Thursday, April 2, 2020

Food Pickup on Friday & Tuesday

Bagged lunches (with breakfasts too!) are available during the shut down to all Beverly kids 18 and under, regardless of lunch benefit status.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, you may pick up packages of 3 lunches and breakfasts at Beverly High School (10:30 - 12:30)  and 2  park locations: Apple Village and Holcroft Park  (11:30  - 12 noon).

See this flyer for more details

Order Your Yearbook Now!

Before our extended break, the Yearbook club put the final touches on this year's issue and are excited to share it with the BMS community. 

Don't miss out on your chance to secure your copy now! Orders must  be placed by May 1, 2020.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Wednesday Update from the Superintendent

Good Afternoon Beverly Parents, Guardians and Families,

This is Dr. Charochak with an update for all of you. We hope that you are settling into your routines and are developing strategies that are helping you cope with the school closure. I want to take this opportunity to share with you once again that our main goal throughout this closure is a focus of the safety and well-being of all the members of the Beverly school community. Many of our teachers and administrators are parents of young children, adolescents, and teens, and as such, share the same pressures you are all facing as you attempt to balance your work life, parenting and caring for extended families, many of whom may be particularly vulnerable during this time. It is our hope that the remote learning plan that we have developed provides some form of connection and engagement for your children. Please remember to reach out to your child's teacher, principal or Central Office with any questions or concerns throughout this time period.

Today, I am sharing with you a letter from DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley. The letter addresses the remote learning recommendations from the Department of Ed and is the basis from which we created our remote learning plan. As you are aware, we launched our Beverly Keeps Learning website as a home base for you and your child throughout the closure. We will continue to utilize this platform until we return to school (hopefully on May 4th). The Commissioner’s new guidance, dated March 30th, will be used to further define our remote learning plan for the extended closure. You will find that our focus continues to be on connecting with each other through the use of Google Classroom and Moodle, as well as communication tools such as Zoom and Google Meet. Teachers are encouraged to continue to provide enrichment and deeper learning while introducing new content when appropriate. As we have emphasized all along, remote learning encompasses a wide range of activities and tools. We will be sharing the details and guidelines of our Remote Learning Plan at the end of this week as well as our ideas regarding the next phase of implementation.

One area I would like to clarify is the question regarding grading for Trimester II for all K-8 students. We have decided that grades for students in grades K-8 will close on Friday, April 3rd and will be posted in Aspen on Friday April 10th. The grades will include work assigned prior to the closure and no students will be penalized for missing work that is unable to be made up. In some cases, if necessary, a grade of incomplete will be applied until such time as there is a chance to ensure that all students have an equitable opportunity to submit their work. We will provide further details about the grading of high school students (Q3 and Q4) later in the week.

Finally, Here is a link to a newsletter from our nursing staff with some helpful tips to keep you safe! Once again, we thank you for your partnership, particularly in these unprecedented times. Please reach out if there is anything you need.

Thank you,

Sue Charochak, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Tuesday Big Buck$ Winner

The winner for Tuesday, March 31, $100 in cash!!!, is Lynne Koloski

Congratulations to Cammy Koloski for selling the winning ticket!!

Monday, March 30, 2020

Monday Big Buck$ Winner!!

The winner for Monday, $25 Beverly Depot Gift Card and a $25 Fibber McGee’s Gift Card!, is Tony Taglieri

Congratulations to Aliya Taglieri for selling the winning ticket!!

Beverly Keeps Learning

The Beverly Public Schools has developed a website, Beverly Keeps Learning. This is a way for students and families to access some great enrichment activities. At the middle school, we are utilizing the Google Classroom platform to push out activities specifically for classes that your student is enrolled in. If you are not getting notifications from your student’s teachers, please email them directly so you can be invited to the class and get notifications when work is sent.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Trimester 2 Grades

With the updated information regarding the extended school closure, we plan to close Trimester II Grades on Friday, April 3, 2020. Thus, any outstanding work from Trimester II (work that was assigned prior to our March 13 closure) must be submitted by April 3rd. 

We will notify you when Report cards will be available on the Aspen Parent Portal. Trimester III will begin on Monday April 6, 2020.

Instrument Pick-Up, Second Chance!

The music department is able to offer instrument pick-up on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM for any students who were not able to get their instruments on the first date offered. FAMILIES MUST PRE-REGISTER for this second pick-up so that we can get specific instruments ready. Please notify your child’s band or strings teacher by noon on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 if you need to collect your child’s instrument. The protocol for instrument pick up will be sent to pre-registered families after noon on March 31st.

Pre-Reigster for iPad Pick-Up, Second Chance!

We successfully handed out over 200 iPads to 5th and 6th grade students on our original pick-up date. We realize, however, that some parents were unable to get to us on the day, and that some families have since discovered that having another device at home would be beneficial. 

A second iPad pick-up day has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 1, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the front lobby of the middle school. FAMILIES MUST PRE-REGISTER for this second pick-up so that we can get specific iPads ready. Please notify your child’s teacher or Jamie Norton (jnorton@beverlyschools.org) of your need. 

This information should be shared with us by noon on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Be sure to include the following:
  • Your Child’s Name
  • Grade
  • Team
  • iPad Number (if they know it)
  • Location where they believe the iPad is

2020-2021 Course Selection

We had planned to open the Aspen Student Portal for course requests mid-March. Planning for remote learning has delayed this process. Please keep your eyes open for an invitation to select courses in the coming weeks. 6th grade students will have the opportunity to request a foreign language course to be taken in grades 7 & 8. Students in grades 5, 6 & 7 will have an opportunity to request band, chorus, and strings.

Gr 8 Boston Trip Update

Thank you to the families who have reached out in regards to our June 11, 2020 trip to Boston. We are working with Jumpstreet Educational Tours on the potential cancelation of this field trip, but at this time our June trip has not been canceled. Jumpstreet is not currently canceling June tours, but they have extended the cancelation date to 30 days prior to the trip (rather than 60) in order to get a full refund (minus the initial deposit of $50 and any non-recoverable fees, such as credit card transaction fees, as per the group cancelation policy). Any students who purchased the refund guarantee price (44 students) will also get a full refund should our group cancel.

At this point, we will continue to wait to cancel this trip. I am sure the cancelation policy may change if Boston is not open for visitors and if venues are not taking group tours, but we do not have that information at this point in time.

We understand that the safety of our students and community is a priority and we will not move forward with this trip if we feel that students will be in danger, however, we will wait until the first week of May to make the decision to cancel or to go.

Please reach out to Erica Pasquarelli, Grade 8 Assistant Principal, with comments or concerns: epasquarelli@beverlyschools.org.

Nature’s Classroom Cancellation Information

The 6th Grade visits to Nature’s Classroom have been canceled. Families who have made payments will be fully refunded. We are working on a plan to allow access to the building for staff that is essential to the refund process. We appreciate your patience, as we must first deposit all remaining checks, then begin issuing refunds. If you happen to have canceled a check that we had not yet deposited, please email Terry Conant so that we do not incur a returned check fee: tconant@beverlyschools.org

We cannot replicate the Nature’s Classroom experience, but when we return to school, we will be sure to provide our much-deserving 6th graders with outdoor learning and team-building experiences.

Big Buck$ Sunday Winner!!

The winner for Sunday, $25 Prides Crossing Confections Gift Card and a $25 Gift Card to Rev Kitchen!, is Shawn Murphy

Congratulations to Jackson Murphy for selling the winning ticket!!