O'Maley Family Focus

May 2, 2022

Dear O'Maley Families,

Happy May! We are entering the home stretch of the school year! Information on end-of-the year events will be sent by grade level teachers or counselors over the next few weeks.

Tune in to 1623 Studios' May 6th show, Cape Ann Today broadcasting from 10:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m from the O'Maley Learning Commons. The show is broadcast live on Facebook, and then rebroadcast as a recording on channel 12 and all their social platforms.

Students are still involved with MCAS testing. Sixth and seventh grade will have completed testing , except for make-ups, by the end of the day tomorrow, and eighth grade will complete theirs following the Science, Technology and Engineering tests next week. Students have done a nice job focusing and putting in a good deal of effort. On a related note, we learned that frosted pop tarts are not a favorite for snacks! :-)

There is a great deal of information below, so please read on!

Best,

Lynne

Please follow @omaleyprincipal on Twitter or Instagram.

Topics in this issue of Family Focus:

Upcoming Events
8th Grade Sculptures at Cape Ann Museum
Volunteer for O'Maley Site Council
Mr. Lewis' Homeroom Book Drive
COVID-19 Updates & Testing Sign-Up

Upcoming Events

Current through June 12: 8th Grade Exhibit "Sculpting Self" at Cape ann Museum
May 18 - O'Maley Jazz Band with the GHS Docksiders at Shailyn Lu in Rockport
May 24 - Evening of Excellence Grades 7 & 8 - 6:00-8:00 p.m.
May 30 - No School - Memorial Day
May 31 - Katie Greer Social Media Presentation 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium
June 5 - O'Maley Jazz Band - 6:00 p.m.
June 6 - 5th Grade Move Up Day
June 7 - O'Maley Stage Band - 6:00 p.m.
June 21 - 8th Grade Celebration Ceremony 10:00-11:00 a.m.
June 21 - Last Day of School - 11:00 a.m. dismissal

8th Grade Sculpting Self Exhibit at CAM

If you haven't already had a chance to do so, please stop by the Cape Ann Museum to see the display of sculptures created by 8th graders from O'Maley as well as Rockport and Manchester Essex. The art work is amazing and the professional setting really highlights their efforts.

The project was inspired by sculptor Walker Hancock's basketball series which he made from 1961-1977 of GHS varsity basketball team. Mr. Hancock's pieces are also n display at the museum.

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From PTO - Staff Appreciation Brunch

On Thursday May 5th, the O'Maley PTO will be providing our amazing staff with a brunch to say thank you for all of their hard work and dedication to our children. Now more than ever, the staff is called upon to provide not only the best educational support they can, but also mental health and emotional support for their students.

Please help us say thank you to them with a monetary donation to our brunch. It is a simple as clicking on the PayPal link below. No amount is too small. You are also welcome to send a check into school made out to O'Maley PTO in an envelope marked O'Maley PTO and dropped off in the main office.

Thank you for your continued generosity in supporting these dedicated individuals!

It takes a village.

Rachel Refalo

O'Maley PTO

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=4LPXBA354JVB6

Donate to O'Maley PTO

Help support O'Maley PTO by donating or sharing with your friends.

www.paypal.com

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O'Maley Welcomes Katie Greer - Internet Safety Presentations May 31

As I am sure you are aware, social media and the internet are challenging to navigate with middle schoolers. We have engaged a dynamic speaker, Katie Greer, to join us with both students and families on May 31. There will be three presentations during the school day, one for each grade, and a parent/guardian presentation that evening at 6:00 p.m.

Topics for Students in Grades 6-8:

Social networking: The AWESOME, the "eh" and the ugly. How to effectively utilize social media to work FOR you.
Privacy settings: What do they mean? How do they work? Is our info really private?
Technology tattoos—what you put out there stays out there—and how to be proud of what you post
Breaking down conflict versus cyberbullying
Sexting: A real discussion about pressure, breaches of trust, oversharing, and an empowering message of owning YOUR own body
Going viral through kindness

Topics for Families:

Updates on the latest tech trends including popular apps, social networking trends, gaming, sexting and more
Social media age limitations - and how often kids are breaking them
Privacy settings, location services, check-ins: Are your devices set-up safely?
Advice for having real conversations with your child to foster a positive online experience for your family, with suggested restrictions and rules
Digital health check-in: Is your family doing a good job balancing life and technology? Most KIDS say "NO!"
Smartphones & Age: What's the average age kids get smartphones? Are there alternatives? Is there a right age for kids to get smartphones?

I hope you are able to join us in the O'Maley Auditorium for this important presentation.

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Future Trip Planning (DC and beyond)

Looking forward for those of you in sixth and seventh grade, there have been a number of questions about future trips to DC or other locations for eighth grade. While we are hopeful that we will be reinstating the DC Trip or something similar for next year, no decisions will be made until the fall. If you are a current 7th grade family and want to plan ahead for the financial commitment next year, in the past the trip has been somewhere around $800-$850 dollars, and includes almost all meals. We would, as in the past, hold fundraising opportunities for students who need financial assistance.

We will be looking at various tour companies that run overnight trips. Most importantly, families should be clear about the refund situation should a trip need to be cancelled. I will not place our families in another situation where a full refund is not available without knowing this up front. If we cannot find a company with a viable policy, we will look at alternatives for other types of events.

I will keep you posted!

Volunteers for O'Maley Site Council

The School Site Council is an advisory board to the principal that includes staff, parents/guardians and community members. We are in need of two parents to fill vacated spots to round out our team for the year.

Typical work of the Council involves review of the school handbook and School Improvement Plan. At O'Maley, the latter is in conjunction with the DESE Sustainable Improvement Office.

Please let me know if you are interested. In the event that we have more than two interested parties, there will be an election to select the representatives.

Mr. Lewis' Homeroom Book Drive

From Mr. Lewis:

Correctional libraries face unique challenges that other libraries may not, but they still strive to promote a life-long love of learning and reading. These libraries, located in state prisons and county jails, are in serious need of materials and would greatly appreciate donations

Mr. Lewis’ homeroom is doing a book drive for people who are currently serving time in prison. If you or your child have any books that you would like to donate, please have your child bring them to school. Scan the QR code below or click here to see a list of books that can and cannot be donated. Our homeroom will be partnering with the Prison Book Program in Quincy to help facilitate the donation and distribution of materials. Please note that we are only accepting books for adults. No children’s books will be accepted.

Please donate all materials by 5/27. A bin will be left outside of room 309 where books can be placed.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

MCAS Schedule 2022

docs.google.com

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COVID-19 Updates & Weekly Testing Sign-Up

COVID-19 at O'Maley: We had 19 new cases of COVID-19 reported at O'Maley last week and had 9 active cases as of Friday, April 29th. All close contacts have been contacted. Since we started school August 31st there have been a total of 251 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

As of March 30th our student vaccination rates were as follows:

6th 63.8.%

7th 74.5%

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! 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 3 were accessible in the Schoolbrains Community Portal at 3:00 p.m. on April 14, 2022. If you need a hard copy, please contact the main office.

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