Principal's Weekly
Principal Beth N. Choquette, Bridge Street School
Bridge Street School
2 Parsons Street
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
413-587-1460 (phone) 413-587-1484 (fax)
Beth N. Choquette, Principal bchoquette@northamtpon-k12.us
Elizabeth Peterson, Administrative Assistant epeterson@northampton-k12.us
Nicole Soutra, Senior Clerk nsoutra@northampton-k12.us
Nora DeJasu, Head Teacher ndejasu@northampton-k12.us
Translation of the Principal's Weekly
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Traducción del semanario del director
Le gustaría traducir esta carta de noticias? Aquí están los pasos para traducirlo:
En la parte superior del correo electrónico semanal, hay un enlace que dice "Verlo en su navegador", haga clic en eso y lo llevará a la publicación en una página web.
Desplázate hacia la parte inferior donde hay una barra de menú negra y elige la opción que dice "Traducir".
Seleccione el idioma en el que desea traducirlo y luego lo traducirá en la página web.
A Message from Principal Choquette 9/6/19
Welcome back to another school year! We had a great start to the school year and I was so excited to greet all of our returning students and to welcome our new students. We have many new students and families at BSS this year. I hope you all get a chance to meet them at our welcoming picnic next week.
I hope that you were able to read through the new BSS Caregiver Handbook. If you have not yet, it is attached below. I've received a lot of feedback from folks that they are finding it helpful. One piece of feedback that I received was regarding Tier 1, 2, and 3 supports. It was shared with me that an explanation of what tiered supports are may be helpful. Here is a brief description. Tiered supports happen in the areas of academics, behavior, and social emotional learning. You can think of Tier 1 supports as what most students (80%) receive in their general education classroom, supports provided by the classroom teacher. Tier 2 supports (approximately 15% of students) are supports that are given to students in small groups, either in or out of the classroom. These small groups can be provided by the classroom teacher, a tiered support specialist, or interventionists such as Title 1. Tier 3 supports (5% of students) are often given individually or with 2 or 3 other students. The interventions are targeted and focus on specific lagging skills. Tier 3 is often provided by special education teachers and can be in the form of pull-out or push-in, depending on the needs of the student. If you have concerns regarding academics, behavior, or social emotional learning, please contact your teacher to discuss next steps.
If there is any further feedback, I would love to hear from you.
We've now had a week of our breakfast program and I am happy to say that we have it down to 8 minutes! I am so grateful to our food service department for their support and for the time they are putting into making sure every child receives breakfast in the morning. If you are curious about what is for breakfast each morning, there is a breakfast menu below along with the lunch menu. The next step will be to let students who don't want breakfast line up in a different area and come in, but we won't start that for a bit. Also, Monday will be our first celebration, it will be interesting to see how close we get to a 9:00 a.m. celebration start time. We may adjust the number of celebrations we have each month due to breakfast, but I will let you know for sure.
BASE (after school program) will begin on September 9th and students will have it now until 5:00 rather than 4:45 p.m. Thanks Keddie, I know that will be helpful for many families. You all should have received a packet about the BASE program. If you did not, please contact the main office.
We are working on a google form for teachers to email to families every month regarding what students are working on in each of the core content areas. It would be helpful for teachers to have your email so they can send those out to you. We are hoping to get this up and going by October.
We had our first fire drill yesterday afternoon. All of our students did a wonderful job at getting out of the building quickly and in a safe manner. Teachers have been practicing this with students and talking to them about the importance of practicing drills. We will have our first lock down drill on September 26th. Please talk with your children about the importance of practicing drills at home as well. Safety is our priority, and making sure all students and the faculty and staff know what to do in case of a real emergency is important in ensuring the safety of all.
I am excited for the upcoming school year. If you ever have any questions, concerns, or if you just want to talk, my door is always open.
Have a great weekend!
Robo Calls
Benchmark Assessments
Laurie Sperry
I've heard from Mrs. Sperry and she is doing well. We are hoping for her return at the beginning of October. Her surgery went well and her recovery is slow, but she is doing okay. I know she misses all of the kids and is looking to get back to work as soon as she can.
K-5 Celebration
Don't forget to wear your BSS gear or blue and white on celebration days to show your school spirit!
Walking School Bus (WSB)
The Bridge Street Walking School Bus is running again this year! For those of you unfamiliar with the WSB, it is the equivalent of a motorized school bus--drivers, students, and a defined route with scheduled stops--but it all runs on foot power!
We are excited to announce that in addition to the existing Sheldon Field route that starts at the Route 9 commuter lot and walks up Bridge Street to the school, we now have a WSB that starts at the Lumber Yard homes on Pleasant Street, walks up Williams Street to Pomeroy Terrace, and ends at the school! Both routes run each and every morning during the school year, rain/snow or shine! The Sheldon Field WSB departs from the commuter lot at 8:25 a.m. and the Lumber Yard WSB departs from the outdoor courtyard at the Lumber Yard homes at 8:10 a.m. There is no sign up required--just show up at one of the WSB stops and hop on the bus!
Please visit the WSB website for more information about the WSB, including route details, driver schedules and driver bios. You can also contact Stephanie Pouliot with any WSB questions.
**THE WSB NEEDS VOLUNTEER DRIVERS FOR BOTH ROUTES!! Drivers can work as few or as many mornings as their schedule allows, or can act as a substitute driver. Please contact Stephanie if you are interested in becoming a WSB driver**
Volunteers Needed
STEM Fridays
Having STEM Fridays will also allow teachers the time to use the new Maker Space in our newly renovated library as well.
SASH-Northampton High Schoolers
Bridge Street School families,
We would love to invite any and all interested 4th and 5th graders to join our student-run after school program, SASH. SASH is a program that teaches and encourages social emotional learning, and works to bridge the gap between high school and elementary school students. Our work is based on the arts; music, writing, acting and improv, and mixed media. Our goal is to create a place where students feel safe to express their thoughts and feelings through these creative focuses. This program will run once a week, and at the end of our 10 week session we will be hosting a final showcase at Northampton High School. We are so happy and excited to be sharing this program with your students this coming fall. Permission slips and sign up sheets will be delivered in September of 2019.
Best,
SASH
(Northampton High schoolers)
More information will go home regarding this program at the beginning of the year.
Important Dates
September 9th: K-5 Celebration 9:00 a.m. Cafeteria
September 10th: PTO Meeting 3:15 p.m. Library
September 11th: PTO Welcome Back Picnic 5:30-7:00 p.m. BSS Playground
September 12th: Kindergarten Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m. BSS Cafeteria
September 17th: 1st Grade Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m. BSS Cafeteria
September 18th: No School-Teacher Professional Development
September 19th: 2nd Grade Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m. BSS Cafeteria
September 24th: 3rd Grade Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m. BSS Cafeteria
September 25th: 4th and 5th Grade Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m. BSS Cafeteria
October 16th: Picture Day