October 9th, 2020

 Good Evening Parents/Guardians and Students:

Picture Retakes

Picture retakes will be held here at Newton next week on Wednesday, October 14th from 3-5:00 pm. Students will need to enter the building through the main office doors. This also includes any TOPS students who still need to have their picture taken.

Register today for the LPS Foundation Virtual Stride and be entered to win prizes for you and your school! 

Last year, Newton received a $1,000 for the most increased registrants from a middle school. Let’s win again! Register at runthestride.com for the virtual event held October 23-25th.

The LPS Foundation will be giving out a total of $10,000 in Stride Grants to schools based on participation, school spirit, and random drawing. In addition, there are new contests: Please check them out here. The focus is on health, wellness, community, and school spirit. Our goal is to promote a healthy and active lifestyle along with building partnerships and support for Littleton Public Schools... oh yeah, and raising needed funds for all LPS schools!

Link your Amazon account to Newton Middle School in time for next week’s PRIME DAYS.

Did you know that Newton Middle School can earn a small percentage from every Amazon order you place if you choose our school as the beneficiary of your Amazon Smile account. Link your account to our school today in time for next week’s Amazon Prime Days. Every order you place will earn us a little something. See the attached flyer for instructions. To note: Even though each LPS PTO has a unique EIN, the IRS has the primary name of each organization listed as ‘Littleton Public Schools Parent Teacher Organization’.  So, when you search for Newton Middle School, what will pop up to display in AmazonSmile is ‘Littleton Public Schools Parent Teacher Organization’.  This makes it difficult to know whether you are selecting your organization in AmazonSmile, but trust us, we get the funds. Please search for the following name when selecting us AmazonSmile: Newton Middle School PTO.

International Baccalaureate program at Littleton High School

Beginning October 14, LHS will have virtual 8th grade visits. Sign up here. During those visits, our IB Coordinator will be available for questions. More info about IB can be found on our website and the IB application and info about why we like students to apply in 8th grade can be found here.

Parent/Teacher Conferences COVID Style

During a typical school year, we would be inviting all parents into the building for Parent Teacher Conferences… parents would walk around, wait in line, meet with teachers for 5 minutes and then move onto the next teacher, and receive feedback of how things are going for your child. 

However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are unable to host any parents in our building this year.  Additionally, teachers are unable to schedule 5 minute conferences via Google Meets, as they will see upwards of 150 students every week.  That would be 12 ½ hours of conferences, with zero minutes of breaks between and unfortunately, impossible to organize and schedule.  We do have some time next Wednesday evening and Thursday during the day to set up time to discuss concerns you may have, but if every parent is looking to talk with a teacher, it will cause quite a hardship for our teachers.

That being said, we do want to be able to provide feedback “if you have concerns” in regards to your children and how things are going thus far. If you are interested in receiving feedback from your children’s teachers this year and have concerns, please complete this form.

We hope that if things are going well, that you can honor our teacher's time and email, as needed, if you develop concerns as the semester/year moves forward.  Once again, we appreciate your patience with us as we are trying to develop relationships, provide academic support and enrichments, and help your children grow academically.

Once again, please fill out the form if you have concerns.  We will do all we can to provide valid feedback and help to team with you to support your children and their academic needs. We need the google form completed by 6:00 pm on Monday, October 12th.

Have a great weekend. James O’Tremba Principal, Newton Middle School