December 14, 2025
Dear Parents/Guardians, Staff, and Students,
HOLIDAY EDITION!!
Dear Parents/Guardians, Staff, and Students,
Due to the short week coming up, this newsletter will cover the next two weeks. We will publish again on January 4th.
I wish you all a happy, healthy holiday season and a happy new year. We have had another great year at the Locke. The Locke Middle School community is truly something special, and it’s because of the invaluable contributions of our dedicated staff, supportive families, and amazing students. We look forward to 2026 with a renewed sense of hope, purpose, and determination. The Locke certainly has incredible days of learning planned for the coming months. Until then, enjoy the holidays and I hope you get some time to rest and recharge. See you in 2026!!
6 ½ DAYS OF LEARNING remain in 2025! Let’s see what’s happening …
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: locke_middle_school
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” –Mother Theresa
SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
Monday – B Day — HW Club
Tuesday – C Day
Wednesday – D Day – HW Club, PTO Meeting 6:30 Library
Thursday – A Day – 7th Grade Field Trip, HW Club
Friday – B Day – Orchestra Concert for parents, Period 6 Auditorium
SCHEDULE NEXT WEEK
Monday, December 22nd – C Day – No HW Club
Tuesday, December 23rd — D Day – Half Day, 10:40 Dismissal
BOOK FAIR – This Week
The book fair will be held from December 15th – 19th. You can set up an e-wallet for your child at the following link:
TRIMESTER 1 REPORT CARDS
Trimester 1 report cards have been published to the ASPEN portal. It appears under published reports on your Aspen homepage. Please return the report card envelope to indicate you have seen the report. For parent account login assistance or to reset your password, please email: portalhelp@billericak12.com
HALF-DAY – Tuesday, 12/23
Students will be dismissed at approximately 10:40 (depending on buses) on Tuesday, 12/23. For the safety of all students, we will wait to dismiss until all buses have arrived.
TOYS FOR TOTS DRIVE
Our Toys for Tots drive has been completed. We collected two full bins of toys! Thank you for your generous donations.
STUDENT RECOGNITION
Congratulations to all students who achieved honor roll and high honor roll. We also recognized students in individual subjects with “Student of the Trimester” awards. Certificates will be passed out this week. Great job!
CHROMEBOOK INSURANCE
Parents and Guardians, please see the attached flyer outlining the benefit of Chromebook insurance. We are encouraging families to consider insurance based on the frequency which we see students with Chromebook damage.
HOLIDAY CONCERT SEASON
Congratulations to our talented band, chorus, and orchestra students for their great holiday performances last week. It sounded fantastic, and brought out the holiday spirit. Bravo!!
LOCKE SCHOOL SITE COUNCIL
Our school council met on December 8th. Please see the minutes for the meeting. All related documents for the council can be found on our website.
HOMEWORK CLUB
HW club will continue throughout the year. It will not meet on Monday, December 22nd. It will meet in the library every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1:45 – 2:45. (not on early release Wednesdays) Students do not need to sign up ahead of time for HW club. Students will report to the library immediately after school and sign in. They can attend as many days as the parents/teachers believe are necessary. Students will receive help with assignments, organization, preparing for assessments, and are expected to stay for the full hour. Parent pick-up at 2:45 is required.
RIDDLE/JOKE OF THE WEEK
1 What’s an elf’s favorite kind of music? 2. Where do Santa’s reindeer stop for coffee?
Last week’s answers: 1. What do you call a picture from the North Pole? – A North Pole-aroid! 2. What do you call a ghost in the winter? – Casp-brrr!
MATH PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
To Grandmother’s House
1. For the holidays, Mai and Taya will travel over the river and through the woods to their grandmother’s house a total distance of 495 miles. If the car they will drive uses, on average, a gallon of gasoline every 33 miles, how many gallons of gas will the girls use to drive to their grandmother’s house?
2. Prior to departing, Taya noticed that the car did not have a full tank of gasoline. In fact, the car’s fuel gauge indicated that the 12½ gallon tank was only 1/4 full. If Tara paid $33.75 at the local gas station to fill the car’s tank with gasoline, how much did the gas station charge per gallon of gasoline?
Last Week’s Answer: 4 students
Send your answers to Mr. Garas – tgaras@billericak12.com – Show your work! You can win a Dunkin gift card and the highly coveted math certificate!! We will have prizes on Friday this week.
MESSAGE FROM OUR NURSE
One of the issues currently being addressed by the Health and Wellness Department, along with Billerica School Nurses, is chronic absence. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent or more of school days due to absence for any reason—excused, unexcused absences and suspensions—can translate into students having difficulty learning to read by the third-grade, achieving in middle school, and graduating from high school. This isn’t simply a matter of truancy or skipping school. In fact, many of these absences, especially among our youngest students, are excused. Often absences are tied to health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, and oral and mental health issues. Other barriers including lack of a nearby school bus, a safe route to school or food insecurity make it difficult to go to school every day. There will be a series of posts/links to help students and families surrounding the issue of chronic absence and the importance of regular school attendance over the next few weeks:
● 10 Facts About School Attendance
Up next is a link to a video highlighting the importance of regular school attendance from a parent point of view:
PTO CORNER
The PTO welcomes all families to the Locke. We will be meeting monthly to plan several events throughout the year. Our last meeting was November 12th. Please see the attached minutes.
LOCKE GEAR is for sale! Go to this link to purchase. A portion of the price goes to the PTO.
UPCOMING PTO EVENTS:
Wednesday, December 17th – PTO Meeting 6:30 PM Library
Our PTO Facebook page is: “Billerica Locke PTO”. Click on the link below to take you there:
REMINDERS
CELL PHONE POLICY
Our cell phone policy is that all student phones/smart watches are to be kept in student lockers and turned off for the duration of the school day. If parents need to contact students, please contact the main office.
ABSENCES
If your child is going to be absent, please call 978-528-8650 to report the absence. You can leave a voicemail at this number which goes directly to our secretary. You may also email our secretaries, Ms. Brewster at nbrewster@billericak12.com and/or Ms. O’Brien at lobrien@billericak12.com
BUS ASSIGNMENTS
Students who ride the bus can only ride on their assigned bus in the morning and afternoon. Students are not allowed to ride different buses to be with friends after school.
The bus routes for the year are listed at this link.
If you have any questions regarding bus assignments, please contact our assistant principal: Phillip Peters: ppeters@billericak12.com — 978-528-8654
LUNCH/BREAKFAST
All breakfast and lunches are free to all students again this year. Students will be receiving a 4 digit pin code that they will need to use when they get breakfast or lunch. Breakfast will be served beginning on the first day. It will be “grab and go”. Students can grab a breakfast in the cafeteria when they come in and then report to homeroom. They can eat breakfast in homeroom. Students are not allowed to bring in breakfast/drinks from Dunkin, Starbucks, etc.
FROM THE COMMUNITY
Scholarship Foundation Trivia Night – See attached Flyer
UPCOMING DATES
All Dates are also on our master calendar on the Locke website.
· December 15th – 19th – Book Fair
· Wednesday, December 17th – PTO Meeting 6:30PM Library
· Thursday, December 18th – 7th Grade Field Trip
· Tuesday, December 23rd – Half-Day 10:40 Dismissal
· December 24th through January 4th – Holiday Break
· Monday, January 5th – Return to School
· Monday, January 12th – School Site Council 5:00 PM Library
· Monday, January 19th – MLK Day, No School
· Wednesday, January 21st – PTO Meeting 6:30 PM Library
· Friday, January 23rd – Day 90, Quarter 2 Ends
· Monday, January 26th – Day 91, Quarter 3 Unified Arts classes start
· Wednesday, February 4th – Early Release 11:40 Dismissal
· Monday, February 9th – School Site Council, 5:00 PM Library
· February 9th through 13th – Spirit Week
· Wednesday, February 11th – PTO Meeting, 6:30 PM Library
· February 16th through 20th – Winter Break, No School
· Monday, February 23rd – Return to School
If you have any questions, please contact me at tgaras@billericak12.com or call at 978-528-8655. Have a great week!!
Warmest regards,
Tony Garas, Principal