Superintendent Jette releases updates for week of July 26, 2021

This week’s highlights include Thank you to our MPS Summer Programs, Important Fall Date, Quality Review Presentation, Congratulations to MHS Rugby!, Transportation Information and more.

From the Desk of the Superintendent:

I hope you and your family have experienced some fun and time together over the first five weeks of summer. Many of us at MPS have enjoyed some vacation this month, but we are also busy with our many summer programs as well as actively preparing for the 2021-22 School Year. As we approach the end of July, I wanted to share several updates and information with the MPS community.

Covid continues to be in the news, with concerning information about the Delta variant and increases in positive cases with subsequent increases in hospitalizations. We are following DESE and MA DPH guidance in our summer programs and will continue to follow guidance from the Commonwealth as we look to the ’21-22 School Year. The vaccination rate in Milton and in Massachusetts is a bright spot and I urge you to discuss vaccination for age eliglble individuals in your family with your doctor if you have not yet done so.

At the School Committee Meeting last week, Cambridge Education reported the Quality Review Main Findings which can be read at this link.  I also encourage you to watch the School Committee meeting at this link.  As the details of the Quality Review are available, we will share them with the MPS community via email and on our website. The School Committee and MPS leadership will also be available for more in depth discussions in the fall. The next regular School Committee meeting will be on August 25, 2021, and information about the meeting will be posted on the Town of Milton website.

This will be our last blog post that includes our recently graduated senior families. In August, we will move to our ’21-22 School Year email list. If your graduate represents the final link to MPS in your family, we wish you well and thank you for your partnership. If you would like to continue to receive my weekly school year blog post, please enter your email here to subscribe to this one weekly email. If you have younger students in the Milton Public Schools, you will of course continue to receive my blog posts through them.

Central Office is open all summer and we can be reached at (617) 696-4808/4809. Open House dates for our schools are listed below, please save the date for these events. You’ll also find an update on transportation, summer food service information, fall athletics links, Chromebook details, fall music lesson sign ups and much more. All opening days of school are highlighted below and can be found here. There is plenty of summer left though, so please enjoy it! But first, I hope you take a moment to read the summer update below.

Important Upcoming Dates

• Aug 25 School Committee Meeting
• Aug 30 Teachers Return
• Aug 30 MHS New Student Orientation
• Sept 1 1st Day of School Grades 1-12
• Sept 3 No School
• Sept 6 No School Labor Day
• Sept 7 1st Day of School Pre-K and K
• Sept 8 School Committee Meeting
• Sept 13 Applied Music Lesson Registration
• Sept 14 MHS Open House
• Sept 16 No School Yom Kippur
• Sept 21 Jessica Lahey Presentation
• Sept 22 School Committee Meeting
• Sept 23 Tucker Open House
• Sept 23 Collicot Open House
• Sept 30 Glover Open House
• Oct 5 Cunningham Open House
• Oct 6 School Committee Meeting

Please note that the Pierce Open House date is not set and will be published as soon as finalized. Please refer to the District-Wide Calendar of Events for times and details. The 21-22 School Year Calendar can be found here (Revised 2/24/21) Note: This calendar is intended as a guide ONLY. It may be necessary to change this schedule to better serve instructional purposes.

MPS Summer

Over 830 students have been learning together and having fun this summer at many of our summer programs!

Milton Summer Enrichment: Milton Summer Enrichment is wrapping up a fantastic (and final!) 4th week with some exciting activities and projects. Students have been having fun and working hard with our talented staff, who have been teaching a wide-variety of subjects, including Tennis, Sensational Scientists, Little Stitches, Delicious Sculptures, Coding, Create & Build and much more. You can enjoy some video highlights from “Let the Music Move You” here and here. Thank you to all the MSE staff, students and families for an outstanding summer!

Universal Summer Program: This July, students in grades K through 4 district-wide have been busy participating in Math, Literacy, and SEL activities. In addition to all of the wonderful learning in the classroom, students have been going outside to discuss sundials, learn about shadows, and even create Olympic torches and crowns! USP would like to thank all of the students and their families for a fantastic month of learning and growing together!

Camp Cunningham: Our campers are taking advantage of the sunny days while cooking up some healthy dishes and creating cool stem projects. Campers have made their own unique bugs and have even schooled some counselors in tic tac toe. Stay up to date with camp happenings by viewing our newsletters!

ESY: The Extended School Year program has been providing services since July 6 and just completed its third week. We would like to thank the teachers, related service providers, students, and high school volunteers for their hard work to make ESY a big success! This summer’s highlights have included Cunningham Beach Day, Ms. Cassels’ community outings, and Ms. Keane’s gardening project.

Milton High School: MHS teachers Kristina Craven, Ayeola Davis and Jillian Pieciak are leading a group of motivated incoming 9th graders in the MHS Bridge Program this summer. Students have been attending MHS daily, working on summer reading and enrichment activities while acclimating themselves to Milton High School. Students have had the opportunity to meet many MHS teachers and department heads as they prepare for a successful freshman year!

Summertime Stories: Our first session of Summertime Stories at Cunningham Park on Thursday, July 15, was a huge success, with our biggest turnout yet – 119 guests!
The remaining three sessions are below and all sessions begin at 10:00 a.m. We hope to see you and your young child there!

• Thursday, July 29 at the Tucker Playground
• Thursday, August 5th at Cunningham Park
• Thursday, August 19th at Tucker Playground

The Milton Public Library and MPS are once again partnering for a terrific summer reading challenge! We currently have 1,145 registered readers and  594 have logged this summer. Thus far, summer readers  have logged 460,868 minutes and completed 5,067 activities – and they’ve got a month left in the challenge. Way to go summer readers! Send your summer reading pictures to [email protected] and we will highlight you on MPS social media and in our next blog post.

Health And Safety

Up to date Physical Exams are required for entrance to MPS at any grade level, as well as for currently enrolled rising Kindergarten, 4th grade, 7th grade and 11th grade students.  Up to date immunizations are required for entry to MPS and to participate in all after school activities. Please forward this to your student’s school nurse.  Details on immunization requirements for School Entry can be found here.

High School Happenings

We are pleased to share our MHS Wildcat Rugby Team cracked the top 50 teams in the country this spring, ending up at #44 (peaking at #40 the week before) in National D1 rankings for spring 2021 per the  Goff Rugby Report!  Goff Rugby Report is a respected national rugby news source that puts out Men’s, College, and High School rankings throughout the year.

25 of the top 50 teams are Private or Catholic Schools, some with huge enrollments and recruiting programs, and that puts the Wildcats in the top 25 public schools, nationally. The MHS Rugby Team played their hearts out this year and fully deserve the recognition and accolades. Well done,  Rugby ‘Cats!

Pierce Pages

Principal Bill Fish shares two important Pierce updates below.

Leadership Transition: Dr. Nicholas Fitzgerald is moving on from Pierce to become an assistant principal at Canton High School. Dr. Fitzgerald has been an invaluable member of the Pierce community over the years and leaves big shoes to fill. Please join us in wishing Dr. Fitzgerald all the best as he moves on to his new position. The recruitment process is underway to fill the vacant assistant principal position. A screening team has been assembled to review applications, identify candidates to be interviewed, and meet with candidates.

Summer Reading: Creating a school-wide culture of literacy continues to be a priority for the faculty, staff, and administration at Pierce Middle School.  Summer is the perfect time to find books and texts to read for pleasure.  More information can be found on Pierce’s summer reading site linked here. These resources and lists below are meant to be a starting point to help students and families select books that match their interests and include a variety of titles across many genres, levels, lengths, and platforms.

Technology

Optional Chromebook Insurance: All students are highly encouraged to obtain insurance for their school-issued Chromebook for the 2021-22 school year.

If families decline to purchase the insurance for the Chromebook you are responsible for damage beyond reasonable wear and tear as outlined in the Loan Agreement. The cost of insurance is $30/year and it covers unlimited claims with no deductible.

Please click on the following link to purchase insurance for your student. After registering for insurance, you will receive an email that includes an invoice and payment information. If you wish to purchase insurance for another child, you will need to repeat this process. Thank you for considering the purchase of accidental damage coverage for your student’s Chromebook.

Chromebook Loan Agreement: All students and families of students using an MPS Chromebook are required to sign the Chromebook Loan Agreement.  Here are links to the digital Chromebook Loan Agreements: Elementary; Pierce; MHS. 

Rising 6th Graders will receive their Chromebook during the first week of school.

Rising 9th Graders will receive their MPS Chromebook and charger during new student orientation at Milton High School on Monday, August 30th at 2:00 p.m.  If a student is unable to attend new student orientation, the student will be provided their Chromebook the first day of school.

Digital Citizenship: Four of the main components to becoming a successful digital citizen include: understanding digital footprints, what to share and not to share online, knowing copyright laws, and understanding how to identify fake news.  This link, Path to Raising a Digital Citizen, will help families better understand what it takes to become a responsible digital citizen.

Food Service

Food Service will be open every Wednesday, all through the summer, for meal pick up. Our bags will include 7 days of breakfasts and lunches as well as a box of fresh produce (fruit/vegetables) for each family. Pick up is at Milton High School, every Wednesday from 11:00 a.m-12:30 p.m. Please enter from Blue Hills Parkway.

MPS Food Service is hiring for all positions – both permanent and substitute. Pay is $17.28. Email Jackie Morgan at [email protected] for details. Come join our MPS team!

Late Registration to ride the bus for the 2021-2022 school is now open and can be found at this link. Please read all details on the registration form before registering your child. 

The MPS Transportation Department is working on rider seat assignments and expects this will be completed by August 9th. Families will receive an email no later than August 13th confirming ridership or placement on the waitlist.  Bus passes will be mailed the week of August 23rd.

Seat assignments will be made consistent with the procedures used for the 2020-2021 school year. In accordance with MA State Guidelines, MPS guarantees free transportation for students in Kindergarten through sixth grade who live two miles or more from their assigned school using Google Maps. The remaining seats will be filled based on distance from school with priority given to students living farthest from their assigned school on each route. Seats on the bus are limited and we expect MPS will not be able to accommodate all requests. We are asking for parent/guardian support and cooperation as we deal with the challenges of transportation by encouraging families with alternative transportation to utilize these methods to allow MPS to accommodate those families without other means of transportation.

Milton Community Schools

Registration for the After School Enrichment (ASE) and Early School Arrival Program (ESAP) is open. For detailed information please visit Milton Community Schools website. 

Art And Music

Come Be a Part of the Milton Public Schools Instrumental Music Program!

• Applied Instrumental Lesson Registration for Beginners in Grades 4 and above
• Beginner Registration Night- Monday, Sep 13, 2021
• 7:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m. at Milton High School

The Milton Public Schools Music Department offers instrumental lessons through the Applied Lesson Program (ALP). Students in grades 4 and above may take lessons on flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, trombone, baritone horn, tuba, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and bass. The 30 minute lessons are given once a week at Milton High School and are scheduled Monday-Thursday from 3:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Lessons are taught by professional musicians who are specialists on these instruments.

Family Resources

The Office of the Family Outreach Liaison is open during the summer months.  Please reach out to Marti O’Keefe McKenna, Family Outreach Liaison, 617-980-7343 or [email protected] with any questions you might have about MPS/community summer programs, summer reading, the upcoming school year or if you are in need of a resource. All calls and emails are confidential.  All updates on Family Resources – food, heating assistance, health insurance, financial assistance, contacts – can be found at this link.

Blog Subscription: If you do not receive the Superintendent’s Weekly Update and would like to, please enter your email here to subscribe to this one weekly email.

The Milton Public School system does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, gender identity, transgender status, gender transitioning, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its programs, activities or operations. These include, but are not limited to, admissions, equal access to programs and activities, employment, provision of and access to programs and services, as well as a selection of volunteers, vendors, and employers recruiting at the Milton Public Schools.  We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, students, volunteers, subcontractors, and vendors. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies: Asst. Superintendent for Curriculum & Human Resources, Dr. Karen Spaulding, (617) 696-5040 ext. 5582.