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TO: Secondary Students and Staff
DATE: October 19th, 2015
FROM: Alexa Kontes and Pat McCall
Meetings this week include:
Mon, Oct 19 9:45am Parent Mtg for AM led by D. Dvorak, 11W
10:10am CR for DH in Fisher
AEC Bryce MacKnight
Tues, Oct 20 9:45am IEP for KC led by D. Dvorak, 11W
10am Support Intensity Scale mtg for NK with DDS and parents, led by D. Fitzgerald, Denise’s office
2:30pm Oliver Behavior mtg
3:15pm LS transition mtg, LS conference room, invite only
AEC Bryce MacKnight
Wed, Oct 21 10:10am Planning mtg for SDR led by J. Peter’s in Jodi’s room
12pm – 1pm – E Block check in
1:20pm CM mtg, 11W
2:15pm Fisher Cottage mtg
AEC Chris Underwood
Thurs, Oct 22 9:45am Planning mtg for EJM, led by S. Grove, 11W
2:30pm Brooks Behavior mtg
AEC Pat McCall
Fri, Oct 23 Welcome to New Students and Staff Assembly, Chapel – run by the student council
AEC Dan Caterino
Congratulations to Natalie Keir who is the October Student of the Month!
If you would like to submit something for the newsletter, please email it to Alexa Kontes by Wednesday at 4:00. Any students interested in reporting for the newsletter should contact Alexa.
The Welcome to New Students and Staff Assembly will take place on Friday, Oct 23 in the chapel during 3rd and 4th periods. The student council members will run the assembly. New staff and case managers/counselors of new students, please get an electronic version of the personal information questionnaire to Kendra asap as it will have to be put into an accessible format.
Writing group meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 21st at 4:00 in the Secondary Library. Please contact Alexa if you plan to attend. Students may not skip other school commitments in order to attend writing group.
National Novel Writing Month, also known as Nanowrimo, or November, is rapidly approaching. Please contact Alexa for more information. Students must be in good academic standing and have permission from their case managers to participate.
There are two chamber singers trips next week:
Monday 10/19
After break (10:40) – chamber singers report directly to the main lobby to board cars to travel to Boston to sing at the Department of Transportation White Cane Celebration. They will return a little after 1:00 and have a quick lunch in the cottage and be a little late to 5th period.
The 13 students going on Monday are:
Almeida, Bucci, Daggett, Eckler, Figueroa, Friend, Gallagher, Gardner, Logan Kelly, LeClerc, Jamie Leduc, Jonah Leduc, Scott
Friday, 10/23
After homeroom –chamber singers report directly to the main lobby to board cars to travel to Berklee College to sing at a Sound and Vision Symposium
They will return during break in time for 3rd period.
The 13 students going on Friday are:
Almeida, Bucci, Daggett, Eckler, Figueroa, Friend, Gallagher, Logan Kelly, LeClerc, Jamie Leduc, Jonah Leduc, McCauley, Scott
Please note the difference, that on Monday Jon Gardner is going and Brian McCauley is not. The reverse will be on Friday, with Brian going, but Jon not going.
PLEASE BE SURE that the students dress in their white shirts and black pants before going to the Howe Building in the morning.
Please contact Arnie, Vera or Jennie with any questions.
We need your help! The Perkins Library and Lower School, along with Perkins students and staff, will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "the most people reading the same book on the same day."
We will read Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett.
Please join us in the Lower School Auditorium on Thursday, October 22, 2015 from 10:40 AM to 11:10 AM.
We need everyone’s help to “Read for the Record.” Read for the Record is sponsored by Jumpstart, a national early education organization that serves preschool children in low income neighborhoods to help develop language and literacy skills to prepare students for school.
We will have the book in large print, audio, and in braille for attendees to read along.
Please RSVP to Shannon Delaware at 617-972-7242 or email to confirm your slot for this event!
The Book of the Week is Candace Fleming’s The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia. It won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for nonfiction and is available in the Secondary Library.
The Word of the Week is shirk: to avoid work or other responsibilities.
The following students will be participating in the November MCAS testing:
Patrick Bucci, Iree Christenson, Michael Cote, Jacob Pine, and Logan Kelly
If you are one of these students, please come to see me on either Tuesday (Oct 20) or Wednesday (Oct 21). You can reach me at 7489 if you’d like to make an appointment.
Joan Katz
Boo! Remember us!? It's the Annual H&PM Bake Sale! Whoopie! This year the bake sale will be held on Wednesday October 28th! It will go from 1st period until we're sold out! So make sure to get there early to get the goods! All proceeds from the bake sale go toward the H&PM Karen Ringvall Award which is given out to a student on graduation day each year. We need lots of help baking, so if any staff or students would like to donate, we will gladly accept! Just drop off your goodies at the bake sale table near the Howe Lobby/Museum area on Wednesday morning October 28th. Happy baking and see you at the sale!!!
The Food Service Students have been working hard to become acquainted with the kitchen,practice skills, learn about sanitation, and test some new recipes. Soon we will be selling lunches and posting the lunch list. We will increase quantities as the students progress throughout the year. On Wednesdays, Anicia Almeida, Michael Cote, and Izzy Primeau prepare lunches 2nd thru 5th. On Thursdays, Aiden Stott, Alex Figueroa, and Mikolai Friendare block scheduled toprepare lunches. Zach Gousie assists during 2nd period. This is an on- campus paid work experience. We plan in advance for it, and order and buy food ahead of time for class. So, please do not schedule these students to participate in other activities during their food service class time without contacting Karen Keeler and discussing it 2 weeks ahead of time. This includes participation in assemblies, rehearsals, plays, meetings, sports activities, field trips, concerts, etc. Thank you for your cooperation. We are looking forward to a delicious year of serving you. Thank you, Karen Keeler
Scholastic's Scope magazine is sponsoring a first-line contest. If you can dream up the first line for one of award-winning author Linda Sue Park's stories, you will win $50.00! Students in grades 4-12 may enter. The deadline is November 15th. Please contact Alexa for more information.
Reminder: Secondary now has an advice column called Howe and Why. If you have a question, or would like to sign up to be a columnist, contact .
New in Tactile Museum and IMC: 2-part heart model; 5-part heart model; brain in head model; convex and concave demo models.
Margie has a bag on her classroom door, room 114 Howe west for redeemable cans and bottles. We recycle and donate the money to a good cause every few months. Please leave cans and bottles in the bag.
Margie recycles ink jet cartridges; please leave them in her mailbox or in the bag on her door.
If you are interested in delivering produce and herbs from the student garden to the Watertown Food Pantry, please contact Deb Krause. The pantry is open Tuesdays 10-12 and Thursdays 4-6. You can also harvest and prepare the produce or just pick it up at the Horticulture Center to deliver it weekly or occasionally. Tuesdays 2nd period can work well or Thursdays 7th period – we can discuss other options.
The Student Store would like to have plants again this year. If you and your students are interested in taking care of plants in the Student Store, please contact Deb Krause. This can be any day or time – and can be done weekly. Training and technical assistance provided!
Cello club will meet approximately once a month on Thursdays this year. Our first next meeting will be on November 19th at 4:00, weather permitting. Location TBD. Contact Alexa with any questions. Please note: You may not skip other school commitments in order to attend cello club.
Please contribute to the Sunshine Fund. Donations can be given to Kendra.
We are an entirely NUT free school. No nuts at all, not even in private staff offices.
This year we will be focusing on two general rules for all students:
1. Students are expected to be on time for class (teachers should keep attendance)
2. Students should be prepared, including having technology charged and materials organized.
We will continue to focus on our Secondary Program standards in addition to the new campus-wide Core Values initiative.
Secondary Standards:
We RESPECT each other, and we respect ourselves.
We HELP each other to become better citizens and to achieve our goals.
We CREATE and SUPPORT an atmosphere promoting high achievement and independence.
We are EMPOWERED to grow and advocate for ourselves.
We HONOR our rights and responsibilities as members of the Perkins community.
Students who are interested in writing group or cello club should contact Alexa.
Please note: The library will close promptly at 4:00 on Tuesdays for the remainder of the school year. There will be no after school study hall or clubs on Tuesdays.
We, William and Stephanie, are doing a job called “Goodwill”. What we do is collect items such as, clothes, shoes, toys and books. We are going to donate these items to Goodwill and other donation spots. If you have any lightly used or new items please email Ms. Randi and we will pick them up as soon as we can.
Thank you for your support!
Notes for Staff
A two day transition planning conference with information and resources for families of students with disabilities and the professionals who serve them.View our current schedule and/or register online!
This year The Staff Holiday Party will be on
Friday December 4 at Hibernian Hall in Watertown. The cost is $20.00 per ticket. Friends and family members are invited to purchase tickets. What do you get for your 20 bucks: fabulous food: some of which is vegetarian, music from our own DJ, Ronnie Smith, and terrific prizes. The most important part of this fabulous party is being with colleagues in a party environment: dancing until your feet hurt.
There will be a cash bar. Since there will be liquor, we ask that party goers be at least eighteen.
Perkins does not provide any financial support.
Please note the following change to the Attendance Policy outlined in the Employee Handbook. This change is a result of the new sick pay law that went into effect on July 1, 2015.
For the purposes of this policy, excessive tardiness or absenteeism is defined as more than 4 occurrences (previously 3 occurrences) of tardiness or absenteeism in a rolling 90 day period. An occurrence of tardiness or absenteeism is defined as unscheduled tardiness or absence on 1 or more consecutive days (e.g., an employee calling out 2 days in a row constitutes one occurrence). Unscheduled absences occur when an employee is tardy or absent without prior consent of the supervisor (e.g., failing to call out sick for the day).
The staff book group will meet on Wednesday, November 18th in GCST. We will discuss The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood.
Please do not attempt to update your Perkins iPad to iOS 9. Betsey will be doing this update and will contact you when she’s ready to update your iPad. Thank you.
Want students to use your computer, but not have access to your files, etc? You can have them log onto your computer with this log-in:
username: SecStudent
password: S3condary
Reminder to staff. All schedule changes should be submitted in writing on the schedule change request form and will go through Joan.
Reminder, please email the for any assistance with your phone, computer, ink printer, internet, server, wifi, or standard software issues such as Outlook, Word, Excel. Call the Helpdesk at 7669 if it is an urgent/work stoppage issue. IT Dept would like you to utilize the Helpdesk lines rather than contacting individuals unless requested otherwise by them. Please contact Betsey Sennott, Secondary’s technology liaison for any issues you may have with any assistive technology, iPads, and for the installation of Assistive Technology/specialized software. She will help you determine if it’s an issue she can address and provide support for, or if it should be addressed by the Helpdesk/IT Dept.
Please remember to complete your bloodborne pathogens training. Check your email for more information.
The brailler, embosser paper, and boldline paper is kept in 11w (w241). These papers are located on the bookshelves at the back of the room. The shelves have been labeled. Please try to only take what you need as you need it. The boxes have been labeled. If you need to open a box, please close it when done and try not to leave loose paper on the shelves. Dust on the paper results in brailler and embosser damage.
If you would like to assign your students to 4:00pm study hall, please contact Alexa. There will be no 4:00 study hall on Tuesdays from now through June.
Reminder: Please do not reassign students to the library during break unless you speak with Alexa first. Thank you.
All requests for new technology equipment (equipment, software, Assistive Technology) are submitted to Betsey Sennott, Secondary’s technology liaison, who then submits a purchase request, with Pat McCall’s approval.