Salem Public Schools
I would like to wish everyone a joyous, safe and happy holiday season and a well-deserved break from the school year. It has been a strong first third of the school year thus far and I am excited about the opportunities that 2024 will bring! Enjoy the extra time to make memories with your loved ones and to celebrate your unique familial traditions and customs. A few updates about the winter break schedule.
There is no school from Monday, Dec. 25-Tuesday, Jan. 2
We reopen our doors on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
School and district offices are open from Wednesday, Dec. 27 through Friday, Dec. 29, and then again on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
As we conclude the 2023 calendar, we would love to get your input on our school calendars for the upcoming school year. As you may know, SPS has different calendars for high schools and innovation schools. Each year, I make a recommendation to the School Committee at the end of January or the beginning of February proposing calendars for the upcoming school year. The Committee reviews the recommendation and ultimately votes to accept the calendars or a version of the calendars presented. I know that our community has many thoughts about the optimal school schedule and I am interested in hearing your perspective about what currently works and what changes you might want to see moving forward. As always, I am appreciative of your input and will be sure to consider it as I make an initial recommendation to the School Committee. Please know that we have already agreed that the first day for students will be the day after Labor Day, Tuesday, Sept. 3. We will never be able to accommodate everyone’s interests and schedules, but we try to be as responsive as possible to community feedback. Please use this form to share your comments.
Finally, over the holidays, please encourage your children to participate in the MLK Essay Contest (Due Jan. 5th): In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Salem State University's Center for Justice and Liberation is inviting Salem Public Schools students to participate in their annual essay writing contest! The question this year is: Me—How Can I Put Into Practice the Kingian Nonviolence Model? Please encourage your children to share their perspective (all grade levels can enter). A winner from elementary, middle school and high school will be notified and invited to the annual MLK convocation and luncheon on January 22, 2023. Find a trilingual flyer here.
See you all in 2024!
Steve
At Salem Public Schools, we are recognizing one staff member a week who exemplifies our core values of celebrating differences, facilitating collaboration, fostering innovation, creating equity and access, growing all students, and upholding high standards for all. We are surprising a deserving SPS team member with a rock star trophy.
This week's rockstar award goes to Ms. Diane Richmond and Mr. Benjamin Hedstrom, paraprofessionals in the therapeutic program at Bates. They are the epitome of team players - always ready, willing, and available to offer a lending hand and make supportive decisions that benefit all of their students. Ms. Richmond and Mr. Hedstrom actively listen to their coworkers and are flexible in their thinking, making them able to efficiently adapt to any situation. We appreciate their passion for working collaboratively with their students and colleagues alike, and it is our privilege to have them on the Bates team.
Salem Public Schools was awarded the Gateway City Grant for High Quality, Intensive English Language Learning Programs from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), André Fonseca, Director of Multilingual Learner Education, announced Monday.
It gives us great pleasure to offer you an invitation to go to Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan. As you may know, there is a wonderful sister-city relationship between Ota, Tokyo, in Japan and Salem, Massachusetts. In August 2024 we will be taking a group of high school students to travel to Ota. (Rising Freshmen and graduating Seniors are eligible.)
Middle school students from Ota have been coming to Salem every year in July for 30 years now.
Unfortunately, due to Covid, this successful exchange took a hiatus between 2020 and
2023 but this year, students from Ota were just here in Salem in November.
Now, we are ready to organize a student trip from Salem to Ota. The dates for travel will be
approximately between August 6th and the 17th.
Cost of the trip will be approximately $3,500 which includes airfare, transportation, and meals. You will be staying with a Japanese family in Ota and during the day will get to know Ota and Tokyo through the daily field trips to different sites. We will also be taking a two-night trip to Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Kyoto on the Shinkansen bullet train.
If you have questions please feel free to email StudentsToJapan@salemotace.org or
Midori Oka at midori.oka.home@gmail.com. We hope that you will be interested in joining the group. Please respond by January 15, 2024.
We are looking for input on our school calendars for the 2024-25 school year. As you may know, SPS has different calendars for high schools and innovation schools. Each year, I make a recommendation to the School Committee at the end of January/early February. The Committee reviews the recommendation and ultimately votes to accept the calendars or a version of the calendars presented. I know that families have many thoughts about the optimal school schedule and I am interested in hearing your perspective about what currently works and what changes you might want to see moving forward. As always, we are appreciative of your input and will be sure to consider it as I make an initial recommendation to the School Committee. Please know that we have already agreed with the STU that the first day for students will be the day after Labor Day (Tuesday. Sept. 3.
Fifty-two members of the Salem High School Class of 2024 were honored Wednesday morning with the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship in a ceremony and breakfast held at the SHS Auditorium. The John and Abigail Adams Scholarship is presented to SHS seniors who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement through the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems (MCAS) test scores in high school.
The Salem High School boys basketball team will face Marblehead H.S. in the Andrew James Lawson Foundation Invitational Sunday, Jan. 14 (2:30 p.m.) at the TD Garden. The game is one of 12 scheduled for the day. The Invitational benefits the Andrew Lawson Foundation in raising funds to enable students with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience inclusion in their communities.
Admission is $25 per person.
Do you have an early learner or know an early learner who will be joining the Salem Public Schools for the 2024-25 school year? We will be hosting our virtual Early Childhood Town Hall on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. to provide an overview of the early learning experience, the registration process, and to answer any questions.
Join the Virtual Town Hall | Submit a Question
REMINDERS:
- Children who turn 5 on or before Aug. 31, 2024 are eligible for kindergarten
- Children who turn 4 on or before Aug. 31, 2024 are eligible to enter our Pre-Kindergarten lottery
- Children who turn 3 on or by Aug. 31, 2024 are eligible to enter our preschool lottery at the Early Childhood Center.
We'll also be hosting an in-person meet and greet event the evening of Thursday, Feb. 8th for families to meet with school and department leaders - more details will be shared soon. Mark your calendars and spread the word - we look forward to meeting our newest families and learners in the upcoming months!
A reminder that ParentSquare is the district platform for communication. You will receive communication from the district, your school, and your student's classroom all in one space. You can communicate 1-to-1 with teachers, sign up for parent-teacher conferences, and more.
This is the primary communication platform for all Salem Public Schools. All messages and alerts come through ParentSquare and the app makes 1-to-1 communication with your student's teachers and signing up for guardian/student conferences a breeze. If you are not receiving messages from ParentSquare or if you are having trouble, contact your school's front office. You can visit www.parentsquare.com for more information.
