Salem Public Schools Update

August 5, 2022

SPS Families,

Beginning Wednesday August 17th at 4:15 pm, we will resume weekly Facebook Lives for the upcoming school year. I will be providing important updates and information for the start of the school year. In advance of the 17th, please email any questions you would like me to address in preparation for day one of school. You can email me at superintendent@salemk12.org with any questions or updates you think I should share.

We also hope to see you at our Back to School Party for children and families of all ages from 5-7:30 pm on Wednesday, August 24th at Palmer Cove (see flyer below for more details). We are hosting this first annual kickoff event in collaboration with the Salem Teacher’s Union and Salem Police. There will be free food, book and school supply giveaways, prizes and a variety of activities. School district staff will also be available to answer any questions that you might have for the start of the school year. We hope to see you there!

Steve

This summer, SPS ran 12 summer programs and served over 600 K-12 students. SPS partnered with community organizations to offer an array of exciting and engaging summer programs for students. Thank you to all the amazing SPS staff that contributed to summer programming! Below are just a few of the summer highlights. For more information check out SPS Summer Programs webpage.

Our students are staying cool and having fun in Salem Y’s Summer Academy! Campers collaborate with their peers and practice other 21st Century skills through hands-on, project-based learning.

Catapult Learning worked with 1st-8th graders in both our ELSA and YMCA programs. The program balanced summer fun with literacy and math tutoring three times a week. Catapult staff did an amazing job engaging students with hands-on learning strategies and small group work.

Multilingual learners in the ELSA program worked on language development by exploring the “Amazing World of Plants and Animals”. Students were engaged all summer with trips to Stone Zoo, gardening at Mack Park and even a Curious Creatures “in school” field trip. The program finished with a showcase where students shared performances and showed off their projects to families and SPS community members.

LEAP for Education’s Expanding Horizons engaged middle school students through a project-based learning program. Students identified an area of interest and worked in small groups to create a project that was shared at the end of program Showcase. Students' projects ranged from designing and decorating a self-care garden box to investigating the power of a story through creative writing activities they accumulated to the idea of creating a Little Library for community use. Middle schoolers also engaged in exciting afternoon activities such as a ropes course challenge, canoeing and even swimming at Forest River.

Summer Connects, designed for rising 9th graders, helped our students learn skills and mindsets that will lead to having a successful high school experience. Students not only engaged in goal setting and planning for their four-year high school experience, they were challenged to collaborate with peers in fun activities. Students go out into the community where they were working together in activities like getting out of an escape room, sailing a boat in Salem Harbor, and canoeing on the Ipswich River.

Please join us for our upcoming discussion groups. Bring a chair or blanket and meet us near the bandstand on Salem Common on the following dates from 5:30-6:30pm.

Here are the upcoming discussions that will take place in August.

August 11 - They Called Us Enemy

August 16 - Nevertheless We Persisted

We hope to see you there!

Incoming Freshmen! Join us for the 9th grade welcome dinner, August 16, 2022 from 5:30pm-7:00pm at Geswell Field at Salem High School. We look forward to welcoming you to our school and get to know you a little better. RSVP http://bit.ly/shsdinner

Our Summer Eats program is up and running! Kids and teens in Salem eat for free on-site at these locations all summer long! No ID or registration is required. See below for specific locations and times.

Summer brings opportunities to spend time with friends and family and enjoy the outdoors. We hope that you and your student will also continue to read and develop a love of books and learning new things.

Here are summer reading suggestions created by the American Library Association for students in Grades PreK-8 that will help you and your student select books together. As always, we suggest that you follow your child’s lead and choose books and topics that interest them.

Birth-PreK

Grades K-2

Grades 3-5

Grades 6-8

The Salem Public Library will be supporting our summer reading by stocking copies of the summer reading suggestions and allowing you to view the titles and place holds through Noblenet online. The link to these lists from Salem Public Library are included below:

Birth-PreK

Grades K-2

Grades 3-5

Grades 6-8

Some young readers like to read several books about the same character. Check out these popular series for K-2 readers!

Here are some helpful resources: booklists in Spanish, divided by primary and secondary, from the NYC libraries

https://www.bklynlibrary.org/summer-reading/booklists

https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/staff-picks/kids?f%5B0%5D=terms%3AEn%20Espa%C3%B1ol

Books in Spanish and Portuguese (Framingham Public Library)

Additional suggestions for middle school readers can be found here.

ST Math is a research-based, visual instructional program that helps students to build deep understanding of math concepts. JiJi crosses the screen every time a student successfully completes a puzzle, leading them to the next puzzle. Completing 60 puzzles/week is a great summertime goal!

Learn more about ST Math, including why there are no directions, and why it takes a while to solve some puzzles here:

Parent Guide - ST Math

Guía para padres - ST Math

Track completed puzzles here - bring this in to your new teacher in the fall!

JiJi Summer Club - Tracker

Club de verano de JiJi - Tracker

Students can also play math games with family and friends:

UNPLUGGED Summer of Math - English

UNPLUGGED Verano matemático de JiJi - Spanish

Additional resources:

Links to Storybooks and Games

Children are used to logging into ST Math from their Chromebooks on the ClassLink page.

To log in from another device at home, see the directions here:

Accessing ClassLink from any computer - English

Accessing ClassLink from any computer - Spanish

If your child needs help logging in, please call the IT helpline at: 978.619.1450

The Department of Public Health has several resources to help protect children and others from mosquito bites and EEE. The resources include two different posters (one for caregivers, one for everyone) in three languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese). All are available online. There is also a guidance document (download) on using repellant in schools. While developed primarily for distribution through schools, the guidance provides helpful information that may be relevant to protect children in various settings. For the latest information and resources regarding EEE and other mosquito- and tick-borne diseases in Massachusetts, please visit https://www.mass.gov/guides/eee-in-massachusetts.

A reminder that ParentSquare is the district platform for communication. You will receive communication from the district, your school, and your student's classroom all in one space. You can communicate 1-to-1 with teachers, sign up for parent-teacher conferences, and more.

This is the primary communication platform for all Salem Public Schools. All messages and alerts come through ParentSquare and the app makes 1-to-1 communication with your student's teachers and signing up for guardian/student conferences a breeze. If you are not receiving messages from ParentSquare or if you are having trouble, contact your school's front office. You can visit www.parentsquare.com for more information.