O'Maley Family Focus

February 14, 2022

Dear O’Maley Families,

Happy Valentine's Day! In just a few days we will head into February vacation week. It's hard to believe that so much of the year has passed already. We have seen a lot of growth among our students this year. Especially since, coming back in the fall, the normal routines of school were not quite solidly established due to the inconsistency of "school" from the pandemic. I am happy to say we are back in the swing of things!

You may have received information from the Gloucester School Committee related to Governor Baker and Commissioner Riley's announcements last week that they are lifting the K-12 school mask mandate on February 28th. Local authorities will decide on the requirements in their own cities and towns. The Gloucester School Committee will discuss mask requirements in our schools this Wednesday night. If you would like to provide input, please complete this input survey. The School Committee will also consider input from the Board of Health and families as well as local health data. In addition Gloucester residents and staff are welcome to submit comments to the School Committee or speak at the School Committee meeting on Wednesday.

Enjoy the week!

Best,

Lynne

Please follow @omaleyprincipal on Twitter or Instagram.

Topics in this issue of Family Focus:

Upcoming Events
COVID-19 Updates & Testing Sign-Up
O'Maley Academy Stump Trivia Night
Planning Ahead? ...MCAS Schedule
Schoolbrains Community Portal

Upcoming Events

February 21-25 - No School Winter recess
March 17 - O'Maley Academy Stump Trivia 6:00-8:00 p.m. LIVE in the O'Maley Cafe
March 24 - Virtual PTO Meeting 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Link tbd)

O'Maley Academy Presents: Stump Trivia Match 17th

Come join us for a fun night of “STUMP Trivia!” Space is limited!

Reserve your spot today!

–Bring a GPS Chromebook OR your own personal device (w/ your own cellular data)-

*WiFi is only available for school issued chromebooks*

-Register up to 6 people per team! -

(Teams can be made up of students, staff and family members)

**Compete to win PRIZES & come sign up for our

Spring O’Maley Academy Programs!**

When: Thursday March 17th 6-8PM

How to Sign-up: CLICK HERE

Where: O’Maley Middle School Cafeteria

What: Fun, prizes, music, food and more!!

Cost per team: (cash/check)

-O’Maley Academy Families who participated in a Fall/Winter activity: $15 per team

-All other O’Maley families/ O’Maley Staff members: $25 per team

*Face masks are required for entry - Seating is spaced 3 feet apart for social distancing in the O’Maley cafeteria*

For more details and the link to sign up for Stump Trivia, link here.

COVID At-Home Testing

Please remember to test on Friday mornings before school! The next test distribution for students is Thursday, March 3rd. Please read on if you have not signed up for at-home testing and would like to do so.

To Participate in our At-Home Rapid COVID Testing Program and get a free antigen test every week, please opt-in by completing this form. If you opt-in by Monday, January 31, you will get your first tests next week. You will be able to continue to sign up after January 31.
How Do I Test Twice per Week for Free? If you also participate in our In-School Weekly COVID Safety Testing each week, you will be able to test twice every week for COVID, giving you the assurance every few days of knowing whether you are COVID negative or not. If you’re not already participating in our In-School Weekly Testing, please register here.
Do I have to participate in both the At Home Testing and the Weekly In School COVID Safety Testing? No, each one is separate, and they are optional. However I strongly encourage participation in both.
Update on Contact Tracing and Test & Stay As part of this shift in the program, we will discontinue our Test & Stay program and contact tracing for in-school close contacts. This means that if a staff member or a student is a potential close contact in school, they may continue to come to school and do not have to quarantine out of school.

The expectation is that the tests will arrive Wednesday afternoons, be available/distributed on Thursdays, and individuals should test at home Friday mornings.

Student tests will be organized by homeroom and homeroom teachers will distribute them to students during homeroom that day. If you are signed up for the program, please be on the lookout for the next test packets to be brought home on Thursday, March 3rd.

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COVID-19 Updates & Weekly Testing Sign-Up

COVID-19 at O'Maley: We had 7 new cases of COVID-19 reported at O'Maley since February 7th and have 5 active cases as of Friday, February 11th. All close contacts have been contacted. Since we started school August 31st there have been a total of 205 cases reported among the O'Maley community. See the new GPS COVID Dashboard for updated data each week: https://backtogether.gloucesterschools.com/updates/dashboard-covid-cases

Currently our student vaccination rates are as follows:

6th 62.9.%

7th 72.1%

8th 68.3%

To sign up for weekly pool testing in school (Mondays): Link here: https://www.cic-health.com/consent/ma?district=Gloucester.

Weekly Testing: Testing will continue each Monday at O'Maley. It is not too late to sign up. This week once again all tests were negative.If you have tested positive in the past 90 days, do not participate in weekly testing, as you may yield a false positive for your pool.

Masks & Distancing: Per the Massachusetts DESE and the Gloucester School Committee, all students and staff will be masked in GPS buildings until at least February 28th except at lunch or mask break when they are socially distanced at 3 feet or more. Masks are not required outdoors. For details on our health and safety protocols district wide, please visit the GPS COVID Guidance and Updates website at https://backtogether.gloucesterschools.com/.

Students must bring their own masks to school each day. While we all wish we did not have to wear them, masks continue to be required indoors at school. Thank you!

Schoolbrains Community Portal

To conserve paper, and to ensure that families have access to student performance information, report cards are not printed or sent home as a hard copy. Report cards for Term 2 were accessible in the Schoolbrains Community Portal at 3:00 p.m. on February 2, 2022.

Our Portal is open for all students and families, and parents/guardians who are new to the portal should have received an email containing your login information. If you did not receive an email, or already had one and have forgotten it, please email Mr. Hurley, dhurley@gloucesterschools.com and he will send it to you.

Information about the portal, what you will find there, and how to login is below.

Parent Letter re. Schoolbrains Community Portal

Link to the Schoolbrains Community Portal Login

Student/Guardian How-to

Planning Ahead? Here's the Spring MCAS Schedule

While April seems very far away, to assist families who often write asking for spring MCAS dates, the schedule below provides all of the details. Testing will occur at O'Maley from April 5 - May 12, with additional dates for makeups. More information will be communicated as we get closer to the dates.