March of the Palindromes...an update! WPS 3-2-23
Rather than sending out the March update on the 1st, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to post it with today’s date and enjoy the numerical palindrome, 3/2/23. Of course, the full palindrome will be Monday the 20th. Today is just a teaser. Between March 4th, Pie Day, and now the two palindromes in one month, March 2023 is a great month for calendar fun.
This month Westford Public Schools will be participating in Neurodiversity Celebration Week from March 13-19. As a community, this celebration is intended to build awareness and appreciation of neurodiverse individuals. Each of our schools will be conducting age appropriate events and or activities such as exploring specific literature or read-alouds, introducing learners to famous neurodiverse individuals, and or sharing fun facts and information through special announcements and events. Many of our classrooms already include curriculum throughout the year that helps to highlight the importance of building this awareness and we are excited as a community to bring this dedicated focus to everyone’s attention during a unified week of celebration.
Finally, I would like to remind everyone of our upcoming WPS Master Plan Feasibility Study Community Discussion and Feedback Session taking place next Thursday, March 9 at 7:00pm. There are two different ways to participate and provide input; either by joining us in person at the Stony Brook Auditorium or accessing remotely by registering through the Zoom Webinar at the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CnfZmVqqQnS151Nr8orFpA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
During the session, representatives from the design firm SMMA will facilitate a feedback session designed to gather input and feedback as to the grade configurations and geographic assignments of students at our elementary schools as well as the transitions between schools within our district. They will be using a specific platform that will allow both those in person and those accessing remotely to provide feedback throughout the event. During the January 30th School Committee meeting, the project team leaders from SMMA gave an update presentation to provide examples as to what types of data and information will be included in their final study report towards the end of the year which will identify facility and educational needs for the next ten years. They presented a brief overview of how they assess the buildings and gave the School Committee an example of some of the information that will be included in their final report. The current collection of data from all of the completed building tours is nearly 500 pages long. It might be helpful to watch that presentation on the WestfordCAT YouTube channel to gather additional context prior to this upcoming feedback session.