2021-22 Respect, Responsibility, and Regard

3.17.22

Dates for the Calendar

Friday, March 25th - Grades 1-5 Student Report Cards Go Live Within Powerschool
Friday, April 1st - Bishop Spirit Day

Hello Bishop Families!

Nurse Martin’s Health and Safety Update

Dear Bishop Families,
Thank you very much for your ongoing support as we navigate a challenging week at the
Bishop. We saw our COVID cases significantly increase this week which resulted in our
school returning to masking required for a week and increased testing effort throughout the
building. We are currently using all of the mitigation measures that we have at our disposal
to manage our Bishop surge and hope that new cases will begin to ease up.

Thankfully, Spring is in the air…and with that a LOT of pollen will soon be with us too. If your
child suffers from seasonal allergies it is going to be very difficult to distinguish between
allergies and COVID (which often presents with nasal congestion, runny nose). Please
remember to give your child their allergy medication daily and test as needed.

If your child is not yet vaccinated for COVID and this is something that you are interested in,
please reach out to me and we can make arrangements for this. Even if your child has had
COVID, it is still recommended that they be vaccinated.

Best,
Katie Martin, RN
 Bishop Coin Drive
Dear Bishop Community,
The third grade students and teachers have been talking a lot about what we can do to help
the people in Ukraine during this challenging time. There are many organizations that are
raising money to provide support in the form of food, medical supplies, shelter, etc. One
group that stands out to us is Voices of Children. Voices of Children is a charitable
foundation that focuses on addressing the psychological effect of armed conflict on
children. Founded in 2015 in response to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Voices of Children
provides art therapy, mobile psychologists, and individualized support to traumatized
children. Today, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, they are providing
non-stop assistance to affected children and families from all over the country, providing
emergency psychological assistance, and assisting in the evacuation process.

From March 14-25, we will be having a coin collection for Voices of Children. Bishop Bears
can bring in anything that they can contribute to the cause. All donations will be given
directly to the Voices of Children foundation. Collection containers will be located in the
front office. If you have any questions or want to help, please reach out to Ms. Capaldo
(ccapaldo@arlington.k12.ma.us). Thank you so much for your support!
Best,
Ms. Capaldo, Mrs. Holden, Mr. Henke, Mrs. Thom, and the rest of the third grade!

Bishop Cultural Fest - Sponsored by the Bishop Diversity and

Inclusion Group
All Bishop students, families, and teachers/staff are invited to participate in a Cultural
Festival hosted by the Bishop Diversity and Inclusion Group (DIG) on Sunday April 10, 2022
from 2-4 p.m at the Bishop School. You and your Bishop students can participate by
hosting a table about your culture (ex. your country of origin, ethnicity, religion, or other
aspect of your identity like being an environmentalist, feminist, or animal lover.)

Members of the committee are happy to match you with another Bishop family if you would
like to co-host a table. You and your Bishop students can also participate through a
performance that reflects your cultural background (ex. dance, song, musical instrument,
recitation etc.)

If you would like to help in a general way (ex. set-up/clean-up, bring food that represents
your cultural background, serve food, help craft decorations ahead of the event), you can do
that too!
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the Bishop DIG at
bishopdig@gmail.com. We can't wait to see you at Cultural Fest 2022, and we thank you in
advance for your participation!
Please sign-up as soon as possible (by April 1, 2022) via this link :
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0A4EA4AA2FA2FE3-bishop

Grades 3, 4, and 5 MCAS administration will commence late March and

run through May. Families with students in the identified grades can access this
year’s MCAS schedule HERE

Bishop - March Spirit Days

Please refer to this March Spirit Day Calendar for upcoming fun spirit days at Bishop.
We will be reminding students during the morning announcements, also.

The Arlington Tenant-Homeowner Assistance Fund will provide rental and

mortgage assistance to Arlington households that have been impacted by the economic
instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To be eligible, applicants must:

● Be an Arlington, MA resident with a primary residence in Arlington.

● Have experienced a financial hardship related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
● Be or have been unable to make rent or mortgage payments due to this financial
hardship.

The pre-application is open now through April 13 th. The pre-application and additional
information are available at www.arlingtonma.gov/ARPA.
 BISHOP PTO NEWS AND UPDATES

Ms. Bell’s Class is Looking for Donations for Arlington EATS

Last week Ms. Bell’s class had a visit from Susan from Arlington EATS. They learned about
the organization’s mission to eliminate food insecurity by providing nutritious food in a
respectful and compassionate manner to any Arlington resident in need.
The class decided to help the organization by collecting items for the EATS MARKET. Please
support them by bringing any donations to Ms. Bell’s classroom.
The market is currently asking for canned soups, almond butter, cereal (especially Cheerios),
soy sauce, dish soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Thank you for supporting this wonderful community resource! If you are interested in
assistance from Arlington Eats, visit arlingtoneats.org to order food or sign up to shop at the
market.

Bishop Spirit Day

Friday April 1, 2022
On April 1st and the first Friday of every month, students have the chance to showcase their
Bishop Pride. Students are encouraged to wear their Bishop spiritwear or Bishop school
colors (yellow/gold and blue). Bishop spirit wear is available for purchase on the PTO
website (http://www.bishopschoolpto.com/).

Bishop Science Night

Wednesday May 4th, 2022
Science Night is BACK!
Join us for an evening of science including live demonstrations, posters presentations by our
Junior Scientists and the famous egg-drop competition! More details to come in the next
few weeks. In the meantime, get your child(ren) thinking of experiments they may want to
share for the poster presentation!

**Please note that the PTO Community Meeting previously scheduled for that night, will be
moved to the following week.
Enrichment News
The Discovery Museum visited 3rd grade classrooms to learn about Force and Magnetism.
Students reviewed the basics of force and motion and further explored balanced and
unbalanced forces while working with and learning about magnetic force. Applying what
they learned, students constructed an original moving toy of their own design that used the
force of magnetism to operate.

This week Origamido will visit 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms. The students will learn all
about Origami.

AmazonSmile for Bishop!

As of March 2022, Bishop has received $1,958.01 in donations this past year from
AmazonSmile! AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of all eligible purchases to Bishop (search for
John A. Bishop PTO) at no cost to you! In a time when we are ordering more online, this is an
easy way to support Bishop. Also, anyone can add Bishop to as a charity for AmazonSmile
so please forward this information to family and friends who want to help support our
awesome community!

Did you know you can sign up for AmazonSmile in just three steps?

1. Join Amazon Smile (If you’re not already an AmazonSmile member, sign up on your
web browser. Simply select John A. Bishop to start generating donations, at no cost
to you.)
2. Get the app (Download or update the latest version of the Amazon Shopping app
on your phone.)
3. Turn on AmazonSmile (Open the app and find ‘Settings’ in the main menu. Tap on
‘AmazonSmile’ and follow the on-screen instructions to turn on AmazonSmile on
your phone.)

If you haven’t signed up for AmazonSmile yet, please sign up today!

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

Children and Young Adult Book Sale at Robbins Library

Saturday, March 26th, 9am – 1pm
Community Room, Robbins Library
Support Arlington’s libraries by purchasing children’s and teen books, movies, and music at
the sale. There will be craft activities to keep children occupied as parents search for books.
Come browse all the wonderful picture books, early readers, chapter books, books for
teens, puzzles and games, and more! Please bring donated items to the Robbins Library-
look for the big blue bin near the Circulation Desk. Lots of great books for inexpensive
prices- children’s hardcovers for $1.00 and paperbacks for 50 cents. See you at the Sale!

Arlington Basketball Club Spring Clinics

The Arlington Basketball Club (ABC) is excited to announce our Spring basketball clinics! The
spring session follows our first ever clinics this past fall/winter that had 250+ kids playing
basketball! ABC clinics teach solid fundamental and foundational skills as part of our travel
and developmental program. (Travel program is through Arlington Recreation Department
and the Metrowest League). ABC strives to provide age-appropriate and skill-appropriate
player development by offering a strong, sustainable program which will help develop
basketball skills earlier with consistency over time. Please visit
https://www.arlingtonbasketballclub.com/ for more information and to sign up.

Arlington Heights Spring Window Painting

Arlington residents are invited to participate in the Arlington Heights Spring Storefront
Window Painting Event, which will take place on Saturday, May 7 th, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
(Rain date, Saturday, May 14, 9:00 am --1:00 pm) Paint a window by yourself or grab your
friend or family and paint a window together in one of 52 designated storefront windows in
21 Heights businesses.
Designs must have a spring theme - flowers, trees, birds, insects, etc. We also invite
community painters to go beyond painting the beauty of spring blooms by including simple
messages and/or steps that people can take to protect our environment and promote
eco-diversity in their yards and town wide. 
The paintings will remain on display throughout the spring and be featured at the Spring
Fling Festival on Saturday, May 21 st, which will include walking tours of the painted windows,
live music, an Arts Pop-Up Market, activities for kids including crafts, a puppet show, and a
“Touch-a-Truck” sponsored by the Arlington Fire & Police Departments, and a variety of
information tables on how to ensure environmental sustainability.

For more information and to register for this event online click here:  www.arlcc.org.
Registration opens Monday, March 28th.

Organized by the Arlington Heights Community Association, the Arlington Chamber of

Commerce, and the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture.

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