I hope you and your children are all staying healthy and finding new routines that keep you busy and allow time to take care of yourself. These difficult times can bring feelings of uncertainty, fear and worry that can be expressed in many ways. Parents can help their children by staying positive and reassuring them that adults are working hard to help things get back to normal.

Here are a few important public health reminders:

• Stay home as much as possible but try to get outside for walks or exercise with people from your household.
• Avoid play dates and group sports activities.
• Encourage kids to connect with their friends by phone, text, video chat, etc.
• Wash your hands and clean high-touch surfaces frequently.
• If someone becomes sick, call their healthcare provider for next steps.

Here are a few links that may be helpful for your family:

• www.newtonma.gov/covid19 is updated regularly with links to the mayor’s updates, financial resource information, mental health resources, hotline numbers and much more.
• Newton Public Schools COVID-19 page www.newton.k12.ma.us with food pickup info, learning resources, how to talk with kids about COVID-19 and much more.

I am working remotely and am very interested in staying in touch. I’m available by email or phone to help you. The best way to contact me is by email at schys@newton.k12.ma.us.

If you would like to talk directly on the phone, we can arrange a time by emailing me at schys@newton.k12.ma.us with a few times that would work for you and the phone number you want me to call. Please know that when I call, it will come as a blocked phone number. I look forward to connecting with you.

Stay well and stay in touch.

Sue Schy, RN

Dear Students and Parents,

Below is a link to a video message from me to all Bigelow students.  Parents, please make sure that you share it with your child or children at Bigelow.
 Greetings from Mr. Harrison1

I hope you are all doing well. Be strong. Be Bigelow!

Todd

Newton Public Schools is committed to helping families that may need access to devices at home in order to engage in online learning opportunities. If you do not have a web-capable device at home other than a cell phone (such as an iPad, Chromebook, PC, or Mac) please complete this request form (https://forms.gle/K3SgotNY38V1ncNe9) Our technology support team will be in touch with you to discuss next steps.

For information on low-cost internet/phone options please visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EJDHi2Oebnj_lp8rqsk3cHfmvddJ5YfjdlrgmxBqrpQ/edit?usp=sharing

NPS has created a dedicated email address for families to request technical support with accessing learning materials and/or student accounts. Please email us at: familytechsupport@newton.k12.ma.us

*Please note that this is not for troubleshooting home network issues. Please contact your ISP provider if you are having trouble connecting with your internet service.

Message from 8th Grade Project 351 Ambassadors – 

Good morning families! We hope everyone is doing well and staying safe! We know lots of families are taking this time to do some possibly much-needed spring cleaning, and if you are cleaning out closets and dressers for too small or unwanted clothes, hold on to them until school starts up again. Once school starts, you can quickly drop new or gently worn clothes off at Bigelow to be donated to Cradles to Crayons. Cradles to Crayons is an amazing organization that helps millions of kids each year and helps children in need.  Spring cleaning is the perfect way to support their organization and make a difference in a child’s life. We will be collecting the following:

• • Children’s clothing, coats, and footwear
  • Gently used, new or like-new condition, please!
  • Youth sizes: 0-20
  • Adult sizes too but in youth appropriate styles (no business attire)
  • Pajamas, socks, and underwear must be new

There will be boxes located right outside the office for your generous donations when school returns! Thank you and stay safe!

All District Updates related to Covid-19 can be found at the NPS website: https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/3636

• Update on Learning During School Closure – 3.22.20
• COVID-19 Update – 3.18.20 – Learning Resources Now Available
• School Closure Until April 6th and Next Steps
• COVID-19 School Closure Update – 3.13.20
• SCHOOLS CLOSED – MARCH 13 – MARCH 20, 2020
• COVID-19 Update – 3.11.20 – 1:00 p.m.
• COVID-19 UPDATE – 3.8.20 – 8:00 P.M.
• COVID-19 UPDATE – 3.4.20 – 9:30 A.M.
• COVID-19 UPDATE – 3.1.20 AT 8:15 P.M.
• COVID-19 UPDATE – 2.26.20

Message from Newton Community Pride – 

We are sorry to inform that NewtonSERVES on Sunday April 26, 2020 is cancelled.  NewtonSERVES is about connecting and coming together to do work that benefits our community.  While we do this on NewtonSERVES day altogether, we also each do this every day in a million small ways!  In these very uncertain times, please keep your neighbors and friends in mind.  Wishing you and your family all the best.

Below is a list of Bigelow contacts if you need additional information or have other questions:

If you….

❏    have a general question about school, contact Mr. Harrison: harrisont@newton.k12.ma.us

❏    have concerns about my child’s social emotional needs, contact your child’s guidance counselor or the school psychologist:

• Grade 6: Erin Macneil macneile@newton.k12.ma.us
• Grade 7: Jessica Pierce piercej@newton.k12.ma.us
• Grade 8:  Lisa Capoccia capoccial@newton.k12.ma.us
• METCO: Michelle Reddick reddickm@newton.k12.ma.us
• School Psychologist: Jordanna L’Esperence l’esperencej@newton.k12.ma.us

❏    have a concern about your child’s health, contact Head of School Nurses, Ruth Hoshino hoshinor@newton.k12.ma.us

❏    have a question about your student’s learning: Contact your child’s team teacher.

❏    your child is on a 504 or IEP and you have a question about their needs or questions about special education services:  Contact Assistant Principal for Student Services, Courtney Rau Rogers raurogersc@newton.k12.ma, or your child’s caseworker.

Note from Mr. Harrison:

You can expect:

●      Your child’s team teachers will be in touch with you and your child via email or video by the end of this Friday, and then once a week afterwards.

●      Team teachers will share with your child learning activities for each week. The learning activities will be standards-based grade level content activities that may review material already learned and deepen understanding. They will not serve to teach new content, be collected or graded, or be used as assessment toward term grades.

●      In addition to the learning activities shared by teachers, NPS has created online resources called “NPS Learning from Home” that can be found by following the link below:  www.newton.k12.ma.us/covid19

●      Guidance counselors will be available to connect families with community resources and offer social emotional support. They are also a resource for questions about connecting with teachers.

●      Special Education liaisons will be in touch weekly to ensure that students on their caseload have access to enrichment activities and to support students’ social emotional needs through virtual connections.

●      The Bigelow administration will be available to respond to parent inquiries. The best way to reach us is via email, which we will be checking daily.

●      All Bigelow faculty will be checking emails daily.

●      I will send out a weekly email or video in an effort to maintain our strong community connections.