Dear Families,

This has been quite a busy week as we begin planning for the myriad of activities and events that go on between now and the end of the school year. These wonderful whole school events help us build and maintain our school's sense of community and would not be possible without the hard work of our parent volunteers. On Saturday, we have the Burr School May Fair. Like the students, I am looking forward to it. I have my fingers crossed that we can have it outdoors.

Here are a few updates and reminders:

Baby News! Rhonda Silva, one of our third grade teachers, is pregnant! Congratulations to Rhonda and Mark as they prepare to welcome their baby in September. Rhonda shared her news with her students and their parents this week. The third graders are very excited about this news. Several of them came by my office to let me know, which was adorable. We will be interviewing for a substitute teacher to start off the 2011 school year in Ms. Silva's absence.

Teacher Appreciation Week: This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. The PTO and room parents are organizing events for this week. Children and families will be encouraged to make cards or drawings or to write notes or poems for their teachers as a way to thank and acknowledge them; teachers truly appreciate these words of thanks. The Burr School is fortunate to have such a skilled and dedicated staff.

Early Morning Arrival: We have noticed that more and more students are coming into the building before 8:20 AM. They are waiting in the hallway outside the kindergarten rooms and it is quite crammed in there making it unsafe. Students inevitably begin to push and shove one another. In many cases, this is unavoidable in the tight quarters. For many children such a start to the day is difficult and sets the tone for the rest of their day. So, I will be reminding them to wait outside until it is time to come in. I would greatly appreciate your support in this area.

Warm weather and clothing: As the warm weather approaches, we ask that you please support our expectations for appropriate student dress at school. Spaghetti straps, bare midriffs, low cut pants, very short skirts and bare feet are not appropriate dress for school. Even many styles of sandals and flip flops can be dangerous on the playground. If your child is not dressed appropriately, please know that we will contact you. We appreciate your support in reminding your child of these expectations. This time of year students tend to misplace their jackets and sweatshirts and I am sure our lost and found will soon be overflowing. Please try to put your child's name on jackets, coats, sweatshirts, etc. It will save many trips to the lost and found collection.

Bike Riding to School: The fourth and fifth graders participated in a Bike Safety lesson on Thursday and new bike racks have been installed ready for students to begin riding their bikes to school. Each fourth and fifth grader was given the Burr School Bike Riding Policy to review and sign if they want to ride their bikes to school alone. I would like to thank Tricia Bombara for putting together the biking policy for the School Council to review and approve.  I am recommending that only 4th and 5th graders ride their bikes to school unsupervised. Most students are not developmentally ready for this step until ten years of age. Of course, individual maturity levels of children must be taken into account, and you, parents, are the best judge of your child's ability to navigate the traffic. Some students may not be ready until middle school, and you need to take your route to school into consideration. Please remember that all children must wear a helmet when riding their bikes. The following link is very useful and will help you reinforce bike safety rules: http://www.massbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ALRC-MB-SRTS-DOT%20parents.pdf

Student Placement: We sent an "Optional Parent Information Forms" home to you on April 26 to use if you have information you would like to give us as we begin student placement into classes for next year. The due date for these is today, May 2. At my parent-principal coffee this Friday, May 6, I will review the process that we follow as we do placement. Please be aware that class placement will be emailed to parents in August. This is a change from previous years so it is essential that we have an updated email address for you. If you are not receiving email notifications from the school, we do not have your email address on file. If you would like to have the list mailed to you, please let us know before the end of the school year.

School Website: Some of you may have noticed that our school website has been redesigned. Eileen Keane, technology specialist, and Lynette Lawton, third grade teacher, are responsible for the upgrade. They have worked hard to incorporate the suggestions and request made by parents, teachers, and administrators to make our website more user-friendly. We will continue to refine and improve the website. If there is something that you would like us to consider, please let me know. The website's purpose is to provide timely information for parents about our school. Thank you, Eileen and Lynette, for your great work.

Principal Evaluation: Many thanks to those of you who stopped by to speak with Joe Russo, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education, to help him evaluate my performance this year. Your feedback is extremely helpful for me. Joe also met with the Burr staff, observed a School Council meeting, and has asked me to prepare a self reflection and portfolio of my work this year. The feedback I get from Joe will help set personal and school goals for next year which I will share with you in the fall.

MCAS: The 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will be taking math MCAS tests in May. The fifth grade will also take science MCAS tests. The schedule is:
Grade 3:~ May 16, May 18
Grade 4:~ May 16, May 18
Grade 5:~ May 11, May 13, May 20, May 23

The best way for you to help your child during this testing period is to be sure he/she rests, eats a healthy breakfast, and arrives at school on time. Directions will be given at 8:45 AM and students will begin the tests at 9:00 AM.

Building Update: The new windows should be done by the end of the week. What a difference they make in the classrooms! The project includes new doors as well as windows. We are scheduled to have the doors installed in June.

Last Day of School: The School Committee determined that the last day of school for students for this year will be Wednesday, June 22. The last day is a half-day; dismissal will be at 12:00 noon for elementary schools.

I hope to see many of you at the Principal/Parent Coffee on Friday, May 6, at the May Fair on May 7th, or at other end-of-the-year fundraisers or community celebrations.
 

Have a wonderful week.
Mindy

Rain Date:  Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Color Day is a program designed to put a nice ending to a long school year by providing unity through recreation and physical activities, with all the members of the school (staff, students & parents) involved.  The two major ingredients in making this day a success are: first, everybody gets to participate & secondly, cooperation instead of competition as the focal point.  The events are meant to be fun rather than competitive and every child has a good chance to be successful as an individual and as a member of a team.

Save the date!!  Burr Mom's Night Out, Friday May 20th
A chance to have a relaxing night out with wine and appetizers and great company! Watch your e-mail for an E-vite coming soon

School of Rock is looking for new talent for our Summer Shows. We don't run on the traditional public school year schedule - we are open ALL YEAR ROUND! Enroll now as a singer, bassist, guitarist, drummer, or piano player and be eligible to be cast in our next performance season. Rehearsals will begin in July; shows will manifest in October in major venues like The Middle East Club and The Hard Rock Cafe! Call 617-923-3434 or visit http://www.schoolofrock.com/boston to find out more about our afterschool and weekend programs!