Dear families,

It was wonderful to see so many of you in attendance at our PTO meeting over Zoom last Tuesday!  We are grateful to be part of such a warm and supportive community here at Lincoln-Eliot.

A reminder that there is no school tomorrow: Monday, October 12.

Lincoln Eliot’s virtual Back to School Night for our hybrid students will take place on Wednesday, October 28th:

K-2 will meet from 5:30-6:15pm
Grades 3-5 will meet from 6:15-7:00pm

Classroom teachers will send out more information and meeting links closer to the date.

Also, as noted in the superintendent’s letter this week:

On Election Day, November 3, we will switch our Tuesday and Wednesday schedules.  Tuesday will be distance learning, following the Wednesday schedule.  Wednesday, November 4, will be an in-person day for Cohort A.

Playground Access

The playgrounds at our schools are tremendous resources, not only for our students, but also for the Newton community.  Given the current hybrid schedule, we know families may want to use the playground during the school day, on their distance-learning days or if they participate in the Distance Learning Academy.  However, in consultation with the Newton Health and Human Services Department and the Newton Parks, Recreation, and Culture Department, we have made the difficult decision to limit playground access during school hours to only those students attending in-person school that day.  This decision was made to limit contact across cohort groups and mitigate risk factors.  Please do not enter the school playgrounds between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.  Playgrounds are open after school hours and on any day school is not in session.

And finally, please note that there was an error in some previous communication: Once your student has received their flu immunization, please send the documentation to our school nurse, Kristen Thibodeau, at thibodeauk@newton.k12.ma.us — whether you are a hybrid or DLA Lincoln-Eliot family!

Thanks very much, and we hope you’re all having a great long weekend!

Principal Morrissey & the PTO

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for our PTO meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, October 6th — it was wonderful to see so many friends and new faces!

If you missed the PTO meeting, you can review the minutes and slides at these links:

October 2020 PTO Meeting Minutes

October 2020 PTO Meeting Slideshow

As we mentioned, we’re looking for any ideas to help build connections throughout our community, especially between our hybrid and DLA kids, so please reach out anytime to president@lepto.org or secretary@lepto.org with suggestions or any questions.

Since we cannot hold our usual Fall Festival event this year, we are working on coming up with some ideas that will hopefully be fun and festive for our kids, while still being safe for everyone involved.  More details coming soon — but if you have any suggestions or would like to help us out, please email secretary@lepto.org!  We’d love to hear from you!

We really appreciate everyone who has volunteered to be a room connector so far!  There are still a LOT of empty slots and teachers who have no one signed up yet — our goal was one parent per cohort, but we really need at least one parent per class, to make sure every teacher is supported.

Please reach out to our Room Connector Coordinator, Emily Núñez, at nunezemily77@gmail.com if you might be interested — we promise it’s a small time commitment, but can make a big difference in making your teacher feel appreciated and keeping your classroom families connected!

More information here

The NPS Student Services Leadership Team and SEPAC are offering a Family Q&A on Wednesday October 14, 2020 from 6-7:30 pm via Zoom.  Access information for the session will be sent via email and published online at https://newtonpac.org

The NPS Student Services Leadership Team is:

Elizabeth Fitzmaurice, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services

Paula Black, Assistant Director of Student Services

Maura Tynes, Director of Elementary Special Education (PK-5)

Lisa Langone, Director of Secondary Special Education (6-12)

We launched our FORJ (Families Organizing for Racial Justice) Book Club for its trial run this summer and it has been so much fun so far — a million thank yous to the awesome kids who have been participating!

Our July book was New Kid, by Jerry Craft.  (If anyone is interested, the author will be doing a virtual visit through the Newton Library on Wednesday, October 28th!  For details and registration, click here!)

Our August book was When Stars Are Scattered, by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed.

And our next book will be Front Desk, by Kelly Yang!

If you would like to join us for the next meeting or to be added to the book club email list, please reach out to our FORJ liaison, Lanni Isenberg, at lanni_harris@yahoo.com.  (Note that the books we’re reading are for 3rd-5th graders — but if you’d like to spearhead a similar book group for younger grades, please let us know!)

Thanks very much, everyone!

Please join us over Zoom for our first PTO meeting of the year this Tuesday, October 6th, at 6:30pm.  A Zoom link will be sent out on Monday or Tuesday, so please look for it in your inboxes (or email secretary@lepto.org if you don’t receive it!).

All parents and guardians in the Lincoln-Eliot community are a part of the PTO, and we would love to see you there!  This meeting will focus on introducing our current leadership team and brainstorming ideas for community-building that includes all our hybrid and DLA students.

If you cannot attend the meeting but have a question or a suggestion for us, please submit it to us using this form or email it to president@lepto.org.  We will post the minutes from the meeting in our next newsletter.

Thanks very much!

The teachers and administrators of the Distance Learning Academy are offering four online events for DLA families this week, focusing on “How to support your student with organization and engagement in online learning.”

Tues. October 6th, 8:30 – 9:15am, Families of K-3 Students
Tues. October 6th, 7:30 – 8:15pm, Families of K-3 Students
Thurs. October 8th, 8:30 – 9:15am, Families of 4-5 Students
Thurs. October 8th, 7:30 – 8:15pm, Families of 4-5 Students

Although they will be geared towards particular grades, you are welcome to attend any of the sessions, and one will also be recorded for those who are unable to attend.  For the Zoom link to the meetings, please see the email sent out by Jennifer Shore on Sept. 29th.

If you have any questions about this topic, please enter them in this Google form.  Or if you have other questions, the DLA has put together this FAQ document that may be able to help.

We are still trying to create a contact list for all our DLA families — if your student is in the DLA, please reach out to our DLA Liaison, Elizabeth DePasquale, at elizabeth@stepcare.net to add your information to the list!

We’ve created a couple of Padlets (basically an easy online bulletin board!) for the Lincoln-Eliot community to share book recommendations / suggestions — check them out here, and please jump in to add your own!

Books for K-2:  https://padlet.com/president139/p5gfjcltxdmbbjsp

Books for 3-5:  https://padlet.com/president139/vhfvvjcibxvkwlf8