or the family members of Veterans on Friday, November 8th. Our students did an excellent job coming up with questions and being interested and polite listeners for our veterans. Many of our veterans were very emotional after visiting the K-5 classes, and one even stated “These children are our future, they make all of it worth it”. Veterans also had the opportunity to visit an amazing museum exhibit in our school gym, including memorabilia and artifacts from World War 1 through the current day military. The Social Studies department gathered family and friend photos from members of our community to create several posters honoring our veterans. High School students had the opportunity to tour the museum exhibit and meet with veterans from several different wars and events. We had flags from every branch of the military as well as an American flag that were donated to our school by a highly decorated Vietnam Veteran who was the recipient of two Purple Hearts, and a member of the President of the United States’ Committee for Disabled Veterans for four different Presidents. Finally, our chorus did an incredible job singing a patriotic song to our veterans. Thank you to all of our students and staff for a great day!

Buenos días,

In our Spanish 3 and Honors classes, students engaged in a project-based learning experience where they research Hispanic countries, focusing on their festivals, parades, and holiday celebrations. As part of this project, students created PowerPoint presentations and poster boards to showcase their findings.

By: Nicole Palmer, K-5 Math Curriculum Director

Collegiate students are continuing to work on their basic math skills through many avenues such as their math curriculum, through their ST Math progress, and many more classroom activities created by our teachers.

ST Math has been helping students by supporting what they are learning in their day-to-day curriculum. So far this school year, grades K-5 students have completed 423,127 puzzles all together! This boils down to 32% of the whole school year’s math content. What amazing progress! We are ahead of schedule according to the ST Math calendar.

I am pleased to announce our 🏆Winners of the 🐧Jiji 🎃Pumpkin Challenge from October/November!

• In 1st place..... GRADE 1
• In 2nd place..... KINDERGARTEN
• In 3rd place..... GRADE 2

Congratulations! These grade levels received personal prizes with their students. Anything from dance parties and a movie/popcorn day! They had a blast celebrating all of their hard work.

Next coming up is the Snowball Challenge that will follow the rest of December and partly in January! Students are asked to complete as many puzzles as possible during the school day ONLY (not at home!). They are working so hard!

The following students have already completed their Puzzle Goal Progress for the whole year! These scholars are either working on their Bonus problems at the end of their grade level or have been bumped up a grade level on ST Math!

1A: Mrs. Williams’ class: Miriam Mbaka, Safiyah Saify, and Yuanling Cheang

3C: Mr. Rossi’s class: Aaron Lin

3D: Ms. Vercelli’s class: Zhiyoung Soo

4C: Ms. Erin Gallella’s class: Kaique Arruda De Souza, Zoe Sholademi, and Marlo Monteyro

5A: Mr. Damata’s Homeroom: Mark Mulinge

5B: Ms. Capone’s Homeroom: Mayur Patel

5C: Mrs. Pierce’s Homeroom: Tyller Lee and Mason Moeuy

5D: Ms. Elizabeth Gallella’s Homeroom: Davi Mello

I am very proud of how hard the students are doing with balancing learning math through their SAVVAS curriculum, while also working hard on their basic skills on ST Math so that they can be the most successful they can be. I am also proud of the teachers for working so hard to get them there.

Please, stay tuned each month in this newsletter to see if your student’s class is one of the next ST Math winners and for more fun activities from our K-5 Math Teachers!

Patricia Evelyn, K-5 Curriculum Director

This fall, grades 1-5 classrooms have been busy visiting the Pollard Memorial Library. The goals have been to strengthen literacy by having students involved in reading various genres that have piqued their interests, ultimately, increasing reading proficiency Therefore, I arranged library tours, while at the same time ensuring that students would have the opportunity to obtain a library card. To date, more than 95% of K- 5 students have obtained a library card, with more to come.

For the kindergarten students, their library visits were done in their classrooms. The librarian brought pictures of the library, story time and activities. These students’ families have completed their library card applications. They will receive their library cards in the very near future.

Please enjoy the pictures.

By: Sahara N. ('26)

The most magical time of the year is here! The halls are filled with that holiday excitement, and we’re all counting down the days until Christmas break. But sometimes, it be hard to really get into the spirit of the season with all the craziness of school, exams, and everything else. Well, don't worry! I’ve got you covered with some fun, easy ways to spread holiday cheer and make this Christmas one to remember.

1. Deck the Halls (and Your Locker)

2. Christmas Playlist on Repeat

3. Volunteer and Spread Love

4. Plan a Holiday Movie Nights

Grab some popcorn, cozy up with friends, and have a Christmas movie marathon. From Home Alone to The Grinch, It’s the perfect way to relax and get into the spirit.

5. Bake Some Treats

6. Secret Santa

What better way to spread Christmas cheer than with a little Secret Santa? Organize a gift exchange with your friends, or even your whole class. It doesn’t have to be anything big just something fun and thoughtful to show you care.

7. Share Your Christmas Traditions

Whether you’re decking out your locker or just jamming out to Christmas tunes, there’s no wrong way to enjoy the magic of the holidays. Let’s make this season merry and bright, everyone!

Happy Holidays! 🎄⭐️🎁

By: Neissa G. ('26)

EL Parent Advisory Council (ELPAC) is a reoccurring meeting to hear from and communicate with parents of English Learners (ELs) regarding matters that impact the ELs in the district. Through this committee we aim to enhance communication with EL parents and ultimately help EL students be more successful and involved in their educational experience at CCSL. We are eager for input from EL parents on matters of school improvement and ways to strengthen family-school relationships. These meetings will be virtual, and you’ll need a link to join. When singing up, please indicate if you will require a language translator for the ELPAC meeting.

We meet the 4th Wednesday of the month at 8:15a – 9:15a

Contact Sarah Yang, syang@collegiatelowell.org, if interested and/or for more information.

If you have any questions about the below information or need to notify the school nurse(s) about any medical information, please reach out.

Nurse Vilela

• rvilela@collegiatelowell.org
• 978-458-1399 x1429

Nurse Kyla

• ktrail@collegiatelowell.org
• 978-458-1399 x1143

Nurse Mackenzie

• mrome@collegiatelowell.org
• 978-458-1399 x1406

The nurses would kindly request if your child has been to the doctor and has been diagnosed with an illness, please call your child’s school nurse to let them know so we may better care for and assess them upon their return to school.

As we enter the cold and flu season, please keep in mind the following guidelines for keeping your child home for illness. If your child is experiencing any of the following, please keep them home from school.

• The student has a temperature of 100.4. The student may return to school after having a normal temperature (98.6) for 24 hours while not taking any fever reducing medications (ex. Tylenol or Motrin).
• The student requires medication to make them feel well enough to attend school.
• Antibiotics are prescribed. The student may return to school after taking the antibiotics for a minimum of 24 hours and without a temperature over 100 degrees F for 24 hours while not taking any fever reducing medications.
• They seem tired, pale, with little appetite, and generally “not him/herself”.
• The student is vomiting. The student may return to school 24 hours after symptoms resolve, and is able to tolerate a normal diet.
• The student has diarrhea. The student may return to school 24 hours after symptoms resolve, and is able to tolerate a normal diet.
• The student has an undiagnosed rash. A rash may be indicative of many things, frequently of illnesses that are contagious. Therefore, a student will be excluded from school until a physician evaluates and determines the nature and contagiousness of the rash. A note is required from the physician upon return to school.
• The student has severe cold symptoms, a persistent cough, a runny nose that they cannot manage by themselves and/or contain with tissues, or other symptoms that would interfere with effective school participation.
• The student is diagnosed with a communicable disease. (For example, head lice, chicken pox (Varicella), impetigo, scabies, and pertussis). Please contact your school nurse before sending your child back to school.

If your child requires medications such as epi-pens, inhalers, or any other medication to be administered during the school day, and you have not yet provided the medication, please do so immediately.

We also need a new updated doctor’s order and parental consent form each year. Completed forms must be on file with the nurse’s office before medication can be administered. Medication must be delivered to school by a parent/guardian in a labeled pharmacy container.

Back by popular demand, we are excited to reintroduce Collegiate Charter School of Lowell’s (CCSL) Adult ESL English class. This course is designed to enrich our community and help improve participants’ English language skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a fun, interactive atmosphere.

This program is free! Class meets Wednesdays 5-7 pm in room 1125. You may participate in one, two, three, or four 6-week sessions.

2024-2025 Session Dates:

• Session 2 - Beginner and Intermediate: January 8 – February 12
• Session 3 - Beginner and Intermediate: February 26 – April 2
• Session 4 - Beginner and Intermediate: April 30 – June 4

Parents, grandparents, and other adult family of our district’s K-12 EL population are welcome to participate. Childcare is available during class times. To arrange childcare, please email: adultesl@collegiatelowell.org with the age(s) of your child(ren) who will need care. Please communicate childcare needs in advance of the start of your session. Parking is available in the high school lot at the far end of the building. Enter the building through the side entrance there. Follow the hallway to room 1125, the first classroom on the left past the gym. We look forward to welcoming you to class.

We are excited to introduce a 6-week Adult ESL Digital Literacy class for the families of our CCSL community. This class will empower participants with basic technology skills essential for navigating computers, websites, and useful apps. You will learn about the school’s communication tools like Parent Square, newsletter, and email, and understand the educational programs CCSL students use. Additionally, this class provides crucial digital job search and interview skills, ensuring participants are well-equipped for both school-related and professional digital interactions.

This program is free! You may participate in one, two, or three 6-week sessions. Class meets Tuesday 5-7pm in room 1125.

2024-2025 Session Dates:

• Session 1: January 7 – February 11
• Session 2: February 25 – April 1
• Session 3: April 29 – June 3

Parents, grandparents, and other adult family of our district’s K-12 EL population are welcome to participate. Childcare is available during class times. To arrange childcare, please email: adultesl@collegiatelowell.org with the age(s) of your child(ren) who will need care. Please communicate childcare needs in advance of the start of your session. Parking is available in the high school lot at the far end of the building. Enter the building through the side entrance there. Follow the hallway to room 1125, the first classroom on the left past the gym. We look forward to welcoming you to class.