Doyon News
Friday, September 26, 2025
Dear Doyon Families,
Another wonderful week has come and gone at the Paul F. Doyon Memorial School. It’s hard to believe we’ve already wrapped up our third full week of the 2025–2026 school year. In many ways, it feels as though we picked up right where we left off in June, seamlessly continuing our journey together, while simultaneously welcoming a number of new kindergarten and pre-kindergarten faces into our community.
We want to take a moment to extend our thanks to all the families who joined us for the first of our two Curriculum Night events. These evenings are always such a meaningful opportunity to connect with families, share the important work happening in our classrooms each day, and highlight the many ways we are supporting students in their learning and growth. Your presence and partnership mean so much, and we are grateful for the ongoing support you provide to our school community.
As you continue through this newsletter, we hope you’ll take some time to review the updates and announcements we’ve included. We do our best to gather all the important information you’ll need to feel prepared for the week ahead. If at any point you have questions, ideas, or simply want to connect, please don’t hesitate to reach out to either Mrs. Benincasa or myself - we’re always happy to hear from you!
Warmly,
Mr. Whitehouse-Mullen & Mrs. Benincasa
A big thank you to our school community for sharing interest in joining the School Council. At this time, we are eager to welcome Lia Stelljes, Kelsey Liakos, Elyse Antrim, and Jennifer Ravgiala to the 2025-2026 Council. Please note that these meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month, alternating between in-person and Zoom. Please know you are welcome to join us for this important work. Should you be interested, please be in touch!
During the Morning Announcements, we have been featuring a CARES Connection. This short, daily feature highlights one component of CARES; this month we are focusing on the C for Cooperation. Each day, our community learns a little more about Cooperation, considers a question related to Cooperation, or thinks about a quote from a famous person on the subject of Cooperation. Please ask your learner to share their thinking around Cooperation and to talk about how they are using Cooperation in all parts of their day, at school and at home.
One of the CARES Connection ideas this week was: "Cooperation means everyone matters." We invite you to discuss this idea at home. How do we show that everyone matters at home? At school? During our extracurricular activities?
This subsection is maintained in the Doyon News from last week's edition. Detective Perna has spent time in classroom this week and will continue working with learners next week.
We continue to maintain a safe and supportive school environment here at the Paul F. Doyon Memorial School. Each school year, all staff are trained in our emergency procedures following the ALICE model, as well as receive training about all emergency procedures with our School Resource Officer, Joe Perna. Student safety presentations are conducted yearly and are geared to the developmental age of our students. Presentations prepared for students are linked at the bottom of this note for your review and to assist you, should conversations arise in your home around school safety.
Staff training continues to consist of three types of emergency drills:
Perimeter Lock-In: Concern/Threat is outside. Everyone is brought inside and school continues as usual. (An example of when we might need a Perimeter Lock-In/Reverse Evacuation might be if there were police activity in the neighborhood or in the woods behind the school.)
Shelter In Place: Everyone is asked to remain in their classrooms. No one enters the hallways or common spaces. School continues as usual. (We might call a shelter in place if there is a medical emergency in the school requiring an ambulance, where we want to protect the privacy of the person in need. Students remain in classrooms until the ambulance departs.)
Lockdown/Enhanced Lock Down: Serious and substantive threat. ALICE procedure is followed. (We might call a lockdown if there were an undefined threat in or outside of the building, where information is limited; we would call an enhanced lock down if we had information about a specific threat in or outside the building.)
The letters ALICE stand for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate:
● Alert – Inform people of the threat, giving as much information as possible.
● Lockdown – Students and staff can choose to lockdown and barricade the room that they are in, if they determine that it is not safe to evacuate.
● Inform – Pass on as much information as possible to others and to First Responders, including calling 911.
● Counter – An effort of last resort, if an armed intruder is able to get into the space where they are, individuals can counter with distraction or other tactics. Staff is being trained to use every effort to stop the intruder, instead of relying on the traditional lockdown and hide response.
● Evacuate – If it is safe to do so, all are encouraged to evacuate the building and remove themselves from the threat.
We know that preparation comes from a regular practice of the required protocol. Students have already completed two fire drills and in October we will conduct an emergency drill with learners using student-friendly language and procedures as outlined in the student presentations.
Please reach out with any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Mrs. Benincasa and I, alongside our school community, are here to offer help and support!
Please save the date!
- Thursday, September 25: Curriculum Night Grades - 2nd, 3rd & 4th (5:15 - 7:15 PM)
- Tuesday, September 30: Curriculum Night Grades Pre-K, K, 1st & 5th (5:15 - 7:15 PM)
Grade-Level Presentation Times (Locations to be Announced)
Thursday, September 25:
- Grade 2: 5:15 PM
- Grade 3: 5:15 PM
- General Session: 6:00 PM
- Grade 4: 6:30 PM
Tuesday, September 30:
- Grade PreK & K: 5:15 PM
- General Session: 6:00 PM
- Grade 1: 6:30 PM
- Grade 5: 6:30 PM
We’re excited to announce the launch of our joint Doyon/Winthrop FRIES Parenting Book Club
We’ll dive into a thoughtfully selected parenting book that offers fresh perspectives, practical tools, and real-life wisdom. We’ll come together to discuss what resonates, what challenges us, and how we can support one another as a community.
First Book: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
Join our list with your name and email below. We'll be in touch with further details such as date, time, and location soon!
Interested? Sign-up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EAFAE2AA4FC1-58889120-parenting
Here is the recipe we used:
3 large tomatoes, diced
1/2 white onion, small dice
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Can add diced fresh jalapeño as well to make it spicy! Or add all ingredients together a blender and pulse to make a smooth salsa. Enjoy with corn tortilla chips.
🎃 The Green Team is still collecting used Halloween costumes for our costume shop and swap at the Spooky Walk. The collection bin will outside of Doyon until Thursday October 2nd! 🎃
Hello Doyon Families!
With the start of school and also cooler weather, we are seeing a lot of colds/coughs.
Just a reminder that students should not come to school if they are feeling ill. This includes not only fevers, but also deep/uncontrollable coughing, diarrhea/vomiting, rash of unknown origin, and severe sore throat and/or headache. Please remember to use School Dismissal Manager or call the school to let us know your child will be absent. It is always helpful to send in a doctor's note if your child was seen.
Students may return when they are fever free for 24 hours without medication and generally feeling better. The COVID guidelines are similar: Students may return when fever free for 24 hours without Tylenol/Motrin and generally feeling better, plus it is recommended when they return to activity to take extra precautions for five days including: mask wearing if able, physical distancing when possible, and good hand/cough hygiene.
Please see below for registration for our Doyon Vaccine Clinic on October 16th from 4-6 pm. Let's do our best to keep our school and community healthy!
Please reach out if you have any questions.
Mary Sforza RN, MSN, NCSN
Doyon School Nurse
