Excerpt from email from Superintendent Fleishman
September 7, 2020

Dear High School Families,
As we head into another busy week during which we will finalize schedules and team placements for our middle and high school students, I want to provide you with more detail on a few outstanding items.

School Start Times
While we have a relatively small number of secondary students beginning the year in person, the transportation needs for elementary students and the capacity limits on our buses and vans require us to make changes to our start and end times.
Below are the new start and end times for our secondary schools based on our current schedules:

High School – 9:15 a.m. and 3:55 p.m.

Student Team Placements and Schedules
Depending upon the high school, the list of classes and/or schedule will be released on Friday, September 11 or Monday, September 14. Both North and South have shared specific information with their school communities on the dates and times of schedule release.

High School Athletics
On Thursday, September 10, North and South principals will present to the School Committee on the proposal for fall athletics at both high schools. We are required by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to seek approval from the School Committee on participation in fall sports offered in our respective leagues. To tune into the meeting, follow login instructions at this link: https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/domain/68

First Day of School – September 16, 2020
As a reminder, the first day of school is Wednesday, September 16. Both middle and high schools are in distance learning and students will login to their scheduled classes on that day. Schools will send more specific information on the first day of school and the start of the school year soon. If you do not have access to a device for distance learning, please email [email protected]

I hope you have had an enjoyable long weekend. I look forward to continuing to share more details with you as we approach the first day of school.???????
Sincerely,

David Fleishman
Superintendent of Schools

Dear Newton South Families,

Most of you have received an email to confirm your family information for our PTSO School Directory.  Please note that the PTSO School Directory is separate from NPS Aspen system.  The PTSO School Directory is used only by Newton South Families.  If you need to update your Aspen account, click here.

To Confirm your Directory information, please visit newtonsouthptso.membershiptoolkit.com.  Once you login or create a Membership Toolkit Account, you will be able to confirm this information, indicate what you would like visible, and support Newton South PTSO by making a membership donation. The Dues Campaign is our only fundraiser. In this unprecedented school year, the PTSO will look to host virtual events and in-person activities with social distance protocols.  Click to learn more about how your donation supports the PTSO.

• Click on the Login or Register button.
• If you already have an account with another organization that uses Membership Toolkit you can use the same email and password to login. You can then proceed to the numbered steps below.
• If you do not have an account: Select “Create Account” and fill in the name, email, and password information. Click “verify my email” and then check your email for a link to complete the process. The link expires in 2 hours. If you do not receive the email, check your spam or junk folders. Once you have verified your email address, log back in and finish the registration process.
• Complete the Parent/Family and Student Information. Complete the Directory/Publish Preferences. Proceed to the Membership Donation page. The suggested donation is $50. Please indicate if you would like a printed directory and any additional copies.
• Once the Primary Account is set up, the Primary User can “invite” other email addresses to access his/her account. This allows the Secondary User to have their own login information, but still have access to the family account. Please review, correct, and confirm the accuracy of your family’s information using the link at the bottom of this message.

Here are some useful tips:

1.  If you are an existing family and your email has changed, please contact us at [email protected]. The system will try to match to an existing email already in the directory. It will be helpful for us to know to make sure you do not end up with a duplicate entry.
2. After you complete Steps 1 & 2, you will have the opportunity to donate to the PTSO. The suggested donation is $50.
3. If you would like a printed directory, indicate this by selecting 1 next to Printed Directory.
4. If you have a two household family, each household will have separate logins and can update their own data.
5. To review your family information anytime,  simply click on the secure link below and review your family’s data. Make any changes and save to update. Adding, updating, or confirming your data online allows us to publish the directory quickly and accurately. newtonsouthptso.membershiptoolkit.com.
6. You can also download the membershiptoolkit app on your mobile device such as ApplePay or GooglePay.

Thank you for confirming your Directory information! Questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Hello Newton South Families,

For anyone that missed it, below is the link to the parent Q & A webinar from yesterday:

https://youtu.be/Y0oMucskWgk

Please note that due to technical difficulties at the beginning of the video, the introduction of South staff taking part in the webinar was cut off. The following members of the administrative team took part in the webinar:

• Mark Aronson, Interim Principal
• Chris Hardiman, Interim Vice Principal
• Josepha Blocker, Cutler House Dean
• Charlie Myette, Goodwin House Dean
• Brian Baron, English Department Chair
• Dan Rubin, Guidance Department Chair
• Melissa Gamble, Special Education Department Chair

By the middle of next week, an FAQ will be sent out to you that will hopefully answer any questions that we did not get to in the webinar. Please also know that as soon as we learn the decisions regarding any of the more time sensitive information (i.e. school start and end time, student schedules), we will share it out.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time. We are happy to help.

Thank you,
The NSHS Administrative Team

You’re Invited:
Q & A for Parents/Guardians New to Newton South

Parents/guardians who are NEW to Newton South are invited to join the PTSO for a Q & A session with Interim Principal Aronson, Vice Principal Hardiman, and Staff.  These small group sessions are specially designed for parents/guardians of students who are NEW to Newton South High School.

Bring your questions specific to Newton South to one of the following sessions via Zoom.  Please click on one of the following dates to register.  Zoom links will be shared to those participants who register.

Wednesday, September 9 at 8 AM

Thursday, September 10 at 7 PM

Hello NSHS Students and Families,

While our scheduling department is still very busy working on rebuilding student schedules and they need to verify changes throughout next week, they are confident that a list of classes will be available for students to view on Aspen at 4:00PM on Friday, September 11th. 

A verification process will then occur over the weekend where students will have the ability to indicate any errors in their class list on a google form that will be sent out (i.e. missing their English class, wrong level than what they were signed up for, class listed twice, etc.).

After corrections are made, including last minute balancing of class sizes, student schedules with blocks and teacher names will be posted in Aspen at 5:00pm on Monday, September 14th. Teachers will then contact students introducing themselves, providing zoom links, and other relevant information.

More specific information on the above, with instructions/tutorials, will be provided sometime next week.

Also, a reminder that the FAQ sheet from the September 2 Q&A will be sent to families by the middle of next week.

Thanks,
Chris Hardiman, NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Correction is that Girls Swim for the Fall is for Newton North only.  Newton South co-ed swim is held during the winter season.

Message from Interim Principal Aronson and Athletic Director Pat Gonzalez.  For updated information, please visit NSHS Athletics.

Dear athletes and their families:

Please click  here to view the Facilities Update Presentation reviewed by the School Committee on September 2, 2020.

Facilities Update includes ventilation, cleaning protocols, PPE supplies, classroom social distancing.

To view SC meeting on the presentation, please click here.

Welcome to new families and welcome back to returning families to Newton South! We hope this email finds you and your loved ones doing well!

We know how challenging and complex the return-to-learn decision and process has been for everyone in our community. As we start this unprecedented school year, the PTSO will continue to work with South Administration and staff to communicate information in a timely manner, help support and engage our community for input and ideas, and to stay connected even when we are apart. Please click here to subscribe to the PTSO Newsletter.

As we all prepare to return to school this year, it’s important that we remind ourselves of the impact that COVID-19 has had on each of our own decisions on how to live day to day with the presence of COVID-19. We all need to continue to do our part in keeping our community safe and healthy whether we are in distant learning or in-person activities.

• Encourage our children to stay connected with friends and classmates, and embrace the opportunity to meet new classmates and teachers this school year, even when we are distant and apart.
• Reinforce the importance of wearing the mask and following social distance protocols with masks and staying 6 ft apart to keep everyone safe – friends, family, teachers, adults, teammates, etc.
• Remind our children to stay vigilant with hand-washing, not touching any surface than those necessary, keeping hands away from their face is essential to keeping the spread of COVID-19 so we can ready to return to in-person events and activities.

Together, we can support each other and our community during these uncertain times. The PTSO will look to host virtual events and in-person activities with social distance protocols, and fundraise so we can support programs for all departments at South as they find new ways to teach, engage and connect with our children.

As we kick off our 2020-21 school year, the PTSO is launching our School Directory Confirmation process and our annual Dues Campaign.  Look for an email next week.  Every family must confirm their information to be included in the online and printed version.   You will have an opportunity to contribute to our annual Dues Campaign when you confirm your information.  Your annual Dues donation is used 100% to support our school community and enrich the experiences of our students at South. The PTSO relies on annual donations from each Newton South family.  For this unprecedented school year, we are reducing our Dues Campaign to $44,000.  A surplus of $13,500 will be used for the remaining expenses in our 2020-21 budget of $57,500.

We also plan to start our newsletters with a tip of the week for families this year.  Please send us your favorite quote, a cartoon, – something that got you through your day. We look forward to working together and encourage you to send us your ideas for making our students’ experience at South the best it can be to [email protected].

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].  Stay tuned for more news as we prepare for the start of the school year on September 16, 2020.

Stay well and enjoy the rest of the summer days!

NSHS PTSO Board,
May Chiu, Helen Haley, Lisa DePalma, Jen Tomaneng and Wayne Fitzpatrick