2021-22 Respect, Responsibility, and Regard

5.12.22

Dates for the Calendar

Monday May 16th - 5th Grade MCAS (Science)
Saturday, May 14th - Bishop Bear Fair and Used Goods Sale (rain date Sunday, May 15th)
Thursday, June 2nd - Field Day
Friday, June 3rd – Bishop Spirit Day
Thursday, June 9th - Teacher’s Tea (Bishop staff only - not a community event)
Thursday, June 16th @ 10:00 am - Bishop’s 5th Grade Recognition Ceremony

Hello Bishop Families!

The Bear Fair Is HERE...on Saturday from 10am to 2pm

Spread the word to your friends and neighbors…the weather is going to be GREAT! PLEASE
commit to volunteering as soon as possible. We need more help to set-up on Saturday
morning and to run some of the games. And we can always take more donations of baked
goods and cakes.
If we do not have enough volunteers, we will shut down some games throughout the day.
Please visit the Bear Fair Volunteer Site for volunteer options and details. There are also
opportunities for 5th graders and Bishop Alumni to help run some of the games. Thanks in
advance for your contributions to this fun event. Any questions? Contact Heather Breslau at
heather.breslau@gmail.com.
 
Used Goods Sale Drop Off Tomorrow, Friday May 13 th from 4:30 – 6:30
We will accept donations of Books, Sporting Goods & Gear, Toys & Games, Baby Gear,
Bicycles, Arts & Crafts, Household Goods, and Jewelry. Bikes, trikes and strollers heartily
welcome! All donations will be sold at the Bishop Bear Fair Used Goods Sale this Saturday.
 
What: Used Goods Drop-Off 
When: Friday, May 13, 4:30-6:30 pm 
Where: Bishop School parking lot, 25 Columbia Rd
Why: To benefit the Bishop School PTO!
 
Items need to be super clean, in excellent condition and “ready to be priced.” If you have a
suggested price for the item, please let the volunteers know at drop off!  
 
How To Donate Used Goods!
1.      Sort your stuff (Toys, Games, Household, Kitchen, Baby, Books, Random Stuff, etc.)
2.      Box your stuff (Use boxes, not bags, so we can stack them)
3.      Label your boxes by category
4.      Bring your boxes to the Drop-Off
5.      Bring large items “as is” (i.e. bikes, strollers, small furniture, etc.)
6.      Clothing and stuffed animals can be tossed directly in the Textile Recycling bin!
7.      Get a donation tax receipt from the Used Goods Team
 
Thank you for your Used Goods donations!
 
Donation tax receipts provided. Want to drop stuff off at a different time, or have any other
Used Goods questions? Contact the Used Goods Sale Coordinator, Tricia See at
tmaries@gmail.com.

Health and Safety Update

Dear Bishop Community,
We have seen a significant number of COVID cases at Bishop over the past couple of weeks
and are now starting to see the number of new cases trend down. Thank you to all of our
families who have been testing at home; we greatly appreciate your cooperation with our
recent masking mandate.

We anticipate going back to mask-optional next Tuesday. Mr. McAneny will send out an
update Monday with the status of where we are as it relates to the numbers; if the data
justifies keeping the mandate in place for another week, we will go in that direction. In the
meantime, please supply your child with extra masks to bring to school, thank you so much.

Thank you to all of our Bishop students and families who joined in the Friday afternoon
Nurse’s Day Festivities. The appreciation and love was truly overwhelming- and yes, I was
TOTALLY surprised!!! I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing Bishop community - you
truly make my job so much easier. There is no place that I would rather have been to
manage my first pandemic than here. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Katie
 AHS Scoopermania event!
The Arlington High School’s SCOOPs club presents its seventh annual Scoopermania event!
Come join us for an all-you-can-eat ice cream fundraiser to raise money for the Jimmy Fund
and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. It’ll be held this year on the lawn of the Cyrus E. Dallin
Museum (train tracks) by Arlington center on May 14th from 12-4 PM. Pay $5 for kids and $7
for adults for unlimited ice cream! All proceeds and donations go towards the Jimmy Fund
at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Hope to see you there!

News From the Bishop Library

Dear Bishop families,

In the Library, our READ ACROSS AMERICA Challenge has been generating a lot of interest!
We have been trying to make reading connections to each of the States, and to as many
Native Territories as we can, and have already recorded at least one connection to each
State - with pins all over our map! We are hoping to add quite a few more in the coming
weeks.

There are many ways to make a connection to a state or territory (for example, reading in it,
reading about it, reading a book that is set there, or reading a book by an author or illustrator
who has lived there). Audiobooks and read alouds are all accepted in our tally. We
encourage everyone to take note of any connections that they can make with their reading,
and to let us know, or ask us for suggestions, when they come to the Library.
There is more information about this on our website. We are grateful to the AEF for funding
to enrich our collection with updated materials on the states, Tribal nations and books with
Indigneous protagonists and by Indigenous authors. In particular, our 4th graders have been
very excited to borrow the new State books. We were also excited to share with them that
the National Parks offer FREE PASSES to 4th graders and their families for visits through
August 31st of their 4th grade year (see this link.)

We are also very appreciative of our own PTO for the new book sets about different
countries around the world. Although we cannot guarantee a book on every country, we
have tried to update our collection to reflect many of those that have connections to our
Bishop community, or in which students regularly show interest. We ordered them some
time ago, intending that they would be here in time for the recent Bishop Cultural Fair, but
global supply chain issues prevented that. The books just arrived and we promptly put them
on display, as we celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander month. We have also been
working hard to reorganize, and to incorporate many new books that the School District has
purchased for the library.

We hope you are enjoying the spring and looking forward to the Bear Fair this weekend.
Many thanks,
Alison Vaishnaw and Justine Bloch

Arlington Public Schools Annual Textile Recycling Competition (May

5-June 5, 2022)
Announcing our APS annual textile recycling competition! Please support your school and
help reduce waste by bringing your old, worn, torn textiles (clothing, shoes, towels, bedding,
stuffed animals) to your school's collection bin from May 5-June 5. The bin at Bishop is
located off the staff parking lot. All donations must be bagged. The volume of donated
textiles at each school will be tracked by Bay State Textiles and this year your school will
receive weekly updates on the weights collected across the district in order to see
where the competition stands so you can push for the top spot!

For a list of acceptable donations click here. For questions about the competition or to
report bin overflow, please contact Arlington School Sustainability Coordinator Rachel
Oliveri at roliveri@arlington.k12.ma.us.

Want to learn more about Textile Recycling? Here are some resources:
"The Secret Double Life of Donated Textiles"
MassDEP Textile Recovery
"Donate, Recycle, Don't Throw Away"

Grades 3, 4, and 5 MCAS administration has begun and will run through
May. Families with students in the identified grades can access this year’s MCAS
schedule HERE

BISHOP PTO NEWS AND UPDATES

Eyes on Owls - Whole School Enrichment Program
Friday, May 13th and Wednesday, May 18th
Eyes on Owls is an engaging live animal presentation designed to captivate audiences by
impressing them with the natural world and its connection with everything around us.
Biologists Marcia and Mark, with the help of six live birds, know how to get kids excited
about science.

Thanks to an Arlington Education Foundation Grant, each grade at Bishop will be getting
their own live owl experience with curriculum based topics disused. We're looking forward
to a fantastic program with nice weather tomorrow for the Kindergarteners, 2nd and 4th
graders and next Wednesday with the 3rd, 1st and 5th graders.

Bishop Garden Volunteer Opportunity

Our new Garden Educator, Amanda Munsie, will be hosting "open garden" hours on
Wednesdays from 11am - 1:30 pm during school lunch and recess. If you are interested in
lending a hand, please sign up here.

PTO Board Member Nominations and Election

Vote by end of the day on Friday, 5/27

Several PTO board positions will be vacated at the end of the AY2021-22 school year, as
the current officers will have completed their two-year term commitments. Anna Pisania
(Co-President), Lindsay Pacheco (Co-Treasurer), and Jessica Nordgren (Recording
Secretary) will return in AY2022-23 to serve the second year in their respective offices.

We have received the following nominations for the positions listed below. If elected, these
individuals will serve a two-year term, beginning in AY2022-23:

Board Position Nominee

Co-President Mary Perry

Co-Treasurer Leonie Lennon

Fundraising Coordinator Lori Hennelly

Communications Coordinator Valerie Geary

Class Parent Coordinator Julie Moscatel

Please vote online to approve the nominees, or to write in a candidate using the link below:
https://forms.gle/SSZ6NttLEvmjvPDm8

Each of the nominees has provided a bio so you can get to know them better.

Mary Perry (nominee for Co-President)

Mary and her husband, Wes, have lived in Arlington since 2008 and are the parents of
Isabella (6th grade), Ava (2nd grade) and Reese and Adilyn (Kindergarten). Originally from
Connecticut, Mary moved to the Boston area in 2005 after completing her graduate degree
at the University of Connecticut. She is a Registered Dietitian and Clinical Trials Director at
Zone Labs. In her downtime you can find her cheering on Wes and the girls at various
sporting events, working out, gardening, traveling, and spending time with family, friends,
and their dog Bailey. Mary has been an active volunteer over the past 7 years, a room parent,
and is co-chair of the Bishop Ambassador Program. She looks forward to her first year as
Co-President of the PTO.
Leonie Lennon (nominee for Co-Treasurer)
Leonie (and her husband Niall), are parents to Saoirse (4th grade), Lucas (2nd grade) and
Sophie (Pre-Kindergarten). Leonie grew up in Dublin, Ireland, where she earned an
undergraduate degree in Pharmacology at University College Dublin and a Diploma in
Business and IT from Smurfit Business School. Leonie moved to Boston 17 years ago, after
spending 2 years working in Bermuda. Leonie and Niall moved to Arlington in 2011. She
currently works part time at JPMorgan Chase in the Alternative Investments team, in a
business management role but previously worked full time in an accounting role in the
Hedge Fund team. In her free time Leonie enjoys traveling, running, hiking, reading, and
spending time with her kids. She is looking forward to serving the community through the
PTO board.

Lori Hennelly (nominee for Fundraising Coordinator)

Lori and her husband Bob (Sheehy) are parents to Eve (5th grade), Sayer (3rd grade) and
Annalise (preschool). Both Lori and Bob are originally from New York state but met in Boston
post college. Before having kids Lori worked for Dana Farber Cancer Institute in research
administration. She enjoys reading, hiking and spending time with family and friends. This is
Lori’s second year as a room parent and she looks forward to joining the PTO board.

Valerie Geary (nominee for Communications Coordinator)

Valerie Geary and her husband Ted Lombardi are parents to Josie, a rising 5th grader, and
one of Bishop's newest Bears, Clancy, who will start Kindergarten in September 2022. Valerie
and Ted met at College of the Holy Cross and were married there in 2005. They moved to
Arlington in 2014 and love their community! Valerie completed her MA in Literature at
Simmons University, where she is now a professor and co-runs the Honors Program. She is
also a freelance writer and editor. Valerie has volunteered at Bishop as a Room Parent and
as the coordinator of the Holiday Helping Hands program. In her spare time, she enjoys
reading, writing, traveling, attending shows and concerts, photography, and playing with the
family pets, Clover, Donut, and Ginger.

Julie Moscatel (nominee for Room Parent Coordinator)

Julie and her husband, Adam, are parents to Ella (3rd grade), Ace (2nd grade), James
(Kindergarten), and 1 year old, Shane. For 12 years Julie worked in various communications
roles at Harvard University, most recently in External Relations at the Harvard Business
School. She enjoys photography, coaching softball, and spending the summer months with
family and friends down the Cape. Julie has served as room parent for a few years and, as a
Bishop alum, she looks forward to supporting the Bishop community as part of the PTO.

Community News:
Interested in getting information to the Bishop community? Information that you’d like to share
with the Bishop community can be included in the weekly Principal’s Update. Please email the
relevant information to Amanda Maltais (Communications Coordinator, Bishop PTO) at
aemaltais@gmail.com
  
Varallo Orthodontics Partners in Education Program
At Varallo Orthodontics, we love giving back to our community in any way we can!  Varallo
Orthodontics has started the Partners in Education Program, or P.I.E.  For every patient in
grades K-8 who starts orthodontic treatment with us, we will donate $25 to the patient’s
school PTO. To schedule a free consultation or find out more, visit us at varalloortho.com.

Stay Up to Date
Bishop PTO Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BishopPTO/
Websites:
Bishop School (general info, links to the school system):
http://www.arlington.k12.ma.us/bishop/
Bishop School (news and events): https://bishopschool.net/
Bishop PTO: http://www.bishopschoolpto.com/
DIG website: https://bishopdig.weebly.com/. To join our mailing list, please email
bishopdig@gmail.com