OTS Updates

Dear Parent(s) and/or Guardian(s),

We have 4.5 days more of school until our holiday break. Here's wishing you and your family a wonderful break and happy holidays!

A few reminders before we meet again after the new year:

When students want to support our sports teams after school, they must first go home and return around 3:45pm when the games begin. Information about sports can be found here.

The Winter concert is this Tuesday, December 19th at 7pm. We look forward to an amazing performance from our students. They have been working hard since the beginning of the year during and after school to prepare for this concert. Thank you to Ms. Polinger and Mr. Shaffer as well for the great work they do with our musicians and singers at OTS!

Also, on this evening the Tewksbury Family Assistance (TFA) will be sponsoring a refreshment table. Any purchase of a drink or snack will go directly to support community members in need. For more information about TFA, please check out our Virtual Backpack.

All OTS students have been reminded to procure any items they may have lost from the lost and found. Lost and found items can be found in the boys and girls locker rooms and in our APR. On Thursday next week, December 21, we will have our last call for unclaimed items. All lost and found items will be laid out on the gym floor so students will have one last chance to claim their items. After the 21st, any unclaimed items will be donated. Thank you.

The total cost of the Washington, D.C. trip, is approximately $750. However, students have the opportunity to fundraise to decrease the costs of the trip. In addition, the profits from our 8th grade musical usually lessens the total cost of the trip by around $200 per student if they participate in this musical. Participation can mean on stage, off stage, and other tasks related to the musical production. The total cost of the Camp Mason trip is approximately $200. Advisors for these trips will be following up with more information when needed.

It's important for students and parents to know that while these overnight field trips are wonderful opportunities for our students, trust is essential for our teachers and chaperones when running these overnight trips. Please read this letter if your child is a 7th or 8th grader about our expectations for overnight trips.

Winter sports have begun and games are underway. Please check out our OTS Sports page for weekly updates providing practice and game information. Refreshments will be available at all home games. Best of luck to all of our student athletes as well as our Cheer Squad!

Class of 2024 presents Aladdin, Jr. as this year's musical. Auditions are complete and the cast is set. The musical will be March 21-23 with a matinee on the 23rd in addition to the evening show. Communication will be delivered after the new year requesting parent volunteers to assist with this production. Parental involvement is essential and helps help make our production a success. Lastly, if you child does not participate in the musical, they don't receive any of the benefits towards their DC trip in June. Please encourage your child to seek out Ms. Krowl or Mr. Mortenson to get involved. There are still opportunities to be part of this great production.

A special thank you to the Tewksbury Schools and Tewksbury Police Department for the food drive run in November and December! It was a great success and the 5th grade has earned a pizza party from the police department because they donated the most canned goods!

Dr. Mitchell

December 19th 7pm - OTS Holiday Concert

December 22nd - Early Dismissal

December 23 - January 2 - School Closed Winter Break

January 3rd - Students return to school

This past Friday, I attended some professional development at NJECC. The topic for the monthly meeting was "Disconnect December". I had the fortune of listening to some amazing individuals working in different ways to help kids today deal with the challenges they face with technology and specifically social media. Yondr, who has been in the news a lot recently, presented with the New Brunswick middle school principal how the Yondr pouches for cell phones have led to improved learning results and the school climate and culture in her school this past year. Francisco Ayala, director at the Willow School, spoke about intentional use of technology. Zach Rausch spoke about a new book coming out that he has helped research and write for called The Anxious Generation. Lastly, Maddie Freeman of NoSo November spoke about her non profit and the great work they're doing to try and help teenagers detox from social media.

I left the meeting with my head spinning and filled with questions and ideas, but ultimately, what I left with was this message delivered by Zach Rausch which is, "we (parents, schools, society) are overprotecting in the real world and underprotecting in the online world". I add my message of the month on my newsletter because while I know how busy and stressed we all may be as parents, I also know we are struggling to raise and educate kids in a world that is very different from the world where we were raised. We want to fix things but aren't always sure how to do so. Sometimes our approaches for helping kids may even be doing the opposite! My hope is that through sharing these musings, articles, and research, we can reflect on our own lives as parents and educators and perhaps start some conversations that can help improve and make better what we know to be not working for our kids both in and out of school.

With that being said, I'm sharing an article with a woman named Lenore Skenazy of the Let Grow organization who I had the fortune of speaking with on Tuesday about this topic of overprotection. I shared the challenges schools and parents now face today. How laws and practices might not always be serving our kids and how challenging them often backfires even if well intentioned. She shared with me some ideas and resources. Here is one of her articles that I found important for us as parents and educators. Thank you for taking the time to read and reflect!

The Fragile Generation

When It Comes to Online Grade books, Some Parents are Flunking

“teaching kids that failures, insults, and painful experiences will do lasting damage is harmful in and of itself. Human beings need physical and mental challenges and stressors or we deteriorate.”
― Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences embedded in daily life that they need in order to become strong and healthy.”
― Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.”
― Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

Clubs starting dates and times will be placed under their flyers. Please know that all clubs end at 3:30pm unless otherwise noted by the club advisor.

Click here to check out our sports website.

OTS offers 10 sports throughout the school year. Physicals and Health Forms are due prior to the start of all seasons. Contact the school nurse kcullen@tewksburyschools.org for the sports physical forms.

Fall Sports

Open to students in Grades 5-8 - Girls and Boys Soccer, Cross Country (coed)

Open to students in Grades 6-8 - Field Hockey and Girls Volleyball

Winter Sports

Open to grades 5-8 - Spirit Squad

Open to Grades 6-8 - Girls and Boys Basketball

Spring Sports

Open to grades 5-8 - Girls and Boys Lacrosse, Track and Field (coed), and Softball

Open to grades 6-8 - Baseball

Practices run until 4:15pm unless designated by a coach

All home games/meets start at 4:00pm unless otherwise stated

All winter physicals must be returned to the OTS school nurse by November 1, 2023

One of the ways Mrs. Cutri-French, the school counselor, connects with our students is through "Guidance Lunches". These are one time, small group lunches organized by homerooms which are casual, low-key "getting to know each other" experiences for every student. Students may talk about their school year, outside activities, offer opinions, explore objects in the guidance office or even play a game of (magnetic) darts!

A few students may initially be reluctant to participate, typically 1) because they don't want to be away from the social scene in the cafeteria, 2) because they won’t be with their best friends or 3) because it is unfamiliar.

Most students, though, come away telling others that it was fun! We encourage you to help your child push through any initial discomfort because of the overall benefits they get when they are comfortable accessing this school resource. If you have any questions, or want to discuss this further, feel free to call Mrs. Cutri-French at (908) 439-2010 ext 4230.

Our school management software program is called Realtime. The data contained in Realtime is used as the preferred method of communication for mass emails from the district, text messages, and voice messages. This information is used for emergency situations like weather delays, school closing, etc. Please keep this information updated. You will be requested to review and update your contact information and to whom and how you want information sent.

Please know you cannot access your child’s schedule without having completed all necessary forms. If you are having trouble accessing the portal, please contact our front office; dkrowl@tewksburyschools.org

To create or make change to your Maschios account, please go to the main OTS website.

The school lunch menus have been completed for OTS and are published on our district's website.

They may be viewed here: https://tewksburyschools.nutrislice.com/

Dress Code

I want parents to be aware of our updated Board of Education policy 5511. Please review the following examples of unacceptable attire with your children and cooperate with our staff in helping enforce this policy. Parents may be contacted to make the required changes for dress code violations:

1. Clothing that is too revealing;

2. Clothing that may damage school property including, but not limited to, cleats, shoes, or boots that leave black marks;

3. Clothing that may be unsafe such as flip-flops, thong sandals, untied sneakers or boots, un-strapped straps or suspenders;

4. Clothing that has designs, wording, or patches that are offensive, including, but not limited to, alcohol/drug advertising and obscenities or sayings that are offensive to certain groups;

5. Clothing that is too short;

6. For health and safety reasons, students are to refrain from marking on themselves or each other with pens, pencils, etc.; and

7. Jewelry must be removed prior to entering the gymnasium for physical education class. This includes earrings, stud earrings, watches, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and anything else that the teacher feels could be considered a potential safety hazard.

FOR THE 2023-2024 SCHOOL YEAR, HOMEWORK WILL NOT BE ASSIGNED TO STUDENTS DURING THE FOLLOWING DATES AND NO ASSESSMENT WILL BE GIVEN ON THE DAY THEY RETURN TO SCHOOL

• Rosh Hashanah (September 15 through September 17)

• Yom Kippur (September 22 through September 25)

• Thanksgiving Recess (November 22 through November 26)

• Winter Recess (December 22 through January 1)

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 12 through January 15)

• Presidents’ Day weekend (February 16 through February 19)

• Spring Recess (March 28 through April 5)

• Memorial Day Weekend (May 24 through May 28)

As a reminder, Tewksbury Township Schools uses our Virtual Backpack to share things happening in and around our community. Click here to see what's going on!

Every OTS student will have a locker this year. We expect students to keep their lockers locked with their own lock or a school provided lock.

Students should not leave any food or water overnight in their lockers.

Students will not be getting changed for Physical Education (PE) and should wear comfortable clothes they can run around in as well as sneakers on the days they have PE. PE is three days a week for each student at OTS.

All students taking home devices must purchase insurance. The cost of insurance for your child’s Chromebook for the year is $25. Please bring a check made out to Tewksbury Township Board of Education or TTBOE. For more information about the insurance policy as well as parent/student expectations, please click here.

Please go through the Handbook and Code of Conduct with your children and pay special attention to:

Social Media, Cell Phones, and ECRD (Electronic Recording Device) Technology

According to the most recent research, Old Turnpike School encourages parents to delay use of social media apps for their children. Many of the social media apps middle schoolers like to use can not be monitored effectively and messages and photos can be easily hidden or deleted. Furthermore, according to the United States Surgeon General, who issued an advisory warning in the Spring 2023, social media can carry “a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” For these reasons, we ask parents to be careful what students download on their cell phones.

Cell phones, cameras, smart watches, and/or any other ECRDs may only be used on school grounds with the permission of the student’s teacher and/or school administration and used for curricular and/or school-sponsored co-curricular activities. Each teacher and/or administrator shall determine if the use of these devices may be used by students under their supervision. At all other times, the following devices:

• Cameras

• Tablets

• Smart watches (Apple Watch and other wearable technologies and other ECRDs) should be turned off and stored in their lockers or phone cubbies.

Student cell phones will be placed in phone cubbies in student classrooms for the entire day of school so they can’t be distracted by them while learning. If a student is seen using their cell phone in school, the staff member will ask the student to either put their cell phone in their respective cubbie or give it to the teacher or Principal who will return it at the end of the day. Students who continue to violate the cell phone procedures will receive disciplinary action and parents may be contacted.

Additionally, the use of any camera for recording video or taking pictures during school hours, including on a school bus, without teacher and/or administrative permission is a violation of privacy and is not permitted pursuant to Policy 5516- Use of Electronic Communication and Recording Devices. School teachers and/or administrators reserve the right to confiscate any such device. Any student who inappropriately uses these devices will be subject to disciplinary actions.