Good morning! Daylight Saving Time ends today so don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour. All of the latest announcements for WMS are below.

Reminder: There’s NO SCHOOL FRIDAY for Veterans Day weekend. Enjoy the long weekend!

All the best,
Your 2023-2024 PTO Presidents
Annie Oh & Katie Sullivan

Links for information on dates and events that are further out: 

LINK to Wellesley Middle School Events Calendar

LINK to Wellesley Public School Events Calendar  

Monday evening there will be an informational meeting for parents of French students about the Quebec Trip. Please check your email for a note from your child’s French teacher.

We hope you enjoy the long weekend coming up!

This is a Wednesday morning all-school event the half-day before Thanksgiving Break. Sign up here to volunteer for shifts and help pack food donations into boxes in Gym B. Students march through with their donations by advisory group, and then they have a photo taken in Gym A (the big gym). Students will pick a theme with their advisory and dress up a little. 

There is no school on Thursday (11/23), Friday (11/24) and Monday, (11/27).

Join us for a special evening All Parent WMS PTO meeting in Boston with the WHS PTSO and Stephanie Holland, our new K-12 METCO Director. We have reserved the Shelburne Community Center, 2730 Washington Street, Roxbury 02119. All parents are welcome to join us! 

Please join us in the WMS Auditorium the evening of December 5th (around 6:30/7pm start time). Katie Greer empowers kids and parents to use technology in a healthy and safe way. She will speak to 7th & 8th grade students during the day and all WMS parents in the evening. (She will be back to speak to 6th grade students when they are in 8th grade.) This special event is made possible by your contributions to the PTO Creative Arts budget. Get to know Katie Greer here.

Our third PTO meeting for all parents will be a webinar on Executive Function skills and good study habits for middle schoolers. Please mark your calendars for Monday, January 29th at 7pm for this special presentation by “Engaging Minds” in Newton.  
Click here to register in advance.

Thank you for supporting the WMS PTO with a whopping 56 spirit wear orders online! If you have chosen school pick up, the Spirit Wear Committee will email you with specifics in early December. The items will most likely be in the main office at school for you or your child to pick up. The Spirit Store will still be open every Wednesday when there’s an early release from 11:20am - Noon (except 11/22 before Thanksgiving Break). If you have already sent your annual appeal donation to the PTO, please stop by to get a brand new WMS logo car sticker or car magnet on us! Contact wmspto.spiritwear@gmail.com for car stickers, car magnets, Raiders hoodies, pj pants, t-shirts and more!

On the half-day Wednesday, 11/22, the WMS Fitness & Health department (along with parent support) will hold the 27th Annual Turkey Promenade. During this event, students donate food to shelters/pantries in need. If you own a store, have Amazon boxes overflowing, or perhaps you just moved, Julie Newman would love to hear from you at julie.newman1@me.com. Thank you to all of you who have already dropped off boxes!

Please take a look at the Lost & Found slideshow and claim anything that belongs to your student. (Lost & Found can be found directly outside the main office). Unclaimed items will be washed and donated over Thanksgiving Break.

Now more than ever, we need help from our WMS community! These unprecedented times have severely impacted food security and access to basic necessities for some of our WMS students and their families.

What is WMS Cares?

WMS Cares is a PTO Committee focused on assisting and supporting WMS families in need of help.  We support families facing an extraordinary event such as birth, hospitalization, serious injury, surgery, loss of a loved one, etc. as well as families that need help with basic necessities for their children.  Our committee raises funds specifically to help provide supermarket gift cards, gas and winter clothing for dozens of struggling WMS families.  

WMS Cares relies on parent volunteers like you to lend a hand and/or donate funds or urgent items for families within our school community.  We work closely with our WMS social worker (Shelby Derissaint) to determine urgent needs for our most vulnerable families. 

We need your help!

Please consider emailing wmscares21@gmail.com to be added to our WMS Cares distribution list and receive up-to-date emails about urgent needs within our community.  Thank you for your support!! 

WMS Cares Co-Chairs,
Carol Tham & Amy Hernandez

Do you fancy yourself a good proofreader? We could use a helper to proofread the WMS newsletter each week (typically on Friday/Saturday). The job is about 1-2 hours a week and we will provide training on Membership Toolkit, the online tool we use to create the newsletter. Please email us wmsptoinfo@gmail.com if you would like to view the editing tool and see if this small job is for you!

Please help us preserve the investment of the 4 flower pots at the Kingsbury and Donizetti doors. The pots are beautifully planted seasonally by parent Aisha Usmani and she would love some help keeping them watered (on your own flexible schedule). Please email wmsptoinfo@gmail.com if this job interests you. (If you can’t get to it every week, that’s fine by us! Any bit of help is appreciated if they look dry and you feel like adding a little water to them.)

On another note, we would like to thank Christen Deveney, Wyatt Jaffe, and Caroline Jaffe for their community service to help spruce up the WMS Pollinator garden last weekend with Kristen Toffer, Katie Sullivan, and Susy Jordan from the town. We hope to plan another morning in the spring to do some mulching before 8th Grade Graduation. The suffering Japanese Maple trees will also be tended to soon. Please click the red button below if you would like to donate to these efforts to keep our school looking beautiful!

Did you know that we have a directory that lists all WMS students and parents that have opted-in? Here’s how to access it: Go to Membership Toolkit and login (from a computer the first time). Use the same email address you gave WPS in PowerSchool at the beginning of the year (when you received your homeroom assignment). Once you've successfully logged in on the computer, you can download and use the Membership Toolkit app on your phone. 

Notes:

• Login from a computer the first time
• You do need to toggle between your multiple schools
• Tap the three lines in the top left corner and then tap what looks a little like a recycle symbol to see all your schools and switch between them

Planning on running the Wellesley Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning? Why not join the WMS team! Just click "Join a Team" on the registration page, and then select Wellesley Middle School from the list.  A prize will be awarded for the largest school team - we can totally win!

Click here to register

The WMS runners will meet at the M&T bank birdhouses afterwards to say a quick “hello”. If anyone would like to bring some treats to share, please feel free to let us know at wmsptoinfo@gmail.com.

We are at 30% family participation for the annual appeal last we tallied the numbers, which is wonderful news. If you haven’t donated yet we are holding a special raffle this month! Donate between now and the end of November to be entered into a raffle to win a $25 gift certificate to the Spirit Wear Store. All you have to do is click the red button below to donate and we’ll do all the rest! (Suggested donation is $125 per student. Any and all donations are very much appreciated to help us continue our efforts of school support). We haven’t quite funded our entire $67k budget for the school year but we are getting there thanks to you! If you have already donated, please stop by the Spirit Wear Store on the next early release day to pick up your free WMS logo car sticker! 

Chart Graphic Source: Vecteezy.com

All student-athletes are required to have a current physical examination on file in the Health Office before a student can try-out, practice, or participate in a sport as required by the MIAA guidelines.

The Athletic Office and/or individual coaches will not accept physical examination reports. To check your student’s physical examination status, please sign into the SNAP Parent Health Portal and click on the “Screening” tab. If your student has a current physical examination on file (within the past 13 months) in the nurse’s office and it is NOT due to expire, you do not need to provide another copy. Physical exams are valid for 13 months to the date.

If your student’s physical exam expires during the sports season, your student will no longer be able to participate until a new physical examination has been obtained and is on file in the nurse’s office. Updated physical forms can be uploaded through the SNAP Health Portal.

PLEASE NOTE: Late submission of physicals delays the student from any athletic activity until all the registration requirements are completed. The nursing staff is not available to receive physicals from 11/22 through 11/27 please be sure to have physicals in by the due date.

Kris Gusmini , RN
WMS Nurse’s Office
Tel: 781-446-6210 x 3612
Fax: 781-304-8101
Email: gusminik@wellesleyps.org

50 Kingsbury Street
Wellesley, MA 02482