Friday, January 9, 2015

Hello PWS Families,

Happy New Year!  It has been a great start to 2015.  Everyone came back happy and ready to learn!

This morning we appreciated everyone working together to get the children into school safely. During parent drop off, the students were so sweet as they squinted their eyes as snow fell into them.  One student said, "I do not like this weather."

We were able to get into some second grade classes to help out with Bedford Elementary Science Technicians (BEST) lessons.  Students learned the difference between weight and mass.  They love being scientists and making predictions on the mass of objects.

New Hampshire Food Bank sent PWS a thank you card for sending 3,425 pounds of food. That amount feeds 3,246 families.  Thank you so much for your generous donations.  It is great to teach children the message of giving to those in need.

As we all know, New Hampshire in the Winter is cold.  This, of course, means many indoor recesses.  This can be difficult for some students and adults:).  We work hard to bring in daily movement breaks and Rechargers so students get to exert energy with their bodies.

We want to remind parents to please continue to drop off at the back parking lot.  The front area is not supervised by an adult and can get really dangerous for children.  We have observed many students walking through cars which is concerning.

A couple messages from the Superintendent

District Text Messaging
On January 16, we will be implementing the text messaging option of our emergency communication system. Once the system is live, you will be invited via a text message to opt into receiving future text messages from the district. The invitation text message will read: “Bedford School District text messages. Reply Y for aprx 3 msgs/mo. Txt HELP 4info. Msg&data rates may apply. See schoolmessenger.com/tm"  We want to use text message services effectively so we will be implementing it carefully. 

​If your cell phone number has changed, you may update it through the Powerschool parent portal.  Follow the "demographic change" link.

Student Fee/ Cost Study Report
In December, the District asked parents to complete a survey on the fees and costs paid by parents to support school activities.  We want to thank all of you who completed the survey​, and we want to thank every one of you who helps support our schools and our students.  By one measure, parents provide about $1.2 million in financial  support to our schools each year.  That is a huge help!  If you want to read the full report, you can access it here.  

Have a great weekend,

Cheryl Daley           Dan Mitchell

Principal                  Assistant Principal