January 7, 2022 - Week 18

 Dear Dale Street Families,

Happy New Year Dale Street Community! It was exciting to welcome back our students to #beproudbedale this week.  I have no doubt that we will navigate these continued difficult times with flexibility, patience, and teamwork.   I appreciate your partnership in doing so.  Well, winter definitely has arrived.  Although a snow day just after a vacation is not optimal, we did have quite a few students home sick this week and hopefully, this extra day will allow a more robust return on Monday!

On Monday, Mrs. Scott's fourth-grade students evaluated solutions to reduce impacts of natural events.  Students had great discussions about how to possibly stop a landslide.  

I think Ms. Sager's fifth-grade students had a crystal ball.  Check out this beautiful bulletin board they created earlier this week.  What students enjoy about a snow day is awesome!  

On Thursday, I had the great opportunity to listen to Dale Street's grade 4 orchestra.  The amount of growth that these students have demonstrated since September is fantastic! 

A HUGE thank you to our AMAZING PTO!  Just before winter break members of the PTO delivered a lot of books from their STOCK THE SHELVES event.  It was a huge success! As a result of families' incredible generosity, $2500 dollars of new books were donated to classroom libraries at Dale. On behalf of the teachers and students - Thank You!!!

Positive Sign Thursday!

'WE ARE KIND!'  

Masks are required for all students and staff members and must be worn over the mouth and nose to be effective.  Many of our students are excellent at wearing masks at all times but some struggle to maintain this behavior (this includes the bus).  We would ask that all parents stress the importance of mask-wearing at all times while at school.  Our goal is to keep everyone healthy and at school!  Our combined support around the proper wearing of masks will be helpful.  

New book alert!  Thank you to Library Media Specialist, Ms. Sweeney for getting them so quickly! 

Dear Dale Families, 

I wanted to express how difficult a decision it was for me to advise our teachers to cancel their January concerts. A student's first concert is a truly exciting experience and each year our youngest ensemble students are thrilled to play for their families. Given the current COVID data, it would be very difficult to hold our concert for several reasons: 

1. The size of the high school stage would put the students of our largest ensembles within 1-2 feet of each other for over 45 minutes. 

2. The typical pre-concert activities of meeting with students at the high school and getting them ready for performance would make contract tracing virtually impossible. 

3. The audience size of our largest ensembles would exceed the 50% capacity limit of the auditorium. 

Please know that the administration of the Medfield schools has been nothing but supportive throughout the continuing pandemic. Without their efforts it's likely we wouldn't be able to offer ensembles to our elementary students at all. If you have any further questions/concerns regarding the cancellation of these events, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at jbielik@email.medfield.net. 

Sincerely, Mr. Jason Bielik, K-12 Director of Music 

Ms. Plympton's fourth-grade students got right back at it this week.  These ROCKSTARS explored improper fractions and mixed numbers.  It is always awesome to watch students model their thinking! 

On Friday, January 14th Dale Street will have a  Crazy Hat Day - Students and staff are encouraged to wear their favorite hat to school — the weirder and wackier, the better.

Thank you again for your continued support.  Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy New Year!

Best, Steve

Respect * Compassion * Collaboration * Continuous Growth