Dewing School

Office Update: February 16, 2022

Dewing School Information from Mrs. Gerrish and Mrs. Bosworth

Dewing School Information from Mrs. Gerrish and Mrs. Bosworth


Hello Dewing School Community,


There will be no school next week as we celebrate the February Break. We wish you all a wonderful week filled with much health and happiness. As a reminder, there is a half day on Friday, with no PM preschool.


COVID Test Kits-If you have requested for your child to receive a COVID test kit, these will be distributed to your child on Thursday, February 17th. Please remind your child to provide these kits directly to an adult upon returning home. We encourage you to use both tests during the vacation week and recommend that you test your child at the beginning of the week and again before returning to school. Please report any positive cases to our school nurse, Jill Robinson at jrobinson@tewksbury.k12.ma.us.


PM Dismissal Information: We are sending out another plea. We ask that ALL K-2 Families adhere to the dismissal times for parent pickup. K-2 familes, please DO NOT ENTER the dismissal area until AFTER 2:45. We need to let our preschool families safely enter the parking lot and pickup their children. Unfortunately, we have limited staff and cannot traffic daily, but it is only fair that all familes are respecful of this rule. We are all one community and we need to cooperate for the safety of all students and families.


Read Across America: When we return, we immediately begin our yearly celebration of Read Across America. This will take place from February 28-March 4. This week, we celebrate our love for reading and all of the wonderful places books can take us. Please help us celebrate by having your child participate in our theme days and classroom reading contest. The flyer is below. Through the generous donations from the PAC, each student in the one class at each grade level who read the highest number of minutes will receive a free book! Last year, we had a close run and we are excited to see how many minutes of reading the Dewing School can submit!


Dress Up Days:

  • Monday, Feb 28-Read my shirt day-wear a shirt others can read

  • Tuesday, March 1-Top Hat Tuesday-Wear your favorite hat

  • Wednesday, March 2-Wacky Hair Wednesday

  • Thursday, March 3-Reading JOGS the mind-wear your favorite exercise clothes

  • Friday, March 4-Team up and Read-wear your favorite sports jersey


Masking: As you are probably aware, the masking mandate has been lifted, effective 2/28/22. The wearing of masks in school will be optional. Masks are still REQUIRED in the Nursing Suite as well as on ALL School Buses/Vans. If your child rides a bus or van, please make sure s/he has a mask. Because masks are optional, please understand that while our teachers will support those students who choose to wear a mask in school, they will not engage with a student who makes a choice during the school day to remove his or her mask about that choice. We ask that you please have this discussion with your child and make the decision that works for your family.

As a reminder, we continue to offer the weekly pool testing and options for weekly at home COVID testing.




Terry Gerrish and Alexis Bosworth

___________________________________________________________________

Important Dates:

Friday, Feb 18-Half Day-No PM PK

Feb 21-25th-Feb Recess-No School

March 16-No School-Professional Development Day

Dewing School Information from Mrs. Gerrish and Mrs. Bosworth
Read Across America Flyer

The flyer will be distributed later this week, but here is a copy if you wish to print it.

Math Coaches Corner

Feburary 2022 Math Coaches Corner Newsletter.

January 26, 2022-Letter Regarding At Home COVID Test Kits


Dear TPS Families:


Last week we sent you information (via email) from DESE, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Public Health (DPH) regarding an update to the COVID-19 Testing Program for districts and schools. Today, we are writing to let you know, in accordance with the DESE and the DPH, our district is updating our COVID-19 Testing Program, effective for families potentially the week of January 31, 2022.


We are opting into an at-home testing program that will increase testing of our participating students and staff, regardless of vaccination status. For more information about this update to the statewide testing program, please click here. The at-home testing option will begin for students potentially during the week of January 31, 2022. In addition to this new at-home antigen test kit option, we will continue with routine COVID safety checks (Pooled Testing) and/or symptomatic testing during the week. As part of this shift in the program, we are discontinuing Test and Stay and contact tracing for in-school close contacts. This means that if you are a potential close contact in school, you may continue to come to school and do not have to quarantine. This new at-home testing opportunity is voluntary and only those who opt-in will receive test kits. We strongly encourage you to fill out the form by Friday, January 28th, 4:00 P.M. (students/families may sign up after this time but will not be eligible for the first shipment of test kits) to opt-in. Test kits for those students who are opted in will be given to the student to take home. If there is a specific family concern regarding this please contact your building principal.


COVID-19 Testing Programs in our Schools:


* if you have not already signed up for our currently available testing options see below*


  • *Routine COVID Safety Checks (Pooled Testing) every week and Symptomatic Testing (If you have not yet signed up, click here)


Overview: At-Home Rapid Testing Program *Please retain the below information for when you actually begin testing.

  • About the Test: iHealth is a 15-minute at-home FDA-approved rapid antigen test

  • Opt-In: To participate, you must opt in by completing the online form. By opting in, you will agree to review the training materials for test administration, report positive test results, and administer the tests according to Tewksbury Public School’s guidelines.

  • Reporting Positive Test Results: If you test positive on an at-home antigen test, you will report the positive result to your school nurse via email or phone call. The district will keep the results confidential and will not make individual results public. In addition, it is strongly recommended that you inform your healthcare professional of the positive result.

  • Weekly: Every two weeks you will receive an iHealth at-home rapid test kit. Each kit contains two individual tests. You will administer one test each week.

  • Easy, Free, and Flexible: This test is administered at home (not at school), reducing the burden on school staff and time to administer tests and increasing your flexibility to do testing in the home for free.

How do I administer the test?

  • Click here for a full “how to” written guide in various languages

  • Click here for a video of an individual self-testing

  • Confidentiality: Positive test results are shared with the district for informational purposes only. Individual results will remain confidential, and they will never be made public.


Sincerely,

Superintendent Chris Malone

Dewing School

Dewing School

Dewing School

1469 Andover Street, Tewksbury, MA, USA 978-640-7858 tewksbury.k12.ma.us