Updates!

As promised, I have more information to share about Nurse Karina. She is coming to us from Paxton school so send positive vibes their way as they try and search for a replacement. Their loss is certainly our gain. Meanwhile, we have a pair of sub nurses sharing the role.

Hello! My name is Karina Abbascia and I am so excited to be joining the TPS team as your school nurse! I have heard nothing but great things about TPS and look forward to working with you all. I graduated from Worcester State University with a degree in Psychology & Spanish and worked in research for several years before deciding to return to school to get my bachelor's degree in nursing from MCPHS University. Upon graduation, I worked at St. Vincent Hospital for several years before making the transition to the school setting in August of 2020. I have been working at PCS since this time and I have met some extraordinary educators, students, and families. The change has been a bittersweet one and, as much as I will miss my wonderful coworkers and students, I am also excited to create some new relationships and experiences with everyone at TPS. On a personal level, my husband and I have a 3-year-old son, Geno, who keeps us on our toes! In my free time (which is close to non-existent with a little one!) I enjoy gardening, reading, and metal detecting! I am looking forward to meeting you all soon! -Karina

Next week we will begin our use of the Panorama assessment. We use this data to determine the climate and culture of our school and to provide individual social and emotional supports when necessary. That was my cliff notes version of the information provided below. If you would not like your child to take part, please reach out to me and let me know.

"We thank you and your family for being our valued partners as we work together to
educate the children in our district. As you may already be aware, building our social-emotional learning skills is an important goal for our school this year. Over the next several weeks, students and teachers will participate in several exercises to better understand these concepts and to reflect on how they perceive these skills in themselves.
We will be asking for your child to reflect on their own mindsets and approaches to learning via an online survey they will be completing at school. The survey shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes to complete.
We are asking that all of our students participate in the surveys, as their responses will provide invaluable insights into their experiences and how we can improve and adapt our district to their needs. If a student doesn’t feel like they have enough information to answer a question, they will be able to skip the item altogether. The responses to these surveys will be completely confidential.
The Panorama student surveys will be given 3 times per school year, and they will provide information about the student experience in Wachusett Schools (Grades 3-12). The data will be used at the school and district levels as one data source to help shape our Social-Emotional Learning planning"

I'd like to congratulate all the middle schoolers who ran for student council this month! The desire to serve their fellow students in a leadership role is commendable! Having the courage to stand up in the front of the cafeteria and explain why they want to serve and what they bring to the table is equally impressive. I'm proud of all who "threw their hat in the ring." Congratulations to our Student Council members: 6th Grade - Cameran W, Miles C, Aubrey J, and Jude H. 7th Grade - Lindsey R, Lucia C, Hero M, and Erik D. 8th Grade - Gabe M, Nalina L, Declan F, Megan D, and Madalena A.

I look forward to including student voice, through the council, in school decisions moving forward.

As next week brings us into October, I wanted to put a date on the radar for parents of Kingerteners through 3rd graders. We have scheduled our annual Fall costume parade for October 31st to begin around 9:00. My understanding is this is a long standing tradition here at TPS. Parents are welcome to attend and view the parade from the parking lot. Students in grades K-3 can wear their costumes to school that day but should bring a container to place their materials in after the parade to make sure nothing is lost before the evening town events. For planning purposes, please remember any costumes should limit the gore, for safety we need to be able to recognize the students, and the building needs to remain toy weapon free (this includes lightsabers, blasters, cowboy guns, etc.). If your family has beliefe that inhibit participation in this event, please do not hesitate to reach out as we will plan alternative experiences during this short parade. If your child would like to be in the parade but does not dress up we can absolutely allow this as well.

Next week, the PTA is sponsoring our first Spirit week of the school year! Students are encouraged to participate but it is not mandatory and should not become a hardship for families. This also kicks off their Spirit Wear sale. The days are as follows:

Monday

Crazy hat/hair day

Tuesday

Crazy sock day and TPS Spirit wear day (If you have't purchased a shirt yet just wear red)

Wednesday

Sports day (wear your team jersey, favorite sports team jersey, pull that TPS gear out again)

Thursday

Book Character Day (dress as your favorite character from a book)

Friday - Colors day!

K - Rainbow
1st - Red
2nd - Blue
3rd - Yellow
4th - Orange
5th - Purple
6th - Green
7th - White
8th - Black
Staff - Pink

Order Spirit Wear here

A message from Mrs. DiFonso

I am excited to announce that we are working hard to bring back some after school activities for our TPS Warriors! I met with Jaime Greenland (Princeton Rec Director) this morning to get the ball rolling on getting some aferschool activities planned and organized for all ages here at TPS. Is there something you would be excited to offer? Is there a hobby that you have that you'd want to share with the TPS students? Is there someone you know that would love to offer a course? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we want to hear about it! Maybe you love baking, lego robotics, art, books, crafting, model building, a specific sport, chess, math or science! Share this interest with the kids! Since the rec department will be helping to facilitate these offerings, there will be/can be payment for your time!

If you are interested in offering a class/course, please email Jaime (Recreation@town.princeton.ma.us) the following information: Course Title and desciption, age group you'd like included, length of course (by weeks), time of course (ie/ 3:00-4:15) and estimated budget. I am really excited and cannot wait to see what kinds of fun we can bring back to the kids! Thanks Princeton Recreation & Jaime!