Bates Family Newsletter

And that's a wrap!

We wrapped up our Educator Appreciation Week yesterday! However, we believe that everyday is a great day to appreciate our hard-working staff. Huge shout out to the awesome educators at Bates😀. Many thanks to the PTO for sponsoring special treats and gifts for our staff. They truly appreciated your kindness and appreciation.

To all the moms out there...

Happy Mother's Day weekend! We wish you much love and happy moments spent with your loved ones. You deserve it!

It's hard to believe, but plans are in full swing for the next school year already. With each new year comes changes. With that, we have some staffing news that we'd like to share:

• We know that we will have two sections of PreK in the building which is very exciting.
  
• Our fourth grade will have two sections. The plan is to continue departmentalizing in this grade. More information will be shared as details become available. Enrollment in this year's third grade class has been capped, which means that we are not accepting anymore students into this grade. Capping enrollment now ensures that we will meet the parameters around class sizes for the coming school year.
• Our fifth grade class will have three sections, up one from this year, due to a large incoming grade five cohort.
• We will be hiring a library/media specialist. This is great news as this teacher will work on much-needed 21st century learning skills with the students, such as keyboarding, integration of technology into the curriculum, and how to be a responsible digital citizen.
• We're welcoming a new ML teacher to Bates, and we're also hiring a new second grade teacher. Both of these positions will be vacated by staff who will be moving on to other opportunities.




Zoom Information Session

Mr. Macarelli, Mr. Lister, and I will soon be sending out the date and time for a parent/guardian information session to address any questions, comments, and/or concerns you have regarding the upcoming school year.




In the meantime, please reach out if you have anything you'd like to discuss in advance of this meeting.




Best regards,

Ms. Smith, Mr. Mac, and Mr. Lister

Who doesn't love a little fun?

Feel Good Fridays continue this week with a neon day! Wear your boldest and brightest colors to school

This is Lilliana, her mom, and her brother! Lil is in fourth grade at Bates and would like you to get to know her family better. Their video can be found here. Would you like to be a "Spotlight Family"? Reach out to our Family Engagement Facilitator, Rosalyn Guevara at rguevara@salemk12.org.

Grade 4 will be taking math MCAS on May 14th and 15th! Our students are ready!

What can parents/caregivers do to support their learners?

Help your child prepare for the test

This includes making sure they get enough sleep, eat well, and arrive to school on time. We have breakfast at school, so even if they don't have time to eat at home, we have them covered!

Reduce test anxiety

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😃

We deviated a bit this week due to Educator Appreciation Week! Next week, we'll kick off on Monday talking about how what we could have once perceived as a weakness or area of opportunity could now have turned into a relative strength. Students will share examples on the announcements.

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

20.2% -- Chronic absenteeism

Our goal is 18.2% or under in the "Chronic Absence" category. Again, this is the lowest number we've seen an a very long time!

HUGE SHOUT OUT to grade 4 for having the lowest chronically absent students at Bates during the past week at 14.9% once again! Wow! If you need any assistance with getting your student to school, please reach out to Rosalyn Guevara, Family Engagement Facilitator at rguevara@salemk12.org.

We heard you all did an amazing job!

Upcoming performances to note:

🔵⚪🔴 Memorial Day shows presented by students in grades K-2 🔵⚪🔴

Thursday, May 23 (for students) - 8:30

Friday, May 24 (for families) - 8:15

🎶🎵🎤Chorus Concerts presented by students in grades 3-5🎶🎵🎤

Thursday, June 6 (for families) at 8:15;

And (for students) at 9:30

Bates 2024 Field Day - Friday, June 7th with a rain date of Monday, June 10th. This year the event will take place at McGlew Park on North Street. The event will be broken down into 2 sessions: 8:30am- 10:30am for Prek- 2nd grade.
10:50 am - 1:00 pm for 3rd grade - 5th grade.

June 12th - Pre-K Graduation at 1p 🎉
June 13th - Kindergarten's End of the Year Celebration at 10 am 🎉
June 14th - Last Day of School for Pre-K & Kindergarten (It's a Full Day)
June 18th - Last Day of School for Grades 1-5 (Early Release Day at 11:15 am)
June 18th - 5th Grade Graduation will be at 9 am 🎉

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.