Dear Families,

Thank you to all the families who attended the Sweetheart Dance on Friday evening. We had a fabulous turnout, and everyone seemed to have a great time! A special thank you to the many PTO members who organized this event and spent time planning, decorating, setting and cleaning up. We could not do this without you! Be sure to check out photos below from this fun-filled evening!

To continue the celebrations, many classrooms will be acknowledging Valentine's Day this week. For elementary students, this is the opportunity to recognize friendships. As a friendly reminder, if your child is participating in a Valentine's Day exchange, we want to make sure all members of the classroom community are included, and following our guidelines there is no candy or food exchanged.

All report cards were released to families last week through the Parent Portal which you can access Here. Remember, these are standards-based report cards used to explicitly state what students must know and be able to do by the end of the school year. Therefore, it is not unusual for most students to be "Developing" along these standards at this point in the school year. Not all standards have been taught, so it is also not uncommon to see NA on the report card as well. These areas will be addressed in upcoming units that will be taught before the end of the school year. Our second set of conferences will be held in March, and classroom teachers will be reaching out with selected dates/times for parents/guardians to attend. If you have any questions about your child's report card, please reach out to their teacher.

For all of you sports fans, enjoy the Super Bowl!

Exciting additions! Starting the Monday after February vacation, we'll take absences, tardies, and changes in dismissal on Pick-Up Patrol.

We share in your excitement for your child to enroll in Kindergarten for the 2025-2026 school year and look forward to them being a part of the Andover Public School community in September.

Kindergarten registration will begin on Monday, February 3 to Monday, March 3, 2025. Please access the Kindergarten Registration Link on our website.

To find which school your child will attend, review our district map at this link. Following your registration, please contact your school directly to make an appointment to submit your registration paperwork.

For your reference, student eligibility requirements are as follows:

Kindergarten:

As per School Committee Policy (Policy JF: Residency, School Admission, Entrance Age), children must be 5 years old on or before August 31, 2025 and entering Kindergarten in the Andover Public Schools for the first time.

First Grade: (New to Andover /Andover Public Schools)

Children must be age 6 on or before August 31, 2025 and enrolling in the Andover Public Schools for the first time or transferring from another school district or private school.

The first day of school for Pre-K and Kindergarten students is Tuesday, September 2, 2025.

We look forward to meeting all our incoming students and families in the new school year!

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, we will have an author visiting with grades 3, 4, and 5. Multi-award-winning author Rajani Larocca (https://www.rajanilarocca.com/) is coming! Rajani Larocca is the author of many books, everything from picture-book fiction and non-fiction to young reader chapter books and older reader chapter books. She writes non-fiction, realistic fiction, heart-gripping older reader fiction, and fantasy. In her daily work life, she is a doctor!

Some of her books include: upper elementary fantasy, Sona and the Golden Beasts; upper elementary realistic fiction Red, White, and Whole; picture book non-fiction A Vaccine is like a promise; elementary non-fiction The Secret Code inside you all about your DNA; elementary realistic fiction The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class Rohan Murthy has a plan; and many more.

She has won many awards for her books. For Red, White and Whole, she won the Newbery Honor Medal, New England Book Award, MA Book Award for middle school fiction, Washington Post Best Children’s Book, New York Public Library Best Book, School Library Journal Best Middle Grade, any others. For Where Three Oceans Meet, she won 2021 Nerdy Book Award Winner, CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Council) Choices 2022 Award, South Asia Book Award Honor, and many others. This is only a small sample of her awards!

We are happy to offer a book sale of Dr. LaRocca’s books through the Andover Bookstore at a discounted price! Families interested in ordering any of these books can fill out the attached form and send payment by February, 7th! Any questions can be emailed to Ms. Kaplan at Jamie.kaplan@andoverma.us.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vRH3DoL3SgxhF4grbElRg2a_4F6RYtvQU-9iVGJfdtY/edit?usp=sharing

This author visit is sponsored by a Cummings Grant.

Registration for the West EL Girls On the Run program is open.

Site/Team Name: West Elementary, Andover

Grades: 3rd-5th

Practice Days & Times: Thurs/Fri 3:30pm-5pm

First Practice: Thurs April 3rd

5K: TBD (either 5/31 or 6/1)

Program Fee: $225 Financial Assistance available!

GOTR Contact: please forward questions to Danielle Cogliano dlcogliano@gmail.com

https://www.girlsontherunboston.org/

Scan QR to register online!

The Grade 5 Joy Concert will take place at the J. Everett Collins Center for the Performing Arts in Andover High School on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM. Students are required to wear a white top, black pants (as dark as possible) and black/dark shoes. Please reach out to your music teacher if you have trouble obtaining the outfit. This is an expected event for all Grade 5 students. The Fine Arts department requests you limit attendance to two seats per child given capacity limitations.

The Andover Public Schools FY26 Budget process began last fall and has been shaped over the past few months. The fiscal challenges the district faced last year continue for FY26 and beyond. Key factors contributing to these challenges include rising costs in transportation, salaries, special education programming, and utilities.

To promote opportunities for community involvement, APS superintendent Dr. Parvey and Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Administration Keith Taverna will be visiting all schools’ PTO/PAC meetings to discuss the FY26 Budget process and answer questions. We encourage you to visit the FY26 Budget webpage for more information on what has been shared with the community so far.

You are invited to join us for their conversation with the West Elementary School community on February 28, 2025 at 9:00 AM in our Media Center.

The testing window has been set by DESE and we are planning for the following MCAS test dates at West El. Please note that students will take 2 days of tests per content area. Please refrain from vacations or unnecessary absences on these dates.

Grade 3:

ELA: April 10th and 11th

Math: May 8th and 9th

Grade 4

ELA: April 14th and 15th

Math: May 13th and 14th

Grade 5

ELA: April 7th and 8th

Math: May 5th and 6th

Science: 19th and 20th