Doyon News
Friday, September 19, 2025
Dear Doyon Families,
It’s been another great week at Paul F. Doyon Memorial School, and we’re looking ahead to an exciting stretch of days to come. All around the building, students continue to demonstrate C.A.R.E.S. in their daily actions. We’re grateful to families for helping us kick off the 2025–2026 school year on such a positive note.
This week, our school community held our first FRIES meeting. A big thank you to all for your support and dedication to our special school. Our next month's meeting will be held via Zoom, following School Council. We hope to continue welcoming a large group of families to join us in this important work! We are still looking for a cohort of interested parents to join us on School Council. If you are interested, please complete the Google Form listed below and email Mr. Whitehouse-Mullen for next steps.
Next week, students will continue to explore school safety with Detective Joe Perna. Detective Joe Perna, our School Resource Officer, will be visiting classrooms to talk with students about additional safety routines. Please review the subsection of our newsletter, below, outlining information about this important work.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to welcome families into the building next week and the week thereafter for curriculum night on Thursday and Tuesday evenings. A schedule has been prepared to help you plan your visit, so please take a moment to review it when you can.
As always, we are here to support you! Please be in touch with any questions or wonderings.
Warmly,
Mr. Whitehouse-Mullen & Mrs. Benincasa
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.
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. Detective Joe Perna is visiting classrooms next week to review procedures with 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
*The deadline to submit an application for School Council has been modified to Monday, September 22. Please consider joining us!*
Are you interested in serving as a parent representative on the Doyon School Council? We are anticipating at least one vacancy on the School Council at this time.
What is a School Council?
A school council is a representative, school-building-based committee comprised of the principal, parents, teachers, and community members that work together to establish goals, shape the policies and programs of the school, and improve student achievement. The school council assists the school administration in:
Adopting educational goals for the school that are consistent with local educational policies and statewide student performance standards
Identifying the educational needs of students attending the school
Reviewing the annual school building budget
Formulating a school improvement plan
School councils also serve as a voice and sounding board for the school community. Each member of the council is available to hear concerns and suggestions from parents, teachers, students, and the community at large.
The Doyon School Advisory Council consists of parent representatives, teacher representatives, administrative representatives, and one community representative. The mission of the School Advisory Council is to develop the school improvement plan through monthly meetings with input from all different representatives involved in the school: parents, teachers, administration, and community members.
The Doyon School Council typically meets once per month on a Wednesday at 5:30 PM alternating in-person and via zoom. Our first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 15 at 5:30 PM via Zoom. All school council meetings are open to the public and all parents are welcome to attend.
If you are interested in joining the school council, please fill out this Google Form.
Should there be a larger interest than spaces available, elections will be held during Curriculum Nights and the information provided in the Google Form will be made public.
Annual Spooky Walk is Approaching! Grab your tickets today. We’re really excited to announce our first pumpkin carving contest! If you donate a jack-o-lantern to the Spooky Walk, you will be automatically entered into the contest. There will be two categories: Family & Child (we’ll cap it at fifth grade for child entries). There will be one, first prize winner in each category and the winners will be chosen by Small Fries!
Prize for the family winner is a boo basket filled with lots of fun seasonal goodies plus $100 to Pomodori, $25 to Tidal Books and $25 to Zumi’s!!
Prize for the child winner is a boo bag filled with seasonal goodies plus $25 to Henry Bear’s Park and $10 to Dairy Queen.
Happy Carving
Rain date is set for the following day Sunday, October 5th 4:30pm - 8:00pm
4:30-5:30 is sensory friendly hour. We will no have flashing lights or loud music during this time.
To purchase tickets please click here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/spooky-walk
The Spooky Walk is one of biggest events of the year! We need all the help we can get to make this come together. Even just one hour of your time can make a huge difference. We have many ways to help contribute to this exciting event. See all the ways you can contribute below!
https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0E4AAAA62FA2FCCE9-58331003-spooky
To sign up for Jack O lanterns to line the path please use the link: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0E4AAAA62FA2FCCE9-58385747-jack
Bake sale volunteer link: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0E4AAAA62FA2FCCE9-58382962-spooky
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 Bike to School Day just around the corner, I thought it was important to review some tips we learned last year from our ThinkFirst Program through Boston Children's Hospital.
Some reminders:
1. Helmets are only good for one crash and expire four years after the manufacture date on the inside/back of the helmet. After that, it is time to get a new helmet!
2. In Massachusetts, anyone 16 years of age or younger operating a bicycle or being carried as passenger on a bicycle must wear a properly fitting helmet.
If you need a helmet, please let me know. I do have some available which were donated from the program last year.
As always, I am here to help and answer any questions you may have.
Mary Sforza RN, MSN, NCSN
Doyon School Nurse
