The OMS Community Newsletter

During Knight Time, students listed 1-2 things they are grateful for about themselves as part of this week's Wellness Wednesday. Students wrote about their own strengths, personality traits, and challenges they have overcome and listed them on a feather which was added to a turkey. When you come into the OMS lobby, you will see the turkeys filled with feathers of OMS students' traits they are grateful for.

Dear OMS Community,

We have many upcoming events next week. Please see the below information which was also emailed home earlier this week.

Tuesday, November 26th

The SHS Marching Black Knights will be doing their annual special performing for OMS on Tuesday afternoon. Every year, we look forward to watching the marching band performance and cheering on the OMS and SHS students in the band. All OMS students and staff will walk up to the SHS football field and will watch the performance from the bleachers. When the performance is finished, we will return to OMS in time for dismissal. Please make sure your student dresses warmly on Tuesday and brings a jacket!

Picture Retake Day is also on Tuesday: Fill out the Google form if your student needs to retake their picture! https://forms.gle/d3G8WTATZck4bqDeA

Wednesday, November 27th

Wednesday is our annual Spirit Day! The OMS Student Council plans a fun day for students and staff. There will be games and activities throughout the day as grades compete against each other to see who will be the Spirit Day Champions! Students are encouraged to wear black and orange to show their school spirit!

Wednesday (11/27) is also an early release day so dismissal is at 11:32am. There will be NO late bus. As a reminder, if you pick up your child up from school, the pick-up lane is ONE lane along the median in the OMS parking lot. The left lane in the parking lot needs to remain open so that cars can back out of parking spaces, cars can pull out of the pick-up lane, and if needed emergency vehicles can access our parking lot. It is also important not to block the crosswalks in our parking lot. For everyone's safety, please adhere to our parking lot procedures.

Thursday, November 28th - Friday, November 29th

No School. Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter Sports Registration ends on Friday, November 29th. (See more information below)

Next week will be a short week for students and staff due to the Thanksgiving break. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the upcoming break with your families!

Sincerely,

Katrina Crowley

Principal

Note: There will be no OMS Community Newsletter next week. The next edition of the OMS Community Newsletter will be the week of December 2nd.

• Tuesday, November 26th - Picture Retake Day & SHS Marching Black Knight Performance
• Wednesday, November 27th - Spirit Day! and Early Release Day (11:32am dismissal)
• Thursday, November 28th - Friday, November 29th - No School, Happy Thanksgiving!
• Friday, November 29th - Winter Sports Registration Closes
• Friday, December 6th - Trimester 1 Ends
• Saturday, December 7th - OMS PTSO Craft & Vendor Fair (10am-2pm)
• Monday, December 9th - Trimester 2 Begins
• Thursday, December 12th - Early Release Day (11:32am dismissal)
• December 23 - January 1 - No School (Winter Vacation)

Project 351 provides a year of service learning opportunities to an 8th grade Ambassador from each of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts. Each year at OMS, faculty silently nominate deserving 8th graders for consideration as the Project 351 Ambassador from OMS and the Town of Stoughton. Faculty were asked to nominate students based on the Project 351 selection criteria of recognizing quiet and unsung heroes who...

• lead with an open heart and mind
• exemplify values of kindness, compassion, humility, and gratitude
• demonstrate a strong ethic of service
• reflect respect for the dignity of all and for the diversity of culture, race, heritage, and lived experiences
• can work independently but also values teamwork
• reflect strong potential and a desire to learn and lead

All students who are nominated are recognized locally and our selected Ambassador goes on to represent OMS and Stoughton for Launch Day and for a year of service opportunities.

Victoria (Tori) Chaisson is the 2025 Project 351 Ambassador for OMS and Stoughton. Congratulations, Tori!

Tori embodies Project 351 values of kindness, compassion, humility, and gratitude. Tori demonstrates kindness, compassion for others, academic strength, and has exceptional teamwork. Tori is involved in our school community and is a role-model student. She is involved in our school band and is a member of our award-winning Stoughton High School Marching Band. She also participates in the morning announcements as one of our news anchors. Since 6th grade, Tori has volunteered to help teachers after school in their classrooms and gives back to our school community.

Tori is pictured below with Mrs. Bailey (Project 351 Mentor) and Principal Crowley.

Six other students in Grade 8 were nominated to be the Project 351 ambassador: Christa Mikhael, Oluwademilade Joel Omidiji, Kayden Pham, Angel Phan, Sophia Singer, and Ava Thibodeaux. These students are recognized for their hard work, character, and commitment to service. Congratulations to all of our Project 351 nominees!

Above is a picture of our Project 351 Ambassador and nominees. From left to right: Ava Thibodeaux, Christa Mikhael, Angel Phan, Tori Chaisson (Project 351 Ambassador), Sophia Singer, Kayden Pham, Oluwademilade Joel Omidiji.

The OMS Student Council ran a successful food drive! We donated 1,019 total items to the Stoughton Food Pantry. We collected 178 items in Grade 6, 350 items in Grade 7, and 491 items in Grade 8. Congratulations to Grade 8 for collecting the most items!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the food drive! Great job to our OMS Student Council!

We have noticed that there are less cell phone violations this year compared to last year! This means, students are following school cell phone expectations. By keeping their phones in their lockers, they are less distracted in class. The table below shows the differences between phone violations last year compared to this year for the months of September and October.

Please review our cell phone rules attached below. It is important to note additional clarification added to the bottom of the document, "The district is aware that there are students and staff who may utilize their cell phones or other technology as monitoring devices for medical purposes. No student shall ever be penalized for, or restricted from, using their device for this purpose." As a reminder, if a parent/guardian needs to reach their child, please call the main office. If a student needs to call home, they can go to the main office to call.

Our school cell phone expectations are available to view on our OMS website under the "Resources for Families & Students" section.

Today (11/22), 7C students learned about abstract Impressionism from guest artist Lois Whittaker. They chose a poem from the poetry unit to create artwork showing the mood and imagery of their favorite lines using shaving cream, watercolors, and sharpies.

Please see the message below from Lifetouch:

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As a token of appreciation, Lifetouch is offering discounts on school photography!

• 50% off a purchase of $50+ with code USNOV50
• 40% off a purchase of $40+ with code USNOV40
• 30% off a purchase of $30+ with code USNOV30

Valid through 12/1/24

To order, log in to your account on mylifetouch.com or create an online account. Don't forget to order your FREE Digital SmileSafe card!

More about the Smilesafe program here.

Thank you!

Winter sports registration is now open! The deadline to register is November 29th.

We will be offering the following middle school winter sports:

• Girls Basketball
• Boys Basketball
• Co-Ed Wrestling
• Dance Team

We will also have an OMS Dance Team that will perform at home basketball games.

Students interested in participating in winter sports or dance team will need to register through Family ID, have a physical on file in the OMS clinic, complete IMPACT concussion testing, and meet eligibility requirements (see pages 12-13 of the handbook). As a reminder, these activities are open to eligible students in Grades 7 & 8. If there are not enough students to make a team, these activities will open up to eligible students in Grade 6.

There will be try-outs for basketball and auditions for dance team.

Where's My Handbook? Podcast

Where's My Handbook is a SMACast podcast to support parents of kids going through the teen and tween years. In this latest episode, SHS Adjustment Counselor Ms. Georgeann Lewis goes on the podcast to discuss the ways tweens and teens experience grief and loss, not just around death, but all sorts of transitions. Georgeann shares tips on helping your teen manage loss and to identify when the ways that teens manage loss are not healthy and could use more support.

Parent Workshops for Parents of Teens and Tweens

Stoughton Public Library Programs

Here is some important information about our school. Please visit the OMS website for more information, including the most up-to-date school calendar.

Website: oms.stoughtonschools.org
Location: 211 Cushing Street, Stoughton, MA, USA
Phone: 781-344-7002
Facebook: facebook.com/stoughtonpublicschools

Missed a newsletter? Click the link below to review a previous newsletter.

Week of 11/12 - 11/15

Week of 10/28 - 11/1

Week of 10/21 - 10/25

Week of 10/15 - 10/18

Week of 10/7 - 10/11

Week of 9/30 - 10/4

Week of 9/23 - 9/27

Week of 9/16 - 9/20

Week of 9/9 - 9/13

Week of 9/3 - 9/6

Back to School Edition Part 2

Back to School Edition Part 1