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
A Message From Principal Choquette 9/7/18
What a wonderful week here at BSS! We had a great week welcoming our preschool and kindergarten students and families. Thank you to the PTO for the welcoming table and refreshments on the first day for our youngest of students.
This week we had our first fire drill and all of our students did a marvelous job! Throughout the year we will have both fire and lockdown drills. Please talk with your children about the importance of practicing these drills. Our number one priority is keeping everyone safe, especially in an emergency. Some of the drills are announced and some will be unannounced. Drills are important for us because they teach us how to get out of the building in a safe and quick manner.
We had our first family dinner last night for our kindergarten families. Thank you again to the PTO for hosting our family dinners. They are a great way for new families to meet other families. Below is a calendar of the remaining family dinners.
Picture day will be on October 10th this year. Information will come home for you to fill out as the day gets closer. If a student is absent on that day, there will be a make-up day.
We hope that you can all join us at the School Local Carnival on Sunday, September 23rd from 12-4 pm at JFK Middle School. For any family that receives free/reduced lunch, I have tickets available in my office for the activities. Just stop in and see me.
We have some backpacks with supplies that were donated by the Kiwanis Club. If you are in need of a backpack with supplies, please see me in the main office.
As you may have noticed, some of our buses and vans are running late and have not been consistent as far as timing goes, especially in the afternoons. The transportation supervisor resigned two weeks before school started and because the region is facing a shortage of drivers, our new supervisor is actually having to drive. Transportation is a huge department with a lot of spinning parts. I ask that you please be patient as they try to work out the glitches and get more drivers. Everyone has been working extremely hard to help with the transition, but there are still some problems to work out. On any given day a bus or van could be up to 20-30 minutes late to pick up kids here at school. I will not do a robo call when they are late, as I would be doing a call every single day. However, if there was an emergency, or something wrong like a bus breaking down, you would receive a call. Therefore, if your child is late coming home and you don't receive a call, it just means the bus/van is running late. Thank you for your patience while the transportation department works to make busing more efficient.
Finally, I would like to remind families and inform our new families of the district protocol for classroom evacuations for students in distress. If we have a student in distress and who is looking unsafe, we will evacuate the classroom so instruction can continue in another location. We do this for two reasons, first, to ensure the safety of all students, and second, to remove the audience. I know it is hard to hear if you child's class had to be evacuated, but at times, students may struggle and we want to support them while at the same time keep everyone safe. If you have any questions about classroom evacuations, please contact me. With that said, we are a public school. This means that we welcome, love, and accept ALL students. Many of our students come to us with challenges. They could be in the form of a cognitive or behavioral disability or trauma based. All of our students belong here, regardless of disability, behavior, color, gender, race, religion, or the type of family that they come from. Our hope for your children is that they love school and that when they leave BSS at the end of fifth grade, that they leave knowing what it means to be compassionate, to have empathy, to be understanding, and most importantly, to be accepting of the differences we all bring to our amazing school.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, enjoy the cooler temperatures!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Dismissal
Students are not allowed to go out the double playground doors without a signed permission slip that they have parental permission to be unsupervised. Being unsupervised on the playground before 8:35 a.m. and after 3:00 p.m. is a safety risk, that is why we ask parents to sign off with the understanding that their students will not be supervised during those times.
Van students- to the vans (Union Street side of the building)
Walkers/Unsupervised students- double doors to the big playground
Parent/Caregiver Pick-up to the fence by the kindergarten playground
Update on Library Renovation
At this time, students will not be able to check-out books as all 10,000+ books are all packed in boxes!
Thank you for your patience. We can't wait for the big reveal!
BASE After School Program
Family Dinners
Sept. 12 1st Grade
Sept. 17 2nd Grade
Sept. 26 4th and 5th Grade
Sept. 27th 3rd Grade
Principal's Chats
K-5 Celebration 9/10/18
PTO
Volunteers are needed for the family dinners so folks can contact jendieringer@gmail.com for any whole or part of the 5:30-7 shifts.
The dinners are the following dates:
1 - Wednesday, Sept. 12
2 - Monday, Sept. 17
3 - Thursday, Sept. 27
4 and 5 - Wednesday, Sept. 26
The School Local Carnival is coming up on Sunday, Sept. 23, 12-4. Games, bounce house, dunk tank! At JFK Middle School. Volunteers are needed to staff some of the games, ticket table, etc. Carnival volunteering is the most fun! People can sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040b48a4a629a57-community
We LOVE our students!
We appreciate our administration and coaches!
We are thankful for our teachers and parents!
Important Dates
September 10th: K-5 Celebration 9:00 am
September 12th: 1st Grade Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m.
September 12th: School Council Meeting 3:30-5:00 p.m.
September 13th: Welcome Back Picnic 5:30-7:00 p.m.
September 17th: 2nd Grade Family Dinner 5:30-7:00 p.m.
September 18th: PTO Meeting 3:15-4:15 p.m.