Reminders & Headlines:

Mark Your Calendars
MCCPS Curriculum Night (via zoom)
Thursday September 30
6:30PM
Meet the Leadership Team
Meet with the Grade Level Teams
Updates from our
Head of School
Hello Marblehead Community Charter Families,

We are completing the fourth week of school and Fall has arrived. We want to share more information with your about our school. On Thursday September 30, we invite you to attend our Curriculum Night. This event will take place via Zoom. We will share the link next week in advance of the event. We will begin at 6:30PM with introductions and information from our Leadership Team. You will then be sent to grade level breakout rooms where you will meet the teachers and have an opportunity to interact with the team. Please plan on joining us via zoom for this event.

Over these first 17 days of school, we have focused our attention on a training process. We follow "Rule 230" at MCCPS. Under Rule 230 we ask students to consider if their actions would be acceptable if all 230 students did that same action at the same time. We focus on helping everyone in our community know what it means to "do the right thing" and be part of a community and to represent our school well. Some of our students have not been in school, in person, for full days, five days per week in over a year due to the impacts of the pandemic on the previous two school years. As a result, we explicitly need to teach our routines and expectations. There are a few areas we are working on particularly with our 4th graders, (staying in class unless you have permission to leave, for example) as we bring everyone up to speed with what we expect from students in our community.

We have the privilege of access to the field across the street from the school that we can use for recess. Our students in every grade level enjoy two, 30-minute recess periods every day. We have noticed recently that there is trash being left behind by our students. We spoke to them today at our Community Meeting about this concerning issue. Littering the field is unacceptable to us and we will work with students to ensure that this does not continue.

Last week we experienced some vandalism in our bathrooms. We spoke to students about the shared responsibility of taking care of our spaces around the school and the town. Unfortunately, some of these actions may be driven by videos from TikTok and YouTube that encourage students to cause mischief at school.

We have also noticed that some students are distracted by smart watches or smart phones. While we recognize the importance of being able to get in touch with your child, we do not see cause for students to have "smart" mobile devices or access to social media, particularly while in school. In fact, we encourage you to make a pact with the parents of your child's classmates and Wait Until 8th grade before purchasing smart devices for your children. Social Media is developmentally too advanced for our students. If students need a phone to be able to reach you or for you to reach them, purchase a "dumb phone" that is only a phone and has no access to other apps. Please also help us diminish the use of these existing devises in school by refraining from texting your child until after school.

If your child already has a smart phone or access to social media, please be sure that you have full access and passwords to explore the phone, the photos, and the social media accounts. And please remove access to these devices and the internet in the overnight hours. Together we can support and assist students in this digital age.

Next week our Enrichment program will begin. We will share information with students on Monday about the Enrichments that they have been assigned to based on their survey selections. We are committed to limiting any kind of fees for Enrichments (other than theater and interscholastic sports teams) when possible. Your contribution to our Student Success Fund allows us to meet this commitment. Please help. us reach our goal of 100% participation in the Student Success Fund. Your support goes a long way for our students.

Finally, for our 4th grade parents, we will have an early release day for 4th graders only on Monday October 4. This will allow time for our 4th grade teachers to attend some necessary meetings. We appreciate your flexibility with this change to our calendar. Again, this early release day is for 4th grade only.

Enjoy the weekend.

Peter Cohen, Ed.D
Head of School
Update from Student Services

The MCCPS SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council) is a parent advisory council. Last year, we had many exciting speakers on topics such as executive functioning, mindfulness, and how to navigate a neuropsych evaluation, among many others. We also had a few meetings without a specific speaker, but just a time to catch up and check-in with each other to discuss how to work with and help our kids. To join SEPAC, your child does not need to be on an IEP. We invite all and anyone! To make the most of this year, we have put together a short survey to see what is of interest to our community. Thank you for taking the time to fill out a few brief questions that will help us form a great year for SEPAC!

October 4 at 6:30pm via Zoom
Basic Rights: Understanding Eligibility, Evaluations, and the IEP
Presentor: Andrea Barlow, Director of Student Services, MCCPS
Upcoming Events

Thursday September 30 - MCCPS Curriculum Night - Via Zoom - 6:30PM (link shared next week)
Wednesday October 6 - School Picture Day
Friday October 8 - Early Release Day
Monday October 11 - No School - Indigenous Peoples' Day
Tuesday October 12 - No School - Professional Development Day for Faculty


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)

Monday September 27 - Development & Communications Committee Meeting 7pm
Tuesday September 28 - Board of Trustees Meeting 7pm
Monday October 4 - SEPAC Meeting 6:30pm
Tuesday October 5 - Governance 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.