W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School
Week at a Glance, News and Notes
May 16-20, 2022
Note from the Principal:
Thank you for supporting the professional learning of our staff this past Wednesday in the half day. I know it is a chore to arrange childcare several times a year, but we appreciate the time. We had a productive afternoon discussing equity practices at our school and subject teams worked on alignment grade to grade on shared goals. Your support for the staff is appreciated, and lets us grow as professionals.
There are four and half weeks left in the school year. We are gearing up for the last month of school, finishing up units of study and looking to put some closure on a long year. There are present reminders that we are still in the middle of the pandemic, but I also want to acknowledge the effort and energy that has gone into the past two years. It is important to recognize how hard the students have worked, and under such historically different conditions, since March 2020. And coming off of Educator Appreciation week, it is also important to acknowledge the heroism of our staff in supporting and teaching through unprecedented times. There is a lot to celebrate as we experience school in a more open way than in the past years. I am looking forward to the summer, and excited about next year. In the next few weeks we will be sharing different summer opportunities and plans and hopes for next year. For now, just check in with your kids to see how they are doing, let us know if they need help, and make sure they get outside in this spectacular spring weather.
Please drop me a note if you have feedback or questions at ben.doren@bhrsd.org.
Have a good weekend!
Ben Doren
Principal
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Monday, May 16
Regular School Day
Tuesday, May 17
Regular School Day
Wednesday, May 18
Regular School Day
Thursday, May 19
Regular School Day
Friday, May 20
Regular School Day
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Boston Symphony Orchestra Summer opportunity for students
See the attached flyer for information on this great summer program. Use this link to register by June 10: https://forms.gle/1nYY4JKnhWTJfFGW6.
5-8th parents: As the end of the year approaches, we are seeking your help in returning all books to the DBM library. It’s time for inventory, and we would like to replace any lost copies of popular titles if possible. Thanks for helping your children look around the house for missing books and sending them back to school before June 3.
Stockbridge Memorial Day Parade
The Stockbridge Memorial Day parade is in need of 3, 7th or 8th grade students for reading preselected pieces at the Stockbridge Memorial Day celebration. They would need to be at the Old Town Hall on West Main Street by 12:45. Volunteers should contact Harold French for further information at 413-298-3284 or CMCFRENCH@msn.com.
Invitation to study political arts with GCAS-Jehan this summer
Who is YPP for?
We are inviting young people between the ages of 9 and 21 to join us from their homes around the world. We will convene in small, age-based cohorts and meet online each day over the course of the week. (Participants may register by week, or for the full four weeks.) While the theme and political practices will be shared across cohorts, engagement will be adapted for the needs and interests of younger participants, adolescents, and young adults, respectively. YPP students are curious about the world and may be looking for something different than what conventional approaches to “politics” and “civics” courses offer. Our students are looking to engage deeply and directly with big questions – of ethics, identity, truth, language, power – as necessary to thinking about freedom and justice together. YPP students are ready to think about how they relate to each other, to community, to ways of knowing and building together in creative and innovative ways.
What is a course in the “Political Arts” about?
The Jəhān curriculum in the “political arts” or principled political practice in the present, includes arts of belonging, believing, relating, witnessing, narrating, truth-telling, suffering, remembering, caring, healing, resisting, imagining, dreaming, envisioning, building, questioning, troubling, leading, inspiring, speaking, listening, claims-making, communicating, connecting, collaborating, sustaining, organizing, and more. Contrary to the cynical and status-quo-preserving ideas of “ars politica” that span manipulation, diplomacy, political games, court intrigues, propaganda and such, what we call political arts denotes practices of survival and mutuality inherent to contemporary political experience.
Meet our faculty, a dynamic team of activists, artists, scholars, and educators.
2022 Theme: LAND/WATER
Over land and water, the airways are filled with electric talk. Words like control, dispute, access, privatization, and resource rights swirl around — as if the only way to engage natural forces today were through capture or possession. LAND/WATER explores the people and politics of the present through their engagements with the environments upon which they live and die. Studying and practicing the political arts of witnessing, framing, sustaining, and imagining, this year’s Young People’s Programme will explore the tactics and tools communities around the world have used to encourage their neighbors to conceive of their shared world differently.
What is the application process and tuition like?
Tuition is 440€/ 475 USD per week-long course, and 1600€ / 1735 USD per 4-course term.
Please find registration and financial aid request forms on our website.
GCAS-Jehan is the deterritorial node of Global Centre of Advanced Studies, Dublin that is accountable to the Global South. Hic Rosa is a US 501(c)3 nonprofit charity and an art, education, and politics collective. Generous financial aid is available depending on location and circumstance.
REMINDERS:
Family choice for student name and identity
Massachusetts now allows for families to tell their child’s school to use a different name for a student that is not the same as the name on the birth certificate and other legal documents. Please use this form to tell us at the middle school that you want us to use a name for your child that is different from the legal documents we have from when you enrolled them at the school or in the district. We will update our Student Information System, PowerSchool, with the information you tell us to use, so your child’s name appears as you direct. If this is a legal name change, please provide the documents to us so we can make the update for the legal name of the student. Email ben.doren@bhrsd.org if you have any questions about this form or this process.
Form in English: https://forms.gle/PALB99wyuE29gW1Z7
Forma en Español: https://forms.gle/jcFoaQAB8KkGPWhH6
Eighth Grade Graduation
We will hold middle school graduation in our traditional way for the first time in two years! It will be on the regular day we usually hold it, the evening before the last day of school. So graduation will be on Wednesday, June 15, at 6:30 pm in the gymnasium. All eighth grade families are invited, as well as our faculty and staff. There will be more information to come later this year, but I wanted you to know so you can plan for the big event!
Local Student Mask Access Program
In partnership with the Rural Health Network and with support from a state Rural Vaccine Equity grant, we are working to ensure fair access across our community to current information about COVID-19, as well as the availability of effective masks for those at high risk for severe outcomes from this disease. Below is a brief survey for families in your districts. It asks whether they identify their student, a household member, or nearby loved one as being at high risk for severe COVID outcomes. Those who answer yes are asked if they want to receive tailored masking guidance and/or a supply of free youth-sized KN95 masks. If they do, they may confidentially submit their name and phone number or email address. Our public health nurses would reach out to those families directly within a week or so, and if masks are needed, coordinate distribution via the schools.
Pool Testing
We strongly encourage your student’s participation, and anyone can participate in the pool testing regardless of vaccination status. Please use this LINK for more details and to complete the electronic consent form. Each student in your household will require an individual consent. The link defaults to Muddy Brook. Select the drop down for your child’s school — Muddy Brook, Du Bois, or Monument Mountain. The video is available in multiple languages–click the link on the top right to choose the language you want.
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Flyers and School Letters
Flyers and School letters are available on our website at this link: https://mvrms.bhrsd.org/category/families/flyers/
This week’s flyers:
- DARTS project at Tanglewood
- The Great Barrington Project: Unbleaching the Souls of Black Folk
Recent flyers:
- Berkshire Concert Choir
- Young People’s Program
- Camp Hi-Rock – UPDATED FLYER
- Southern Berkshire C.A.R.E Adaptive Kickball
Older flyers:
Camp Hi-Rock Overnight Camp & Wilderness Expedition Info Session
Flying Deer Evening Camp for youth ages 11-16
Guide to Food Access and Assistance Resources in South Berkshire County
Spring Indoor Soccer Training @ Berkshire School
Du Bois Wizard of Oz 2022 Poster
- Kids Sing for Peace-Benefit Concert for Ukraine Aid
- FREE Adult ESOL Classes: English and Spanish versionsBabe Ruth Softball Registration
- 2022-2023 Butternut BHRSD Student Season Pass-paper applications are also available in the school office
- World Down Syndrome Awareness Day March 21, 2022
- World Autism Awareness Day April 2, 2022
- 2022 Spring Lacrosse
- Berkshire Busk
- 5th Annual Spotlight on the Arts
- 2022 South Berkshire Babe Ruth Spring Sign Ups
- GB Girls Softball Registration 2022
- Bilingual Computer LIteracy Workshop
- CHP March Playgroup Schedule
- Read Across America: GB Libraries
- Gt. Barrington Little League RegistrationMMRHS Ski Team Dine to Donate Event at Marketplace Wed. 2/9/22
- Young People and Anxiety, Depression and Stress Free Forum Tues., 2/15 6:30pm
- Young People and Anxiety, Depression and Stress Forum–Spanish version
- Community Health Programs: Virtual Parent Workshop
- FREE Family Social-Emotional-Learning Session (Virtual): 2/17/22 at 12 pm
- FREE Glee Club Class–Grades 1-5
- YMCA Camp Hi-Rock Virtual Information Session Flyer
- BRIDGE: Lesson Plan and Project for MLK Day 2022
- Winter Project Connection Packet
- Winter Project Connection Packet – en Espanol
- Stateline Youth Wrestling
- Du Bois Middle School 2022 Musical: THE WIZARD OF OZ! (English & Spanish versions)