Dear McCall Parents and Guardians,
I hope this message finds you well. In addition to updating the McCall
Principal’s Blog, I am also emailing you the following two important pieces of
information directly because I am attempting to reach as many of you as possible.
The first topic I would like to discuss with you pertains to
vaping or juuling – a behavior that has become a serious health risk among
adolescents across this country in recent years. We at McCall Middle School recognize
Winchester students are not immune to this problem so we are teaching them the
most up-to-date information about vaping as well as appropriate refusal skills
during their Wellness classes. In
addition, this year we will be implementing SBIRT (i.e, Screening, Brief
Intervention, Referral, Treatment) to our 7th graders in order to
prevent – or at least delay – alcohol, tobacco, or drug use. The SBIRT protocol will also allow our staff
to reinforce healthy decisions and address concerns about substance abuse to
our students. However, our efforts will
not be successful without your support from home. Therefore, with the help of Mr. Jason Levene,
the District’s K-12 Administrator of Counseling, Health, and Wellness, the
attached letter has been written to help all of you familiarize themselves with
the resources that are available to address the problem of adolescent vaping
and substance abuse. I hope you will
take the time to review it (please click here).
Secondly, I would like to let everyone know that we have
finalized the MCAS testing dates for this spring. That information is included in the school
website calendar (please click here)
and is also attached to this message (please click here).
Please take a moment to make note of the testing dates that pertain to
your students. I urge you to make every
effort to ensure your child attend school during their scheduled MCAS testing
dates. We will certainly do what we can
to help your students make up any missed MCAS tests, however, taking the tests
during make up sessions will cause your students to lose additional
instructions on top of what they already missed due to their absences. I encourage you to plan your April and May
schedules with the MCAS dates in mind.
Thank you and I wish you a wonderful week!
James Lin
Principal
McCall Middle School
