Plympton Family Update
November 3, 2023
From the Plympton Admin Team
Hello Plympton Families,
This week our students participated in an ALICE drill. The police officers reported the students and staff did a fabulous job. We are very grateful to Officer Dani for working with each classroom prior to the drill to instruct students and answer questions.
There is quite a bit of information in the handbook. This week we are highlighting attendance.
The following information is from the handbook:
"The Waltham School Committee believes that school attendance greatly influences student
success in school. The importance of punctuality is also essential to a child’s development of
responsibility. We ask that parents/guardians help instill this value in their child by helping him/her to be punctual for school. The School Committee strongly urges parents/guardians of students not to schedule vacations or family business during periods of time when students are in school. Long-term absences are disruptive to the teaching/learning process. It is now essential that no student miss school when it can be avoided. It is the responsibility of both parents/guardians and school personnel to communicate with each other about a child’s absence from school."
Excused absences include:
o Student illness with a doctor’s note
o Student medical appointment with a doctor’s note
o Observance of Religious holiday
o Student attends a funeral
o Authorized school field trip
o Student is required to appear in court
While some absences are considered excused internally, it is important to note all absences are reported to the state and the state does not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences.
It's also important to know about the Chronic Absenteeism regulation in the state of Massachusetts:
"Massachusetts defines Chronically Absent as missing at least 10% of days enrolled (e.g., 18 days absent if enrolled for 180) regardless of whether the absences are considered excused, unexcused and/or for disciplinary reasons. Being chronically absent can have a significant impact on a student's ability to read at grade level, perform academically, and graduate on time."
We do not want students be identified as Chronically Absent for a variety of reasons, with the most important being the significant impact that missing that much time away from school can have on student learning.
Ms. Norris and Mrs. Brennan will be monitoring attendance patterns and contacting families whose child's absenteeism rate may be indicating a possible path towards being identified as "chronically absent." Letters are sent home to families whose child's absences exceed 5 for the term, to help parents and caregivers monitor the number of absences their child has and consider ways to help avoid reaching the point of Chronic Absenteeism for this school year. We are also monitoring tardies. As a reminder, students are marked late beginning at 8:42am.
We will be scheduling meetings with families as needed to work together on ways in which we can collaborate to ensure we create a successful plan for the school year.
Additionally, please also see the policy on vacations and work for completion:
"Teachers at all grade levels are not responsible for preparing long-term work or assignments prior to students leaving for a vacation trip. If a family vacation or family business causes a student to miss school, teachers are also under no obligation upon the student’s return to prepare or assess missed work. In such cases of avoidable absences from school, students are not relieved of their responsibility to keep up with the material covered while they were missing school. The loss of real- time instruction with teacher and classmates cannot be replicated and may impair the absent student’s academic progress. Therefore, parents/guardians and students should make every effort to prevent any and all intentional absences from school."
We look forward to working collaboratively this year to support any questions or concerns regarding a child's attendance this school year. Please feel free to reach out to Ms. Norris or Mrs. Brennan with any questions that you may have.
Go Penguins!
Sincerely,
Adrienne Norris
Amanda Brennan
Panorama Family Survey
Dear Families,
Our district values your feedback! We are currently surveying Waltham families in order to gain insight into your perception of our school and district effectiveness. To ensure we continue to provide high quality, rigorous learning experiences that meet the needs of our learners and prepare them for college and career, we need your input. We want to know what you think.
Our schools have partnered with Panorama Education to conduct our Fall 2023 Family Survey. Panorama protects your privacy, keeping your responses confidential. The survey shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete, and will be a valuable source of information for us as we work to make our schools and district as good as they can be.
You may complete the survey online between October 23 - November 9 using a computer, tablet, or smartphone by visiting this link:
surveys.panoramaed.com/waltham/fall23family
We thank you in advance for your thoughtful responses. If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s school.
Sincerely,
Waltham Public Schools
Read & Relax After School at the Plympton School Library
Use this form to sign up to bring your Plympton student(s) to the library after school to read and relax together. The timing will be from pick up until 3:45pm. We will need to limit sign up to no more than 15 student/adult pairs/groups. You will be notified with a confirmation email from Ms. Halley the week before the date you signed up for. You may sign up for more than one date.
Display Your Art
News From the Library
From the PTO
Check out the PTO website: www.plymptonpto.org
Link to PTO meetings: Click here!
PTO Venmo: @plymptonpto
E-Mail: walthamplymptonpto@gmail.com
Upcoming Meetings via Zoom:
12/12 @ 7 pm
Save The Date!
Early Release Parent/Guardian Teacher Conferences: November 15th, 2023
Plympton Drama Production and MultiCultural Evening: November 17th, 2023
Early Release: November 22, 2023 - Dismissal is at 11:45 and lunch is provided
No School: November 23 and 24, 2023
Community Events
Plympton Elementary School
When your student's after school dismissal arrangements change, please send a note to your child's homeroom teacher. If you prefer to email, please also include our fabulous secretary, Mrs, Conneely, at meghanconneely@walthampublicschools.org. Mrs. Conneely and Officer Dani double check every bus list every day and cross check with the attendance for the Champion after school program to be certain kids are getting to correct location after school. Please make every effort to communicate any changes as early as possible. Calls after 2:30 slow down our dismissal process.
All student must ride the bus they are assigned. Students may not switch buses.
Email: Adriennenorris@walthampublicschools.org
Website: https://www.walthampublicschools.org/o/plympton
Location: 20 Farnsworth St, Waltham, MA, USA
Phone: (781) 314-5760