Hello Coolidge Corner School Families and Friends,

It has certainly been a busy month for us since our last update!  We are well past the first six weeks mark and that has given us some time to settle into and internalize routines that will support student learning and growth all year long.   We wanted to take some time to share a few reminders with you as well as information regarding upcoming Family Conferences.

Conferences/Early Release Days

Over the next month we will have 5 early release days for family/teacher conferences.  Grades K-6 teachers have been reaching out to families directly to schedule these times.  If you still haven’t signed up for a K-6 conference, please reach out to your child’s classroom/homeroom teacher as soon as possible.  

We will be sharing a communication with our Grades 7-8 families tomorrow about how conferences will get scheduled for those grades.  

Please note the early release day schedule below and make arrangements to pick up your students/arrange for care at 12:40p on these days!

Thursday November 15th (K-6 Early Release Day)

Wednesday November 21st (K-8 NOON Dismissal)

Wednesday November 28th (K-8 Early Release Day)

Thursday December 6th (K-8 Early Release Day)

Wednesday December 12th (K-12 Early Release Day)

The Public Schools of Brookline makes every effort to provide interpretation and translation services to parents/guardians whose primary language is not English.  If you are in need of interpretation or translation services for your upcoming conference please let your classroom/homeroom teacher know or email Colleen McGowan at colleen_mcgowan@psbma.org.  In your email please include the type of service you would like (interpreter or translation) and specify the language and dialect, if applicable.  

Jolly Jaunt

We are less than one month away from the Jolly Jaunt for Special Olympics!!! We currently have 19 team members and have only raised $885.00 on our way to our goal of $6,000.00  The Jolly Jaunt is a fun, flat, fast 5K through downtown Boston that you can either walk or run. We have had so much fun as community together supporting this event for the past 3 years.  We hope to make this year our biggest and most successful event yet. Please consider joining us or donating to our team!

Arrival Reminders

The school day begins promptly at 8:00a.  Any student arriving after 8:00a when the doors close is considered late for school and required to sign in at the main office.  Since it takes some time to travel from the entrances to certain class locations we suggest that students plan to arrive to the building by 7:55a to ensure that they are unpacked and at their classroom door ready to learn by 8:00a.  As a reminder, doors open at 7:50a and breakfast is served at 7:30a.

Safety on Stedman Street

If you are driving to and from school we ask that you use extra care and caution around our building, especially on Stedman Street.  Many of our students are biking to school or crossing the street as they make their way to the building. As you pull out of parking spaces and/or make your way up the busy street please take care to check your blind spots for other cars, bicycles, and people.  

Absences

As we near the winter months and holiday seasons some of our families choose to take some extra time to spend with family visiting in town or to travel.  As a reminder these absences are unexcused and marked as such. We appreciate you notifying the classroom teachers of extended absences as it helps them plan for instruction and groups while your student is away.  If you plan on your student being absent for extended periods of time please know that teachers will not provide your student with extra work while they are away. We recommend that your child keep a journal, read, and practice fact fluency and everyday mathematical problem solving to keep up their skills until they return.  

Tardy/Absence Notices

During the upcoming grading cycle we will be sending home notices to families of students who have been late and/or missed 15% or more of the school year so far.  While there is no national standard, chronic absence is generally defined as missing more than 10 percent of school days (Zalaznick, 2015). More and more of a student’s learning is spent in collaboration with peers and conferences with educators.  These critical experiences can not be made up and by missing them repeatedly students begin to fall significantly behind their peers academically and socially.  Students who experience chronic absenteeism in the early grades are more likely to drop out later- it is very challenging to try and solve the problem in high school when it is chronic and deep-seated.  If you receive a letter, we ask that you set up a time to come and meet with us so we can work together to address any barriers that your child may be experiencing to consistent attendance.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback please do not hesitate to reach out by phone or email to set up a time to come in and talk with us. We look forward to continuing to support all our students and families as we strengthen our community by working hard, being kind, and helping others.  

Jen, Dave, Saeed, and Steve