Every first Wednesday, we’ve been encouraging students to walk, bike, carpool or take the bus to school with our Walk and Roll days. They get more exercise and it is better for the environment. In honor of Earth month in April, we are devoting a whole week to this!  Does your child have trouble getting up in the morning and need a ride to get to school on time?  Drive them partway and have them walk the rest, or drive them in the morning and ask them to walk home.  If your route is too dangerous, arrange to carpool with neighbors, friends, or family.  The fewer cars idling, the better!  We are encouraging staff to do this as well!

Save the Date for NewtonServes at Bigelow Grounds: Sunday May 4, 2025 NewtonSERVES is a city-wide day of building community through service. NewtonSERVES projects focus on cleaning and improving our parks, school grounds, open space areas, and conservation lands. Save the date, Sunday, May 4th, to build our Bigelow Community while reinvigorating the green areas around the school.

Learn more: https://www.newtonma.gov/government/parks-recreation-culture/newton-serves

Greetings Bigelow families!

My name is David Padgett, dad to Charlie (8th grader), and I’m just a few weeks away from taking on the 129th Boston Marathon! I’m running to raise money for the Newton School Foundation and I’m hoping you can help me reach my fundraising goal of $10,000!

Click here to support David and the Newton School Foundation

Thank you!

We hope you can join us this Sunday, April 6th from 3-5 pm for a family bowling event at Boston Bowl in Dorchester. Please click here to RSVP by Saturday at 12pm.

Please Save the Date, Friday, April 11th, for Bigelow’s “Tropical Twist” Spring Dance + Social. This fun event will include games, pizza, and dancing!

Parents & Caregivers: We need volunteers to make this event a success! Please sign up to volunteer using this link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UD0s2JhMjcyxhtQBluoMlV4SSo2de3wYIkrsOmucsEg/edit?usp=sharing

Newton Public Schools (NPS) is facing significant financial challenges for the 2025-26 school year. This slide deck provides an overview of the current situation.

TONIGHT Thursday, April 3rd, at 6:30pm NPS Superintendent Anna Nolin and School Committee Chair Chris Brezski are holding another community meeting to discuss the Superintendent’s proposed “Level Services Plus” budget and the implications of the “Cuts” budget (which meets the Mayor’s allocation for NPS). Chair Brezski will also share analysis of potential funding availability. There will be time for Q&A as well.

Community NPS Budget Meeting and Q&A (in person only)
Thursday, April 3rd at 6:30pm
Brown Middle School Auditorium
125 Meadowbrook Rd, Newton, MA 02459

Please join us via zoom on Tuesday, April 8th at 7 pm for our next PTO general meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/92126353407?pwd=5sNHKfjfi5wQAgbScPXTOV4VYLVAGO.1

We have two important topics on our agenda:

1. planning for next year
2. next year’s NPS budget

For next year’s PTO planning, we want to get your input on events and volunteer opportunities while sharing a snapshot of our current budget. We’ll keep this short – brainstorming rather than detailed planning – and are happy to answer questions about opportunities with the PTO. This is a great chance to learn more if you’re thinking about volunteering. We work together behind the scenes to give our students and teachers memorable and fun experiences every school year.

Regarding next year’s NPS budget – everyone received an announcement via email or ParentSquare on March 17 about the gap between what NPS needs and what the Mayor is currently offering. We’ll use the meeting to talk about this situation, how parents/families can learn more, and about how everyone can share their opinions with the city’s elected officials.

Thank you so much to all the families who baked and/or sent in a dessert for the “Treat Yo Self” treat bar on Friday! The teachers and staff loved all of the goodies and certainly felt your appreciation!

Many thanks to Laura Goldworm for leading the Teacher & Staff Appreciation Committee and planning this event.

MA Safe Routes to School Family Transportation Survey

How do NPS students arrive and depart school? To improve safety for all, we would like to better understand our student transportation choices. Please complete this two-minute MA Safe Routes to School Family Travel Survey. The survey is available in 9 languages and paper copies in 9 languages can be downloaded and printed from the SRTS website here.

Once on the website, Families should choose Newton as the district and then choose their school from the drop-down menu. 

Newton North High School (NNHS) PTSO invites Bigelow caregivers of incoming 9th graders to consider joining the NNHS School Council.

Newton North School Council Seeks Two Parent/Guardian Members and one alternate Candidate Statements Due Monday, April 7,2025

The primary responsibilities of the School Council are to advise and assist the principal with the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and to help develop any projects arising out of the SIP that the principal identifies as beneficial to the successful functioning and development of the school. 

The term of office is three years. Parent/guardian members must have a child attending Newton North High School during their entire three-year term (Fall 2025 – Spring 2028). Members are expected to attend meetings on the first Monday of each month from October to May and be available in the unlikely event of a meeting in September or June if necessary. Meetings are usually located in the principal’s conference room (Room 103) from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
  
Candidates are required to submit a brief statement (200 words or less). Entries longer than 200 words will be truncated without edits to meet the word maximum requirement. The statements may include: 

• Elementary and middle school attended by the candidates’s NNHS student, if applicable.  
• Particular interest, background, skills, and expertise that have prepared the candidate for the role. 
• Qualities the candidate would bring to the School Council.

Please submit statements to co-presidents@northptso.org by Monday, April 7, at 5:00 p.m. Should more than two candidates come forward, elections will be held via email from Friday, April 11, through Wednesday, April 16 at 12:00 noon. The two people who receive the most votes will become members beginning in Fall 2025. The person who receives the third-highest number of votes will have the opportunity to serve as an alternate.

If any parent/guardian representative member of the School Council resigns anytime during the 2025-26 school year (before his/her term is complete), the alternate will be offered the position and will complete the remainder of that person’s term. The alternate will be welcome to attend School Council meetings but will not be able to vote on School Council business.