This week, Commissioner of Education Jeff Riley and Governor Charlie Baker held a joint press conference and announced that “effective Monday, February 28, the DESE mask requirement will be lifted statewide. The Commonwealth’s high vaccination rates and widespread availability of COVID-19 testing for school personnel and students support this decision.” As of February 28, all masking policies will revert to individual districts and their specific school policies. You can read my entire email to the MPS community from February 9 here.

At this time, the Face Covering Policy is a Milton School Committee Policy. In light of this week’s announcement, and the mask waiver granted to MPS by the State on Monday, February 7, any changes to the MPS mask policy, including use of the waiver, will need to be made at a public School Committee meeting. As I have received some emails about announcements  made in other districts, I wanted to share that with the timing of our next School Committee meeting, the first opportunity for public discussion and a vote in Milton is the week of February 14. The next School Committee meeting is on Wednesday, February 16 and the Face Covering Policy is on the agenda.  As always, all information about attending School Committee meetings can be found on the Town of Milton webpage under School Committee. You can watch regular School Committee meetings live on Milton Access TV online, live on Milton Access cable channels (Comcast 22, RCN 15) or watch on-demand in the days following the meeting.

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This week is National School Counseling Week, and the theme is “School Counseling: Better Together”. National School Counseling Week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.

Our school counselors are actively engaged in helping students examine their abilities, strengths, interests and talents and work in partnership with parents and guardians as they encounter the challenges of raising children in today’s world. They focus on positive ways to enhance students’ academic, career and social/emotional development and work with teachers and other educators to provide an educational system where students can realize their potential and set healthy, realistic and optimistic aspirations for themselves. School counselors are certified, experienced educators with master’s degrees in school counseling. The combination of their training and experience makes them an integral part of the total educational program in the Milton Public Schools.

In Milton, school counselors are aided by school adjustment counselors, social workers who are clinically trained to help students manage their social/emotional well being. School counselors serve all students, addressing college & career readiness, academic concerns and social emotional issues, while adjustment counselors serve the mental health needs of a limited population.

Barbara Meyer, MPS Director of School Counseling 6-12 leads strong group of professionals who work hard on behalf of our students every day. Leonice Bernard,
Scott Devlin, Rich Guarino, and Lisa Spinelli make up the team at MHS while Erica Benjamin, Erin Jaquette and Lisa Veldran are the Guidance Counselors at Pierce.

We are also lucky to have a dedicated group of Adjustment Counselors working with our students: Jennie Beliveau, Mary-Bianca Mattocks, Kenny Adelman and Caitlin Hansen at MHS; Kara Sheridan, Myriam Francoeur, Lynne Henry and Olivia Johnson at Pierce and Alyson McGrath, Courtney Henrick, Ramsay Cadet, Brian Powers in our elementary schools.

I also want to recognize Lilah Sorenson, Erin Brennan, Alex Scheman, Mary Downes, Marta Gullickson, Sarina Accommazi, Breanne MacFarland, Nicole Lesenechal and Alexis Umeh who serve as Adjustment and School Counselor interns throughout the district. These interns work with our students under the guidance of our professional staff and we are grateful for their contributions to our school community.

We are grateful for these School and Adjustment Counselors who are vital components of our school community. Please join me in recognizing them during School Counselors Week.

This month in the Milton Public Schools we are acknowledging Black History Month. As the month progresses we look forward to continuing to elevate and highlight the positive contributions of Black Americans and sharing classroom based activities with the MPS community.

Please continue reading below for school and classroom highlights, celebrations of our students’ achievements, information about upcoming meetings and programs and more.

School Committee

Milton School Building Committee Family and Community Forum: Please join members of the Milton School Building Committee, along with Superintendent James Jette, Pierce Middle School Principal Bill Fish, and Collicot School Principal Holly Concannon for a Family and Community Forum on either Thursday, March 3, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. or Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 4:00 p.m.

The Committee will share current information about the need for a new school building, an overview of our proposed site, consideration of options for grade configuration for a new building, and progress that has been made to date.

We are scheduling this forum for families and community members to keep you informed, and to hear your thoughts and questions about the proposed site and options for grade configuration. Your perspective is critical to inform our decision making. We hope this will be the first of many opportunities to share updates and hear your feedback as we pursue this important project. These events will be virtual and zoom links to attend will be shared closer to the event.

Important Upcoming Dates

• Feb 10 Milton ELPAC Meeting
• Feb 16 Milton School Committee
• Feb 17 Pierce Science Fair
• Feb 21-25 February Recess
• Mar 2 Milton School Committee
• Mar 3 Early Release K-12
• Mar 3 School Building Community Meeting
• Mar 8 MHS Program of Studies
• Mar 9 1st Grade Info Night
• Mar 10 School Building Community Meeting

Please refer to the District-Wide Calendar of Events for times and details. The 21-22 School Year Calendar can be found here. (Updated February 4 to reflect the February 4 snow day)

On Thursday, February 10, at 8:00 p.m., the English Language Education (ELE) Department will host the first in a series of monthly meetings of the English Learners Parent Advisory Council (Milton ELPAC). The Milton ELPAC is open to the parents and guardians of current and former English Learners (ELs & FELs) in Milton Public Schools. The Milton ELPAC is a parent/guardian-driven council whose purpose is to advocate for the educational needs of Milton’s English Learners as well as to publicize and support Milton’s multilingual families as a key asset in our community. Please email Robert Johnson at [email protected] for more information and a link to attend.

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During the week of March 7th, MPS will be participating in the DESE Targeted Review. You can read all details in the letter sent to all MPS families and staff on Monday, January 31 and linked here. The DESE review, which MPS was randomly selected for, was also discussed at the School Committee meeting on February 2. All School Committee meetings can be watched on Milton Access TV.

Health And Safety

Save the date! Milton Public Schools considers the health and well-being of our students a priority. With that in mind, we are partnering with the Department of Public Health to host school vaccination clinics for your eligible children ages 5 and up. These clinics will offer the Pfizer vaccine as an initial vaccine, second dose or booster. Clinics will be held on Saturday, March 5 at Milton High School and Saturday, March 26 at Pierce Middle School. All details and registration information can be found at this link.

Covid Reporting: For the time period of Thursday, February 3 – Wednesday, February 9, 2022, MPS reported the following information Covid positive numbers to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as requested.

• MHS- 4; PMS- 1; Collicot – 4; Cunningham- 4; Tucker – 1; Glover – 5
• MPS – Staff – 3; Students – 19

All updated Covid guidelines and documents can be found on our website linked here. 

High School Happenings

We are pleased  to share that Jacira King, Evelyn Ruzzo, Kyle Denny, Jaylah White, Jayden Boyer, Skyler DaSilva, Jalyssa Coley and Nkechinyere Onyiriuka  have earned a Calculus Project Semester Award. These students were chosen because of their growth and hard work in math class and the Tutoring Center. Please read more about these students, the awards and The Calculus Project on our website. Congratulations to these hard working and talented students!

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In January the MHS publication the Elephant in the Room sent several submissions of newspaper articles, art, editorials, infographics, and humor to the New England Scholastic Press Association’s Localizing Contest. This annual contest invites local high school newspapers to send work that qualifies as localizing — that is, anything that takes a global, international, or national story and relates it to the school and local community. I am proud to share that we had three winners from Milton High School.

Kevin Carberry was chosen for his satirical, Covid related article, “School Buckles-Down On Gym Class Sneaker Mandate”; Abigail Raymond won for her infographic, “Milton High Dress Code” and Mia Gilmore was selected for her Global Warming article, “Could Milton be turning into a beach town?” in which she interviewed sources at the Blue Hills Weather Observatory.

A huge congratulations to these students for raising awareness and boosting Milton High Schools paper’s reputation in the Greater Boston area!

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L-R Kiera Glazer, Rory Martin, Sydney Burns, Ida Zoll, Lilly Oslin, Williams Cayo, Anderson Korman, Tucker Korman, Will Malc, Alex McEttrick and Jonathan Waldmann

Although one would assume it takes a village when one hears about the international body for peace and security, this past weekend it took a Milton village to secure attendance at the Boston University Model UN for 11 Milton High School students. With school canceled on Friday, inclement weather frustrating participation and lots of logistical challenges – participation was in jeopardy. However, many parents and teachers stepped up to make this opportunity possible for our students and we are very grateful for their kindness and cooperation. The Model UN Team was able to participate thanks to the many volunteer drivers as well as Mrs. Burns and Mrs. Waldmann who volunteer their time as chaperones. An additional shout out goes out to Mr. Stoodt who signed up to support but was not called upon.

Boston University’s Model UN took place at the Copley Marriott where delegates from all over New England had the chance to delve into the world of international affairs, public speaking, and diplomatic skills in various committees focused on policy debate.

Ida Zoll, Sydney Burns and Lilly Oslin represented Tunisia in the general assembly where Williams Cayo represented Greece and Alex McEttrick represented Gabon on various committees. Kiera Glazer, Will Malec and Rory Martin were on the Economic and Social Council, on various committees representing Ecuador, Lithuania, and Greece. Jonathan Waldmann and Anderson Korman were on Specialized committees and Tucker Korman was on a crisis committee.

In five committee sessions over three days, students learned to balance national interests with the needs of the international community, while also learning about the powers and limitations of international negotiation. Delegates strove to preserve their countries’ foreign and domestic policies while also negotiating in the face of other, usually conflicting, international policies.

All student delegates were impressive in their engagement, dedicated to accurate representation of their countries, cooperative in their exchanges with other delegates and diligent in all their efforts. Although all students performed with excellence, some were recognized for their efforts. Rory Martin, Alex McEttrick and Tucker Korman were given verbal commendations. Kiera Glazer and Jonathan Waldmann were awarded honorable mention and Anderson Korman was presented with the Best Delegate award. A huge congratulations goes out to all who participated and a big thank you goes out to all who supported this adventure.

Pierce Pages

Students in Ms. Power’s 7th grade IS English class used Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” poem as inspiration to write their own ode poems to something they love. Kobe Bryant wrote the poem when he retired from basketball in 2015 and it was turned into a short film in 2017 and won an Academy Award. Students needed to use at least three poetic devices in their poems, and we discussed in class how the poem itself is an example of personification. If you are interested in reading some of our excellent student work, you can read Ben’s poem here and Olivia’s poem here.

Inside Our Elementary Schools

Students have been busy in the Tucker art room. In third grade, students are working on a unit on African art, and looking at artists that are influenced by African art such as Lois Mailou Jones (originally from Boston!). In fourth grade, we studied Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “Pez Dispenser” (dinosaur) to create our own fun version, and fifth grade ACE students are finishing up a unit on sewing!

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For El Mes de la Historia Negra, Señor Foy shares that elementary Spanish students explored different aspects of Afro-Latinidad. Students watched and discussed an interview about Afro-Latino representation in Encanto, as discussed by Lin Manuel Miranda and other cast members and attended a virtual field trip to Cali, Colombia, which has one of the largest Afro-Latino populations in the world. Students are having an ongoing exploration of contributions by various Afro-Latino intellectuals, artists, musicians, and athletes and learning about Afro-Peruvian music and dance.

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On the recent Early Release Day, “Atomic Adam” went on a ‘world’ tour to all four elementary schools (Cunningham, Collicot, Glover, and Tucker) to give Milton Community Schools students an immersive and insightful experience about space and the solar system.

Music News

We have more great music news to share! Music students from Pierce and Milton High School were very successful at recent SEMSBA Auditions! This past Saturday, our music students traveled to Abington High School to audition for the SEMSBA music festival ensembles alongside students from over 30 communities in Southeast region of Massachusetts. In total, forty MPS students were accepted to the two festivals! These students will be performing in the Senior and Junior SEMSBA festival ensembles later this year:

• Senior SEMSBA– MHS: Band- Lucia Dwyer, Brynne Mershon, Claudia O’Neill, Stella Yuan; Chorus- Carle Bleau, Kiera Earner, Isabelle Feloney, Lucy Hays, Julia Mangum, Roisin Queally; Strings- Camille Donovan, Nora Hegarty, Lucie Lloyd Faber, Isabel Murley, Ha-Yen Ngyuen, Aoife Ruth, Adriana VIllar; Jazz- Emily Bohlin, Tim Fay, Bella Fiske, Max Hollingsworth Hays
• Junior SEMSBA– MHS: Band- Colin Glazer, Naimh Guilderson, James Goodman, Ronan O’Connor
• Junior SEMSBA– Pierce: Band- Tess Carroll, Bora Ceranoglu, Jesse Deleo, Madyn Dwyer, Sebastian Gobbi, Gwen Johnston, Eliot Leemen-Weil, James Malec, Jordan Munsey, Sofie Profit, Layla Raymond, Aasya Tahir, Nate Turner; Strings- Luke Gimbrone-Naviloff, Avery Squiciarino

Congratulations to all of these students for their hard work and dedication!

MPS Gives Back

Souper Bowl Drive: The Milton Food Pantry is currently experiencing a soup shortage, and we are here to help.  The food pantry is in need specifically of soup donations: Progresso, Dinty Moore, and Campbells are preferred brands. The drive will run from Monday, February 7 to Friday, February 11.

Donation bins are located in the MHS Cafeteria, as well as at Pierce, Tucker and Collicot (Glover and Cunningham have different food drive dates) and students should place donations in the bin that has the team that you think will win the Super Bowl. Thank you to all for coming together to help others in our community!

MPS Staff Updates

We are actively in the search process for two important roles in the Milton Public Schools. The search committee for the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Curriculum has been formed and is linked here. Details on that search timeline can be found here.  The Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion search committee is not yet final but will be shared when formed. The timeline can be found here. Community members come from PTOs, School Site Councils, and community organizations and staff members who serve on these committees are from each of our schools. Thank you to all who volunteer to serve on these important (but time consuming) committees.

There are ongoing employment opportunities within the Milton Public Schools. All details can always be found on the main page of the MPS website  and on our Employment Page. There are currently positions posted for Substitute Teachers, Food Service Subs, Paraprofessional Educational Assistant, Speech Language Pathologist, Adjustment Counselor Elementary, the Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Human Resources and more. Please visit our Employment Page for more information.

Special Education

Administrator for Pupil Personnel Services, Sue Maselli shares her  latest newsletter at this link. This newsletter has information about important school contacts, updates from the Restorative Justice Coach Adina Schecter, Early Learning Coach Lauren Vanacore, DESE Feedback on Special Education in Milton and more.

SEPAC

PARTICIPATE:  We currently have an opening for the role of secretary on our SEPAC board. The secretary’s role involves 5 hours a month max, including board meetings. This is a great opportunity to join and participate in a community of parents who share your special education concerns and experiences. If interested, please email [email protected]

ADVOCATE : This year the SEPAC board is focused on building relationships with each school principal as we continue to work towards fulfilling the MPS core values.  As a group, we look at the big picture of our school system and determine strategies of effective advocacy. Please reach out to your school rep with concerns and questions, and consider attending our next ZOOM board meeting on February 17. We welcome new voices and ideas.

EDUCATE –  If you missed January 26th’s  MPS/SEPAC presentation about Tourette’s, don’t despair! The recording is now available at this link. The talk by Susan Connor, a nationally-recognized expert on Tourette’s Syndrome, was eye-opening, thought-provoking, inspiring and funny, and provided concrete strategies to help students and their families, both inside and outside of the classroom. Thank you again to Susan Maselli for facilitating this important event and to all the MPS staff and families who participated. It was a wonderful turn out!

Family Resources

Tax season has begun and Noreen Kearney Dolan, Fund Coordinator for the Milton Residents Fund, asked that we share this resource with MPS families. MyFreeTaxes, a product supported by United Way, helps people file their taxes for free while getting the assistance they need. The site will point you to either an in-person VITA site in a local community or will provide you with access to the website to file your taxes for free – with no income limits. Volunteer help is a phone call away.

MPS knows that families may sometimes need resources for their children and family beyond the classroom.  In addition to the Family Resource Newsletter  please visit  Milton Public School Resource Guide.  If you need additional assistance please don’t hesitate to reach out to Marti O’Keefe McKenna, MPS Family Outreach Liaison at 617-980-7343 or by email at [email protected]. All calls and emails are confidential.

Athletics

It’s Senior Night Season!

• Wrestling celebrated their Seniors on Saturday, February 5th against Boston Latin School in a great match.
• The Wrestling Team had their last match last night against Braintree before entering Sectional this weekend at Bellingham High School. They went undefeated in the Herget and finish as Herget Champions!
• The Ski Team will honor their seniors tonight at 5:00 p.m. at Blue Hills!
• Boys Ice Hockey will honor their seniors on Saturday, 2/12 against Newton North. The puck drops at 6:10 p.m.
• Girls Basketball will honor their seniors on Tuesday, 2/15 against Weymouth. The game starts at 6:30 p.m.
• Girls Ice Hockey will honor their seniors on Wednesday, 2/16 against Weymouth. The puck drops at 7:10 p.m.
• Boys Basketball and Cheer will honor their seniors on Thursday, 2/17 against Randolph. The game starts at 6:30 p.m.
• Track will honor their seniors at their Banquet as the Spectator Limits at the Reggie don’t allow for a full ceremony.
• All Senior Ceremonies will begin shortly before the scheduled game time.

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Spring Sports are right around the corner! Tryouts begin March 21st. Be sure to register if you haven’t already.  If you have already registered for a Fall and Winter Sport, all you need to do is add a Spring Sport to the existing registration, or email Ryan Madden, Director of Athletics, [email protected] asking to add a Spring Sport.