Dear Overlook Families!

January certainly went out with a bang! Incredible four snow days in a row!!! We hope everyone affected by the power outages and damage from fallen tress was able to return to normalcy.

A highlight last month was our food drive for local food pantries in Ashburnham and Westminster. Students and staff brought in over 1300 items for the drive. Students were rewarded for their efforts with a school-wide pajama day. The student council efforts did not go unnoticed. We are so proud of all the hard work of the council and Mrs. Duncan and Mrs. Shattuck for spearheading this community benefit.

The OMS Drama club put on the lovely production of Alice in Wonderland. We are so proud of all the hard work from all the students involved in the play from the actors to those working behind the scenes. Ms. Daigle and Ms. Normand are owed some kudos for being great advisors. Did you know that Ms. Normand made some of the fantastic costumes too? Amazing. Check out our Instagram for some snapshots of all our well-costumed actors!

The dodge ball tournament was also a great team-building activity where many students had the opportunity to incorporate their cooperative and leadership skills whether it be organizing the tournament as an 8th grade team to organizing an individual team and team's strategy. We thank Mrs. Cormier and Mr. Theriault for supporting the student-led school activity that involved so many students.

Keep warm and have a fantastic February!

Kristina Bogosh and Kathryn Miville

Washington DC News (8 weeks and counting)

A few updates from your Washington DC advisors:

Due to the unexpected snow days, checks written for the 4th payment will likely not be deposited until the end of January-please make note of this in your accounts. There is a $25 dollar fee for any returned checks.

If you have decided not to send your child to Washington, please make sure you contact either Kristin Belkin at kbelkin@awrsd.org or Colleen Moran at cmoran@awrsd.org to let us know your child will not be attending. Cancellations as of Feb 1st result in a $600 cancellation fee.

The 5th and final payment will still be due on the 15th of February. For most families this payment will be less than $175. We will send out an update to what is owed once we have received the 4th payment from everyone. As always, please remember to write the check to "Bennett Student Travel" and write the name of your child in the memo line and sign the check.

If you participated in the Boon fundraiser, you will be receiving a reimbursement check from the PTO when the 5th payment is made. These checks will likely go home with the students. We will send home an e-mail to those receiving a reimbursement check when they go home.

Thank you to the PTO for raising money in order to make it financially possible for all 8th grade students to attend this trip. Based on the survey that went out to parents about any additional funds raised by the PTO, it was overwhelmingly decided that extra money not used to support scholarships would be used to supply added "extras" to the group as a whole rather than redistributing it out to families.

Rooms and roommates are in the process of being finalized. Students will be given these assignments closer to the date of departure. No changes will be made to rooms unless deemed necessary by administration and advisors.

Mark your calendars for the mandatory parent meeting on March 6th at 6:00pm.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email or call Kristin Belkin kbelkin@awrsd.org or Colleen Moran cmoran@awrsd.org.

We see the school and home as a partnership. We ask to review these expectations with your child in an effort to create unified expectations from both the school and home fronts. Please see the matrix attachment below to review with your child.

Please note: Students who missed the course selection due to absences (and the extended weather disruptions), Oakmont counselors will be in touch with those students before February break.

Students cannot enter the building before 7:20am as there is no supervision.

Classes begin at 7:35am.

Dismissal is at 1:50pm.

Please be sure to not park in the general parking areas to let students off or pick them up. Use the line that goes behind the school. This is a safety concern with students running through parking lots and parents disrupting traffic patterns.

Also, please pay attention to staff members directing traffic. Do not drive-by when they ask you to stop.

Passing busses with flashing lights is a $250 traffic citation.

Just another day in Mr. Duncan's room. In the latest ancient history unit students worked in small groups representing various civilizations in Mesopotamia (Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Israelites) to accomplish various tasks that would lead to dominance over the others. Groups competed to invent, design, and create cultural wonders including designing a temple, creating laws, establishing a written language, and trading with neighboring civilizations. In addition, each group had a box with various materials as well as a secret envelope containing plans for engineering an invention which would allow for a final “battle”. Groups were required to trade with surplus materials they had while attempting to obtain any items that they lacked. Once groups obtained the necessary materials to build the invention, the engineering commenced and culminated with the construction of an ancient catapult. The group who successfully constructed the machine and launched a projectile (marshmallow) at the target and struck the bullseye, achieved victory in Mesopotamia. This was a hands-on simulation that served as a culminating activity for the unit.

Next meeting is February 6th at 6:00pm in the OMS Library.

Thank you to all those who volunteered at the Cocoa Café before Christmas vacation and all those who volunteered to sell concessions and flowers at the recent "Alice and Wonderland" drama production.

We will be looking for eager parents to participate in committees to plan an MCAS cheering club and teacher appreciation week. Come hear what it is all about on Feb 6th.

Final Washington DC donations are due on February 1st. If you would like to donate contact us at www.overlookmspto@gmail.com or send donations to our venmo at @overlookmspto

Take a look at our website https://sites.google.com/awrsd.org/overlookmspto/home or our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram OverlookMSPTO for all the latest information.

General membership to the Ashburnham-Westminster Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) is open to all AWRSD parents/guardians of children with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and Section 504 Plans and other interested parties. We are in need of volunteers to help plan workshops, staff tables at local school and community events, become future leaders, assist other parents, and plan new activities and projects. We welcome you to learn more about SEPAC and our work on our website, https://sites.google.com/view/ashburnham-westminster-sepac. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ashwestsepac. Please contact the current co-chairs about getting involved with SEPAC at awrsdsepac3@gmail.com (Kim Caisse's email) and awrsdsepac4@gmail.com (Dorene Francis' email).

See attachment below for more information on renewing MassHealth coverage.