Dear Assumption Families,                                                                                                Tuesday, August 24, 2021

We hope that you have enjoyed your summer and are ready to head back to school.  It was nice to be able to travel to see family and friends. 

We have been working all summer to make improvements to the building. The PreK four room, fifth grade, and sixth grade have new carpeting and paint.  PreK three has new flooring.  Our parking lot paint will be refreshed for the new school year.  The playground is ready to have children back climbing and sliding.  Many of our parents have helped out this summer to make these improvements happen.  We cannot thank you enough.

I would like to welcome Mrs. Jackie Heider to our staff. Jackie Heider is the new Kindergarten Teacher. She is a first-year teacher and is excited to be teaching at Assumption School. She is looking forward to learning and growing this year with her Kindergarteners. Over the summer, Jackie got married and lives in Shrewsbury with her husband, Eric and their dog, Denali. Together, they enjoy hiking, exercising, and spending time with family. In her free time, Jackie enjoys cooking and baking vegan food and desserts, especially cupcakes! Jackie is very passionate about teaching and has wanted to be a kindergarten teacher since she was a little girl. She loves to incorporate movement and song into the school day and one of her goals as a teacher is to make learning fun! Jackie can’t wait to meet all of her new students and their families!

We are very excited to be welcoming the students back to school on Wednesday, September 1^st.  Please remember this is a half day with no extended day. When school resumes, it will continue to be all of our responsibility to keep the school community healthy and safe.  In an effort to keep our students and families safe, we will again carefully consider the guidance that is given to us from The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the Diocese of Worcester, the CDC, and our local board of health. 

Assumption School was very successful last year in keeping our students safe, healthy and in school.  The most important thing that you can do is to keep your child/ren home if they are not feeling well.  This means if your child has a fever, loss of taste or smell, a runny nose, aches, difficulty breathing or any other signs of COVID, please keep them home. With your help we can again have a great year, being in school.

Assumption School will continue to keep the kids in their pods.  This is the best way for us to keep track of any close contacts.  This will also happen at recess time.

Masks will be required this year when the students are entering the building, in the hallways, in church, going to the bathroom, going to the nurse/office, in Art, Music, Foreign Language (as these teachers see all of the students), while working in small groups, are in close proximity to each other or the teacher, or when the teacher sees fit. This mask policy may change as new mandates are handed down by the state. While we understand that some people oppose any type of mask wearing, please consider carefully how very healthy our student body remained last school year.  If you would like your child to maintain mask wearing throughout the entire school day, please be sure he or she knows to do so.  It will not be the teacher’s responsibility to monitor those decisions. Come October 1^st, the conditions within the school community will be assessed and will dictate any changes.

Our teachers will be taking the kids outside for classes as much as possible.  This allows the students to be unmasked.  Children will remain unmasked, and in their pods at recess.

We will continue to use hand sanitizer and wash our hands consistently.  Please feel free to send bottles of hand sanitizer to your child’s homeroom teacher or the school office!

Any visitors that need to be in the building, must be masked. We would ask that if you are feeling ill in any way, please refrain from visiting until you are feeling better.

Assumption School will continue to be sanitized and cleaned each night as was done last year.  This is just another layer of safety for our students and staff.  We will continue the use the air purifiers as we did last year.

PTG functions, clubs, band, chorus, sports, and drama, will go on as planned.

Drop off in the morning and pick up in the afternoon will remain the same as last year.  PLEASE MAKE A NAME CARD DISPLAYING YOUR CHILD’S LAST NAME, this will help us keep carline moving at the end of the day.  The name card needs to be displayed either in the front window or on the visor where it is easiest for us to see.  Here is the link for carline procedures.  https://www.assumptionschoolmillbury.org/car-line

There will be a separate email about quarantining if a child tests positive or is a close contact.  This will be out before school starts.

Protecting your family and other Assumption families will depend upon the commitment of each and every one of us to follow the best practices in fighting COVID-19. Please remember that keeping your child home with that bad cold will help keep our kids in school. As always err on the side of caution.

In closing, COVID-19 is still in our community and represents a health risk for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. It is important that everyone work together to keep each other safe and healthy.

Blessings for a safe and healthy school year,

Mrs. Olson

Father Mulcahy