NEW SCHOOL HOURS 2008-2009

HOMEROOM BEGINS     7:20 AM --  AFTER 7:20 IS CONSIDERED LATE!!

1ST PERIOD   7:33 AM

DISMISSAL 2:05 PM 

Principal’s Message September 2008

Joan McQuade

Welcome back to all of our returning 7th & 8th graders, and a special welcome to all of our new students and 6th graders. September is our favorite time of the school year because it consistently brings excitement and energy from students, parents and faculty. The first day of school is Wednesday, September 3rd. Our school day begins and ends ten minutes earlier this year in order to address some of the district bussing issues. Homeroom will begin at 7:20, so all students who are not taking a bus, need to be here by then and not before 7:10. Busses will be bringing students on property starting at 7:00am. Dismissal will be at 2:05

As always, our 6th graders enter through Symmes lobby, and 7th & 8th graders through the cafeteria doors in the back. All bus students who arrive before 7:10 need to wait in the cafeteria (7th and 8th) and Symmes lobby (6th). At 7:10 all students will be dismissed to their team areas and then homerooms by the NAMS’ faculty. Please note that all students visited their teams during move up day. Homeroom lists and teams will be posted as reminders.

We do use the POS lunch payment system for interested families. If you are new to our district, please call Erica Murphy at 978-794-1895 for further information. Students will be given more detailed information on the first day of school about menu prices and lunch choices. If you have any questions at all about the first day of school, please do not hesitate to call us.

Our 7th and 8th grade academic teams are embracing some positive change this year. In order to expand our world language program and reduce class size, we have moved Spanish, French, and German to our academic rotation. They are now considered core classes which meet daily for 45 minutes. 6th grade will continue with 60 minute classes for math, science, English language arts, and social studies. They will be taking a language beginning their 7th grade year.

Our related arts department has also experienced some change in order to support the world language expansion and to continue with our alternate day year long band program. Our non band students will be experiencing a combined music and choral class for a 60 day trimester with art, physical education, health, family and consumer science, and technology education scheduled over three trimesters. Our band students will experience all of our related arts classes listed above, but with less frequency due to the all year expectation.

Please mark your calendars for our September open houses. 6th grade open house is planned for 6PM on Tuesday, September 9th, and 7th & 8th is planned for 6PM on Thursday, September 18 th. These evenings are intended for parents to meet their students’ teachers, hear about curriculum and team management, and gain information about subject expectations and procedures. The evening is intended to be a general information night. On November 24th and 25th we will again hold our student led conferences. This is an opportunity for parents to hear from their child about his/her progress and goals as well as discuss issues with teachers if desired.

Last but certainly not least, we continue to try to improve our traffic pattern for student drop off and pick up. Our signage and painted curbs certainly helped this year, but our pick up /drop off area will always be congested. We have observed that if everyone follows the rules and remains patient, the flow works well for all. Please see the attached map. Also, we have noticed that the amount of cars driving through has definitely increased, so if bussing your child is not an option for you, please try to car pool.

In closing, I welcome all of you back and we are excited about the upcoming school year. As always, please call your child’s teacher, guidance counselor or administration if you have any questions, concerns, or compliments.