LIFE AT THE LOCKE … Issue #29 2021-2022
April 3, 2022
Dear Parents/Guardians, Staff, and Students,
I hope you are having a great weekend as we start the month of April. I hope you didn’t get fooled on Friday! We are back with another 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
“The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” -- Sydney J. Harris
SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
Monday – A Day, HW Club, late buses
Tuesday – B Day, MCAS-ELA, PTO 6:30-Library
Wednesday – C Day – MCAS-ELA, HW Club, late buses
Thursday – D Day – COVID Pool Testing (moved to Thursday due to MCAS), No HW club or late buses, professional development for staff
Friday – A Day – Day 135 -- End of Quarter 3 Unified Arts Classes
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.
MCAS TESTING BEGINS THIS WEEK
Parents, Guardians, and Students,
It is that time of year again and students will be taking the MCAS exam this week in English Language Arts. All MCAS testing will be done on Chromebooks. See above for all testing dates.
The MCAS exam gives all students an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned and how much they have grown as learners. It is important for our school and community to ensure that all students do their best work. The testing can be stressful for students and as a staff we work diligently to provide a positive environment. Here are some reminders for parents and students:
- Be Positive
- Make sure your child attends school on every testing day
- Make sure your child arrives on time at 7:30 AM
- Students need to charge Chromebooks every night.
- Students need to bring their school-issued Chromebook and charger to school each day.
- Emphasize that the tests are important and give students a chance to demonstrate learning.
- Make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast prior to testing.
MCAS is based on the common core and all of our curricula have been aligned to ensure that the work being done in our classrooms every day meets the standards. If you have any questions regarding MCAS, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I thank you once again in advance for helping our students navigate through the testing season and demonstrating that the Locke is a great place to learn and grow.
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.
STUDENT ACADEMIC AWARDS – TRIMESTER 2
Congratulations to students for achieving high honor and honor roll status for Trimester 2. Also, congratulations to our student of the trimester recipients. See attached lists:
High Honor Roll -- Trimester 2
TRIMESTER 2 REPORT CARDS
Trimester 2 report cards have been issued to the Aspen Portal. Please sign and return the report card envelope to acknowledge that you have seen the report.
LITERARY MAGAZINE: STAFF AND SUBMISSIONS NEEDED
Ms. Cabral is looking for submissions to be entered in this year's literary magazine! Submissions can be any artwork or written work, as long as it's school appropriate. Examples of submissions received in the past include poetry, horror stories, original short stories, digital art, paintings, research essays, etc. There is no limit on how many items you can submit, so please submit as much as you'd like! Submissions can be emailed to Ms. Cabral at pcabral@billericak12.com or dropped off in person.
If you are interested in joining the magazine staff, our first meeting will be this Monday, April 4, after school in room 314 (Ms. Carpenter's room). Late buses will be available. Magazine staff will be responsible for voting on the theme of this year's magazine, logging entries, and assisting in editing and layout design.
Want to see last year's magazine for inspiration? Check it out here! Please reach out to Ms. Cabral with any questions.
BILLERICA CLEAN-UP GREEN-UP DAY
Billerica Clean-up Day will be Saturday, April 23rd from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM. There will be more details to follow.
MATH PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #25
Secret Message
For her 15th birthday, Sophia receives a book. On each page whose digits sum to 15, there is one word of a secret birthday message written in the margin. If the book is 280 pages, how many words are in the secret birthday message?
Last week’s answer – 24 ways
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! 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
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
- Saturday, April 23rd – Billerica Clean-Up Day
- Monday, 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