Reminders & Headlines:

How strong is your mask game?
Please send students to school with either N95, KN95, KF94, or a surgical mask with a cloth mask over that.
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Is your child vaccinated? Please let us know.
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Friday's Spirit Theme: Twin Day.

Updates from our
Head of School
Hello Marblehead Community Charter Families,

We are on a wild New England weather ride with big swings in temperature and a variety of wind, rain, snow, ice, and sun. Please keep sending students to school prepared for the weather. When the "real feel" temperature is above 20 degrees, we will typically have outdoor recess.

On rainy days and extreme cold days, we are implementing a new procedure for dismissal/pick up. We will be distributing placards with your name on them to be placed in your passenger side window. This will allow us to easily identify your car and then use our walkie-talkie system to have your child dismissed. This minimizes the crowding at the front entrance and time spent in the rain or cold.

Thank you to the many who attended the Navigating the Cyber World presentation on Monday evening and the Sarah Ward presentation on executive functioning on Tuesday evening. We continue to encourage every parent/guardian to pay close attention to what apps and websites your child is accessing and how much time they are spending on these apps.

We have been recognizing students with commendations at morning meeting and celebrating their integrity, leadership, problem solving, initiative and perseverance. We are also awarding points when students are caught being kind or helping out other students. We are hopeful that this will be contagious and by celebrating kindness and publicly recognizing students more and more students will follow the lead.

We also want to recognize that the omicron variant has impacted our community. We have updated our website to include weekly and cumulative data on positive COVID cases. We will continue to reach out directly to any family of a student that is a close contact, but we will not send out an email to all, for every positive case. We will include positive cases based on either a PCR test or a home testing (rapid) test kit. Since returning from the vacation week we have had approximately 24 positive student cases of COVID. There were fewer than ten cases prior to that this school year. We continue to encourage everyone to wear masks that fit well like N95, KN95, or KF94 masks. If students prefer a cloth mask, we suggest wearing a surgical mask under the cloth mask. We also encourage families open to vaccinations to get your child vaccinated and when eligible, boosted. While omicron variant spreads quickly, the symptoms are mostly mild in vaccinated people. The DESE has extended the indoor mask mandate in schools until February 28. While we hope the surge ends soon, we will also keep moving forward with in person learning as long as we have the staffing in place to stay open.

Please continue to keep students home when they are not feeling well. Attendance each day since the break has seen a range of 33 to 46 students out each day which is between 14-20% of the student body. We appreciate those keeping students home when they are sick, as that can only help us minimize the spread of cold, flu, and COVID. We will work with students upon their return to school to get caught up and we continue to post assignments on Schoology so they can keep up while at home.

We will get through this.

Enjoy the long weekend, as we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.


Peter Cohen, Ed.D
Head of School
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Please make an end of year donation to our school and help us fund new murals, kitchen equipment, recess equipment, or uniforms for our sports teams. You can target your donation on our new Fund-A-Need webpage. https://www.marbleheadcharter.org/fund-a-need/
COVID19 Vaccine Info

Please complete the form if your child has already been vaccinated

Here is the information about the COVID19 vaccine. We encourage you to have your child vaccinated to protect themselves, your family, and our school community. Please speak to your child’s doctor about their plans to administer the vaccine and get any questions you may have answered. The vaccine is our pathway to a post-pandemic world. Please note we recognize that some families may elect to not have their child vaccinated for medical or other reasons. We respect each families' right to make the decision that is best for them.

If you and your child's doctor decide to have your child vaccinated against COVID-19, please let Nurse D know by filling out the Student COVID Vaccine Report Form once your child has received all recommended doses of the COVID vaccine. This data will be used to determine when/if we have 80% of our community fully vaccinated to allow us to reevaluate our current COVID policies and protocols. Please feel free to contact Nurse D if you have any questions or concerns.
Upcoming Events

Friday January 14 - Early Release Day for all - noon dismissal
Monday January 17 - No School - Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. Holiday
Saturday January 22 - Open House for prospective families by appointment

MUSIC EXTRAVAGANZA is Postponed until February - Date TBA



Upcoming Meetings
(Meetings will take place in person at the school, as COVID-19 protocols allow or if remote, meetings will take place via Zoom w/ links on our website calendar)

Tuesday January 18 - Facilities Task Force Committee Meeting 7pm
Monday January 24 - Development & Communications Committee Meeting 7pm
Tuesday January 25 - Board of Trustees Meeting 7pm
Thursday January 27 - Strategic Planning Committee Meeting - 7pm
Join the PTO
At Marblehead Community Charter, COMMUNITY is our middle name. Everyone - teachers, parents, students, administrators, and staff need to do their part to support our school.

Please consider joining the PTO and become an ambassador for our school.