Dear Team McAuliffe,
As many of you are aware, Lowell Public Schools is currently without Internet. After getting so used to having all of our materials online from going into the pandemic, teachers and students had to go back to their old bags of tricks to keep learning happening and they are all doing an amazing job. We are hoping to have internet access back this week, however, for the time being, we may be slower at answering emails and other messages until we are fully back online. I appreciate everyone's patience and flexibility.
Please be aware of the changing schedule for this week. There will be no school on Tuesday, March 5th due to the Primary Elections being held in schools. Then, Wednesday, March 6th is an Early Release Day for students. The McAuliffe will dismiss at 1:30pm and there will be no AM or PM Pre-K. If there will be a change to the way that your student will be getting home, please send in a note to their teacher so we can make that happen.
Be sure to check out the rest of the Shuttle to learn about the STEM Challenges that 3rd and 4th Graders will be bringing home, our PTO meeting for the month, and our Chuck E. Cheese Family Night happening on Tuesday. As you are reading, if you have any questions, please reach out to me at danderson@lowell.k12.ma.us.
One Team! One Goal! No Limits!
David
This week 3rd and 4th Grade students will participate in an engineering and physics challenge! In the Straw Structures Challenge, students will use straws, paper clips and other materials to see how tall of a free standing structure they can build. In the Scared Pepper Challenge, they will be experimenting with different elements of water. Be sure to try both of these challenges with your kids and post about them on Flip Grid.
You can also find the challenges, cool videos and translated instructions in Khmer, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, and Vietnamese at https://www.lowellstem2024.org/ - A QR code is on the bag with the website and all the translations.
Remember the class with the most participation wins a prize!
The PTO is looking for donations of Baked Goods for an upcoming Bake Sale that will take place on Tuesday outside of the polling location at the Robinson School.
Drop off any baked goods that you would like to donate at the office on Monday. Please have them individually wrapped or packaged so they are ready to be sold.
Don't bake? No problem! Donations of premade baked goods are awesome too! Thank you for your support.
A representative from Jeanne D'Arc will be at school on Wednesday collecting deposits for the Save-At-School program. Send in your deposits and we will call students down in the morning when they arrive.
If you want to open an account, you can send in $10 and the representative will open one for your student. After the initial $10 deposit, students can make deposits of any amount.
March Book Madness is a bracket style competition during which 16 books square off against each other and our kids vote to decide which one is the winner. This our 5th year participating in this national competition and each year our kids are introduced to some pretty awesome books!
Even better, we have students from Lowell High School's different sports teams and organizations who film themselves reading the books for our kids. So not only do they get to hear a cool story, they also get to learn about some of the opportunities awaiting them at Lowell High!
The theme of this year's competition is Past Champs versus Newbies. All of the books in the Green Bracket have won the tournament in the past and all of the books in the blue bracket are in the tournament for the first time! Which book will come out on top? Will it be an old time favorite or a brand new competitor? Our kids will decide! Check out the bracket below for all of the books.
The district is currently running a number of surveys to get parent input as we start planning for upcoming years. Please take a moment to fill out any of these surveys that relate to your experiences with Lowell Public Schools.
District Satisfaction Survey
English version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5XBHBG
Khmer version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5XBHBG?lang=km
Portuguese version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5XBHBG?lang=pt
Spanish version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5XBHBG?lang=es
Budget Input Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2024_25BudgetProcess
Pre-K Survey
English: https://bit.ly/lpsprekeg
Spanish: https://bit.ly/lpsprekes
Portuguese: https://bit.ly/lpsprekpt
Khmer: https://bit.ly/lpsprekkm
Mon. March 4 - Read Across America Day
Tue. March 5 - Primary Election Day - No School For Staff or Students
Tue. March 5 - Chuck E. Cheese Family Night 3-9pm
Wed. March 6 - Save-At-School with Jeanne D'Arc
Wed. March 6 - Early Release Professional Development at 1:30pm
Wed. March 6 - PTO Meeting at 6pm
Fri. March 15 - McAuliffe Mix-up
Tue. March 19 - Spring Picture Day
Wed. March 20 - Save-At-School with Jeanne D'Arc
Fri. March 22 - Report Cards Come Home
Fri. March 22 - Sweetheart Dance from 6-8pm
The School Site Council met on February 28th to discuss our most recent ELA and Math iReady Data. It was noted that there was a lot of steady growth among our students, especially in our ELA Data. While it was noted that the growth was not as strong in our Math data, the team came up with many ideas and suggestions for what to do moving forward.
Our next meeting is scheduled for March 20th at 5:30pm, however, we discussed the possibility of adding one in sooner based upon the Quality Improvement Plan Timeline that gets established. Stay tuned here for more information.
Our School Site Council meets one Wednesday a month from 5:30-6:30pm on Google Meets. The meeting dates for the rest of the school year are:
March 20, 2024
April 10, 2024
May 22, 2024
June 12, 2024
If you have a child turning 4 or 5 before September 1, 2024, they are eligible to register for Pre-K or Kindergarten. The registration window for both opened on Thursday, February 1st.
Registration can be done online at the link below. You will need the following documents to register your student:
- Child’s birth certificate
- Child's immunization records
- Photo ID of parent/guardian registering the child
- Proof of residency (copy of current utility bill, lease, or mortgage that is dated within the last thirty days)
The deadline to sign up for the first lottery for your preferred schools is April 29th. Please note that if your child already attends a Lowell Public Schools Pre-K, you must still register them for Kindergarten.
The LPS Connector is Lowell Public Schools' monthly newsletter that highlights happenings from around the district. In this month's newsletter we celebrate the middle school basketball champions, Lowell High Girls' Wresting, and more.
Be sure to check out the LPS Connector each month to see everything happening around Lowell Public Schools by clicking below.
Please Reach Out If You Have Any Questions
Assistant Principal - Patti Corrente - pcorrente@lowell.k12.ma.us
Social Worker - Kristin Moulton - kmoulton@lowell.k12.ma.us
Social Worker - Kaitlin Bentley - kbentley@lowell.k12.ma.us
Website: lowell.k12.ma.us/mcauliffe
Location: 570 Beacon Street, Lowell, MA, USA
Phone: 978-937-2836