O'Maley Family Focus

March 4, 2022

Early Release Thursday March 10 at 11:00 am

Greetings from O'Maley!

It's been an exciting week back at school following February break. It was great to be able to provide the option to wear or not wear a mask at school. About a third of our community has continued wearing them, and everyone seems to be comfortable with one another's choices. A great example of acceptance here at O'Maley, during our March celebration of our SAILS value, Acceptance.

Speaking of acceptance, we will be working on this theme over the next few weeks. If you are able to do so, feel free to partner with us at home by having conversations about different ways we accept one another. Acceptance is more than just tolerance. We are encouraging students to celebrate differences, and to embrace them. Differences make our community vibrant and ever-changing, and help us to learn about ourselves and our world.

This week marks the middle of Term 3 which ends on April 8th. It's a good time to check into the Schoolbrains Community Portal so see how your child is doing. Please don't hesitate to contact teachers if you have questions.

There are several events noted below that I want you to be aware of. Most prominently, our winter musical, The Little Mermaid, Jr. is holding performances beginning tonight. This evening's show is sold out, but tickets are available for the other five performances:

Saturday, March 5 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, March 6 at 1:00 pm
Friday, March 11 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, March 12 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, March 13 at 1:00 pm

While we will sell remaining tickets at the door, the best way to ensure that you get seats is to purchase tickets online at: https://omaley-drama.ticketleap.com/the-little-mermaidjr/

GPS is partnering with Beauport Ambulance Service to provide another vaccine clinic for students and staff. Please see below for a flyer with all the details of who may be vaccinated. The clinic at O'Maley will be held on March 18, 11:45 am - 2:45 pm.

Best,

Lynne

Please follow @omaleyprincipal on Twitter or Instagram.

Topics in this issue of Family Focus:

Upcoming Events
Health Screenings
COVID-19 Updates & Testing Sign-Up
O'Maley Academy Stump Trivia Night
Planning Ahead? ...MCAS Schedule

Upcoming Events

March 10 - Early Release at 11:00 am for parent/teacher conferences
March 17 - O'Maley Academy Stump Trivia 6:00-8:00 p.m. LIVE in the O'Maley Cafe
March 18 - Vaccine Clinic for students and staff 11:45 am -2:45 pm
March 24 - Virtual PTO Meeting 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Link tbd)

Student Health Screenings - Grade 7

Nurses Kim Cameron and Alycia Gossom will begin annual health screenings next week. If you are the parent/guardian of a 7th grade student and DO NOT want your child screened, please contact the nurses' office at 978-281-9847 or send an email to kcameron@gloucesterschools.com or agossom@gloucesterschools.com

O'Maley Academy Presents: Stump Trivia Match 17th

Come join us for a fun night of “STUMP Trivia!” Space is limited!

Reserve your spot today!

–Bring a GPS Chromebook OR your own personal device (w/ your own cellular data)-

*WiFi is only available for school issued chromebooks*

-Register up to 6 people per team! -

(Teams can be made up of students, staff and family members)

**Compete to win PRIZES & come sign up for our

Spring O’Maley Academy Programs!**

When: Thursday March 17th 6-8PM

How to Sign-up: CLICK HERE

Where: O’Maley Middle School Cafeteria

What: Fun, prizes, music, food and more!!

Cost per team: (cash/check)

-O’Maley Academy Families who participated in a Fall/Winter activity: $15 per team

-All other O’Maley families/ O’Maley Staff members: $25 per team

*Face masks are required for entry - Seating is spaced 3 feet apart for social distancing in the O’Maley cafeteria*

For more details and the link to sign up for Stump Trivia, link here.

COVID Vaccine Clinic Details

COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Information - English

COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Information - Portuguese

COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Information - Spanish

COVID At-Home Testing

Please remember to test on Friday mornings before school! The next test distribution for students is Thursday, March 17th. Please read on if you have not signed up for at-home testing and would like to do so.

To Participate in our At-Home Rapid COVID Testing Program and get a free antigen test every week, please opt-in by completing this form.
How Do I Test Twice per Week for Free? If you also participate in our In-School Weekly COVID Safety Testing each week, you will be able to test twice every week for COVID, giving you the assurance every few days of knowing whether you are COVID negative or not. If you’re not already participating in our In-School Weekly Testing, please register here.
Do I have to participate in both the At Home Testing and the Weekly In School COVID Safety Testing? No, each one is separate, and they are optional. However I strongly encourage participation in both.
Update on Contact Tracing and Test & Stay As part of this shift in the program, we will discontinue our Test & Stay program and contact tracing for in-school close contacts. This means that if a staff member or a student is a potential close contact in school, they may continue to come to school and do not have to quarantine out of school.

The expectation is that the tests will arrive Wednesday afternoons, be available/distributed on Thursdays, and individuals should test at home Friday mornings.

Student tests will be organized by homeroom and homeroom teachers will distribute them to students during homeroom that day. If you are signed up for the program, please be on the lookout for the next test packets to be brought home on Thursday, March 17th.

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COVID-19 Updates & Weekly Testing Sign-Up

COVID-19 at O'Maley: We had 3 new cases of COVID-19 reported at O'Maley this week and have 2 active cases as of today, March 4th. All close contacts have been contacted. Since we started school August 31st there have been a total of 214 cases reported among the O'Maley community. See the new GPS COVID Dashboard for updated data each week: https://backtogether.gloucesterschools.com/updates/dashboard-covid-cases

Currently our student vaccination rates are as follows:

6th 63.3.%

7th 72.5%

8th 69.3%

To sign up for weekly pool testing in school (Mondays): Link here: https://www.cic-health.com/consent/ma?district=Gloucester.

Weekly Testing: Testing will continue each Monday at O'Maley. It is not too late to sign up. This week once again all tests were negative.If you have tested positive in the past 90 days, do not participate in weekly testing, as you may yield a false positive for your pool.

Schoolbrains Community Portal

To conserve paper, and to ensure that families have access to student performance information, report cards are not printed or sent home as a hard copy. Report cards for Term 2 were accessible in the Schoolbrains Community Portal at 3:00 p.m. on February 2, 2022.

Our Portal is open for all students and families, and parents/guardians who are new to the portal should have received an email containing your login information. If you did not receive an email, or already had one and have forgotten it, please email Mr. Hurley, dhurley@gloucesterschools.com and he will send it to you.

Information about the portal, what you will find there, and how to login is below.

Parent Letter re. Schoolbrains Community Portal

Link to the Schoolbrains Community Portal Login

Student/Guardian How-to

Planning Ahead? Here's the Spring MCAS Schedule

While April seems very far away, to assist families who often write asking for spring MCAS dates, the schedule below provides all of the details. Testing will occur at O'Maley from April 5 - May 12, with additional dates for makeups. More information will be communicated as we get closer to the dates.