Center Community Chat
November 21, 2021
Dear Center Families,
As next week is a short week, our next update will be sent out on Sunday, December 5th, we want to wish everyone a safe and meaningful Thanksgiving. As a community, we have much to be thankful for. We are so grateful and blessed to partner with educators and families who demonstrate such a high level of care and dedication to meeting the needs of our students.
Dress for success for recess as the weather gets colder
Just a reminder that students will go out for recess as long as the temperature is 20 degrees (real feel) or above. Please be sure to send students in with jackets, hats and mittens each day. Also, they should have snow pants and boots if they wish to play in the snow.
Don't forget , tomorrow is picture retake day and to wear purple and or gold for our Dress for Success fundraiser on Tuesday to support childhood cancer research. Please see the message from our student council below for more details.
Have a good week.
Warm regards,
Dianna and Donna
Dress for a Cause
District Covid Information and Updates
COVID-19 Pool Testing
I want to touch upon a few things this week as reminders to our CPS community as we continue to manage our schools with increased health and safety protocols given COVID. We just completed our 8th week of COVID pool testing. Since the end of September, we have administered 9,729 tests of students and staff in the district. Of those tests, 18 returned a positive result for COVID. That’s a 0.19% positivity rate, which is incredibly low. I appreciate the staff and students who have registered to participate in this free, weekly test initiative. You may still register your child(ren) to participate in future weeks. To do so, please complete the COVID-19 Pool Testing registration form.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday break, we will not be conducting student and staff COVID-19 Pool Testing next week. It is not recommended to initiate Pool Testing on a shortened week, as we are unable to complete the entire pooled testing process from the initial pooled test through the completion of all needed follow-up tests. Pool testing will resume the week of November 29th when we return to school.
COVID-19 Test and Stay Program
In the event your child(ren) is identified as a “close contact” to a COVID positive individual in our schools, you must have previously provided consent and completed the registration for your child(ren) to participate in the district’s Test and Stay Program. Even if you are unsure if you would like your child(ren) to participate in the Test and Stay Program if identified as a close contact (instead of remaining home in quarantine), you must have consent and registration on file at the time of close contact identification. You may still register your child(ren) to participate in future weeks. To do so, please complete the COVID-19 Test and Stay Program registration form.
COVID-19 Vaccine Status
As more and more of our students receive their COVID-19 vaccine, our school nurses may best manage cases and close contact identification if they know your child’s vaccine status. Please take a few minutes and upload a copy of your child’s COVID-19 vaccine card to provide our school nursing staff with this information. To do so, after your child is fully vaccinated (2 doses of Pfizer or Moderna OR 1 dose of J&J), please complete the COVID-19 Vaccine Status form.
COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic for 5 – 11-Year-Old Children
We received an overwhelming response to our COVID-19 vaccine clinic for 5 – 11-year-old children. Over 350 children will be receiving their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine today at the McCarthy Middle School. Children receiving their first dose today will be scheduled to receive their second dose before the holidays at the McCarthy Middle School. Our hope was that by providing easy access to the vaccine, our parents would register their child(ren) and take advantage of this great opportunity to be vaccinated locally. Because we had such a great response, we will be looking to schedule an additional clinic in the coming weeks for children who were not able to register for today’s clinic. Please be on the lookout for additional information in communications to follow.
Good Things
Many Thanks to our Generous CSPTO for the great Enrichment Events this week
Kindergarten Students enjoyed the Pumpernickel Puppets
4th Grade Students learned about the culture, customs and traditions of indigenous people
CSPTO Pulse
Students caught showing their PRIDE
Upcoming Events
November
Monday, November 22: Picture retakes
Tuesday, November 23: Dress for a cause, wear purple or gold to support childhood cancer research
Wednesday, November 24: Early Release - Thanksgiving break
Thursday and Friday, November 25 & 26: No School - Thanksgiving break
Tuesday, November 30: End of Marking period Grades 1-4
DECEMBER
Wednesday, December 1: Half day - conferences
Thursday, December 2: School Council, 4-5
Monday, December 6: Patriots Spirit Day- Go Pats!!
Wednesday, December 15: Grades available online for parents Grades 1-4
Wednesday, December 15: Therapy Dog Visit, 9-11AM- more information to come
Wednesday, December 22: Festive /Ugly Sweater Day
Friday, December 24: Start of December recess. (Dec 24 - Jan 3
Resources and Information
Standards base report cards
With the first term report card and parent-teacher conferences approaching for students in grades 1-4, we wanted to provide you with some information for Standards Based Report Cards, as this year may be the first time some parents are seeing this type of report card. For our kindergarten families, although you will not receive your child’s first report card until January, we felt it important to begin to share this information with you.
A Standards Based Report Card provides important information to help parents and guardians better understand their child’s progress in school towards meeting the expected end of year standards. These report cards list the standards and report the performance the student exhibits. There are four performance levels that teachers use in order to provide parents with feedback on progress on the standards. Classroom teachers are using multiple measures to assess your child’s performance. By the end of each year, parents should clearly see the progress the student is making in school.
For additional information, please visit out Standards-Based Report Cards page at http://www.chelmsford.k12.ma.us/Page/1299. This webpage includes all information about Standards-Based Report Cards, including sample report cards for all levels
Report cards are available on the Aspen X2 parent portal and will continue to be reported on Aspen X2 in in future terms in an electronic format only. We encourage you to go onto X2 and retrieve your child’s report card electronically each term.
Please do not hesitate to reach out, should you have any questions.
Center Elementary School
Email: fulreaderd@chelmsford.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.chelmsford.k12.ma.us/Domain/9
Location: 84 Billerica Road, Chelmsford, MA, United States
Phone: 978-251-5155
Twitter: @Center_CCS