November 1, 2020 

Dear Quashnet School Community, 

Welcome, November! Here comes the early night. Have you turned your clocks back yet? Daylight saving ended this weekend. Sunset is early, but we will get the benefit of the feel of an "extra' hour Monday morning.  

The next two weeks are both short weeks at Mashpee Pubic Schools.  Tuesday, November 3, there will be no school due to the national election at Quashnet. Wednesday, November 11, is Veterans Day and school will be closed. 

Veterans Day will look a little different at Quashnet School this year. In the past, we have a large school-wide assembly to honor our American veterans and welcome parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends, and honored guests who served in the armed forces. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, the assembly cannot happen, but teachers and staff at Quashnet School got busy and creative to modify this recognition.  Outside the main office, there is a mailbox where students are designing and writing postcards to veterans. We will be mailing these student cards near and far. Thank you Ms. Reardon for organizing a care package that was sent to our own sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Williams, who is currently on deployment.  

Red, White and Blue day school-wide on Friday, 11/6 and Tuesday, 11/10.

As you know, our school schedule looks different this year, especially with regard to special subject classes of PE, Art, Health and Wellness, STEM, and Music. Each class is scheduled to meet for 34 consecutive days, which divides the school year into quinmesters (34 x 5 = 170 school days). This Wednesday, November 4th, is the end of our first quinmester. All students will be assigned a new special as of Thursday, November 5th.  The chart below shows your child's new special - the number represents the grade level and the letters are homeroom teachers' first two letters of the last name.  This quinmester will end on January 10th. 

  

Lunch locations and recess assignments will also shift as of Thursday.  This will allow each small student group a change in their assigned outside play area and if they had lunch in the gym they will move to the cafeteria and vice versa. The groups of students will not change, only the location.  

I do need to give a shout out to our four fabulous recess monitors this year - Mrs. Santos, Mrs. Chisholm, Mrs. Fischer, and Mrs. Barger have been working very hard to maintain a safe and clean play area.  Not only do they monitor students, but during a 15-minute break between recess groups, they clean and disinfect areas of the play equipment. During recess, they ensure proper mask-wearing, hand sanitizing, and social distancing. We couldn't do it without them.  THANK YOU!!! 

You might have heard that the school is colder inside this year and it is! The HVAC units are bringing in more fresh air than ever making classrooms, the lunchroom, and the gym feel colder. Students should dress in layers.  A t-shirt is not enough and shorts are not recommended.   

This Thursday, November 5th from 6:30-7:30 PM there will be a parent zoom meeting focusing on health and wellness.  For your convenience, here is the zoom link:  https://mpspk12-org.zoom.us/j/81819161181. I hope to see you there! If you do have specific questions, please feel free to send it along so the topic can be included in the discussion. If you have a health/wellness question specific to your child, please contact Quashnet School's Nurse Terri directly at (trichards@mpspk12.org or 508-539-1555). Keep those flu shot verification forms coming in, please! 

In case you missed this from Superintendent DeBoer:

Important reminder to our parents/guardians:  If an MPS student is expected to be an in-person learner, then he/she must attend school in-person unless any of the four bulleted items on the Daily Wellness Screener are applicable.  In the case of quarantine--if a student feels well enough, he/she can participate as a remote learner during the quarantine period.  The student's parent/guardian is expected to communicate the situation to the student's school in a timely manner.  It is not acceptable for an in-person learner to decide, on a day-to-day basis, that he/she will be a remote learner on that particular day.   

Thank you for your support and cooperation. 

If you haven't done so already, get out and vote on Tuesday! 

Respectfully, 

Principal O'Brien