LIFE AT THE LOCKE … Issue #28 2021-2022
March 27, 2022
Dear Parents/Guardians, Staff, and Students,
I hope you are having a great weekend as we enter the last week of March. Don’t get fooled on Friday! We are back with a busy week and 5 DAYS OF LEARNING! Let’s see what’s happening …
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @LockeMiddle and INSTAGRAM: locke_middle_school
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." - William Shakespeare.
PARENT AND GUARDIAN SURVEY
Our Locke school council is working on a school improvement plan for next year. As we develop this plan, we would appreciate feedback from parents and guardians. The information from this survey will help us improve student learning, parent/school relationships, and the Locke's overall environment. If you have not already, please take a few minutes to complete this survey. It is greatly appreciated. Your answers are confidential. Please click on the link to complete the survey.
7th GRADE AFTER SCHOOL SPRING SPORTS
Hello Families, Starting April 4, 2022, we intend to start up 2 middle school athletic programs that compete against other middle teams; 7th-grade girls' volleyball and 7th-grade boys' and girls' track & field.
Registration and Payment are completed using “Community Pass” using this link:
Please contact the coaches with questions about the weekly schedule and games. (see attached schedules)
Locke Track & Field: ksharkey@billericak12.
Locke Volleyball: klcruz@billericak12.com
SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
Monday – D Day, HW Club, late buses
Tuesday – A Day, Pool Testing
Wednesday – B Day – HW Club, late buses
Thursday – C Day – HW Club, late buses
Friday – D Day
TRIMESTER 2 REPORT CARDS
Trimester 2 report cards were published to the Aspen portal last Friday. Please sign and return the report card envelope to acknowledge that you have seen the report.
MCAS TESTING DATES
Students will be taking the complete MCAS assessment once again this year. The dates are as follows:
ELA -- All Grades--April 5, 6
Math -- All Grades--May 3, 4
Science -- Grade 5 Only -- May 10, 11
There will be one session per day.
LOST AND FOUND
We have many items in our lost and found including jackets, sweatshirts, water bottles, and lunch boxes. Students, please check in the lobby under the stairs to see if anything belongs to you. We will be donating these items at the end of the week if they are not claimed.
MATH PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #22
APRIL is almost here!
Let’s take a look at the word APRIL. There are not too many real words that can be made from the letters in APRIL. For this problem, though, let’s see how many ways we can arrange the five letters in the word APRIL, even if they don’t form real words. But let’s also add a restriction: any arrangement must keep the letters PI next to each other in that order. Since I love the number PI!) How many such arrangements are there?
Last week’s answer – 2426
Send your answers to Mr. Garas – tgaras@billericak12.com – You can win a Dunkins gift card and the highly coveted math certificate!!
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
- IMPORTANT – NEW MASK GUIDELINES
- DESE and the Billerica Public Schools have lifted the mask mandate in school and on the bus effective Monday, February 28th. We will continue to have discussions with students to ensure that all students and staff feel safe with respect to their mask choices. Our conversations will emphasize our core values of Respect, Responsibility, and Safety. Students can revisit our expectations on pages 2, 3, and 4 of the agenda book.
- Students that return to school after having COVID-19 will be required to wear a mask in school for 5 days (or until day 10 from symptom onset) and isolate during lunch.
- Every 2 weeks we will pass out COVID tests to students to take home. The box contains 2 tests. We recommend that students test each Sunday moving forward. If you did not sign up already and want to receive a test kit on the next distribution, please complete the form by clicking on the link below.
- Our weekly routine COVID testing continues in school on Tuesdays. If you gave consent for your child to be tested, this will occur every Tuesday moving forward. If you have not completed the consent form and wish your child to be tested, please see the link:
- We will no longer be tracing close contacts in school.
- Please report all positive cases to our school nurse Ms. Roberts (jroberts@billericak12.com ) and Mr. Garas. (tgaras@billericak12.com ). Test results can be sent in by paper copy, e-mailed after scanning, sending screenshots, or taking pictures of at-home tests. Students can return to school following a positive test result after isolating for a minimum of 5 days following either symptom onset or a positive test result via a PCR or antigen test (this is day 0 of quarantine). This includes over the counter home tests; please e-mail an image of at-home tests. Students can return on day 6 if they are fever-free (and diarrhea, vomiting, headache free, etc.) for 24 hours without the use of medication, have improving symptoms, or have been asymptomatic.
- If on Day 6, your child is still not feeling well, please do not send them to school. Please keep them home until they have improved symptoms. Also, please do not send your student to school in the morning to receive a Covid test if they are not feeling well. School nurses cannot function as testing sites during this time.
LATE BUSES
Late buses continue this week and will run on every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The buses usually arrive at the Locke at 3:10 PM. We have 3 late buses. Please see the attached routes. Please let students know their bus number. Students will wait in the cafeteria until buses arrive.
STUDENT REMINDERS
- Charge Chromebooks at night and bring them to school every day – We only have a few extras left in the office for students to borrow.
- Bring in a pair of inexpensive headphones to leave in school or your backpack.
BUS POLICY
Students that ride the bus can only ride on their assigned bus in the morning and afternoon. Students are not allowed to ride different buses to be with friends after school.
If you have any questions regarding bus assignments, please contact our assistant principal: Phillip Peters: ppeters@billericak12.com -- 978-528-8654
PTO CORNER
Our next PTO meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 PM in the library.
The Book Fair was a great success! (judging by the long line on Friday!) A huge thank you to our parent volunteers for helping out!
Email: billericalockepto@
Facebook: https://www.
ABSENCES
If your child is going to be absent, please call 978-528-8650 to report the absence. You can leave a voicemail at this number which goes directly to our secretary. You may also email our secretary, Ms. Brewster at nbrewster@billericak12.com
DISTRICT SUMMER ENRICHMENT PROGRAM
Summer Camp is back!!! Students in grades K-7 are invited to enjoy a wide variety of activities and some socialization with friends. Camp runs from 6/27-7/29 and is from 8-12 at the Marshall. Community Pass will be the only method to register. Spots WILL fill up quickly so please sign up ASAP. If interested please register at the following link:
https://www.billericak12.com/
All Billerica families have a Community Pass account, but if you have never registered your account please send an email to Communitypass@billericak12.
If you have any questions about camp please contact PJ McCarthy at PJMcCarthy@billericak12.com or Michael Waters at MWaters@billericak12.com
UPCOMING DATES
- Tuesday, April 5th – MCAS ELA Session I
- Tuesday, April 5th – PTO Meeting, 6:30 Library
- Wednesday, April 6th – MCAS ELA Session II
- Friday, April 8th – Day 135, Quarter 3 Unified Arts Classes End
- Monday, April 11th – Quarter 4 Unified Arts Classes Begin
- Tuesday, April 12th – Locke School Council, 5:00 PM, Library
- Friday, April 15th – No School, beginning of Spring Vacation
- April 18th through April 22nd – No School, Spring Vacation
- April 25th – Return to School
Have a great week! If you have any questions, please contact me at tgaras@billericak12.com or call at 978-528-8655
Warmest regards,
Tony Garas, Principal