Bates Family Newsletter

Please join me in welcoming Mr. Craig Macarelli (pictured right) who joins us as our new assistant principal on Monday, March 11th! Mr. Macarelli brings strong leadership expertise and an unwavering commitment to students' social/emotional well being to Bates. If you see him outside at afternoon dismissal, please introduce yourselves!

There's so much to look forward to in March! It's the start of Bates Creates: A Celebration of Learning that honors all things literacy, math, science, engineering, and art. See below for more information. It's also National Women's History Month, so shout out to all the strong women out there in the Bates community who are amazing role models to our young learners.

Bates Creates: A Celebration of Learning (formerly the Literacy Festival) will begin Monday, March 18th through Wednesday, March 27th.

Our theme this year is "Learning from Mistakes"!

What do your students have to look forward to?

• Classroom door decorating contest based on one of our featured books depicted in the graphic above. The winning classroom will receive a set of books for their classroom library!
• Poster and writing contests
• A special art-related project, "A School of Care and Wonder," with a focus on community building imagined by our artist in residence, Claudia Paraschiv. Who is Ms. Paraschiv? See below! During art classes next week and Town Hall on 3/20, students will create a personalized leaf that will hang from a spectacular art installation in the Bates lobby.
• The famous Character Parade, 3/22 @ 8:15, and flashlight reading

AND...

The Bates Creates Celebration Night - Save the date! Bring the whole family!

Wednesday, March 27, 5:30 - 7:00 pm

With a spaghetti dinner sponsored by the PTO including math, science, and literacy-based activities, a 21C table, the SPS librarian, and artwork displays by our very talented Bates Beacons facilitated by our equally talented art teacher, Mr. Bleckley!

Claudia Paraschiv is an architect by trade and was last year's Artist in Residence at Artists' Row in Salem. Read more about her work here! She will be our Artist in Residence this month. Claudia concentrates on community art and place making and will help us continue to grow our mission: Believe. Be You. Belong...at Bates.

A Pizza Party for a Cause!

Tuesday, March 19 - 4:00-10:00pm

American Flatbread
311 Derby Street, Salem

Whether you dine in our take out, a part of every flatbread sale during this event will be donated to the Bates PTO to help provide educational and recreational opportunities for our students. We will have Bates merchandise for sale and a 50/50 raffle at the door.

In an effort to join us as together as school community, our team decided that one way to do that was to "introduce" all of you to as many families as possible! Meet the Quigley family. They are pioneers in this work as they are our first "Spotlight Family". If you see Dana, Katy, Quentin, and Oliver around, introduce yourselves! Take a look at their video here. Thanks, Quigley family, for rocking your video and poster. We appreciate you! If you'd like to be a spotlight family, please reach out to Rosalyn Guevara, Family Engagement Specialist, at rguevara@salemk12.org.

It's time to start thinking about MCAS, so we're sharing our testing dates with you!

RSVP in FB event - https://bit.ly/BatesBeautification

SIGN-UP for task - https://bit.ly/BatesBeautificationVolunteers

During morning announcements this week, students discussed the importance of being self aware, and in morning meetings, we shared our strengths and areas where we could improve. I shared that my multi-tasking skills could use some work😆 As we continue to build our self awareness skills throughout this month, we encourage you to continue these conversations at home. Here's a great resource you might want to check out!

The school menus are posted on the SPS website. Find them here.

23.1% -- Chronic absenteeism

Our goal is 18.2% or under in the "Chronic Absence" category. While our chronic attendance rate is not where we need it to be, we are 3.6% under where we were last year. Let's work together to get our students to school. If you need any assistance, please reach out to Rosalyn Guevara, Family Engagement Facilitator at rguevara@salemk12.org.

At mid-year convocation on Wednesday, March 6, Dr. Zrike engaged the schools in a little healthy competition. Mr. Mercier (grade 5 teacher), Ms. Myrie (PreK teacher), and Mr. White (TSP teacher) decided to put their competitive spirits to the test. AND THEY ROCKED! Shout out to this team of Salem natives who represented Bates with pride while sporting our new staff hoodies!

So much to be proud of...look at these happy kids doing great work! And shout out to Mr. Bleckley for this cool art display.

Did you know you can earn money for our school just by scanning your grocery receipts? All you need to do is download the Boxtops app, and scan those receipts! Don't want to scan? No worries, you can always send receipts into school with your student in an envelope marked, "PTO Boxtops".

Again, we're stressing that if you MUST leave your car during drop off, pull up past the school entrance and drive as far down the sidewalk as possible. Adults are exiting vehicles close to "the rock" causing cars to back up into the street. This is unsafe. Please follow the drop off rules.

Our Bates spirit rock is available for weekly rentals. Celebrate your student's birthday or other accomplishments by painting a message on our rock. Please click here to rent the rock!

Bates Elementary School, in partnership with our families and community, will provide all students with a culturally responsive, student – centered, and equitable learning experience that celebrates our students’ diverse backgrounds, creative pursuits, and their academic, social, emotional success.