KNIGHTLY NEWS
Volume 7 - Issue 3 November, 2021
SUPERINTENDENT'S MESSAGE
This November I am reflecting with gratitude on the privilege of being a part of the North Andover public school community. It was with great pride that I watched the NAHS marching band perform the National Anthem to honor our veterans on a perfect fall day. And how gratifying it was the previous week to see over 100 people in attendance to honor 29 teachers who have earned professional teaching status and induct an extraordinary teacher, Mary Julie Gregoire, into the Educator Hall of Fame.
Seven public school forums were held during the months of October and November to discuss school capacity. There is one more scheduled for December 1 from 7 pm to 9 pm at the North Andover Youth Center. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions of our school
administrators and design consultants. The MSBA conducted a walkthrough of the Kittredge School in October, and we are hopeful that a decision regarding funding by the MSBA will be made in December, 2021.
I am happy to report that the Town of North Andover, in partnership with Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, has made available the 3rd Covid 19 booster vaccines for eligible NAPS staff and the first dose for community members 5 years of age and older. Second shots have been scheduled. This will go a long way toward protecting all our families.
Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving break.
DID YOU KNOW?
SEPAC Awareness Month
The Zakim Bridge is lit up in yellow as November is SEPAC awareness month.
To support our local SEPAC, we encourage all to wear yellow on November 19.
Eating Disorders - The Silent Epidemic
Don't forget to mark your calendar for Wednesday, November 17 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. This event is sponsored by NA Youth and Recreation Services and NA Parent Resource Network.
Please click on this link for more information and to register.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND ENDEAVORS
Celebrating Teachers Night 2021 by Greg Landry, Director of Human Resources
We had a really nice event on Wednesday, October 27 at North Andover High School called Celebrating Teachers Night. Over 100 people came together in the auditorium to honor our teachers, past and present.
We inducted one of North Andover’s finest educators, Mary Julie Gregoire, English teacher at North Andover High from 1978-2015, into the School Committee’s Educator Hall of Fame. Mary gave a heartfelt and inclusive speech that really made the night. She will have a plaque placed outside of her classroom in the high school to mark her special place in NAPS history. At the event, we also highlighted the work of 29 teachers, adjustment counselors, SLPs and nurses who have entered their fourth year with the district and have officially earned Professional Teaching Status.
Many retired North Andover teachers, current staff, school committee members,
building administrators and family members were in attendance supporting those being recognized. It was an awesome display of respect and appreciation.
Thanks go out to the high school for hosting and to NAPS food services for providing the refreshments, to Ellise Nealey, a NAHS junior, for running the A/V equipment, and to NA CAM studios for producing the on-screen images.
In the coming weeks, a video will be released that has our school principals sharing with the community what makes their PTS teachers and staff extra special. It will also include formal Hall of Fame nominations by former student, Arlene Distel, middle school teacher, Keri Caffrey-Zwinggy and Superintendent, Dr. Gregg Gilligan, along with remarks by new Hall of Famer, Mary Julie Gregoire. Please stay tuned for that and enjoy!
DISTRICT SPOTLIGHT
Atkinson Elementary School by Erin O'Loughlin, Principal
Atkinson School is delighted to be featured in the November edition of the Knightly News. Our staff and students have been thrilled to be engaged in a more typical school year. We are working tirelessly to ensure that we have the best academic and social experience possible. Our students are constantly working to achieve goals set within the classroom and to accomplish individual goals that they have set. We continue to work on exhibiting RAISE values in all facets of our school. We have learned that academic success goes hand-in-hand with social-emotional development. We are excited to give a glimpse into the hard work and fun that is happening within our school community!
Academics
Our students have been working extremely hard in all academic areas. They have been excelling through excellent teaching and learning through various programs and resources including Heggerty, FUNdations, Mystery Science, Eureka, and Lucy Calkins.
Our third graders recently hosted a personal narrative author share. Groups of students read their stories in the third-grade classrooms to celebrate the end of the narrative writing unit. Listening to their stories was amazing and visitors had the opportunity to complete a compliment card to leave a positive message for these talented writers. I look forward to reading their writing in other genres throughout the year with all grade levels!
RAISE Assembly
We had a whole-school assembly for the first time in two years! It was amazing to be all together again. During the assembly, our RAISE reps reviewed the meaning of each letter of RAISE. Our students met our new All-Star staff including our new school counselor, Ms. Jordan; second-grade teachers, Ms. Aveni and Ms. Thibodeau; fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Walsh; teaching assistants, Ms. Brofsky, Ms. Garabedian, and Mrs. Walsh; reading interventionist, Mrs. Tenenbaum; math interventionist, Mrs. Rex; speech pathologist, Ms. Bees; and special education teachers, Ms. Connor and Ms. McDonald.
“I Promise”, by Lebron James. We talked about how we celebrate things that make us unique at Atkinson School. We engaged in an activity where we stood up if the statement was true for us. We were able to see that there are so many cool things that make us unique and that at the end we circled back our promises to show RAISE values at Atkinson.
Counselor Classroom
Our two counselors, Mrs. Connolly and Ms. Jordan have been focusing on social-emotional learning in all grade levels. They started the year by meeting with each grade level in the cafeteria to talk about RAISE. Our RAISE Phrase this year is “Together WE ALL Shine”. Last year’s RAISE reps were introduced to perform skits to model RAISE. Each letter of the RAISE phrase was reviewed and examples were shared of how to show respect, achievement, inclusion, service and empathy. Following RAISE values help us to be successful academically and socially!
Our second counselor classroom was focused on Growth Mindset. The counselors talked about fixed mindset versus growth mindset. The students were given examples and they had to determine if it depicted a growth or fixed mindset. Our All-Stars learned that anyone can have a growth mindset and that we can retrain our brain to have a growth mindset. Mistakes help us to grow!
Community Events
Our All-Star community extends beyond our school walls to our students’ families. The All-Stars love to get involved in community events outside of school! So far this year our PTO has hosted a movie night where Space Jam 2 was featured. The students and their families enjoyed the movie and the concession stand.
Trunk or Treat took place on October 29. We had a great turnout! The trunks, pumpkins and costume were very creative. Our families had a great time walking from trunk to trunk to play games and get candy. It has been awesome to be able to get together outside with our whole community for some fun!!!
Our Atkinson staff and students continue to put forth their best effort academically and socially with many more successes to come throughout the year. The All-Stars have shown that “Together WE ALL Shine”.
CURRICULUM CORNER
by Kara Larcome, STEM Director
NAPS has some new faces to support math teaching and learning in the district. Claire O’Connor and Laura Glass are our new elementary math coaches. Claire has been a classroom teacher specializing in math and was formerly a math coach in Somerville. She will be supporting teachers at Atkinson, Thomson and Kittredge schools. Laura has been a classroom teacher specializing in math and culturally responsive teaching in Somerville and Cambridge. She will be supporting teachers at the Franklin and Sargent schools. Benjamin Cabrera is our new PK-8 Math
Director. Ben has been a classroom teacher in both public and private schools and has worked for a professional development company providing PD across the country. Ben will be the math point person at the ABECC and NAMS. Kara Larcome remains our STEM Director and will be the math point person at NAHS, along with supporting science, technology and engineering education throughout the district. The team is excited to support NAPS educators and strives to provide an equitable, consistent, and rigorous math experience for all students.
A Step Back In Time
Different Century - Same Problem!
This year we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Annie L. Sargent being named Principal of Johnson High School. Her long and extraordinary teaching career began in 1878 immediately after she graduated as valedictorian from Johnson High School. She went on to serve as a teacher, associate principal and principal at Johnson High School, finally retiring in 1932 after 54 years of service to the North Andover community. In researching Ms. Sargent's career, we turned to the School Department's submission to the Town's Annual Report from 1921, and we learned the more things change, the more they remain the same. As the School Committee begins its process of increasing school capacity, it is somewhat ironic to read an excerpt from the Town's
Annual Report of 1921 regarding School Accommodations:
The increasing school population makes it imperative that we give early and careful study to the proper housing of school children. At the present time with one portable building which was opened at the beginning of the fall term on the Merrimack School grounds, we have about 50 first grade pupils at the Bradstreet School who are attending school on part-time. We still have at the Merrimack School the teachers' room, about half the size of an ordinary schoolroom, which was occupied again for small overflow classes, but like the other small room at the Merrimack, now occupied by about 20 pupils, no provision is made for ventilation except by the doors and windows.
What's Happening at Stevens Memorial Library
What if November is “Thanks Giving Month” instead of one day? There are many things for which to be thankful, and many ways to show thanks. Thanks can be as simple as a sincere “thank you” or as big as giving your time and effort to help someone else.
At the Library, we are so thankful to be welcoming everyone back into the building and to share all the books, movies and music bought for you, our community. We are thankful for our very special partners, the elementary school children who have created the Three Sisters Garden Art Exhibit in the library. The photograph below is a glimpse, click to see more photographs on the North Andover Reads site or visit the building to see all of the creative, colorful and fun art the children and their teachers made. Another thank you goes to the art teachers and the librarians – the exhibit wouldn’t be possible without their partnership.
We hope you find many ways to celebrate and to be thankful this month and beyond. Plan an early visit to the library for cookbooks, movies and music, and to have plenty on hand to read as the library has special Thanksgiving hours. The Library closes at 5:00 pm Wednesday, November 24, and is closed Thursday and Friday, November 25 and 26.
Upcoming programs:
November 17 virtual program: Climate Justice, Finding Equitable Solutions to the Climate Crisis with Nia Keith.
November 18 virtual program: Decolonizing, Placing Indigenous Peoples in the Conversation with Claudia Fox Tree and Debbie Irving.
November 30 virtual program: Before Brooklyn, the Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier with Chronicle reporter Ted Reinstein.
December 2 virtual program: John Singer Sargent, Master with a Brush with Jane Oneail, the 2nd of six Culturally Curious programs, the first Thursday each month.
January 6th: Frenemies, the Art World’s Greatest Rivals, with Jane Oneail, the 3rd Culturally Curious program.
Visit North Andover Reads “First Neighbors, Still Neighbors” for book recommendations and more as part of recognizing Native American Heritage Month.
Use the Library’s online calendar to see what other events are happening, Teen monthly programs: the Teen Book Chat (grades 6-12), the Teen Online Anime Viewing Party (grades 6-12), and the Tween Book Chat (grades 4-8) and Children’s groups: First Book Chat and First Chapter-Book Chat.
Don’t miss out on regular programs and other special events at the Library. Visit the Library’s website www.StevensMemLib.org to sign up for news alerts, follow the Library on Twitter or Facebook @StevensMemLib.
Help?
No Library card, or it needs an update? Email Stevens-Circulation@NorthAndover MA.gov or call the Library 978-688-9505 to get started.
Not sure what to read? Ask a librarian for suggestions or browse our Digital Book Displays. Look for more reading recommendations on the StevensMemLib Youtube channel.
Support is available via email SmlRefServices@NorthAndoverMA.gov or phone 978-688-9505. Staff will respond as they are available.
Regular are: Monday – Thursday, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm; Friday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm; Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sunday 1:00 -5:00 pm.
Holiday Hours: Closed Thursday and Friday, 11/25, 11/26
Three Sisters Art Garden Exhibit at Stevens Memorial Library
SCHOOL COMMITTEE CORNER
by Andrew McDevitt, Chair
It's hard to believe we are three months into the school year. As a committee, we have been working with the administration on the School Capacity Study and hosting many forums throughout town. At the last Select Board Meeting, the Facilities Master Plan 2 was extremely well received. We look forward to partnering with the Select Board and town as we embark on significant school building and renovation projects. If you did not have an opportunity to attend, there will be many more as we enter 2022.
I'm extremely grateful to the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center for conducting the vaccination clinic on November 11 So many families have been anxiously awaiting the 5-11 eligibility dates and their collaboration has been crucial to vaccinating the community.
Finally, from my family to yours, I wish you all a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving Break.
North Andover Public Schools
Superintendent's Office
566 Main Street
7:00 pm
November 3, 2021
November 18, 2021
