Day School News
December 5, 2020
Dear Day School Community,
We are thrilled to have such an active parent community in our schools. Due to the generous contributions of the Day School community in the last school year, we were able to offer grants to teachers and staff along with gift bags filled with treats and fun school supplies. The PTO is also generously sponsoring virtual arts and enrichment programs including the following:
5th grade - Virtual Author visit by Mark Parisi and Virtual visit from the Tea Party Museum ‘Boston Massacre Trial'
4th grade - Amazing Forms of Energy Kits and Potato Hill Poetry
3rd grade - Animal adaptations Children's Museum Hartford and Magnet Mania Kits
Please see the information in this newsletter about joining our PTO. You'll find links to our next PTO meeting and the PTO December newsletter.
December is a time for giving! Please see details in this newsletter for three ways to give:
Coats for Kids
For the Love of Erika Toy Drive
Got Sneakers?
Thanks so much for your generosity during this holiday season!
Sincerely,
Chris Louis Sardella, Principal
Norman E. Day Elementary School
Day School PTO
Teachers and staff were thrilled to receive their gift bags and PTO grants during Thanksgiving week.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We are currently seeking to fill the following roles:
PTO PRESIDENT & CO-PRESIDENT AND/OR SECRETARY We are currently recruiting 2 positions for our PTO starting next year as Meghna Karody and Nancy Martinez will be retiring from their current positions next school year
BOX TOP$ Coordinator: Periodic help with Boxtops collections
Click on links below!
Every 2nd Monday of the month at 6:00pm
Next meeting 12/14 - 6pm
Open Google Meet and enter this code: evs-spgo-rtb
The School Committee is collecting public input in the Superintendent Search. The deadline for the survey is December 11th at 3pm, and the deadline for applying to the Preliminary Screening Committee is December 21st. Please follow the link below for more information:
https://www.westfordk12.us/district/school-committee/pages/superintendent-search
Mandatory Flu Vaccines Required for Hybrid and RLA Students
Submit proof of vaccination to Cheryl Carpenter, School Nurse
Influenza immunization will be required for all children 6 months of age or older who are attending Massachusetts child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12, and colleges and universities. The new vaccine requirement is an important step to reduce flu-related illness and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students will be expected to have received a flu vaccine by December 31, 2020 for the 2020-2021 influenza season, unless either a medical or religious exemption is provided.
Day School Library Book Circulation
The Norman E. Day School is pleased to announce that students, both Hybrid and Remote, can now request and borrow materials from the Day School Library. Students can request books remotely through the School Library webpage https://sites.google.com/westfordk12.us/normaneday/home.
Their requests will be processed and prepared by a Library Staff member. For Hybrid students, book requests will be delivered to their classrooms. And for Remote students, book requests will be added to their RLA packets for pick-up on the monthly RLA pick-up day. If RLA Students do not place their requests in time for RLA pick-up day or do not receive their book requests on pick-up day, then RLA students will be notified via email when their requests are available and can be picked up from the front of the school on Tuesdays and Fridays from 12:30 pm and 3pm. All books will be checked out for two weeks and quarantined for 6 days upon return. Hybrid Students can return books in the Book Drop found in the Day School Library. And RLA students can return their books to the Book Drop located near the front entrance of the school building on Tuesdays and Fridays from 12:30pm and 3pm. A video and written instructions are available on the Library Webpage to assist students in placing their book requests. The Day School Library Staff are extremely excited that our students, your children, will have access to our School’s Library collection once more.
How to Access, Log In, and Request a Library Book on the Day School Online Library Catalog.webmClick on the video above to find out how you can request books from the Day School library.
Coats for Kids
Day School fifth grader Amrita Harish is organizing a winter coat drive. Please read her message below and consider donating to this cause.
The “Coats For Kids” is a coat drive that is co-sponsored by Jordan's Furniture, Enterprise Bank and Anton’s Cleaners. We are setting up a collection bin for this at Day School. The blue collection bin will be outside the front door with a big sign on top. If you have any gently used or new coats, feel free to drop them off at the Day School. The reason behind this coat drive is because I have seen people who are less privileged than us live through the winter without coats and it makes me sad. My goal is to get more than 30 coats.
The coat drive is going to be available to drop off coats until January 8, 2021.
Thank you, Amrita
Coats for Kids accepts donations of coats in both child and adult sizes!
Winter Weather Procedures
If the Superintendent determines that inclement weather conditions create the necessity for what would ordinarily be determined as a 1 or 2 hour delay to the school day, the school day will be considered a “Full-Remote Learning” day and be counted as a school day.
If the Superintendent determines that inclement weather conditions may create unsafe travel for much of the day and there is no evidence of power outages, the school day may be considered a “Full-Remote Learning” day and be counted as a school day.
On Full-Remote Learning days, students and staff shall follow the schedule already planned for the day. Students and staff will come together live via Google Meet instead of in the physical school buildings and the teaching and learning will take place remotely. At the respective early release times, students and staff shall log off for the duration of time designated in their normal schedule for lunch and/or planning. The afternoon portion of the day shall follow its normal schedule because the afternoons are conducted remotely in this hybrid model.
If the Superintendent determines that inclement weather conditions may create unsafe travel for much of the day and there is evidence of or a strong possibility of power outages, the school day may be considered a “No School No Remote Learning” day and will be made up at the end of the school year.
Parents will be notified either the night before or no later than 6:00AM of the “weather day”.
For the Love of Erika Toy Drive
For the Love of Erika is a toy drive started by Taylor Leong, in memory of her friend, Erika, who passed away from cancer at the age of 7. "For the Love of Erika" collects, wraps, and distributes holiday presents to hospitals, shelters, and DCF in MA and NH, as well as hosting holiday parties for homeless shelters and disadvantaged children (at Jump On In, Lowell; Jump On In, Haverhill: and Gibbet Hill, Groton). In addition to this, "For the Love of Erika" also raises scholarship money to send disadvantaged children to summer camp.
If you would like to make a donation, please make it payable to: For the Love of Erika, c/o Laura Goodman, 68 Main Street, Suite 3, Andover, MA 01810
Visit our GoFundMe page to help us reach our goal of $5,000! Any donations are greatly appreciated! We can't do what we do every year without the support of the community.
Westford Youth Baseball and Softball
Register Early and Save for Spring Westford Baseball and Softball
With our fall season wrapping up, it is already time to think about the 2021 Spring Baseball and Softball seasons. This year the Westford Youth Baseball and Softball League was able to have a spring/summer and fall season for baseball and softball. Baseball and Softball continue to be great ways to participate in team sports while learning good sportsmanship and building confidence.
Westford Youth Baseball and Softball League is offering a registration for early bird special. For divisions 7U to 12U, players who register prior to January to January 30th, 2021 will save $30.00 per registration. For all Tee-ball and pre-ball registrations the discount will be available up until registration close.
Got Sneakers?
Recycle Sneakers and Raise Money for our School
Did you know that in the U.S., roughly 200 million pairs of shoes and sneakers end up in landfills each year?
Did you know that more than 600 million people worldwide don’t even own a pair of shoes?
The GotSneakers recycling organization will help us to recycle our sneakers! We will ONLY accept athletic sneakers and sports related footwear. Ideally, unused and gently used sneakers will raise the most money for our school. But, if you have sneakers with holes, mold/mildew or detached soles, GotSneakers will take them as well. By participating, you’ll help keep sneakers out of landfills while also putting shoes on the feet of people living in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, West Africa, and Europe. Some of the unusable sneakers will even be made into new athletic surfaces! Your old sneakers will make a huge difference; reducing what we throw away and raising money for our school is a win-win!
Please drop off all donations to the box outside near the Day School’s main entrance doors. We encourage you to bring all non-athletic shoes/boots to the drop-off bin in the St. Catherine’s Church parking lot, to Savers in Nashua, or to other local thrift shops for resale. Thanks so much for your support!