Dear Families,

Please see below for this week’s announcements.

COVID Testing
Upcoming Family Town Hall
Winter Break Reminder
Middle School Cell Phone Policy
Screenings
Boston Prep Events/Announcements
Community Events/Announcements

Stay safe and be well!

Sincerely,

Sharon Liszanckie
Executive Director

I. COVID Testing

At Boston Prep, health and safety is our number one priority. We ask for your help, as families, in a few ways.

Keep your child home if they are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19. If you believe your child is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 or has been exposed to someone with COVID-19, please immediately contact our nurses, Ms. Golafaie, Ms. Etheart and Ms. Fenoglietto, at nurses@bostonprep.org. Our nurses will partner with you to determine whether your child must remain home from school and for how long.

If you have not yet registered your child for our FREE COVID testing program, please do so now!

II. Upcoming Family Town Hall

Please join us TONIGHT, December 21, 2022 from 6:00-7:00pm as the Middle School will be hosting a Middle School Family Town Hall. We will be going over our new adoption of Yondr. Just click on this Zoom Link: https://bostonprep-org.zoom.us/j/4404243751 to join. Please see below for further details on the Middle School Cell Phone Policy with Yondr.

We are eager to have as many families as possible join us for this Town Hall so that we can continue to partner together to ensure Boston Prep is an excellent, equitable school for all.

III. Winter Break Reminder

Boston Prep will be closed for Winter Break from Thursday, December 23 - January 2, 2022. There will be no school on these days. Please have a safe and relaxing winter break! See you in 2022!

IV. Middle School Cell Phone Policy:

We are writing to share exciting news – we will begin the new year as a phone-free Middle School to improve teaching and learning! We will be using a system called Yondr to achieve this goal. Yondr has been used across the world in over 1,000 schools to encourage people to engage with each other, their surroundings, and learning, and not with the distraction of technology.

Please take the time to review the new Middle School Cell Phone policy, included here. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school directly and please watch this informational video.

In an effort to best serve your child, we appreciate your full support in adoption of the Yondr Program at our school.

V. Screenings

When we return from winter break, we will begin to conduct the following screenings for students at Boston Prep :

Body Mass Index (7th and 10th grades)
Vision (6th and 9th grades)
Hearing (6th and 9th grades)
Posture (6th – 9th grades)

The purpose of these screenings is to identify possible visual, hearing, weight, or posture issues as early as possible so that the need for intervention can be determined. The school nurses will be conducting the screenings.

If further consultation is recommended, parents will be notified of the findings and will be asked to seek further evaluation from their primary care physician.

If you do not wish for your child to be screened in a specific screening or all of the screenings, please send a written note addressed to the school nurse, with your request for your student to not participate, by Wednesday, January 5, 2022. Your child will also have the option to opt out by signing a form in the nurse’s office if they do not wish to be screened.

If you have any questions concerning these screenings, please feel free to contact the nurses at nurses@bostonprep.org .

VI. Boston Prep Events/Announcements

Office hours, sports and clubs: are cancelled for Wednesday, December 23 except for Choir Club. On this day, all students except those in the choir club must exit the building by 3:10 PM. Resources for students off campus during this time include Hyde Park Library, Municipal Building. The front desk will be open until 4:30 PM.

Family Committee Meeting: You are invited to our first Family Committee Meeting for 2022! This will be held on Wednesday, January 5th @7pm. Please take some time to sign up here to be a part of our Family Committee and find out more and register here to attend our first meeting! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to Madelyn Ruizdeporras, our Family Operations Manager at: mruizdeporras@bostonprep.org
Enrollment is OPEN: If you have a child that is entering grades 6-10 next fall and would like them to enroll at Boston Prep or know someone who is interested in enrolling at Boston Prep for the 2022-2023 school year, enrollment is now open. Siblings of currently enrolled students receive preference on the waitlist, but families must submit an application. Deadline to enroll is February 28, 2022.
Apply today and SPREAD the WORD! You can apply by heading to this link: application
.

VII. Community Events/Announcements

No Community Events/Announcements available at this time.
APPENDIX: FAMILY QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

Upcoming Dates

Tuesday, December 22 - Middle School Family Town Hall - Zoom Link here

Thursday, December 23 - January 2, 2022 - No school (Winter Break)
Wednesday, January 5 - Family Committee Meeting - Register Here
Monday, January 17 - Martin Luther King Day - No School

Have questions?

Please don’t ever hesitate to reach out with questions! You can contact your child’s advisor or utilize any of the email addresses below.

For questions about yellow school buses, MBTA passes, and transportation: transportation@bostonprep.org
To report an absence or tardiness: attendance@bostonprep.org
To submit a physical exam record or to discuss health-related topics: nurses@bostonprep.org
For information about resources, please familiarize yourselves with our boston prep resource page: https://www.bostonprep.org/resources
For other questions: info@bostonprep.org