O'Maley Family Focus

March 21, 2022

Greetings from O'Maley!

Spring has sprung! We had a great turn out at Stump Trivia last week, and hope to hold more events like these in the near future. It has been wonderful to have families back in the building. Fingers crossed that this continues!

We are happy to have some warmer weather and to be able to be outdoors more frequently. Along those lines it's a great time to review the O'Maley Acceptable Dress policy. This policy is part of our school handbook. It was revise a few years ago, intended to be gender-neutral. The emphasis is on appropriate dress in school , which is every student's workplace. While I realize it can be a challenge at home, please review the policy with your children and ensure that they know what is expected at school.

We have a few events coming up, so please check the list below. PTO is meeting virtually this Thursday from 6:00-7:00 pm. Please join us by linking to the Google Meet:

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/nub-jqjh-knb

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 321-307-7635‬ PIN: ‪436 539 188‬#

Best,

Lynne

Please follow @omaleyprincipal on Twitter or Instagram.

Topics in this issue of Family Focus:

Upcoming Events
Link to PTO Virtual Meeting
O'Maley Spirit Wear
Sawyer Free Library video opportunity
COVID-19 Updates & Testing Sign-Up
Planning Ahead? ...MCAS Schedule

Upcoming Events

March 24 - Virtual PTO Meeting 6:00-7:00 p.m.
March 24-25 2:30-5 pm Sawyer Free Library video opportunity
March 27 - Deadline to order O'Maley Spirit Wear
March 29 - Early release at 11:00 am for staff professional development day

Virtual PTO Meeting Thursday, March 24th 6-7 pm

Google Meet Link:

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/nub-jqjh-knb

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 321-307-7635‬ PIN: ‪436 539 188‬#

Link to view the agenda

Get Your O'Maley Spirit Wear!!!

Please visit the online story to place orders for Spirit Wear by Sunday March 27th. There are some great items available for purchase. Orders will be delivered the week of April 18th.

Link here to visit the online store.

Want to be in a video at the Sawyer Free Library?

The Sawyer Free Library will be filming a video that will be used on their website, in their Cable TV commercials, and at various community events. The production crew will be filming at the Library this Thursday 3/24 and Friday 3/25.

They would love to have the Library filled with people, especially students. O'Maley students are encouraged to come to the Library on these dates between 2:30pm -5pm. They are just asked to be themselves, hang out with friends and do what they would ordinarily do in our wonderful Library. The students don't need to do anything specific. The library will have snacks on hand and it is a fun way to be in a TV commercial. The more the merrier!

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COVID-19 Updates & Weekly Testing Sign-Up

COVID-19 at O'Maley: We had 3 new cases of COVID-19 reported at O'Maley last week and have 2 active cases as of Friday, March 18th. All close contacts have been contacted. Since we started school August 31st there have been a total of 218 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 63.3.%

7th 72.5%

8th 69.3%

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.

COVID At-Home Testing

Please remember to test on Friday mornings before school! The next test distribution for students is Thursday, March 17th. 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.
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 17th.

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.