Good evening Methuen Public School Families,

I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a peaceful holiday vacation! It has been a very busy Fall and it's hard to believe that we are entering 2019! 

I would also like you all to be aware that due to various staff vacation schedules, all five school offices will be closed from December 24th -January 1st and will reopen on January 2, 2019 when school resumes.  Our central administration building and offices will be open December 26th -December 31st but please call (978) 722-6001 to make sure staff is available if you need assistance. 

The last announcement is about Kindergarten Registration for the 2019-2020 school year. We are hosting an Kindergarten Information Night on January 10 at 6pm in the Timony Auditorium to go over general Kindergarten information and we will discuss the online registration process as well.  Please spread the word to any neighbors who may have kindergarten aged students! 

Thank you and again Happy Holidays! 

Brandi Kwong

Interim Superintendent 

bikwong@methuen.k12.ma.us

I am sending our district December monthly newsletter that focuses on student mental health, SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) in the Methuen Public Schools. I hope you take a moment to review the newsletter as there are many wonderful supports and programs in all of our schools to support every student. The newsletter includes contact information, links to web pages, and other helpful programming details. On the second page, there is contact information regarding an opportunity for parents to join our Mental Health Parent and Student Advisory Council right now. We hope you find this newsletter informational and helpful. 

Thank you.

Have a great night.

Brandi Kwong, Ed.D.

Interim Superintendent

Dates: There will be four matches with all four schools that the Timony, Tenney, Marsh and CGS will host and one final match with all four schools in the evening at Methuen High School. Parents will be responsible for transportation.            

Thursday October 25th                       3:00-5:00 pm hosted by Marsh

Wednesday December 5th                  5:30-7:30 pm hosted by CGS

Tuesday March 5th                             3:00-5:00 pm hosted by Timony

Thursday April 25th                           5:30-7:30 pm hosted by Tenney

Final match: Tuesday June 4th           6-8pm hosted by MHS

Format: Matches will be 2 hours with 1 hour dedicated to a team challenge to create, build, or complete an obstacle and 1 hour for Jeopardy style questions in 4 categories: STEM, Humanities, The Arts, and Potpourri. While 7th grade is competing in the Team Challenge, the 8th grade will be competing in the Jeopardy round and then they will switch.

 Scoring: There will be judges for both the Jeopardy rounds and the Team Challenge using a rubric to calculate team points for correct answers and team points for completing the Team Challenge (partial points may be accrued for Team Challenge as there will be multiple scoring categories) Each 7th grade and 8th grade team will enter the Final Match with a set number of total points and there will be one 7th grade team champion and one 8th grade team champion.

 Parent/guardian/student participation: All parents/guardians and all students  are welcome to watch the Jeopardy rounds at all matches in the auditorium of the host school. Parents/guardians and other students will not be allowed in for the Team Challenge. There will be judges in the host cafeteria and it will be timed so we cannot have spectators in the cafeteria.

 All advisors are aware of the match dates, format, and what teams need to practice and will be communicating this to their teams if they haven’t already done so.

Timony advisor:         TBD                            Marsh advisor:            Fernando Mancini

CGS advisor:              Heather Jones             Tenney advisor:          Kathy Bodenrader

Increasing communication with families is a ongoing goal for our district. I want to take this opportunity to share with you that each month, I will be emailing a Parent's Newsletter that provides information and links about a specific topic.  The first newsletter focuses on School/Home Communication.

Our district continues to seek ways to communicate with families and provide as much transparency as possible. The newsletter includes specific details about our methods of communication which include weekly emails from principals, phone calls, twitter messages, website announcements, calendar updates, and the Infinite Campus Parent Portal.

I also would like to take this opportunity to state that Facebook is not one of our platforms for communicating.  We are increasingly troubled that inaccurate information is posted and circulated among our Methuen families causing unnecessary stress and often anger among families.  The newsletter provides resources to help families get accurate information.  We will continue to increase our communication via these tools with the hopes of strengthening the school/home partnership that needs to be in place to enhance student success.  

If at any time you have a question that you need answered, please don't hesitate to contact via phone and/email the appropriate staff listed below on the District Administration webpage or through the school website. 

District Administrators
CGS Website

Marsh Website

Tenney Website

Timony Website

MHS Website

Please see the attached Newsletter and other COMMUNICATIONS to parents from the Superintendents' Office. 

Sincerely,
Brandi L. Kwong, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent

Program Assistant Job Fair

August 2nd at the Tenney Grammar School

10AM-2PM

We have several Program Assistant positions available for the upcoming school year working with students with disabilities. If you are interested please see the job fair Flyer.