Principal Grassa’s Pawprints 5/10/20

May 10, 2020

The Curley Appreciates Our Teachers!

Thank you to all the families that helped us make Teacher Appreciation Week special for our staff! Here is the video we were able to create for staff: https://youtu.be/XHfd-PF_N2Q Enjoy!

Arts Team Virtual Meeting: Wednesday, May 13th

The Curley Arts Team will hold its next meeting via Zoom on Wednesday, May 13th from 5-6pm. The agenda will include a focus on new leadership roles within the Arts Team, and who will fill these roles. We will also discuss ways the Arts Team can support student experiences in the arts during the pandemic. All parents and guardians are invited to participate, and to help lead Arts Team activities, whether through an ongoing leadership role or a particular initiative.

Please contact Ben Carlson at benmcarl@yahoo.com or 617-959-4667 for details on how to connect to this conversation. The Curley Arts Team includes Curley visual and performing arts faculty and parent/guardian volunteers who collaborate to expand opportunities for our students to experience the Arts.

Medication Pickup: Wednesday, May 13th

Next Wednesday, May 13th from noon-3pm Nurse Santana will be available for families to pick up medications in the Curley Lower School Parking Lot located at 40 Pershing Road. Families can drive up and we will hand off medications. Please note that this is only for families who currently stored medication in our building for their child. If families would like to make other arrangements, Nurse Santana can be reached at ksantana@bostonpublicschools.org or 617-397-8951.

Curley Family Yoga Night: Thursday, May 14th

Ms. Untermyer is hosting a free Curley Family Yoga Night for Curley students and their family members on Thursday May 14th at 6:00pm. Fill out the Curley Family Yoga Night Form to receive a Zoom invite. Please note, participants can only join through a Curley students’ BPS email. For more information, contact Ava Untermyer at Auntermyer@bostonpublicschools.org

Updates from Superintendent Brenda Cassellius

The following will be in effect on Monday, May 4 through the end of the school year in June.

Schedule: Every school will share a class schedule with families and students.
Attendance: Teachers will record daily attendance each week. Attendance includes completing learning activities or interaction with teachers/staff. Teachers in grades K0-5 will record daily attendance. Teachers in grades 6-12 will record daily attendance by course.
Grading: Students will receive grades and feedback on their assigned projects and tasks. Elementary students (grades K0-5) will receive a term 3 grade of Meets Expectations, Approaching Expectations, or Not Yet Meeting Expectations. Secondary students (grades 6-12) will receive a Term 3 letter grade if it is above their average grade from Terms 1 and 2. Otherwise, secondary students will earn a grade of Pass or Incomplete and that grade will not be factored into their final grade.
Advancing to the Next Grade: No student will be held back in their grade. All students will advance to the next grade and will have opportunities for summer learning and additional support in the fall. If parents believe their child would benefit from repeating their grade, they can request a meeting with their teacher.
Access to teachers: Each school schedule will include class times, and a school staff member will contact each student at least every three days.
Students with disabilities: Students will receive services that can reasonably be provided in a remote learning environment by their assigned team of educators in relation to the goals identified in the student’s IEP.
English Learners: Students will receive ESL instruction based on their English Development Level.
Graduation: Graduation is a celebration of students, their families, and their school communities. We are working on several opportunities to celebrate this year’s graduations citywide and with each school. We look forward to sharing more information soon.

Support for our Curley Community

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our fundraising campaign to purchase supermarket gift cards to help feed Curley families in need. To date we have raised over $12,000. Principal Grassa and our school counselors are connecting Curley families with Catie’s Closet, a local nonprofit, who are distributing the cards along with other essentials.

How You Can Help

We believe access to healthy food will be an ongoing and growing need for many Curley families in the weeks and months ahead. To help address this need, the SPC is committed to matching donations up to $2,000 each month through June. Donations can be made via Paypal at:

paypal.me/curleyk8

If you are able, please consider making a donation each month.

We ask that you donate cash instead of purchasing and donating physical gift cards so we can streamline the process to allow the administration to purchase gift cards from stores that are most convenient for the families in need and to ensure equitable distribution of resources. Reach out to the SPC leadership team at chair@curleyk8.com with any questions.

If You NEED Help

If you need support or know someone who does, please contact our guidance team:

Contact	Email	Phone	Languages
Sugeily Santos	ssantos2@bostonpublicschools.org	617-230-2661	Spanish & English
Cristina Silva	csilva4@bostonpublicschools.org	857-308-7889	Spanish, English & Portugese

Thank you in advance to our amazing community for pulling together to support one another. I Care, We Care, Curley Cares!

Curley School Nurses’ Site

Our school nurses have created a site for families so we can continue to support students during this time. Please go to www.curleyk8.com, click Learn From Home, click Health Resources and then the link for the virtual nursing page.

Check In: Let Us Know What Support You Need

We hope that all Curley K-8 community members are safe, practicing social distancing, hand washing, and encourage their child to participate in virtual learning.

We recognize that as time goes on the level of support families need can change and we want you to know we are here to help all Boston families. Please know we want to help and support families and all information shared is confidential. If you, or someone you know has needs please reach out for support:

Access to Boston Public Library Resources

Boston Public Library sites are all closed, any materials that are currently checked out have been renewed for several months. Also, digital resources are still available. If students (or caregivers) don’t have library cards, or if their cards are expired, they can sign up for an ecard at www.bpl.org/ecard and still access everything.

Please visit www.bpl.org/kids for additional information. Families can also reach out to Sandra Samuel csamuel@bostonpublicschools.org for support.

Learn From Home

The Curley’s Learn From Home virtual learning website is live. You can link to learning activities for students and contact information for teachers by visiting www.curleyk8.com. (Look for Red Learn From Home link at the very top of each page.) We want students to have access to internet, technology, and other resources necessary to support their learning. Please reach out to your child’s teacher if you need any support with this or visit https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/laptop for more information.

Here are some helpful tips to support families at home.

On the homepage of our website www.curleyk8.com you can link to grade level work for all students. This link on the site was created to give families one spot to access information for multiple grade levels and resources.
Your student’s learning materials can also be accessed at www.bostonpublicschools.org/backpack using their BPS Google account.
Your child’s teachers are the best resource for support with technology and academics. Their emails are also linked on this site.

Internet and Computer Access

If you need computer or internet access please go to this page https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/Page/8131 and fill out the form.

Meal Locations

BPS will continue to provide free breakfast and lunch meals to all Boston students. We are proud that the Curley K-8 is one of those sites in the JP community. BPS will distribute the meals at several dozen locations throughout the City of Boston. A variety of packaged meal options will be available for pick-up Monday – Friday from 8:30am – 11:30am. Visit www.bostonpublicschools.org/coronavirus for the full list. No child will be turned away.

Additionally, the City of Boston in partnership with Project Bread, YMCA of Greater Boston, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, and other community organizations will also be providing free meals to school-aged children at various locations and times across the city. Click here to view all the current meal locations and times. More locations will become available over the coming week.

BPS Coronavirus Website

BPS launched a website outlining key questions families may have, prevention tips, and tips for educators. Our goal is to keep you as informed as possible and make sure you have the tools and resources you need in order to both talk with your students, staff, and families and keep your school community safe and healthy. We will be updating the website weekly. https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/coronavirus If parents or community members are asking questions about coronavirus that cannot be answered on the BPS Coronavirus Website, please have them email coronavirus@bostonpublicschools.org and they will receive an answer within 48 hours.

Amazon Smile

Do you shop on Amazon? If so, did you know that you can give back to the Curley K-8 with your shopping? Amazon Smile is an easy way to give money to the Curley via the Student Parent Council (SPC) (no fees, no extra charges- nada). If you shop amazon.com just change to amazonsmile.com choose the charity Friends of the Curley K8 School and that is it. Amazon will donate a percentage of your purchase to the Curley. The funds raised by the SPC can be used to support many of the initiatives and resources we currently use in or classroom or those we wish to deploy in the future. Please note that the SPC is not able to see the items that you purchase on Amazon; they are only able to see the dollar amount donated.

Social Media

For up to date information about the Curley K-8 School please sign up for email alerts by joining the Mailing List. You can also follow Principal Grassa on Twitter @principalgrassa and be sure to always use the hashtag #curleycares when sharing/posting/tweeting information about our school.Related Posts