Kennedy Cougars

Dear Kennedy Families and Caregivers,

Disability acceptance week has been an amazing week of learning and inclusion. In the pictures below you can see the students signing the Pledge to Include poster on Wednesday. This is hanging proudly in our cafeteria on the first floor. Big shout out to all the Kennedy students! On Thursday one of our students started the morning announcements with an Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device, aka "talker". The school community was able to gain valuable exposure to how adaptive technology provides accessibility for all here at Kennedy. Our unified basketball team has had a busy week of competition filled with lots of baskets, cheers, and smiles all around. Tons of socks were rocking the day on Tuesday to support Rock your Socks Day. Love our inclusive Kennedy Community!

Viewing grades on Powerschool:

Here is the link for directions to view grades on powerschool.

Student Panorama Survey to be given during WIN block:

Just as our Panorama Family and Staff surveys are completing, we will be wrapping up with the student surveys as we did last year. Panorama provides research-backed surveys that allow us to collect information that is critically important to our district to support student success. We are eager to see how these surveys pave the way for the future in our district and here at Kennedy. These surveys will be given during WIN block and the window is open until March 31st. If you have questions about the surveys, please email your child's school counselor.

Upcoming mySAEBRS survey information:

As part of our transformative SEL work in Natick, we are committed to supporting every student’s academic growth as well as their social, emotional and behavioral growth.This year, we are piloting the mySAEBRS Social, Academic, Emotional, Behaviors Risk Screener screening tool with students. The use of the SAEBRS refines and strengthens our efforts to help all of our students be successful by allowing us to take positive and preventative measures as early as possible. Students will be completing the mySAEBRS screener at both middle schools between the window of Monday, March 20th - Friday, April 7th. Please email your school counselor with any questions about the survey.

Grade 5 counselor, Melisa MacDonald - memacdonald@natickps.org

Grade 6 counselor, Kelly Corey - kcorey@natickps.org

Grade 7 counselor, Todd Heller - rheller@natickps.org

Grade 8 counselor, Kelly Morin - kmorin@natickps.org

Upcoming MCAS schedule

A picture of the upcoming MCAS schedule can be found below.

Step Up Night for 8th Graders Notification:

WEDNESDAY, April 26, 2023 At 6:30 p.m. In the Natick High School Auditorium

Please join us for this informative program where you will meet various members of the high school community. You will hear about the transition from Middle School to High School, as well as visit an Activity/Club Fair and a Sports Fair. Building tours will be offered throughout the evening program. (See picture below for invitation)

Positivity Project News

This week our school community will be focusing on the character strength of Optimism. Optimism means you expect the best from the future and work to achieve it.

Optimism represents a state of hopefulness and confidence about the future (both short and long term). People with this strength are future-oriented. They have a positive vision of what the future holds and maintain confidence that they will get there. Despite setbacks, they keep a positive attitude and often find ways to convert what seems like an obstacle into a stepping-stone to achieving their goals.

To practice and encourage the character strength of OPTIMISM with your child, please visit the Positivity Project’s P2 for Families (password: P2) where together you will watch a video, read a quote and talk about the answers to three questions.

Here is the OPTIMISM letter for families for this week's character strength.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

Regards,

Jodie Cohen, Principal

"Optimism isn't a belief that things will automatically get better; it's a conviction that we can make things better."

~ Melinda Gates

Twitter - @KennedyMSNatick

Instagram - @KennedyMSNatick

#weR1Kennedy

#hearusROAR

#cougarpride
#positivityinaction

1 - Upcoming Events:

• Trimester 3 ends - TBD (depends on last day of school based on snow days)

• Thursday, April 6: No After School Activities or Late Buses

• Friday, April 7 - Good Friday, No School
• Wednesday, April 12 - Professional Development Day, Early Release 11:30 am
• Monday, April 17-Friday, April 21 - No School (April break)

2 - Spring Athletics Registration:

Kennedy Middle School Spring Athletic Teams

Track & Field (Boys & Girls) and Boys Volleyball Registration
Registration for Track & Field (Boys & Girls) and Boys Volleyball are now open on FamilyID.com. The following will need to be completed in order to participate:

1. Register student-athlete on FamilyID.com. Here are instructions if you haven't created an account on FamilyID (Online Registration Instruction Sheet). Choose "Natick Public School Athletic" and the correct Program (Kennedy Spring Track & Boys Volleyball 2022-2023 Registration for 7th & 8th graders or Kennedy Track & Field Spring 2023 Registration for 6th graders).

2. Upload your child's medical physical on FamilyID. The medical physical date must be within 13 months of the start of the season (after 3/4/2022) in order to participate. If you need a new physical and cannot get an appointment with your child's physician, you may want to consider going to an Urgent Care or Minute Clinic or have your doctor write a note stating the date of your child's upcoming physical and that your child is "healthy and able to participate in sports."

3. The preferred payment method for Athletics at Natick is online at UniPay (Natick Public Schools - Kennedy Middle School). The athletic fee is $225*. You can also pay by check if you prefer with the check made out to "NHS Athletics" and left at Kennedy's office.

4. 7th & 8th grade student-athletes will need to complete three free NFHS courses (Implicit Bias course, Hazing Prevention for Students & Concussion for Students) 1X a calendar year (courses completed spring of 2022 are acceptable). 5th & 6th grade student-athletes will need to complete the NFHS Concussion for Students course 1X a calendar year (courses completed spring of 2022 are acceptable). These are required by MIAA schools and NPS student-athletes at the MS & HS levels. After completing a course, the student-athlete will earn a "completion course certificate." This should be uploaded in the appropriate and designated area during registration on FamilyID. The courses are linked in the registration on FamilyID but here are the links for the courses also: NFHS Implicit Bias Course, NFHS Hazing Prevention for Students & NFHS Concussion for Students. FYI...after visiting the page for the course you will need to order the free courses. You will also need to create an NFHS account (under student-athletes name) if you don't already have one setup.

*The deadline to complete registration is 3/27/2023. Any registrations after 3/27/2023 will have a $25 late fee. Student-athletes cannot participate in spring athletics until this registration process is completed!

Email Mr. Lyth with any questions, dlyth@natickps.org.

3 - Grade 8 to 9 Transition to Natick High School Timeline

Here is the link to the Grade 8 to 9 Transition Timeline.

4 - From the Nurses Health Clinic:

If your student tests positive for Covid-19, they must stay home for 5 days. The day they started symptoms is Day 0, the next day is Day 1, then Day 2, etc. They may return to school on Day 6 and must wear a mask for an additional 5 days. A headache, scratchy throat, congestion/runny nose, cough, and/or fever are some of the more common symptoms of Covid-19.

Siblings and close contacts do not need to quarantine and can come to school as long as they are not having symptoms of illness. However, they must wear a mask for 10 days when around others following exposure.

Click for more information from the Massachusetts DPH: Covid-19 Isolation and Exposure Guidance

5 - Information notification letters about math placement

For information about the math placement process, please see the letters below.

22-23 6th to 7th opening placement letter

22-23 7th to 8th opening placement letter

Natick Public Schools is excited to announce our partnership with Paper for on-demand tutoring for NHS students. Paper is a secure, online tutoring service that provides students with unlimited, 24/7 academic support. Whether they’re stuck on homework, studying for a test, or need someone to read and make suggestions to their essays, there will always be experts available online to assist students in over 200 subjects and more than 4 languages.

Paper tutors have been specially trained to conduct expert, academic support in a secure, chat-based platform. With a commitment to helping students learn, they’ll never give students answers, but rather interact with them in an encouraging tone to lead them forward.

This is a free service that we’re providing, so students are encouraged to use it as much as they need, whenever they need. Our teachers also have accounts and will be able to review all student activity to see what they’re working on and provide more targeted instruction as needed.

If you’d like to learn more about Paper you can sign up for a Paper hosted Parent Info Session, available in both English and Spanish.

To see Paper and the help it offers firsthand, we encourage you to login with your students. To get started, simply visit PAPER’s student login page, type your school’s name, and log in via Google using your school credentials

We’re thrilled to offer our students the unlimited, 24/7 support that Paper provides and we can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish together.

Our Kennedy Middle School PTO works hard behind the scenes to support our school in a variety of ways. They are working diligently to bring great activities to our school community. Please check out their website for more information.

Natick Public Schools does not discriminate in employment nor its educational programs, services, and activities based on race, creed, color, age, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, physical and intellectual differences, immigration status, homeless status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Please be aware all electronic communication to and from Natick Public Schools is public record and subject to public disclosure per Massachusetts General Law Chapter 66, Section 10.

• Title I: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title II
• Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title VI
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Title IX
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
• MGL, Ch.76, Section 5: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5