Dear Families,

Today was a great day to celebrate the winning classes of the ST Math Challenges!  Congratulations to Mrs. O’Leary’s class and Mrs. Abreu’s class!  It was so great to celebrate with an extra recess and a pizza party!  Thank you to Ms. Sargent for coordinating this!

It was so nice to see you on Saturday at the Lions Club Breakfast with Santa event!  The Lions Club did an amazing job (as always) organizing and hosting a wonderful and festive breakfast for our community!  Thank you to Ms. Davy and Mrs. Sanchez for attending as well.  Walnut Square Superstars were so excited to see their teachers outside of school!

I’m so excited for our spirit week next week!  My earrings and outfits are ready to go!  Please click on the link below for the dates and daily themes.  Thanks to the support of the PTO, we will be able to complete whole school craft projects!

• Winter Spirit Week English and Spanish
• Winter Spirit Week Portuguese 
• Winter Spirit Week Haitian Creole 

Thank you to all who have completed the Fall Family Feedback Survey.  The results are in, and you can click here to read the results.  These results are shared with staff, Site Council, and PTO, and your feedback is greatly appreciated and valued!

Communication is listed as a area of strength, and it is also listed as an area to improve.  I’d like to share a few resources that may help improve the communication experiences for all of our families.  One of our first ways to communicate is the school website, https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/.  This direct link will show all of the weekly updates that are posted and shared with families.  Here are some other direct links with the information provided:

• https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/walnut-square-family-resources/:  Routines and procedures at Walnut Square, behavior expectations and discipline practices, social and emotional learning, and curriculum family guides.
• https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/school-improvement-plan/:  Walnut Square School Improvement Plan, Site Council agendas and meeting minutes, Title 1 Information (including our school-parent compact), and our school report card from DESE.
• https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/pto/:  Walnut Square PTO agendas and meeting minutes

Another way we communicate is through the use of the Remind app.  Staff use the Remind app to send out announcements as well and messages to individual families.  For the month of November, 25,802 messages were delivered on Remind!  If you are not using Remind or not receiving messages and would like to, please contact me so we can help get you signed up and using it.  If you have any suggestions for improving communication with your family, please let me know.

My favorite way to communicate with families is to share and watch the Walnut Square weekly news broadcast!  The students do an amazing job reporting on what is happening here at Walnut Square!  It is shared every Monday with families, and you can go to my YouTube channel, @jenrubera, to watch the videos.

Every day of school is an important opportunity for students to learn as well as connect to peers, their teachers, and support staff.  Thank you all for doing your best to get to school every day on time even when it isn’t easy!  Every day students are on time and in school is an opportunity to win a prize!  Haverhill Public Schools has been announcing weekly winners from the Attendance contest- please check our Walnut Square social media and HPS social media to see all of the winners from the district!  This week, Walnut Square’s winner is Mikayla– congratulations on winning a $20 gift card to Target!   More information about Attendance Matters is listed below under District and Community Updates and Resources.

Please send a water bottle to school each day with your child.  We are also accepting donations of plastic cups.  Thank you for attention and help with this!

Our school nurses have started vision and hearing screenings. Parents will be notified if the student does not meet the school criteria.  If you have any questions, please contact Nurse Helene or Nurse Jillian. 

As with all family updates, this will be posted on our school website, https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/ and sent to you via School Messenger and Remind.  In addition to the Walnut Square School website, you can also “like” our Facebook page, Walnut Square Elementary School, follow us on Instragram, @walnutsquaresuperstars, and/or follow my channel on YouTube, @jenrubera, to get updates and see all of the fun and learning taking place at Walnut Square!   Please contact me if you have any questions.   Thank you!  

 Sincerely, 

Jen Rubera 

Principal

District and Community Updates and Resources

• Haverhill Public Schools Community Resources:  https://www.haverhill-ps.org/haverhill-community-programs/ 
• Haverhill Public Library:  Haverhill Public Library Kids Department and Schedule of Events 

• HPS Attendance Matters- Showing Up Together!   
  • Attendance Matters 2023-2024 (1) La Asistencia es Importante 2023-2024 (1)
• Haverhill SEPAC Information:  RSVP Now! On December 11th, the Haverhill SEPAC and the Dept. of Special Ed. will meet for a presentation on operations, procedures, and a glimpse into the new IEP coming soon. We hope to see you there!
• Mentors Wanted!  seeking mentors flyer_english seeking mentors flyer_spanish
• HPS District is adding text messaging to School Messenger:  Read more here:    https://www.haverhill-ps.org/district-is-adding-text-messaging-sms-to-schoolmessenger-communicate/

PTO News

PTO has  partnered with Cottage Gardens for a holiday fundraiser to order wreaths, kissing balls, and/or poinsettia.  50% of the profits will go to the Walnut Square PTO.  Order forms went home with students this past week.  Please look for them in your child’s folder.

For more information about the PTO, please click here.  

Mark Your Calendar!

December

• Monday, December 18th:  Mitten Monday 
• Tuesday, December 19th:  Gingerbread Day 
• Wednesday, December 20th:  Winter Wonderland 
• Thursday, December 21st:  Sweater Weather Thursday 
• Friday, December 22nd:  Hibernate Friday and Early Release Day (Dismissal is at 11:35 am) 
• Monday, December 25th- December 29th:  NO SCHOOL- Winter Recess

January

• Monday, January 1st:  NO SCHOOL- New Year’s Day
• Tuesday, January 2nd:  Schools Reopen- Welcome Back!
• Monday, January 15th:  NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 
• Wednesday, January 24th:  Early Release Day- Dismissal is at 11:35 am 

February

• Monday, February 12th- Friday, December 16th:  Book Fair 
• Tuesday, February 13th:  K-8 Progress Reports Issued 2nd Trimester
• Monday, February 19th- Friday, February 23rd:  NO SCHOOL- February Recess
• Wednesday, February 28th:  Early Release Day- Dismissal is 11:35 am