St. Mary's School
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
In This Issue
Important Upcoming Dates
Warm Weather Uniform
MAAV Walk & Candlelight Vigil
SMS Trunk or Treat
November Lunch Orders
After School Help Needed
COVID-19 Testing Program
** Confidential Health Information Form **
Daily Symptom Check Reminder
Volunteer Background Screening Process
Important Upcoming Dates
Sunday, October 24: MAAV Walk & Candlelight Vigil, 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Thursday, October 28: Lunch orders due by 11:59 pm
Thursday, October 28: Signed progress reports due
Friday, October 29: Last day of warm weather uniform
Saturday, October 30: SMS Trunk or Treat, 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Monday, November 1: All Saints Day
Friday, November 5: Early Dismissal Day
Thursday, November 11: NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day
Warm Weather Uniform
We would like to remind everyone that per the Student/Parent Handbook the warm weather uniform may be worn in September and October in the fall, and after April vacation until the end of the school year in the spring. There are still a few warm days ahead of us, so students may feel free to continue to wear the warm weather uniform. The last day of the warm weather uniform this fall is Friday, October 29.
MAAV Walk & Candlelight Vigil
St. Mary's School is proud to once again support the work of the Melrose Alliance Against Violence (MAAV) by participating in MAAV's 26th Annual Walk and Candlelight Vigil. This year's event will be held on Sunday, October 24 at 4:00 pm. Because of the pandemic, the event will be held entirely outside this year. The Candlelight Vigil will be held in the courtyard between Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School and Melrose High School. The walk (just under 2 miles round trip) begins and ends at MVMMS/MHS.
Please consider joining us on the walk or supporting the cause by making a donation. Click here to support the outstanding work of MAAV.
Please click here to let us know you'll be participating in support of this great cause.
SMS Trunk or Treat
Saturday, October 30 from 12:00 - 2:00 pm in Church parking lot
Join us for a safe and fun event for the whole family. Decorate your trunk, pass out treats, and enjoy some pizza. Prizes awarded for Best Dressed, Best Dressed Family and Best Decorated
Car (nothing too scary, please). Complete the registration form below and send it in with payment with your child by Wednesday, October 27. Parking is not assigned and spots are based upon arrival time. First come, first to park! Spaces are limited, so register now to secure your spot.
Cost
Adults: $10 Kids: $5 Max: $20 per family
What to Bring
Chairs and plenty of candy to hand out to all the Trunk or Treaters! Sorry, no pets allowed.
Schedule
11:00 am - 12:00 pm Arrivals and set-up
12:30 pm Pizza and Treat
1:00 pm Parade, Trunk or Treating
1:45 pm Costume Contest winners announced
2:00 pm Dismissal and clean up
November Lunch Orders
Lunch orders for the month of November can now be placed online at orsgonline.com. The deadline for submitting the November order is Thursday, October 28 at 11:59 pm.
If you already have an account with OrgsOnline, click here.
To create a new account, click here and use school code 442SMOTASMA when registering.
All students in PreK - grade 8 may place orders for lunch or milk.
After School Help Needed
We are searching for additional after school teachers to assist with our expanding after school program! If you are interested or know someone who may be interested, please contact Mr. Beza (mr.beza@stmaryschoolmelrose.org). We added four new teachers to the program this year, but additional staffing would be a great help on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 2:15 - 4:30 pm.
COVID-19 Testing Program
Last week we had our first round of pooled COVID-19 testing with approximately 50% of our students participating. We were informed that all tests in this first round came back negative. We will let you know if future pools have positive results, but going forward you can assume that no news is good news following weekly testing.
With additional sign-ups last week, we now have approximately 60% participation in our testing program. If you haven't enrolled your child yet, but would like to, please go to this link to complete the consent form.
The program consists of three components including the following:
1. Weekly COVID-19 Safety checks (formerly referred to as pooled testing), which will help us to identify asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
2. Point of Care Testing with Binax-NOW Rapid Antigen Tests - if a student or faculty member develops symptoms of COVID-19 at school, a rapid test is performed and resulted in 15 minutes. If negative the student may return to class if feeling well enough - a huge improvement over the required dismissal and testing protocol which usually involves a 1-2 day waiting period and associated remote learning while waiting for test results.
3. Test & Stay - Students who have been identified as close contacts of a positive case of COVID-19 as a result of an exposure at school, may attend school and school based extracurricular activities during their close contact quarantine, by having daily BinaxNOW rapid antigen testing performed at school for a period of 7 days after exposure. A daily negative result eliminates the need for the minimum 7-day at home quarantine, testing, and associated remote learning.
Confidential Health Information Form
All students in Grades 1-8 are required to have a Confidential Student Health & Emergency Information Sheet on file in the school nurse's office. Completed forms were due to Mrs. Pedicini last Wednesday, October 6. If you have not submitted the form, please do so promptly.
Daily Symptom Check Reminder
We would like to remind everyone that all students must have a completed symptom check form on file prior to entering the school building each morning. The form must be completed no later than 7:30 am each day. The form is managed through the FACTS student information system.
To access the daily symptom check webform, please log into the FACTS Family Portal (https://logins2.renweb.com/Logins/ParentsWeb-Login.aspx?, school code SMA-MA). Once you have logged in, under "School", please select "Web Forms." Please select the "COVID Response Form - Family" web form.
Volunteer Background Screening Process
1) Complete a CORI background check annually
2) Participate in child safety training (to be completed only once - see below for more info)
The child safety training program approved by the archdiocese is Protecting God's Children (Virtus Online). In the past, this training has only been offered in person. However, due to the pandemic volunteers may opt to complete the training online. Please go to www.virtusonline.org and click on "First Time Registrant" Select" Boston Archdiocese." After you complete the initial class, you will be directed to a link to register for a second class in mandated reporting in MA. Both classes must be completed in order to be in compliance with our child protection requirements. The mandated reporting class can be found at http://51a.middlesexcac.org. When completed, please send a copy of the certificate to mrs.mobilia@stmaryschoolmelrose.org and keep a copy for your records.
Contact Us
Email: mr.beza@stmaryschoolmelrose.org
Website: stmaryschoolmelrose.org
Location: 4 Myrtle Street, Melrose, MA, USA
Phone: (781)665-5037
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschoolmelrose/