Below is a message from Newton Health and Human Service on COVID-19 safety during April break.

Newton Public Schools families & staff are urged to do their part to help decrease the spread of COVID-19. Everyone should continue to follow the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), CDC and NPS guidelines related to travel and return to school.

Travel:

CDC recommends delaying travel until you are fully vaccinated, because travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. If you are not fully vaccinated and must travel, follow CDC’s recommendations for unvaccinated people. If you choose to travel, be aware of the Massachusetts travel advisory detailed below.

Massachusetts Travel Advisory:

• All visitors entering Massachusetts, including returning residents, are advised to quarantine for 10 days upon their arrival.
• Travelers in the following categories are exempt from this quarantine advisory:
  – Travelers who have received a negative COVID-19 result on a test administered no more than 72 hours prior to their arrival in Massachusetts.
  – Travelers may also test out of the quarantine advisory after arrival in Massachusetts as long as they quarantine until receiving a negative test result.
  – Anyone who is entering Massachusetts for fewer than 24 hours, or anyone returning after being out of the State for fewer than 24 hours.
  – Travelers who are fully vaccinated (i.e., who have received two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines OR who have received a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 14 days or more ago) and who do not have symptoms.
  – Travelers who received a positive COVID-19 test result between 10 and 90 days ago and have completed the appropriate isolation period (if more than 90 days prior to arrival in Massachusetts you should quarantine upon arrival or comply with the quarantine/testing advisory).
• Testing for children 10 years and younger, who are traveling with an adult from their household is not necessary. They should follow the quarantine and testing options completed by the household adult they accompanied for travel. If the child is 11 or older, then the child should be tested or should quarantine for 10 days, consistent with the Travel Advisory.

Returning to School:

All staff and students must continue to adhere to the four safety pillars below – even if fully vaccinated:

• Proper mask-wearing
• Maintaining physical distancing – 3 feet in classrooms where desks are arranged in this formation and 6 ft. everywhere else
• Frequent hand hygiene
• Staying home when sick- continue to do the daily health assessment even if you are fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19

For any questions, contact your school nurse or Newton Health and Human Services at 617-796-1420

Dear Bigelow Community,

I hope this email finds you well and looking forward to April vacation. The weather looks to be nice so I hope you can enjoy your much deserved break with family and friends.

I am writing you to ask, once again, for your support of the Bigelow Cares Fund. We have a family within our community that has recently been struggling with employment and home loss and we would like to provide assistance as best we can. To that end, I turn to our wonderful and generous Bigelow community and ask you to consider making a donation to this fund.

As always, I am so grateful for the generosity that defines the Bigelow family. I thank you in advance for your support and look forward to seeing you soon!

Sincerely,

Karen Markson

The four middle schools have established homework expectations for after April 28. They are below.

With the increase in time on learning that will accompany the shift to our full time instructional model on April 28, 2021, we continue to expect that mostly all learning and practice of skills will take place in class during the school day.  Teachers may assign work to be completed outside of the school day that is connected to independent reading, long-term projects or completion of work already assigned and started in class.  While there are no formal restrictions to assigning homework, teachers will be judicious in how it is assigned and factor in the amount of time that students will be engaged in live instruction daily, balancing the academic and social/emotional needs of their students.

We are happy to announce the return of Middle School athletics beginning with the Spring 2021 season, which will begin on April 29 and run through June 11, 2021.

Spring athletic programs will take place in 2 day per week cohorts (either Mon/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday) with no scheduled practices or games on Wednesdays.  All sports will run with modified rules that focus on player safety. Based upon the interest shown in our previous survey, we are able to offer sports in:

• Cross-Country
• Girls Lacrosse
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Sixth grade basketball
• A variety of intramural field sports.

Teams will meet after school, from 3pm to 4pm. Cross-country competitions and girls lacrosse games may run later.

All registration for all sports is done on Family ID.  Your student will be able to sign up for ONE A day activity and/or ONE DIFFERENT B day activity.  Your student WILL NOT be able to sign up for the same activity for both sessions.  Registration is open until April 30.

Participation on these teams will require an up to date physical, an ImPact concussion baseline assessment (taken from home this year), and a $90 user fee for Cross Country and Girls Lacrosse. There is a family cap of $540 for middle school sports and a super cap of $1500 which includes bus and athletic fees for both middle and high school. See Family ID for payment links.

Traditional school bus service will be available to competitions for the Cross-Country and Girls Lacrosse teams. with only slightly limited bus capacities due to transportation restrictions.  There is also late bus service to Newton at 4:10pm and to Boston at 4:15pm.   Families are invited to provide their own transportation for their students if they choose not to utilize bus transportation.

Please contact After School Coordinator, Stefanie Dalfior at DALFIORs@newton.k12.ma.us if you have any questions.

Do something good for yourself and the environment. Join Newton in celebrating #FreshAirFridays by walking, rolling, biking or taking the bus to school on Fridays this spring. Live too far to walk? Consider driving halfway and walking the rest.

Visit www.NewtonSafeRoutes.org for some tips.

Join Newton Parks and Recreation and instructors from MA Safe Routes to Schools to practice bike riding skills on Sunday April 25th.  Volunteers will help teach fun stations including knowing signs, hand signals and more.  Each child participating needs to be able to ride a bike independently.  Children must also bring their own bike, helmet, and an adult must be present for the duration of the program.

Registration for this program opens on April 15th at 6:00 pm. through this link: https://newtonma.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.aspx?ProgramID=30165