Good Afternoon NMS Families!

I hope your students enjoyed the snow day yesterday. I have a couple of updates that you will find in this newsletter. The last 8th grade homerooms will visit the high school tomorrow due to the snow day. Tonight is a virtual special education parent meeting at 6:30. The link was sent out last week by our special education teachers but all are welcome. I included this year's MCAS schedule as well.

Have a great afternoon!

John Diorio

NMS
Community-Pride-Commitment

Upcoming events:

3/1- Virtual meeting for special education parents- 6:30pm

3/2- 8th grade- Prario, Gauthier, Silvestri, Flanders to high school

3/7- House 1 assembly

3/8 Student of the Month

3/8- Community Closet open

3/9- House 2 assembly

3/10- House 3 assembly

3/31- Lip Sync contest

5/12- 8th grade Dinner Dance

A quick reminder that tonight we are have a virtual meeting for our special education parents at 6:30. This will be followed by the district SEPAC meeting with Dr. Rosenthal (using the same link). I am including the link below. All our welcome but our topic is special education.

http://meet.google.com/wkv-xztj-cwg

Coach Gauthier will begin Unified Basketball practice next week. We will be scheduling home and away basketball games after school with bus transportation. We hoping to end our season with another pep rally at Palmer Middle/High School.

Email Mr. Gauthier at mrgauthier@nps.org for more information.

Our last 8th grade homerooms will visit the high school tomorrow due to yesterday's snow day.

3/2 - Prario, Gauthier, Silvestri, Flanders

Students will leave NMS around 8:30 and be back before dismissal.

Our 8th grade is hoping to raise enough money to cover most of the cost of a trip to 6 Flags this year. We are hoping to bring back the Lip Sync to help us reach our goal. I am including a link to the flyer for more information below. Parents with questions can reach our to our 8th grade advisors- Ms. Kelly Keagan or Ms. Hickey at akellykeegan@nps.org or khickey@nps.org.

Practices will be held after school with a sign up schedule posted for the students.

Our 2023 MCAS has been set. See schedule below for dates and subject

Infrastructure test during WIN- 3/22 all school

ELA- 4/3-4/4

Math- 5/10-5/11

STE- 5/17-5/18 (Just grade 8)

Ms. Courtney Tennyson is going to be taking over Ms. Sullivan's classes for the rest of the school year. Ms. Tennyson has been the long term sub in the classroom since December and has been our building sub all year. She is a licensed science teacher with previous teaching experience. She can be reached at ctennyson@nps.org.

Our Community Closet will be open: 2/15 from 2:15-4:15pm. on March 8. Lots of great apparel items to choose from in our new space.

Northbridge Middle School offers a Vaping Diversion Program for students who are involved in vaping. Parents and Guardians may refer their students to the program. The program is managed by Lori Johnson, the School Nurse Leader. Students who are referred to the program participate in a 5 week program involving reading 2 articles and completing an online video program developed by the MD Anderson Cancer Center to teach adolescents about the dangers of vaping. The students meet with the nurse once a week. At the end of the program, students will write a 1 page essay on the dangers of vaping and develop a written plan to quit vaping. If you are concerned about your student and vaping, please contact Mrs. Johnson at ljohnson@nps.org or call her at 508-234-6221, ext 5110.

Names of students referred to the program by parents/guardians will be kept confidential and no disciplinary action will be involved because of participation in the program.

We are excited about the new science curriculum purchased by our district. OpenSciEd was launched to improve the supply of and address demand for high quality, open-source, full-course science instructional materials, while at the same time supporting the implementation of middle school science instructional units.I am including a link to learn more about the program, and a pdf explaining what you and your student can expect from the program.

https://www.openscied.org/about/