LIFE AT THE LOCKE … Issue #31 2024-2025
April 13, 2025
Dear Parents/Guardians, Staff, and Students,
I hope you are enjoying another cold/rainy and snowy weekend. We are back with a short week and 4 DAYS OF LEARNING. The newsletter will be taking a week off. Have a great Spring vacation! Let’s see what’s happening …
FOLLOW US ON X @LockeMiddle and INSTAGRAM: locke_middle_school
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"No matter how long winter is, spring is sure to follow."― Proverb
SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
Monday – D Day – HW Club, Activities
Tuesday – A Day – Ice Cream Social 6:00 PM
Wednesday – B Day – HW Club, Activities
Thursday – C Day – No HW Club, Actiivities
Friday – No School, Beginning of April Break
ICE-CREAM SOCIAL--TUESDAY
The PTO is hosting an ice-cream social for Locke families on Tuesday, April 15th at 6:00 PM. The cost is $5 with a $20 maximum per family. We hope to see you there. The toppings bar will be awesome!
MCAS ELA MAKE-UPS THIS WEEK
We successfully completed MCAS ELA last week. Thank you to our students for working hard throughout the testing. For students that were absent for testing, make-ups will be this week. Our counselors will contact you with the dates.
HOMEWORK CLUB THIS WEEK
HW Club will be in session on Monday and Wednesday this week. It will not be held on Thursday, April 17th.
LAST DAY OF QUARTER 3
The last day of quarter 3 was Thursday, April 10th. Grades will be posted to the Aspen portal by Wednesday, April 17th. They will be published on the final report card of the year.
STUDENT RECOGNITION
Congratulations to all students who received honors and high honors for Trimester 2. Also, congratulations to students receiving the Student of the Trimester award. The certificates were sent home last week. Keep up the great work!
NURSE UPDATE
- A reminder that as we enter (hopefully) warmer days, please have students bring refillable water bottles to school.
- For those students who suffer from seasonal allergies: The Health Office does not provide allergy medication, so please plan accordingly and medicate students before school.
- Please continue to send in or email updated physicals and immunizations to Ms. Roberts, jroberts@billericak12.com
MCAS TESTING DATES 2025
Math (All Grades) -- May 6, 7
Science (Grade 5 only) -- May 13, 14
ROBOTICS FUNDRAISING UPDATE
The Locke Monsters Robotics team wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported our fundraising efforts in the last six weeks, since we found out that one of our teams qualified for the World Championships in Dallas, TX next month. We had a great dining-out fundraiser with What The Fork Catering on March 26th. They were great to work with and helped to advertise our fundraiser on their social media pages. We are also very grateful to our Locke PTO for their generous donation in support of our team. We have an ongoing GoFundMe campaign to continue raising funds to help pay some of the costs for the upcoming trip to the World Championships in Dallas, TX in May. We are also hoping to raise enough money to help us buy the new game pieces for next year's challenge so that we can start preparing for next season as soon as the new challenge is announced in May. We are so thankful for the continued support and enthusiasm that you have shared for our team!
STUDENT ART SHOW
The student art show is incredible and it is great to see our students’ work on display. Thank you to Dr. Pearson, Ms. Milner, and Ms. Rogers for their efforts in putting the show together. The work will be shown through April 15th at BATV.
LOCKE SCHOOL SITE COUNCIL
Our school council met on Monday, April 7th. Please see the minutes for the meeting. All related documents for the council can be found on our website.
MATH PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Palindrome Syndrome
A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same forward or backwards. For example, racecar is a palindrome because it is the same word if you read it from left to right and from right to left. Palindromic numbers are just like palindromes. You get the same number if you read the number from left to right and from right to left. Let’s explore palindromic numbers!
a) We can call a one-digit number like 7 a palindromic number, because it is the same whether we read from left to right or from right to left. How many two-digit palindromic numbers are there? How do you know you have all of them?
b) Now, try to figure out how many three-digit palindromic numbers there are. How do you know you have all of them?
c) BONUS--Write down any number that is more than one digit (for example, 68). Write down that number reversed beneath it (in our example that would be 86). Then add the two numbers together (68 + 86 = 154). Repeat the process with your new number until you get a palindromic number. (154 + 451 = 605; 605 + 506 = 1111). Will this always work? Do some numbers take longer than others? Record what you discover!
Last Week’s Answer: 2 or 3 books Send your answers to Mr. Garas – tgaras@billericak12.com – Show your work! You can win a Dunkin gift card and the highly coveted math certificate!!
RIDDLE/JOKE OF THE WEEK
This week – 1. What do you call a sheep who can sing and dance? 2. What do you call a French man wearing sandals?
Last week’s Answers – 1. What wild animal does well on tests despite not studying? – The cheetah 2. What grades did the pirate get on the English tests? High C’s
PTO CORNER
The PTO welcomes all families to the Locke. We will be meeting monthly to plan several events throughout the year. Our last meeting was on April 9th . Please see the attached minutes. We are always looking for volunteers to help plan great programs that will benefit our students. Our future meeting dates have been set. Please see the attached list. Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 14th at 6:30 PM in the Locke Library.
Our board members are:
Andrea Toomey -- President
Amit Gandhi -- Vice-President
Jacqui Chaffins -- Treasurer
Katie Malone – Secretary
We also have a new Facebook page – “Billerica Locke PTO”. Click on the link below to take you there:
https://www.facebook.com/
LOCKE GEAR FOR SALE
The PTO is now selling Locke gear. Please see the attached flyer with the link to the store.
INTERNATIONAL NIGHT AT BMHS
The Students of Color Association at BMHS would like to invite the Billerica Middle Schools' students, staff, and parents to our 2025 International Night on Thursday, April 17 at 5:30 PM. Please see the attached invitation.
PARENT PRESENTATION
Please see the attached flyer for an online parent presentation.
REMINDERS
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 secretaries, Ms. Brewster at nbrewster@billericak12.com and Lucy O’Brien at lobrien@billericak12.com
CELL PHONE POLICY
Our cell phone policy is that all student phones/smart watches are to be kept in student lockers and turned off for the duration of the school day. If parents need to contact students, please contact the main office.
UPCOMING DATES -- ALL DATES ARE ALSO ON THE MASTER CALENDAR ON THE LOCKE WEBSITE
- Tuesday, April 15th – Ice Cream Social, 6:00 PM
- Tuesday, April 15th – Last Day of Student Art Show at BATV
- Thursday, April 17th – Last Day for MCAS make-ups
- Friday, April 18th – No school
- April 21st through April 25th – No School Spring Break
- April 28th – Return to School
- Wednesday, April 30th – Group Photos
If you have any questions, please contact me at tgaras@billericak12.com or call at 978-528-8655. Have a great week!!
Warmest regards,
Tony Garas, Principal