As we bring the school year to a close, I want to take a moment to thank you for your continued support and partnership. It’s been a year of learning, growth, and progress, and I’m appreciative of the community support that makes it all possible.

The final weeks of school are always a wonderful time to celebrate all that our students have achieved. From demonstrations of learning and performances to athletic competitions and milestone events, these moments serve as important reminders of our students’ growth, our educators’ dedication, and the strength of the MERSD community.

While students head into summer break, MERSD will be busy behind the scenes preparing for a strong start to the 2025–2026 school year.

Have a wonderful summer – see you in August!

This summer, we’ll be transitioning to a new website platform as part of a vendor-wide shift. Our current provider, Blackboard, was acquired by Finalsite, and all districts are required to move to the updated system. This work will begin on June 20th and continue through August. As we update layouts, improve navigation, and refresh content, we appreciate your patience and welcome your feedback. If you come across missing content or broken links, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Your feedback will help us identify areas that need to be addressed.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is collecting input from families, students, and community members about how Massachusetts defines and supports graduation readiness. The Statewide Graduation Survey is open through June 30, and your feedback will help shape future graduation requirements.

On the night of May 6, our community engaged in session #3 of our Digital Wellness Series. Facilitated by Kerry Gallagher, J.D., we focused on preventing the spread of misinformation and disinformation in our current AI media era. We learned strategies for carefully analyzing information online, practice with some examples of recent viral posts, and considered how we can bring these skills home to our children.

You can view the slides from the event HERE.

Superintendent Pam Beaudoin and Principal Joanne Maino are pleased to share that two groups of Grade 8 students from Manchester Essex Regional Middle School (MERMS) attended and presented projects at the State Civics Showcase at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston on June 6. Check out the full article HERE.!

Math Ideas: Hana McGowan, Math Instructional Coach

Summer is an excellent time to have fun with math in a relaxed environment! Here are some engaging activities you can do with your child this summer to keep them thinking mathematically.

• Count the seeds in a watermelon.
• Use small toys, balls, or household items to have a weekly estimation jar.
• Have a shape scavenger hunt.
• Measure how tall and wide your garden plants and veggies grow every week.
• Heading to the beach? Use seashells to count, sort, and make patterns.
• Measure how far your child can throw, kick, or bounce different sized balls.
• Going on a trip? Have your child figure out how many miles you’ll be traveling using an atlas.
• Figure out how much gas you’ll need for the trip and how much it will cost.
• Determine how long it will take to travel based on average speed.

The most important thing to remember… have fun! Math is all around us and the summer is a great time to find joy in mathematics!

Literacy Ideas: Beth LeDoux, Literacy Instructional Coach

Here are some simple, stress-free ideas to help keep literacy skills fresh over the summer, without it feeling like schoolwork! These fun, playful activities are perfect for practicing phonics, high-frequency words, spelling, comprehension, and making connections.

• Word Treasure Hunt: hide word cards around the house or yard. Each found word must be read, used in a sentence, or spelled aloud to earn points.
• Family Read-Aloud and Snack Chat: read a chapter or picture book together and talk about it over snacks: favorite part, surprises, connections to life or other stories.
• Family Book Bingo: each family member gets their own BINGO card and starts filling in the squares! Here’s a sample BINGO card!
• 20 Questions “Book Edition”: think of a character from a book you've read and have others ask yes/no questions to guess who it is.
• Rhyme Time: say a word, and the next person must rhyme it. Keep going until someone’s stumped.
• Phonics Art Collage: pick a phonics pattern (like “ar” or “ow”). Kids cut pictures from magazines that match and label them.
• Rainbow Write or Sidewalk Spelling: practice words using sidewalk chalk, rainbow writing (multiple colors), or in sand/water trays
• Story Builders: Take turns adding one sentence to a story. Bonus if the story includes specific vocabulary words or phonics patterns.

The Open Door Food Truck will not be running during the Summer months. For more information about The Open Door please visit their website.

Our new website will launch on June 20th-Your feedback is welcome!

36 Lincoln St.

Manchester, MA 01944

https://www.mersd.org/

Phone 978.526.4919

Fax 978.526.7585