Weekly Staff Bulletin #23/24

• • Here is a list of the sporting events for this week
  • BPS 2025-2026 District Calendar
  • District Wednesday PD Calendar
  • Wake Up JGMS Request Form
  • Wake Up JGMS Staff Fun Facts
  • Weekly Staff and Parent Bulletin Requests
  • 2025-2026 Grade Posting Deadlines
  • School Lunch Menu - Click Here

This Week:

3/4 (W) Faculty Meeting 1:15-3:15pm

3/5 (Th) Playbook Initiative with Holliston Middle School Visiting

3/5 (Th) Healthy Hours Working Group 3:30pm

3/5 (Th) Rising 9th Grade Information Night 6:30pm @BHS

Next Week (So Far):

3/9 (M) BEA Rep Meeting 2:30pm

3/9 (T) Anti-Hate/Bias Task Force 7pm

3/11 (W) Teacher Day 1:15-3:15pm

3/12 (Th) MSPA Meeting 9am

3/13 (F) Election Set Up - Gym Closed to PE

Requesting Bulletin Items - Weekly Staff and Parent Bulletin Requests

A) [NEW] JGMS Team won 1st place at the MathCounts

1) [UPDATED] Mental Health Speaker/Artist at JGMS on March 19

2) [NEW] Staff Give-Away Week

3) [NEW] Chromebook Plan and Stickers

4) [NEW] One Of Many Responsibilities as Educators (one of many)

5) [NEW] JROTC 3/6 - 8th Grade

6) [NEW] Grade 8 - Scheduling for 2026-27

7) [NEW] Lane Visit Thursday 3/5

8) [REMINDER] Free Mental Health Basics Course

9) [REMINDER] Students In Unauthorized Areas

10) [REMINDER] MCAS Dates

The JGMS Team won 1st place at the MathCounts Northeast Chapter competition on Saturday 2/28! This means that JGMS will be competing at the State level competition next Saturday (March 7) in Burlington.

(The Pike School team won 2nd place and the Andover West Middle School team won 3rd place)

The JGMS MathCounts Team consists of 4 students who will be competing both as individuals and as a team:

• Thomas Conrad (grade 7)

• Kalie Jia (grade 8)

• Karen Jia (grade 8)

• Evan Zheng (grade 7)

In addition, one of our JGMS competitors also made it to the State level competition and will be competing as an Individual.

• Jeremy Hwang (grade 8)

We are very excited to be sending 5 of our students to compete at the State level, which is very challenging.

We are so proud of all of the students who made it to the Chapter competition and especially of those students who are moving on to the State competition.

Big thanks to Coach Burstein for bringing the students and supporting their growth.

On Thursday, March 19, speaker and artist, Cara Bean, will promote mental health awareness to 6th and 8th graders in two all-grade assemblies as well as offer two mindful doodling workshops (45 students each; open to all grade levels).

This engaging and relevant presentation, along with 50 copies of her book "Here I Am, I Am Me" are generously sponsored by a grant from the Bedford Education Foundation. As promised, more information on the day's schedule and workshop selection were forthcoming.

The schedule for the day (Day 3):

A-Block: 6th-grade assembly in Auditorium

C-Block: 8th-grade assembly in Auditorium

D-Block: Doodle workshop in Cafeteria (open to all grades, 45 students)

G-Block: Doodle workshop in Cafeteria (open to all grades, 45 students)

Doodle workshop participants will be determined in March and a list will be shared by counseling team or me. Learn more about Cara and her work at: https://www.carabeancomics.com/author-visits-for-schools

It's the first Thursday of the month. It's almost spring!

Make sure to tune into the WUJGMS on Thursday to see who wins a prize!

For those who watched Wake up JGMS last week you know that we have changed the plan for students to turn in a malfunctioning Chromebook.

Students will go to the Buc Stop

7:10-7:30 am (see Ms. Klein or Mr. B)

or

Lunch time (see teacher in the Buc Stop)

Additionally, the students will no longer be receiving a "loaner." Instead they will receive a replacement Chromebook that will become their new assigned Chromebook. Please ask students to peel stickers as you notice them and remind students they should not be putting stickers on their Chromebook.

Finally, as adults who need to model what we expect from students, please remove stickers from your device. For the record, even I was guilty as I had one sticker on mine and I have since removed it.

If students ask why we allowed stickers you can share with them that the handbook states that stickers are not allowed and that we need to be consistent in our expectations.

Feel free to wait to request stickers be removed until Wake Up JGMS this week. I have submitted a request for Vin and Jen to let students know and the reasons why. This way, after Thursday's Wake Up JGMS, you will be able to reiterate the expectation.

Additionally, it's important to note that asking students to remove stickers may end up being seen as a political request. Please be sure to remind students, if needed, that is in an effort to be consistent with handbook expectations because the computers are not property of students.

In coordination with 8th Grade team leaders, The JROTC team will be at JGMS at 10:00 on 3/6 to set up/prepare for the presentation. They will present to 8th grade in the auditorium 10:15 - 10:55 then students will proceed to D block following the presentation. Students will go with their C block class to the auditorium at the end of C block.

8th Grade Advisories should show Wake Up JGMS on Friday

Ms. Day, the Grade 8 School Counselor, will be in Civics classes on Monday, March 2 and Tuesday, March 3 to talk to students about BHS course offerings, how to use the BHS Program of Studies, information about the BHS daily schedule, graduation requirements, and instructions for requesting classes. Aspen will open for students to make course requests beginning Friday, March 6 and will close on Friday, March 27. More information will be shared on Thursday, March 5 via email.

A small group of incoming Lane School students are coming on Thursday 3/5 from 9:45-10:15.

Students will be here for a short tour around the building with the counseling staff. Lane is working with the JGMS counseling department on a new "trial" plan to better support certain students with the middle school transition. Lane students will also view the Wake Up JGMS video during advisory time during their visit. Please reach out to Renee Anderson if you have any questions.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is offering a free, 6-week Basics class in Tewksbury, beginning on Wednesday, March 4. This class is designed to support parents and caregivers of children and adolescents ages 5–20 who are experiencing emotional or behavioral challenges. See the flyer for more information including the registration link.

In the morning, we expect students to be in the following places with the adults presents:

• 6th Grade - Auditorium or gym (Izzy Leginsky)
• 7th Grade - Cafeteria or gym (Bonnie Klein, Jonathan Brome)
• 8th Grade - Cafeteria or gym (Bonnie Klein, Jonathan Brome)
• Nick and I float to where we are needed.

Often, when a student heads to their locker early, a simple reminder to return to an authorized area is sufficient. At times, students may tell an adult they have a plan to meet with a teacher, which can place the adult in an awkward position when they assess the legitimacy of that request.

If a student has a plan to meet with you, please provide them with a pass. This allows the student to present the pass if questioned by any adult. If the student does not have a pass, they should be directed back to one of the three approved options. If at any point an adult feels a student is pushing a limit, Nick or I are happy to reinforce expectations with the student and follow up with families as needed.

If you do allow a student through without a pass I ask that you get the students name and follow up with the teacher they are going to see. If it turns out to be legitimate, a gentle reminder to your colleague to provide a pass may help prevent it from happening again. If the student is not being truthful, Nick or I will be happy to follow up with the student if you let us know.

Consistency and communication will provide the students the structure they need to ensure they remain where they should in the morning and throughout the day.

The MCAS dates are now finalized. Please note the dates below.

For staff that need to leave between 2:16 and 2:30, please refrain from parking adjacent to the baseball field. Cars line up down the lot starting at 2:00. The primary focus at that is safe student dismissal. if you need to leave between 2:16 and 2:30 it is best you park adjacent to the street. There should not be any students walking in the lot and you can pull out and exit on the right.

UPDATE:We have compiled a Google Classroom to serve as a hub for Developmental Designs-inspired plans as well as other ideas to use for your advisories or classes. Please join if this is of interest to you so you can access all of the materials. (If the link doesn't work, the join code is z2zibjdm.)

Advisory is going to be the place to

1. Make connections and build trust using Developmental Designs CPRs.

2. Provide anti hate/Bias Education

You cannot do #2, without a strong foundation in #1

On opening day I shared that I expect students will be doing a a CPR in some form. Be it a greeting, a share, or a game once a week. For those that were not there or in the event it was not clear, it is critical that students and staff build the muscles of being in a circle, safely sharing their thoughts, and listening to each other.

Please take time this week to identify a day of the week you will run a structured circle so that your students will get familiar with the routine and so that counselors and service providers know not to pull students at that time. Ideally it’s not the same day for the whole grade.

We have trained staff in Developmental Designs that can help. So please reach out to any of them for support.

Kim Limoli, Kristen Tracy, Rachel LeBlanc, Jen Naylor, Erin Venuti, Betsy Wilson, Sophia Grammenos, Anders Helgason, Kasie Costopulos, Alli Parker, Wendy Tanahashi-Works, Karen Burstein, Tracey Greenspan, John Anderson, Hua Li, Allyson Hayden, Bonnie Klein, and Jill Marquis.

Nick and Jon are also resources and are happy to help as well.

I will work with the DD team to provide a library of resources for all to pull from.

As of last week, you should have found a small stack of blue tickets in your mailbox. These are our school "Buck"aneer Tickets (aka Buc's). Please use these tickets to recognize a student for something positive, making sure that you complete the back of the ticket to let the student know what they did to earn the recognition. This step is super important as the ticket is not valid if the back is not completed by the teacher. We are also piloting a Google Form system if you are unable to hand write and give the ticket to the student directly. If you would like to recognize a student after the fact, you can also complete the "Buck"aneer Student Recognition form. We will print tickets from all submissions each Wednesday to be distributed on the following school day. Any student who has earned a "Buck"aneer (Blue Ticket) from a staff member, can partake in purchasing items at the school store. Students will receive a free pencil for their ticket and then are welcome to purchase any other items. The Buc Stop is working on replenishing its inventory and will officially open on October 7th. The school store hours will be on: Tues/Thur :7:15-7:35am and Wed. : 12:43-12:53pm. In addition, the Buc Drop carts will be visiting classrooms during Advisory time. Students can also accumulate tickets to use for a variety of privileges. See the attached menu for our current privileges and we are working on adding more as we go! No matter the size of the achievement or moment, we hope that these tickets will be a small way for students to know that they are doing great things each and every day. If you run out of tickets, please let Serena or Yvonne know and they can get you more. Thank you for your help in recognizing our students!

As you plan your year, please put absences into Frontline with as much notice as possible. We are competing with daily substitutes in the surrounding area and may be able to lock in subs if our absences are posted when you know you will be out. Serena and Yvonne are even in contact with substitutes who like to plan their weeks ahead of time. If we know of absences early enough, we can work to secure substitutes we know will represent your class well. Additionally, even if an absence is for multiple days, please only post absences as single days as this will allow more substitutes to see open jobs. Finally, all absences should be entered into Frontline by the employee.

Personal Days: The Contracts states:

"Personal business days, except in the case of an emergency, should be requested in writing at least 72 hours prior to the date of the absence." Please be sure to enter your absence into Frontline when you know of the need for a personal day.

Personal business days will not be granted on days before or after the holidays or vacations except at the discretion of the Superintendent and so long as the request meets the criteria in 22-01(a)-(d) or the teacher’s request for the day is a result of a scheduling of an event that is outside of the teacher’s control. Please be sure to make a request to the superintendent in these situations

Co-Teaching Professional Days: To ensure we can manage our absences during Co-Teaching Professional days, Co-Teaching teams should check in with Jon at least 2 weeks prior to scheduling the Co-Teaching day. Jon will work with the team to find a date that is the most optimal for the operation of the building. This means generally approving in house professional development 24 to 72 hours leading up to the requested day based on the number of absences we expect.

Religious Holidays: The Contracts states: "Holidays: In addition to or in lieu of using personal days, a teacher can select to use up to two (2) accrued sick days with prior written notice to the Superintendent to be absent on a religious holiday. Teachers shall not be required to use a personal day first, and can use the accrued sick day before using personal days." Please be sure to enter your absence into Frontline when you know of the need for a Religious Holiday.

Personal Illness or Family Illness: Please enter the absence into Frontline before 6:00am. If you need to enter an absence after 6:00am, please enter the absence into Frontline so a substitute can see the job and email Nick, Jon, Yvonne, Serena, and Amy (if applicable) so that we can be sure to see it in our planning.

Entering an Absence After 6:00am: Please email Nick, Jon, Yvonne, and Serena so that we can be sure to see it in our planning.

Religious Holidays: Please see the School Committee notes and MGL on religious holidays here here.