Bates Family Newsletter

What a send off we had for Mrs. Reardon on Thursday! There was laughter and so many tears. We all wish Karyn the very best in her retirement and thank her for her unwavering dedication to Bates. On Monday, we welcome our new secretary, Julie Diogo. Julie shared this about herself:

Having dedicated 18 years to a successful career in banking, I wanted to use the skills I gained to help my community in another way. My favorite part of the job was educating customers about credit whether it meant starting their credit or rebuilding it and hosting credit/budgeting seminars for small businesses. Driven by my passion to educate and desire to make a positive influence in other’s lives, transitioning to education was an easy decision.

Witchcraft Heights Elementary welcomed me as a multilingual paraprofessional this year, and it was my pleasure helping children in all grades. I look forward to helping teachers and staff at Bates as the new secretary. I am excited to meet everyone from the Bates Elementary School community on Monday!

When I am not spending time with my family, you can find me taking care of my plants or at the beach reading a good book.

Julie is a native Spanish speaker and also understands Portuguese.

We wanted to show Mrs. Reardon the love and give all the students the opportunity to say their final farewell. The clap out on Thursday was so sweet. Check it out some of the footage here.

Bates Creates: A Celebration of Learning -- IT WAS AWESOME!

What a successful week + that was! Shout out to all those who decorated doors, made our school look beautiful with other works of art, planned activities, and made it a memorable experience for our students.

Special shout out to THE PTO! The spaghetti dinner was a bit hit, and we know that it was a great opportunity to share a meal and build community. Also, another shout out to our awesome staff who ran stations! We had close to 200 humans in attendance. Wow!

Come dine at Longboards with us on Sunday, April 7, from 5-9pm! A part of every sale during the event will be donated to Bates PTO to help provide any educational or recreational needs for our students. We will also have Bates merchandise for sale and a 50/50 raffle at the door.

Longboards
76 Wharf Street
Salem, MA

See you there!

Attention SPS parents and caregivers: Our school nurses will be leading lessons on personal hygiene and puberty in all 4th- and 5th-grade classes across the district. If you are interested in learning more about the program or have specific questions about the material, please consider attending our family webinar on Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2024 at 6:00.

Join the Webinar

Webinar ID: 830 8097 3828

Interpretation in Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole will be provided.

In an effort to join us as together as school community, our team decided that one way to do that was to "introduce" all of you to as many families as possible. Meet the Colon family! Thanks to the three of you for introducing us to your family. We appreciate you!

Our hope is that these videos will create new friendships, bring us closer as a community, and help us celebrate the beautiful diversity that we have here at Bates. It ties in with our new motto: "Believe, Be you, Belong, at Bates!"If you'd like to be a spotlight family, please reach out to Rosalyn Guevara, Family Engagement Specialist, at rguevara@salemk12.org.

Grades 3, 4, and 5 will soon be embarking on the MCAS journey. We know they will do their best! Please make sure your student arrives to school on time as we'll begin testing between 8:30-8:45.

What can parents/caregivers do to support their learners?

Help your child prepare for the test

Worrying too much about doing well can prevent students from doing their best. Just encourage them to work hard, try hard!

Most importantly, let your child know that you believe in them😃

It's time to start thinking about MCAS, so we're sharing our testing dates with you!

RSVP in FB event - https://bit.ly/BatesBeautification

SIGN-UP for task - https://bit.ly/BatesBeautificationVolunteers

Our SEL theme for the week is "Getting Ready".

Many of us are getting ready to start MCAS, and with that comes so many emotions. We'll talk this week about strategies to use when feeling anxious not just around testing, but what we can do in life to cope with anxiety. Some of those strategies including mindful breathing techniques, tapping, using the 54321 method? The 54321 (or 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) method is a grounding exercise designed to manage acute stress and reduce anxiety. It involves identifying 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.

The school menus are posted on the SPS website. Find them here.

21.5% -- Chronic absenteeism

Our goal is 18.2% or under in the "Chronic Absence" category. Spring has sprung and with it comes, hopefully, less illnesses! Our chronic absentee number is down a bit from last week. Many thanks to all families for doing your best to support your students. If you need any assistance with getting your student to school, please reach out to Rosalyn Guevara, Family Engagement Facilitator at rguevara@salemk12.org.

See you around, Mrs. Reardon!

End of an era...😃/🥲
Mic drop...🎤

So much to be proud of...look at these happy kids who are the winners of the writing and poster contests! They are pictured here with the judges, Ms. Acconcia and Ms. Salzillo.

Did you know you can earn money for our school just by scanning your grocery receipts? All you need to do is download the Boxtops app, and scan those receipts! Don't want to scan? No worries, you can always send receipts into school with your student in an envelope marked, "PTO Boxtops".

Again, we're stressing that if you MUST leave your car during drop off, pull up past the school entrance and drive as far down the sidewalk as possible. Adults are exiting vehicles close to "the rock" causing cars to back up into the street. This is unsafe. Please follow the drop off rules.

Our Bates spirit rock is available for weekly rentals. Celebrate your student's birthday or other accomplishments by painting a message on our rock. Please click here to rent the rock!

Bates Elementary School, in partnership with our families and community, will provide all students with a culturally responsive, student – centered, and equitable learning experience that celebrates our students’ diverse backgrounds, creative pursuits, and their academic, social, emotional success.