Dear Bigelow Families,

We hope this note finds you well, and we are excited to welcome you and your student(s) to the 2021-22 year at Bigelow Middle School!

As parents or guardians of students at Bigelow, you are all members of the PTO. The PTO acts as a liaison between parents and the school, helps to build community and foster communication and fundraises for the priorities set by Bigelow.

Please, take a minute to read about the Bigelow PTO’s purposes and what it does to promote the core values of the Bigelow Middle School, by supporting performing arts, technology and lots more for our children and the school. The Bigelow PTO is a volunteer organization and your participation enriches the school environment.

We were truly gratified by the support and generosity you showed the PTO last Spring and through the end of the year. We are fortunate to be part of such a wonderful community and we look forward to serving you in the coming year.

We wish you and your students a very successful year!

If you have questions for the PTO, please contact us at bigelowbulldog@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

The Bigelow PTO Board – Gabriela Kroszynski, May Chen, Linda Gillespie and Sukanya Ghosh

First Day of School: Thursday 9/9

School Hours: 8:05 a.m. – 2:35 p.m. (early release Wednesdays at 1:50 p.m.)

Don’t forget: *ALL* school personnel, visitors, and students, regardless of age or vaccination status, are required to wear masks covering their nose and mouth at all times while on campus and when riding on school buses. No exceptions.

More information about the Newton School District’s 2021-22 Back to School Health and Safety Plan

All 7th grade students are invited to the Ice Cream Social on Friday, September 10th right after school until 3:30 PM in Burr Park.

We need 4 volunteers to hand out ice cream (meeting at school at 2:15). If interested, please contact Gabriela Kroszynski (frinulia@hotmail.com)

Here are links to school supply list for each grade. Please remember you don’t need to buy everything new. The PTO invites you to think about school supplies in a sustainable way.  Let’s practice with our children the three Rs of sustainability – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

• Grade 6 School Supplies
• Grade 7 School Supplies
• Grade 8 School Supplies
• World Language School Supplies

***One Additional School Supply Needed***

Thank you to Holland Hargens (former Bigelow student) who worked for his Eagle Scout project with M. Harrison, to design and install a sign in the gym entrance, purchase and assemble some tables for the courtyard area of the school. Thank you also to Daniel Salemme, Kyle Judge, and TJ Cox for their help in bringing this project to life!

Dear Bigelow families,

In our last Bigelow Notes of the 2020/2021 school year, we would like to thank all of you for your tremendous support and generosity over this past year. During a most tricky year, we were still able to host events and meetings to bring together our wonderful community. A special thank you to all our volunteers who worked tirelessly to make sure that PTO sponsored events were successful. In particular, we would like to thank the following parents:

Megan Flynn (School Directory), Caryn Izhar (Creative Arts & Sciences), Gabriela Kroszynski (6th Grade Potluck and 8th Grade Activities), Alexia Giannakopoulos (Big Night), Julie Landesman (Big Night and Bigelow FORJ), Ruth Somers (Big Night), Susan St. Pierre, Karen Yee and Charlene Gillespie (Teacher Appreciation), Krista Chavez (PoPS), Danielle Ahite-De Medeiros, Davena Jackson, Madeline McNeely, Margo Michaels,  Ruth Hertzman-Miller, Becca Schulman Havemeyer (Bigelow FORJ), Sarah Hirzel (Safe Routes to School ), Joana Canedo (Safe Routes to School, Green Newton School Connections & Communications/Website) and Gwen Hautefeuille (Communications/Website)

We wish you the very best for a very restful and happy summer, and hope you come back to Bigelow with batteries recharged! Next year is full of promise and opportunity, and we hope you will get involved in the PTO to support our kids and community! Look for information over the summer for upcoming events and ways to be a part of the PTO. For those of you leaving Bigelow, we wish you all the best and hope our paths cross at Newton North.

And we wish much success to the incoming PTO Board: Gabriela Kroszynski (President), May Chen (Vice President), Linda Gillespie (Treasurer) and Sukanya Ghosh (Secretary).

Thank you again and Happy Summer!

Karen Markson and the PTO Board

This past Tuesday night the PTO held a farewell celebration for Mr. Harrison, who is retiring after 25 years of extraordinary and tireless service to the Bigelow community. Over 150 people, parents and students alike, came by to wish Mr. Harrison well.

We shared with Mr. Harrison our gift of the “Todd Harrison Bigelow Cares” fund, seeded with $5,000, from both the PTO and a family donation. This fund will go towards helping Bigelow students and families who are in need, and will honor Mr. Harrison’s commitment and belief that all students deserve the same wonderful middle school experience.

Thank you again, Mr. Harrison, for being a devoted and caring principal. You will be very missed!

Bigelow will read From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks this summer as our One School, One Book community read. To learn more about the book, a playlist of songs from the book, a fun recipe, and other interesting things related to the book and author, go to the Bigelow Library One School, One Book Page. All grades will complete a summer reading handout that will be used in advisory when we return in the fall. It can be printed out and completed by hand or copied and completed as a google document. This handout can also be found on the One School, One Book Page. All current 6th and 7th graders received their books in advisory last week and current 5th graders will receive theirs on Monday. Stay tuned for more information later this summer about this program!

From Newton Public Schools:

The online bus registration portal is now OPEN. It will be open until Saturday, July 31st.

You MUST register by July 31st to secure your student’s seat on the bus. Similar to this year, students will receive bus seat assignments and will be required to have a bus pass in order to ride the bus.

Process

• Registration for a bus pass will be online ONLY (just like this past year.)
• NPS uses MySchoolBucks as its online registration portal.
• You can access registration directly via MySchoolBucks at: www.myschoolbucks.com. You will be asked to log into your account or create a new account.
• You will find additional registration information here: www.newton.k12.ma.us/transportation
• Paper packets WILL NOT be mailed in the summer.

Timeline

• June 16th – July 31st – bus registration portal is open 
• August 1st – registration portal will close to review bus registrations and make seat assignments.
• August 30th – Bus passes are available to print via the Aspen portal.

Fees

• To determine your bus fee, please visit this webpage: https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/3318
• You will be able to pay the bus fee in installments over the course of the year using e-check, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.
• You may apply for financial assistance via this Google Form
• Please note that the School Committee voted to remove all credit card transaction fees for families.

Bus Pass Access

• In late August, you will access your bus pass electronically through Aspen so that it can be printed at home or stored on a smartphone (for secondary students.)
• Bus passes will include a seat assignment for morning and a seat assignment for afternoon. Please note that these seat assignments may be different for the morning and the afternoon.
• All students must have a bus pass and seat assignment to ride the bus.

The 2021-22 School Calendar is now available on the NPS website. Updated school hours have also been published on the site as well. Please see links below for details:

• 2021-22 School Year Calendar page
• School Hours for the 2021-22 School Year page