Dear Families,
Please see below for this week’s announcements.
COVID Testing
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Report Card
ACCESS Testing
Upcoming Family Town Hall
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 and Ms. Etheart, at nurses@bostonprep.org. Our nurses will partner with you to determine whether your child must remain home from school and for how long. You will be notified by Boston Prep’s Nursing Team if your student tests positive for COVID. If you do not receive notification from our Nurses, you should assume that your child has not tested positive.
If you have not yet registered your child for our FREE COVID testing program, please do so now!
Thank you for continuing to be our partners in ensuring the health and safety of the Boston Prep community.
II. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Report Card
We are pleased to include an overview of our school’s “report card” provided annually by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (updated (2021) report card). Report cards provide answers to questions about a school's overall performance and contain specific information about student enrollment and teacher qualifications, student achievement, accountability, how our school is performing relative to other schools in the district and the state, and the progress made toward narrowing proficiency gaps for different groups of students.
As a school we remain committed to each individual student’s success and fulfillment of our mission to prepare all students to succeed in four-year colleges. As we return to in-person schooling, we have set academic priorities for all students to engage in rigorous, grade level work each day and meet expectations on MCAS. All of the data included in the report card helps us to identify students', curricular and programming strengths and areas in need of additional support.
For more information about our school’s report card or to request information about the qualifications of your child’s classroom teachers, please feel free to contact us at (617) 333-6688.
III. Access Testing
ACCESS stands for "Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners." It's a test that's given to students from kindergarten to grade 12, to assess their progress in learning English.
Access testing will be administered on the following dates:
Middle School Testing Dates
High School Testing Dates
IV. Upcoming Family Town Hall
Join us on Wednesday, February 16, 6:00 PM at our Family Town Hall. Topic to be discussed will be: Planning for the next school year. If you haven’t registered yet, you still have time to click on this link and Register. Visit our website to view our other upcoming Town Halls.
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.
V. Boston Prep Events/Announcements
Spread the Word: We need YOUR help and support to spread the word. The deadline for student applications is quickly approaching on February 28 and we want to reach as many prospective families as possible. We would appreciate it if you would please share information about enrollment.
There are several ways to share information on the enrollment deadline:
You could share it on your personal pages and/or on any neighborhood or parent or other groups you are members of on Facebook (for example, “Hyde Park, MA Neighbors” group).
Share the attached image with the following language (or write your own!): Boston Prep is a free charter public school, preparing all students for success in college and beyond. Enroll today before the February 28 deadline! https://www.bostonprep.org/enroll.
Post about your own experience & photos and recommend your friends and family attend an upcoming virtual open house and enroll using this link: https://www.bostonprep.org/enroll
Thank you for helping spread the word!
College Admission Decisions & Financial Aid Letters: Seniors should start receiving admission decisions and financial aid award letters in the mail over the next few weeks. Please continue to monitor the mail and ask your senior about any letters they may be receiving from the schools they applied to. The CCO does not receive notification of these updates, so being on top of reviewing and opening mail is a critical component to ensuring we have all the information needed to make an informed college decision by May 1st, 2022.
Scholarship Database: We have officially entered scholarship application season. The CCO recently sent out a list of scholarships that our seniors should consider applying to. Interested in learning more – check out the scholarship list here!
Extracurricular Program site: There are some great opportunities that can be found on the Extracurricular Program site, which is also bookmarked on your student’s Chromebook. Student’s will need to be logged into their Boston Prep Google Account in order to view them. As we learn about more opportunities from events, jobs, and programs, they will be updated on the site, so make sure to check out the site on a regular basis! Currently some programs to check out on the site are:
Juniper Young Writers Online
Hoop Brains
Arts Bridge Summer Fashion Design
Yale Young Women's Leadership Launch
Brandeis University Pre-College Programs
MassBay STEM Stories
Gettysburg College Pre-college Programs
Humboldt Storage and Moving
VI. Community Events/AnnouncementsBlack History Month: February 1 - March 1: Here are some ways you can celebrate Black History Month in February—and the rich tradition of African Americans. Below you’ll find a list of more than a dozen local events to help you celebrate Black History Month in Boston; follow the links for more information on each:
Feb. 3: Check out Boston Public Library’s event: Plant-based eating across the African diaspora
Feb. 5: Enjoy ‘rhythm, rhymes, and reparations’ at a BHM poetry slam
Feb. 7-28: Celebrate Black Americans through film at The Boston Globe’s Black History Month Film Festival
Feb. 17: Get ‘Drunk Black History’ in Somerville
Feb. 17-March 20: Cambridge’s Central Square Theater to debut play ‘Young Nerds of Color’
Feb. 18: ArtsEmerson to debut documentary ‘Fannie Lou Hamer’s America’ followed by Q+A
Feb. 10: Listen to the ‘Sound of Soul’ at Berklee College
Feb. 10: Tune into a book talk with Anita Hill
Through Feb. 26: Learn about families still searching for justice at a special ‘Un(re)solved’ installation at the Museum of African American History
Feb. 22: City Winery Boston will host Black Opry’s Black History Month celebration
Feb. 23-27: Experience the life of Miriam Makeba in ArtEmerson’s ‘Dreaming Zenzile’ at the Emerson Paramount Center
Feb. 24: Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy hosts Black voices storytime for Black History Month
FREE February Break events
APPENDIX: FAMILY QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
Upcoming Dates
Wednesday, February 16 - Family Town Hall - Register Here
Monday, February 21-Friday, February 25 - February Break - No School
Monday, February 28 - Enrollment Deadline
Wednesday, March 2 – Family Town Hall - Register
Tuesday, March 9 - Enrollment Lottery
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