SPACE (Summer Program for Academic and Creative Endeavors) Camp is a program run through the Newton Public Schools with a long history of providing creative, fun, and engaging experiences for campers in Newton.

This year the SPACE Camp program will be run virtually in order to keep the campers, families, and staff safe.  We know Virtual SPACE will continue to provide excellent and engaging programming for our campers.  Our biggest hope is that Virtual SPACE can provide families with structure and stability for the month of July this year.

You can find all the details about Virtual SPACE here and register on their website.

NCE Kids classes will all be online through the month of July.  Join us for online versions of old favorites, and many brand new classes too.

Most programs will run Monday-Friday, 10am-12pm or 2-4pm.  Classes will be interactive, and many will include hands-on projects.

SIGN UP EARLY!  For some classes, materials will need to be purchased or assembled for each child and last-minute registrations may not be possible.

See the NCE Kids Summer Online Program

Priority registration begins Monday, June 1*
*Families who had been registered for our onsite programs will be placed in their preferred online classes based on your responses to a survey you either have gotten our will soon get. Registration will not be available online during this period.

Regular registration opens Saturday, June 6
Online registration will open for new and returning families at newtoncommunityed.org.

Questions? Contact us at staff@newtoncommunityed.org.

FORJ (Families Organizing for Racial Justice) is a coalition of school-aged families in Newton coming together to teach our children – and ourselves – how to stand up for racial equality.  Please see the link below for resources on talking to children about race and anti-racism.

TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT RACISM and THIS MOMENT

Beginning Monday, May 18th, specialists will be holding sessions for each class on a rotating schedule.  Their Zoom information will appear in the weekly communication from your child’s classroom teachers.  Our specialist team is very excited to start running Zooms.

Please make sure your child’s first or last name appears on their Zoom screen so that specialists can identify each child.

One of our beloved librarians, Sheila Packard, is retiring at the end of this year, and we are all going to miss her so very much!  She wanted to share this message with everyone:

Dear Lincoln-Eliot families,

I have found it an absolute joy to be one of the Lincoln-Eliot School library teachers for the past three years.  I am both sad and happy to announce that I will be retiring from the Newton Public Schools at the end of this school year.  I’ve been in the Newton school system for 16 years altogether, and actually started my first year at Lincoln-Eliot.  All in all, I’ve been a librarian for over 30 years.  Where did the time go?

I feel so very connected to the children and families of the LE community.  I’ve been lucky to share conversations about books, reading aloud from some of my favorite stories, and doing lots of library activities, all in hopes of developing a lifelong affection for books and reading.

I hope to keep those connections even after I retire, coming back to school to share a story or just say hello.  I’d like to repeat a quote from Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of Wimpy Kid books, who says ” Being together is what makes us happy.”  So very true!  Have a wonderful summer and read lots of books!

Love,
Mrs. Packard

SEL4Newton and Newton Public Schools will be holding an hour-long Zoom Webinar on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 7pm specifically for Elementary School Parents called:

“Parenting in the Time of Corona: How parents can care for the social-emotional needs of their children now and in the coming months”

With our panel of Newton experts, we will be discussing social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies for parents in this unusual time and with opportunities for you to express your challenges.  We hope you will join us.

To register, click on: https://actionnetwork.org/events/sel4newton-webinar-2020-05?source=flyer&

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our PTO meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, May 5th.  Special thanks to Principal Morrissey, math specialist Nicole Feroleto, and ELA specialist Jeanne Conley for answering all our questions, and to all the teachers who attended as well.

Overall, despite missing our last three months of programs and our two biggest fundraisers (the auction and the Fun Run), we still managed to have a successful year under the circumstances, with a solid number of great Creative Arts and Sciences programs for each grade and enough fundraising to start us off next year.

Thank you so much to everyone who donated, volunteered, helped with events, acted as room connectors, came to PTO meetings, and otherwise supported our school and our kids all year long!  We really appreciate you (and we miss you!).

One note: We are looking for parents to join the PTO board next year — most of our current members will be in their last term in their roles, and we would like to set up a successful transition by having a year of overlap.  If you are at all interested in finding out more about the roles of the co-presidents, secretaries, treasurers, or other members of the team, please reach out to president@lepto.org and let us know!

And if you missed the PTO meeting, you can review the minutes at this link:

May 2020 PTO Meeting Minutes

May 2020 PTO Meeting Slideshow

Please feel free to email president@lepto.org or secretary@lepto.org anytime with any questions we can help with.

Thank you again, and we hope everyone is staying safe and doing OK!

The Newton School Committee will be holding their next public meeting tomorrow, Monday, May 11th, at 7pm via Zoom.  For parents who were unable to attend the PTO meeting, who have more questions, or who are interested in an update on the distance learning plan and the surveys that were sent out to families recently, this is an opportunity to stay informed, with an option for public comment as well.

The Zoom link to join the SC meeting is:  https://zoom.us/j/390017072

For more information and instructions on submitting a comment, click here.

Dear families,

Teacher Appreciation Week is next week and we need your help.  Our amazing teachers at Lincoln-Eliot have gone above and beyond to educate our children despite the stay-at-home orders.  Let’s show them some love!

Throughout the week, the PTO will be organizing some surprise raffles for teachers.  On Friday we would like to present a slideshow to the Lincoln-Eliot staff from all of the classrooms. 

Hopefully you have heard from your Room Connector by now about what your class slide will be. If you haven’t, we are hoping that each family could email president@lepto.org something from your children — pictures, artwork, quotes, or notes — that shows their appreciation for the teachers at Lincoln-Eliot. Please submit your contribution by Thursday, May 7th.

We are hoping to present this slideshow to the staff on Friday, May 8th.  We may not be able to be in the school building right now, but let’s show the teachers how much we appreciate their care and dedication, now more than ever.

Thank you!  Please reach out to president@lepto.org if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
The L-E PTO

Our last PTO meeting of the year was planned for May 12th.  In speaking with Principal Morrissey, we felt it would be helpful to hold it sooner so parents can have a platform for asking questions and sharing their experiences these past few weeks.  So we will be having our PTO meeting by Zoom next Tuesday, May 5th at 4:30pm.

The Zoom link was emailed out to everyone in the directory earlier this week, but if you did not receive it, please email president@lepto.org and we’ll send it to you before Tuesday!

The agenda will be simple: an update from the Principal and PTO followed by open discussion.

If you are unable to join us, we have posted a Google Document where you can enter questions you would like addressed or offer suggestions (or you can email them to president@lepto.org or secretary@lepto.org anytime).  We will take notes during the meeting and share those on lepto.org soon afterwards.

Thanks very much — we hope to see you there!