LIFE AT THE LOCKE … Issue #30 2021-2022
LIFE AT THE LOCKE … Issue #30 2021-2022
April 10, 2022
Dear Parents/Guardians, Staff, and Students,
I hope you are having a great weekend as we head toward vacation week. The newsletter will not publish next week and I wish you all a great spring break. We are back with another busy week, but a short one with 4 DAYS OF LEARNING! Let’s see what’s happening …
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @LockeMiddle and INSTAGRAM: locke_middle_school
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Life is a math equation. In order to gain the most, you have to know how to convert negatives into positives.” – Anonymous
SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
Monday – B Day, Quarter 4 unified arts classes begin, HW Club, late buses
Tuesday – C Day, Pool Testing, School Council – 5:00 PM, Library, PTO 6:30-Library
Wednesday – D Day – HW Club, late buses
Thursday – A Day – No after HW club or late buses
Friday – No School – Beginning of spring vacation
QUARTER 4 STARTS MONDAY
The 1st day of quarter 4 is Monday, April 11th and new Unified Arts classes begin. Students can see their schedules on Aspen for their new Unified Arts class.
MCAS TESTING
Students completed the ELA sessions of MCAS this past week. Students did an outstanding job and gave their best efforts. Thank you to all for helping in making the testing a successful process for all students. If you were absent, our school counselors will let you know when the make-up times will be. The future testing dates are:
Math -- All Grades--May 3, 4
Science -- Grade 5 Only -- May 10, 11
There will be one session per day.
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
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, please email Ms. Cabral at pcabral@billericak12.com 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 #26
Play Ball!
Baseball returned last week! A baseball diamond is a square with 90-foot sides. We have two questions this week.
- An acre of land is a region containing 43,560 square feet. What percent of an acre is enclosed within a baseball diamond?
- How many runs do the Red Sox have to score before the scoring base runners have covered at least a mile?
Last week’s answer – 13 words
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 will run on every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (most weeks, check the schedule above) 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 this month was rescheduled and will take place on Tuesday, April 12 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
- Monday, April 11th – Quarter 4 Unified Arts Classes Begin
- Tuesday, April 12th – Locke School Council, 5:00 PM, Library
- Tuesday, April 12th – PTO Meeting, 6:30 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
- Wednesday, April 27th – Group Photos
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