JCS Journal for New Years 2025!

Hello JCS families,

Happy New Year to all of you and we hope that everyone is beginning a healthy and happy 2025 with your loved ones!

New Year's Day often encourages us to take some time to reflect and consider the prior year. Personally and professionally, this past year has brought a significant change for me joining the Joseph C. Solmonese School community. I have really enjoyed getting to know JCS students, families, teachers, and staff in my first six months and I’m grateful to everyone who has been so welcoming. My hope is that I will continue to learn more about our school community and work closely with teachers, staff, and families to keep JCS a kind, safe, and even fun place for our students to learn.

Students and staff return to school on Thursday, January 2nd following our normal school schedule.

We plan to restart weekly ice cream sales during lunch on Thursday, 1/9. It would be a lot for families, students, teachers, and food service staff to try and sell ice cream this Thursday on our first day back from the holiday break.

A reminder that families that are interested in providing an approved snack for their child’s birthday can reach out to Chartwells Food Service by contacting Mike Vaccaro at mvaccaro@norton.k12.ma.us to inquire about purchasing ice cream on a specific Thursday for the students in your child’s classroom during lunch. Here’s a link to the district's Wellness Policy in its entirety, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EpCJWJSxpzLqqv3D7yLe9tG7McuqV6sL/view?usp=sharing

As we get back into the swing of things after the holidays, it’s important to remember that one of our district’s main goals this year is to improve daily attendance for all students. Regular and punctual attendance is essential to the overall academic, personal and social development of students. Our school continues to want to partner with families to help all students be successful at school, beginning with consistent, on-time daily attendance. If your child is having difficulty attending school or being on time, please feel free to reach out so we can work to find out how we can help.

A preliminary study of data in California showed that students who had good attendance in Kindergarten and 1st grade were significantly more likely to read proficiently in 3rd grade than students whose attendance was at risk (missed more than 9 days per school year) or were chronically absent (missed 18 or more days per school year).

As we enter the new year, we want to continue to work hard to communicate with families in a variety of ways. In addition to regular email, phone calls, and meetings, here are all of the other ways available for our school and families to communicate with each other and share important information.

Joseph C. Solmonese School website, https://jcs.norton.k12.ma.us/

ParentSquare app, https://www.parentsquare.com/select_school/new

JCS Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/jcsolmonese

Also, please follow the JCS SPO Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/JCSSPO !

The JCS SPO meeting planned for Thursday, January 9th at 6:00pm will be completely virtual/online. We invite and encourage JCS parents and guardians to join us!

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/kee-wmje-keg

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 318-519-1569‬ PIN: ‪834 772 063‬#

View and subscribe to the JCS Public Events Calendar at https://bit.ly/jcspubliceventscalendar. Click on the "Add to Google Calendar" button in the lower right corner to subscribe to the calendar using your own calendar app. Events from the JCS Public Events Calendar also appear on the JCS website.

Students Return to School, Thursday 1/2

SPO Meeting (online), Thursday 1/9 at 6:00PM

NO SCHOOL (Martin Luther King Day), Monday 1/20