Kennedy Cougars

Dear Kennedy Families and Caregivers,

I hope that all families celebrating Yom Kippur had a nice time with family and friends as you broke fast for this new year. If you did not celebrate the holiday, we hope you enjoyed a mid week day off to unwind while staying dry from all the rain.

Open House for grades 7 and 8 was a great time for all. It was wonderful to see the teachers share the amazing work they are doing with your students. I was able to sit in many classrooms or team spaces to hear the excitement they have for their profession. Thank you to our amazing Kennedy faculty for putting together such a caring and informative event. And, thank you to all of the families and caregivers for coming to our evening. We were thrilled to see such a turnout!

Students have been struggling with some challenging behaviors during our outdoor Laps at Lunch program that has resulted in a few unsafe situations. We took a week or so to reset behavior expectations and have developed a plan to continue laps in a safer, more orderly way. Starting next week we will be splitting the grades up at lunch. The upper cafe grades, 8 and 7, will be walking laps in our old location around the front lawn, while the lower cafe grades, 5 and 6, will continue to walk on the back lawn area. In order to make this happen safely we need a few more volunteers per day. Please reach out to Rebecca Waterhouse, rpwaterhouse@gmail.com, our laps at lunch coordinator, to volunteer. Without your help, we couldn't do laps at all - we are beyond grateful for your time. I also wanted to thank you for your support and patience during our reset.

Due to a strike last weekend by our food supplier Sysco Boston, food deliveries may be 24-48 hours behind. Our food services department has confidently shared that we have no issues feeding our students, but asked for flexibility if menu items need to be changed.

Kennedy sports update - there was only one match this week to report - Kennedy girls field hockey defeated Wilson 3-1. Congrats to both middle schools for a great game and GO COUGARS!

Just a reminder that Monday, Oct. 10th is Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day and there will be no school.

Warm regards,

Jodie Cohen, Principal

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." ~ Aesop

Twitter - @KennedyMSNatick

Instagram - @KennedyMSNatick

1 - **NEW** Staff member of the week - Jen Corcoran - Executive Functioning Tutor

We are excited to have Jen Corcoran here with us at Kennedy. Jen has a wonderful background in education and has previously worked at another awesome middle school in Natick. :). Here is the blurb that Jen wrote to introduce herself to the community:

"I'm excited to be returning to the classroom and Natick after a hiatus. For 13 years I was a learning center and classroom teacher at Wilson (Kirsten McDonough was my partner for years). I then taught at a private school for a few years. When that job description changed (and private school was not for me) I left teaching all together and became a dental assistant during COVID. When the Executive Functioning Coach position presented itself to me I couldn't pass it up. I'm excited to be working with 7th and 8th graders on lifelong skills, as well as collaborating with new and previous colleagues. My children; Thomas (12) and Nora (9) keep me busy. We enjoy skiing together, the beach, the outdoors, sitting at our firepit and spending time with friends. I've given my kids the travel bug and the highlight of our summer was a week in San Diego to visit family and explore that part of CA. On my own I enjoy reading most genres, walking around the lake and cemetery in my neighborhood, trying new foods and soaking in as much history as I can."

We are THRILLED to have you with us, Jen. Welcome aboard!!

2 - 5th Grade Vision Screenings are coming to the clinic this October

Kennedy school nurses will be conducting mandated distance vision screenings for all 5th graders in the first two weeks of October. Here is the link to the KMS Parent Notification Letter for Vision Screenings.

3 - Paper online tutoring information for families

Here are a few ways Paper can support you and your students this school year:

• Unlimited 24/7/365 tutoring support — sessions can run for as long as students need!

• Revisions for any typed writing assignments in 24 hours or less!

• Tutoring and writing support in 4 different languages — English, Spanish, French and Mandarin.

To learn more about Paper visit The parent & guardian’s guide to implementing Paper at home. Here you will be able to register for an upcoming parent & guardian info session, available in both English and Spanish, and find resources on how to get started with using Paper with your students right away! If you’d like to speak to a member of the Paper team directly, you can reach them at parents@paper.co

4 - UPCOMING SCHOOL EVENTS for your calendar

• Monday, October 10: Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day - NO SCHOOL
• Thursday, October 20: Picture Day
• Wednesday, October 26: Staff Professional Development Half Day
• Thursday, November 10: Kennedy annual Veterans Day Breakfast
• Friday, November 11: Veterans Day - NO SCHOOL

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