Center Community Chat #36

A huge thank you to our amazing PTO for the incredible Teacher Appreciation Week! The “Breakfast of Champions,” coffee cart, and thoughtful MVP decorations made our staff feel so celebrated and appreciated. The halftime snacks (and fun presentation!), luncheon, raffle, and end-of-week “Sweet Victory” bar were truly above and beyond. On behalf of the entire staff, thank you for recognizing the hard work and dedication Center’s educators bring each and every day. Watching our students — your children — learn, grow, and thrive makes us proud to do this important work, and your kindness and support mean so much to all of us.

Kindergarten Screening:It was a pleasure meeting many of our incoming Kindergarteners this week. Our last day of screening will be on Wednesday.

Alice Drill-Sometime next week we will practice our last Alice Drill of the year.

Memorial Day:

Memorial Day can be a meaningful opportunity to help elementary students learn about gratitude and remembrance in an age-appropriate way. Families may wish to explain that Memorial Day is a special day when we honor and remember the brave men and women who died while serving our country.

Simple conversations, reading a child-friendly book, attending a local parade, or observing a moment of silence together can help children understand the importance of honoring those who served and showing gratitude for their sacrifices.

Field Day: Classroom teachers will let you know what color t-shirt your children can wear for field day!

Enjoy your weekend and the long weekend!

Donna & Jenn

Center School 4th-grade students returned to the Massachusetts State House for the second time to perform as part of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association Advocacy Day.

May 18th was designated as “Massachusetts Day for Music Education” by the Governor and it was an honor to represent Chelmsford at the state level on this day.

https://youtu.be/rULNYAHM49E

Dear Chelmsford Families,

Our district values your feedback! We are currently surveying The Chelmsford Public Schools families in order to gain insight into your perception of our school and district's effectiveness. We also want to better understand barriers to families accessing our schools and programs. To ensure we continue to provide high quality, rigorous learning experiences that meet the needs of our learners and prepare them for college and career, we need your feedback. We want to know what you think.

To administer these surveys, we have partnered with Panorama Education to conduct our 2026 Family Survey as we did in 2023, 2024, 2025 as well. Panorama safeguards your privacy, keeping your responses anonymous. The survey shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete and will be a valuable source of information for us as we work to make our schools and district as good as they can be.

You may complete the survey online between Thursday May 6th and Friday June 12th using a computer, tablet, or smartphone by visiting the website below:

https://surveys.panoramaed.com/chelmsfordma/family26/surveys

If you have multiple CPS school-aged children, please feel free to fill out multiple surveys to represent each individual child’s experience. The first question on the survey will be a dropdown to select which school you are filling the survey out for.

We thank you in advance for your thoughtful responses. If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact Jenn or me.

Prevention of tick-born illness begins with you!

1. The single most important thing you can do is check for ticks once a day. Favorite places ticks like to go on your body include areas between the toes, back of the knees, groin, armpits, and neck, along the hairline, and behind the ears. Remove any attached tick as soon as possible and call your doctor if you have concerns about tick-born illness.

2. Use repellents that contain DEET on your exposed skin, and those that contain permethrin on your clothes.

3. Stick to main pathways and the center of trails when hiking to avoid ticks.

4. Wear long-sleeved, light colored shirts and long pants tucked into your socks. This may be difficult to do when the weather is hot, but it will help keep ticks away from your skin and make it easier to spot a tick on your clothing.

NOTE: There is currently no human vaccine available to protect against Lyme disease or any other tick-borne disease found in Massachusetts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4vpi1L3nIY

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Head lice can happen to anyone.

• It is not a sign of poor hygiene habits or of being dirty. Even though they do not jump or fly, lice can spread from one person to another by sharing personal items and by being in close contact with a person who has live lice.

• Unfortunately, there is no proven head lice deterrent that will prevent your child from getting head lice. The best you can do is stay alert for suspicious head scratching. Itching is an allergic reaction to chemicals in a head louse’s saliva. Not all kids will experience itching right away but catching this behavior early and treating it will help you stop a head lice problem at its roots.

• If you should discover a case of head lice, please call your pediatrician for treatment recommendations, notify the health office, as well as the parents of your child’s close contacts. This is the best way to protect your family and community.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact me via email or phone call.

Please find the CPS academic calendar below.

Please note that parents/adults are not allowed to escort their child(ren) to their classroom on school days. Staff members will be in the main lobby to assist all students and guide them to their classrooms. We appreciate your assistance with this.

This year Massachusetts is offering all school lunch and breakfast at no charge to students. This does not automatically make families eligible for any other benefits. We strongly encourage families that feel they are eligible for transportation or extended day reduced tuition to fill out the online free and reduced meal application. The links can be found below. https://cpsnutrition.com/index.php?sid=1478035692058&page=lunchapps

If you do qualify for benefits you most likely will be eligible for SNAP benefits. https://www.mass.gov/snap-benefits-formerly-food-stamps

Some examples of SNAP benefits are discounts on gas, electric utilities and internet services.

Please visit our school nutrition website at https://cpsnutrition.com/index.php?sid=1478035692058 for more information about our program and also a link to the free and reduced lunch application.

Bus Safety:

Parents and caregivers, please support our bus drivers and reinforce expectations for bus safety. Administration has been actively working with NRT and riding buses to reinforce expectations with all students. The link below reviews expectations that are reviewed with all students. Thank you for your continued collaboration.

May
• Mon, May 25: No school
• Wed, May 27: PTO meeting 7pm in Room 15 *
• Wed., May 27-June 1- Book Fair
• June

• • Monday, June 1: Bright Minds Book and Art night 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

  • Tuesday, June 2: Center presenting at the School Committee Meeting

  • Wednesday, June 3: Field Day

  • Thursday, June 4: Field Day Rain Date

  • Friday, June 5: Grade 3 Enrichment - Wingmasters

  • Monday, June 8: Fourth Grade Finale and Clap-in 12:15 pm

  • Friday, June 14: Chelmsford Spirit Day

  • Monday, June 15: Last Day for Students - ½ day

Center is not only a wonderful place to attend and learn but also a wonderful place to work, as many of our parents/grandparents can attest to.

Substitutes in all areas are always in high demand. Please look at the CPS district website if interested.

The first Monday of the month will be a "Let Your Kind Shine" spirit day. You are invited to wear tops that promote kindness.

The third Friday of the month is Chelmsford/Center Pride spirit day. Sport our district colors, maroon, white, and black.

* Dates may be adjusted due to holidays or breaks. Please look at the weekly calendar of events for specific dates.

A picture speaks a thousand words as they say, and we love to include these in our weekly updates and on the website through our Twitter feed. Please let email Ms. O’Hearn at ohearnc@chelmsford.k12.ma.us. if you do not want your child’s picture included in these forums.