Dear Families,  

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year! I am excited to begin this journey with you towards another invigorating and rewarding school year.

Our first week back has been wonderful. The staff and several PTO members have worked over the summer months to ensure a smooth school opening. Thanks to Paul Kohler and Tony Marrazzo, our custodians, the building looks fabulous. Countless hours were spent cleaning, updating and decorating the building in preparation. Paul and Tony also helped move classroom furniture and supplies as we relocated some classrooms and the art room. Paul did a great job covering for Jack Tobin, our head custodian, during his leave. 

A big thank you goes to Maura Albano, my executive assistant, and to the parents who have helped to prepare for our school opening. So many of you have worked diligently behind the scenes by arranging play dates for our incoming kindergartners, getting out time sensitive information to the community, providing a delicious Back to School Luncheon for the staff, and hosting the Welcome Back Coffee, and planning the school picnic. Of course, this is just a sampling of all the hard work done to ensure that the start of school is organized and that families feel welcomed.

Burr School teachers have been coming in for a couple of weeks before school started to get their classrooms ready. Each room was artfully set up to welcome its new inhabitants and help ease them into the new school year. I can only imagine how the children felt coming into brightly decorated classrooms with their names on cubbies and bulletin boards, and special messages from their teachers posted around the room.

I have spent these first few days of school popping into classrooms and getting a feel for how everyone is settling in. Students have been involved in assorted activities ranging from scavenger hunts to learn about their classmates and teachers, to writing and/or drawing about their hopes and dreams for the new school year. It is so wonderful to see their assorted responses. Some made me chuckle and some could rival my own goals for the year.

I am looking forward to spending as much time as possible in the classrooms with students and teachers supporting and improving teaching and learning for the adults (myself included) and the children at our school. The commitment and expertise of the Burr staff is second to none. So many of us work above and beyond what is expected by quietly taking on projects for the good of the group. Leadership committees have been formed and teachers are looking at student data from last year and preparing for the fall assessments. This work will help us determine how to best meet the needs of each student.

This school year brings several new and talented staff members to the Burr community. As you know, we have three new classroom teachers: Jeff McMahon (grade 5), Trevor Glode (Grade 4), and Katie Crowley (Grade 3). They are off to a great start. I would also like to welcome the following new staff to Burr:

• Jennifer Ortega, math coach, will be at Burr on Mondays and Wednesdays.
• Shelby Gitlin is our new speech pathologist.
• Jennifer Sutherland will be teaching art on Tuesdays.
• Erin Broderick will be our librarian on Mondays.
• Ellen Michel will be at Burr on Mondays and Thursdays as inclusion facilitator.
• Kaylan Finn is a behavior therapist in Ms. Lawton's classroom.
• Becca Sventy is an inclusion aide in Mr.Gaita's classroom.
• Kelsey Ragsdale, a Northeastern co-op student, will be at Burr through December.
• Sean Pantellere, a Northeastern student teacher, will be in Ms. Taylor's classroom for the fall semester. 
• Christine Phillips, a student teacher from the Massachusetts College of Art, will be working with Ms. Jaquith.

They are wonderful additions to our staff and we will all benefit greatly from the skills they bring.

I hope to see many of you after school today at the Back to School Picnic and at our first PTO meeting on September 27, at 7:00pm (kindergarten parents please arrive at 6:30pm). Have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,

Mindy Johal

Newton's Life Threatening Food Allergies Policy: This policy calls for reducing/eliminating food in schools for birthday and holiday celebrations. For the past six years, the teachers and parents have thought of creative alternative ways to acknowledge and celebrate students' birthdays in class.

Student Contact Information: Please remember to return the yellow Student Contact Information sheets to school as soon as possible. As you know, it is crucial that the school has correct and updated student/parent contact information throughout the year. If you change your address or phone number(s) during the year, please let us know!

Student Absence/Tardy Notification: If your child will be tardy or absent on a given day, please call the "call back" number to leave a message: 617-559-9380. Please do not call the main number.
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Messages: Please DO NOT call the office to have us give messages to your child unless it is an emergency. With 400+ students in the building, taking and delivering messages overwhelms the office and disrupts classrooms. Please make after school arrangements and tell your child what these are, before sending him/her to school. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Blue Zone: PLEASE abide by the Blue Zone rules to ensure that dismissal and drop off is as safe as possible for our children. 

Any motor vehicle may stop in a Blue Zone location only long enough to let a child enter or exit the vehicle. There is no parking in the Blue Zone before or after school. The two zones (directly in front of the school and directly across from it) are marked by signs. Also, there is a "No Turning in Driveways" policy for cars. Since most of our students walk to school and cross two school driveways or the Gazebo driveway opposite the school, we can only be sure of their safety when cars do not pull into the driveways to reverse direction. It takes a little longer to continue around the block, but please do observe the rules to protect our children.

Please do not park in the teachers' parking lot. Last week I had several teachers unable to park because parents were parked in the lot. Parking is difficult at Burr. To alleviate this problem I encourage driving around the block, car-pooling, walking children to and from school, having children walk across the field and picking them up on Lexington Street. Thank you for your cooperation with this issue. 

More information about Newton Public Schools Blue Zones is available here: http://www3.newton.k12.ma.us/transportation/bluezone

Back to School Picnic - Tonight (Monday, 9/12)!

Come make new friends and meet old ones at the Burr Back to School picnic TONIGHT from 5-7 pm!  The picnic will be on the Burr fields behind school, and is open to all Burr families and staff.  Bring your own picnic dinner, or purchase food from local vendor,The Dining Car. We have an exciting new menu this year, and there are several vegetarian options. The picnic is Rain or Shine.  We'll see you there!

Parking tonight--please read carefully

Because this is such a beloved annual Burr event, we expect a large crowd. Please walk or carpool if at all possible. Because this is an after-school event, the Faculty/Staff parking lot is available and we encourage parents to park there. (The small driveway at the BCAP entrance is NOT available.) If you park on the street, please check all parking signs carefully and be sure to park legally and in a way that does not obstruct the flow of traffic or our neighbors' driveways.  You MAY park in the Blue Zones and Bus Zones, but please do not park in the "No Parking 8am to 4pm" zones on Washburn Ave and on Pine St. (between the Faculty/Staff parking lot and Pine Meadow Dr.)  Even though it is technically legal after 4pm, these stretches are very narrow and when cars line both sides of the street it creates a dangerous and frustrating situation for everyone. Your cooperation will ensure that our neighbors are able to get to and from their homes safely, and that emergency vehicles are able to respond in case of an emergency. These rules are a little confusing at the beginning of the year, but before you know it, everyone will be a vehicular pro at Burr!  Finally, since this is an all school event, please make sure to watch your child on the playground as it gets very crowded.  THANKS!

Teacher's Lunch Thank You

The Hospitality Committee is happy to report that Burr teachers and staff enjoyed both the End of the Year Luncheon and the Back to School Luncheon sponsored by the Burr parents!  Thanks to your monetary contributions we were able to purchase delicious food and cold drinks to serve at the luncheons.  We added some bright flowers, homemade side dishes and a variety of desserts, all of which were donated by parents.  We want to thank the following people for donating an item or helping with set up or clean up at the luncheon: Yumi Svedloff, Kristin Frohn, Betsy Konteleon, Nancy Caulfield, Tracy Carter, Amanda Loftus, Ann Langenfeld, Stephanie Mamis, Pam McVey, Sonja Pleynet, Jenny Heinstein, Judy Greenblatt, Gretchen Becker, Allison Sharma, and Sandy Hamilton.

If you would like to join the PTO's hospitality team- let us know!  We help organize food and drinks for the Parent Principal Coffees, PTO Meetings, Teacher Appreciation Breakfast and the two Luncheons mentioned. Please contact Andrea Flint at flintandrea@aol.com or Johanne Campbell at johanne.campbell@gmail.com for more information. We welcome Newcomers!

Burr Hospitality Committee

NPS News
 

Community News

The Associates of the Boston Public Library will hold the thirteenth Literary Lights for Children tea party on Sunday, September 25th in the beautiful Bates Reading Room at the Boston Public Library.
"Literary Lights for Children" seeks to raise awareness of Children's literature, promote literacy, honor children's authors, and raise money for the Library's children's services and collections. Students selected from Boston area schools introduce and present the awards to each of the honored authors: MT Anderson, Kate DiCamillo, Gareth Hinds, and Pam Munoz Ryan. The honorees then discuss their writing careers and share their love of books with the audience of over 450 children and adults. Tea refreshments are served.
Immediately following the tea party, there will be sessions for book sales and signings with the authors. The book sales & signing portion of the program is free and open to the public.  To purchase a ticket to the tea party, or to sponsor a Boston Public School student's ticket, click here.