2022-23 School Year

Athletics | General Information

Welcome to the Bigelow Middle School Athletics, home of the Bulldogs! Please read the information for the Fall 2022 season carefully.

• Registration will be open in Family ID from 9/1/22 to 9/11/22. We are unable to process registrations after 9/11/22
• Practices and/or tryouts will begin the week of 9/12/22, depending on weather and field conditions.
• If your student is interested in participating in a fall sport they must attend an informational meeting during Lunch/Extension block. Students are informed about meetings through daily announcements. If your student misses an informational meeting they can speak to the coach individually.
• Practice lengths and game times vary but always begin 10 minutes after dismissal. Late bus transportation is available on practice days, but not on game/meet days.
• It is the intent of athletic programs to provide opportunities for participation for as many students as possible. Budget constraints, safety concerns, and available facilities, however, make a “no-cut” policy difficult. Prior to the start of a season, coaches will advise parents and students of the tryout and participation policy for each sport. Every effort will be made to accommodate as many students as possible with regard to safety, playing time, and available facilities, but coaches may follow pre-established and announced cutting policies.
• The fostering of participation and sportsmanship, as well as the physical, emotional, and ethical development of a student in a competitive situation, are emphasized. Inherent in this philosophy is the belief that winning is not the major goal of an athletic program. Coaches are encouraged to play every team member when game circumstances permit the use of substitutions.
• As members of the Bigelow athletic program, students and coaches are expected to demonstrate proper respect for each other, other teams and coaches, teammates, officials, spectators, and equipment. Student-athletes and coaches are expected to exhibit the highest level of conduct, both on and off the playing field, as they are, at all times, representatives of their team, school, and community.

Fall 2022 Athletics Offerings

Athletics | Registration Checklist

1. Visit Family ID for Athletics Registration. If you are a new user, you will need to create an account. Please contact FamilyID directly with any questions.
2. Make sure your student has a current physical on file with the nurse. Physicals are valid for 13 months from the date of the exam. If your student’s physical expires during the season, they will be unable to practice or play until a new physical is obtained. You can email a copy of your student’s physical directly to the school nurse, Sue Schy. 
3. Visit MySchoolBucks for Athletics payment. The user fee for athletes who participate on a team is $180.00 ($90 for Flag Football). Please wait until the coaches announce the final roster to pay user fees!

Financial waivers are available and are now located in Aspen. Please complete a financial waiver before paying for your registration. Once approved for a waiver, you will select the athletics waiver product on MySchoolBucks. For more information regarding the financial waiver please visit this page: NPS Financial Waiver Information. If you have any questions, please reach out to your athletic department or the business office at 617-559-9025 or feepayments@newton.k12.ma.us.

Clubs and the Bigelow Academic Center

Clubs and the Bigelow Academic Center (BAC) will begin in late September/Early October.

The User Fee for clubs is $60 per student, per year ($100 if the student participates in Drama) and allows students to participate in unlimited clubs throughout the school year. 

Check out the website for past club offerings, information on user fees, and how to sign up for the BAC.

Join the Bigelow Middle School FORJ 2022-23 leadership committee to help strengthen Bigelow’s work around racial justice!

Bigelow Middle School FORJ is planning our activities for the 2022-23 school year and we are seeking parents and faculty who would like to join our leadership committee. If you would like to join the planning for this year’s work, please email us at bigelowforj@gmail.com. All are welcome whether or not you participated in FORJ last year. We meet once or twice a month on Zoom and we are planning our first meeting for later in September.

More about Bigelow FORJ and other ways to get involved:

Bigelow Middle School FORJ (Bigelow FORJ) is a school-based chapter of Newton’s Families Organizing for Racial Justice (FORJ). 

Bigelow FORJ is a group of devoted parents, faculty and administrators committed to raising anti-racist children who acknowledge the pervasiveness of systemic barriers; speak out against injustices; and seek action-oriented solutions.  We invite parents and children to engage in critical conversations that support questioning, challenging and dismantling systemic racism, structural inequities, including anti-Blackness, racial discrimination, unconscious biases and all other forms of racial injustice and social exclusion.

Please email us at bigelowforj@gmail.com and tell us if

• you would like to get our monthly announcements;
• you’d like to join our leadership committee;
• you have some ideas about how to promote antiracist work at Bigelow; and/or
• you’d like to participate in broader conversations on antiracism, diversity & inclusion.

Margo Michaels (one of Liam Opher-Michaels’ moms-8F); Jeanne Choe-Arrieta (mom to Augie-7D and Becca-6B)

Dear Bigelow Families,

We hope you’ve had a fun and relaxing summer break. We are excited to welcome you and your student(s) to the 2022-2023 school 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 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 an outstanding year!

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

Sincerely,

The Bigelow PTO Board – Gabriela Kroszynski, May Chen, Giulia Guffanti, and Sukanya Ghosh

First Day of School: Tuesday, 9/6

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

School Supplies:

As a reminder, information regarding the Bigelow Back-to-School Starter Pack and grade specific supply lists can be found here. The PTO invites you to think about school supplies in a sustainable way.  Let’s practice the three Rs of sustainability – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with our children.

***One Additional School Supply Needed***

All students will need 2 locks; one for their main locker & the other for their PE locker. Master Lock type padlocks with a numeric combination dial fit best and are most secure.

Note: Master Lock 2-packs often include 2 locks with the same combination so your student only needs to remember 1 combination.

Thanks to your generous donations over the last few years, we were able to purchase 4 new outdoor tables for the Bigelow Courtyard and 4 new outdoor tables for the recently dedicated Todd Harrison Steps in front of Bigelow. Below are some photos of the tables and the June 24th dedication event.

Dear Bigelow Community: 

We would like to express our sincere gratitude of how generous and quickly the Bigelow community reacted to our most recent call for assistance for a Bigelow family in need. To date, we have received $9217 in total donations from the community to the Todd Harrison Cares Fund for this family. $2000 of the funds have been used by the family to secure safe housing. 

The remaining donated funds will be distributed equally amongst 4 other Bigelow families that have come to our attention as being in a similar situation of housing insecurity. While they are protected under the McKinney-Vento Act, we as a community still wanted to ensure they had the living resources they need. These series of unfortunate events have brought to light how many in our Bigelow community, especially those with young children, are silently but desperately in need of assistance. Therefore, we will continue to partner with our amazing Bigelow School Counselors and NPS ELL social worker to stay in touch with these families to make sure they have sufficient support, and identify any additional members of the Bigelow community with dire needs.  

Over these last 2 years, we have been able to quickly and efficiently respond via your donations to the Todd Harrison Cares Fund. We are very grateful for your support and will continue to develop our partnerships so we can aid any members of our community when needed. If you are interested in continuing to support our effort via the Todd Harrison Cares Fund, please donate through Venmo ( @BigelowPTONewton ) or through the PTO website https://bigelowpto.org/donate/todd-harrison-cares-fund/

In the fall, we will have a PTO meeting with the district ELL social worker, Bigelow counseling team, and the Bigelow community to learn and get educated on how we can help our community in need.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! 

Sincerely,  

Bigelow PTO Board 

Dear Bigelow Community,

In our last Bigelow Notes of the 2021/2022 school year, we would like to thank all of you for your support and generosity over this past year as we continue to make school life normal again for the children.

A special thank you to all our amazing volunteers who worked tirelessly to make sure that PTO sponsored events were successful.

In particular, we would like to thank the following parents:

Sarah K. Lenz and Heather Thiessen Philbrook (Directory), Caryn Izhar (Creative Arts & Sciences), Kelly Qian (Back to School), Caryn Izhar, Caryn Lipchin, Susan Giunta (8th Grade Activities), Alexia Giannakopoulos & Julie Landesman (Big Night), Susan St. Pierre, Karen Yee and Charlene Gillespie (Teacher Appreciation), Shana Smythe, Charlene Gillespie, Carolyn Gillespie and Jill Twohig (Ten Tables), Giulia Guffanti (NewtonServes), Elizabeth Apgar (Bigelow Garden), Sarah Hirzel & Andrea Silver (PoPs), Margo Michael, Kori Urayana & Jeanne Choe-Arrieta (Bigelow FORJ), Phil Larimer (Safe Routes to School), Ileen Thelen (Green Newton School Connections), Jeanne Choe-Arrieta (METCO), and Brigette LaMarche (SEPAC) who time after time show up when we are in need of extra hands throughout the year.

Last but not least, we would like send our biggest  appreciation to Linda Gillespie (Treasurer) and Gwen Hautefeuille (Communications/Website) for their service to the Bigelow PTO during these last few years of uncertainties. You both have kept us going even on the most difficult of days!

We wish you all the very best for a very restful and healthy summer! 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.

Thank you again and Happy Summer!

Sincerely,Bigelow PTO Board

Thanks to those teachers and parents who volunteered to make this a memorable afternoon for all our children! Below are some photos from the dance.

Bigelow needs a few parent volunteers to help with Chromebook collection on Wednesday morning, June 22 starting at 8:30am. Please let us know if you can help out for an hour or two.

Please email Linda Gillespie at bigelowtreasurer@gmail.com if you are able to join us in assisting with Chromebook collection.