2 Parsons Street

Northampton, Massachusetts 01060

413-587-1460 (phone) 413-587-1474 (fax)

Dr. Beth N. Choquette, Principal bchoquette@northamtpon-k12.us

Elizabeth Peterson, Administrative Assistant epeterson@northampton-k12.us

Jordan Celino, Secretary jcelino@northampton-k12.us

Nora DeJasu, Head Teacher ndejasu@northampton-k12.us

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En la parte superior del correo electrónico semanal, hay un enlace que dice "Verlo en su navegador", haga clic en eso y lo llevará a la publicación en una página web.

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Seleccione el idioma en el que desea traducirlo y luego lo traducirá en la página web.

Good morning. I hope you had a nice weekend!

We had such a wonderful first week back to school. There were so many moments that made my heart fill with joy, but the memory that will stick with me for a very long time is from last Monday morning. When students saw their peers for the first time in person, in over a year, the excitement and verbal joy they expressed literally made my heart melt. It brought tears to my eyes and is something I will treasure forever.

I appreciate all the work caregivers have done to prepare students for the return. They are doing such a fabulous job at following safety protocols. I am grateful for the prep work that went into making school safe for everyone. I know that there are some complaints from our kids about the cafeteria and tent seating, so let me explain. Some students don't like that they face away from the playground during lunches under the tents. That was intentional. Normally it is difficult to get students to focus on eating as they enjoy spending time socializing during lunch and forget to eat, then complain that they are hungry later in the day. By having them face away from the playground, it prevents distraction and encourages them to eat during lunch. It also prevents students who are eating lunch from yelling to other grade levels on the playground. The other thing that is so hard, and that they are doing a great job at, is remaining six feet apart in the cafeteria all facing the same direction. The guidelines still require 6 feet of distance when eating. Kids are not allowed to turn around to talk to their peers behind them or talk with their masks off. This is so incredibly hard, and they are doing a wonderful job at following these protocols. I am so proud of them, because I know they dislike it so much as do we. Please continue to reinforce these protocols and let them know better times are ahead.

I know I have been sounding like a broken record about parking and pick-up and drop-off. Unfortunately, my efforts have not helped. No matter how many times we have said there is no parking on the cemetery side of Parsons Street, no matter how many cones we put up (we actually had someone park on a cone and drive away dragging the cone under their car), no matter how often Ms. Nora and I stand out there waving traffic on, people are still parking in the no parking spots, dropping kids off where there is no crosswalk, and letting kids run in between the buses. Last week, people parked on both sides of Parsons and in the end of the bus loop holding up the busses for almost 10 minutes. We are now forced to have the police come and monitor and they will enforce the no parking signs on both sides of Parsons. There is parking on Bridge Street and the side streets around the school. Everyone should use the crosswalk where the crossing guard is as well. I know it is difficult, it always has been, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. We tried to get people to follow safety procedures, but unfortunately not everyone did causing it to be very unsafe. I would also encourage you to take advantage of the walking school bus in the mornings. Information about the WSB is below.

As we get ready for our April vacation (19-23), please make sure you have listened to Dr. Provost's robocall regarding travel restrictions. I have also attached the latest guidelines and included the flyer from NEF regarding April vacation activities for students.

Finally, we are getting ready to start up are gardening program again at school. We garden on school property and at Historic Northampton. All students received the walking field trip permission slip which is needed to participate in the gardening program. Please make sure you sign and return to school as soon as possible. It is a wonderful program that we do for our students in collaboration with School Sprouts, Grow Food Northampton, and Historic Northampton.

I am looking forward to another week with your students. I hope you all have a great end to your weekend and a wonderful week ahead. Thank you for your support and all that you do for BSS!

Attention BSS Families!

The Walking School Bus is ready and waiting to take your students to school!

You can choose from either the Sheldon Field route that leaves the Route 9 commuter lot at 8:25 or the Lumber Yard route that leaves from the courtyard of the Lumber Yard Homes on Pleasant Street at 8:15.

Each route has multiple stops at which your student may join before ending at BSS. Visit the WSB site for more information about each route.

Please note that masks are required for the walk to school.

**With the ramp up to full in person learning, the WSB is in need of drivers in order to run at full capacity through the rest of the year. Please contact Stephanie Pouliot if you or someone you know can volunteer your time to walk students to school. We will gladly accept whatever time you can offer!**

All students/families will be expected to return their school-issued chromebooks at BSS on June 14th. Members of the technology department will be at school to collect the chromebooks similar to last summer when we handed them out. Any students/families that received a chromebook last summer or during this past school year, will need to return them on June 14th.

I understand that there are non-school sponsored activities being planned for the fifth graders. Dr. Provost has asked me to make sure that these activities do not occur until after the last day of school. Doing it during while schools are still in session could cause some students not to participate in turn creating an activity that is not accessible for all students and will open the rest of our school community to safety risks by having students return to the school setting after participating in large gatherings or going on trips that the schools currently are not allowing. Thank you for your cooperation.

As we continue our efforts to eliminate hate and discrimination towards BIPOC and AAPI communities. I would like to share a statement by AERA regarding laws that discriminate against our transgender and non-binary community members as well. Bridge Street School will continue to stand against any hate, discrimination, or symbols that hurt any of our populations and will continue our efforts in standing up for populations that have had to endure such cruel and criminal actions. Please see the statement from AERA below:

April 6, 2021

Thousands of scholars will gather this week for the American Educational Research Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting. Accepting Educational Responsibility is the theme of this year’s convening of more than 12,000 education researchers. On the eve of our first-ever virtual conference, we call for AERA members and all others who work in education to accept responsibility for transphobic attitudes, cultures, practices, and policies that threaten and inflict harm on transgender and non-binary students and educators. Our efforts should include, but not be limited to schools, colleges, and universities. We also must use what we know to eradicate transphobia in our larger society.

Many states are presently considering laws that would be educationally harmful and otherwise devastating to transgender citizens in and out of schools. At this point, more than 17,000 educators and researchers, including some AERA members, have signed onto a letter calling for the Biden Administration to oppose transphobic laws. We join this effort by asking our 25,000 members to leverage their research, platforms, and networks in pursuit of justice for transgender and non-binary persons. We also urge education researchers to connect with each other, as well as with scholars in other academic fields and communities outside of academia, in support of trans lives. Given the guaranteed consequences of pending anti-trans bills across states, decisive action is urgently needed to confront the educational, psychological, and physical violence that trans communities will surely endure if existing transphobic public policies are upheld and new ones are passed.

We have an immediate responsibility to extend the reach of our research expertise on gender, trans people’s experiences and outcomes, public policy, and related topics beyond conference papers, scholarly symposia, and academic journals. Research organizations like ours have the expertise and data that matter. This call for action will be amplified numerous times throughout the AERA 2021 Annual Meeting. We hope others will join us, as well, as we embrace responsibility for this and other consequential educational and social issues.

Please see below for information on three caregiver events to which all district caregivers are welcome to register.

Growing Anti-Racist Children with Tiffany Jewell

Establishing Routines with BCBA Nina Shrayer

MERGE for Equality presents on the Socialization of Boys

Please see the attached for information.