Dear Loker School Community,

I hope that you had a nice weekend! Our winter instrumental music concerts have continued with our 3rd, 4th and 5th grade in-school concert last Wednesday morning and our 5th grade strings and band concert at Wayland High School last Wednesday evening! We are very proud of our Loker musicians for the talent, confidence and poise that they showed at these concerts! In addition, we look forward to our elementary-wide chorus concert this evening in the Claypit Hill gymnasium.

We have a few staffing updates that I want to share with everyone. Kindergarten teacher, Jenn DiStefano, began a medical leave this past Thursday for a surgery related to a recent Stage 0 breast cancer diagnosis. Ms. DiStefano's prognosis is excellent, is expected to make a full recovery and will be out approximately 8-12 weeks. In her place, Ms. Nicole Abruzzese will become the lead teacher in room 22. We are familiar with Ms. Abruzzeze as she was a student teacher in Ms. Wyner's first grade classroom two years ago and she has subbed at Loker numerous times over the last few years. Ms. Abruzzese possesses a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Framingham State University and is currently finalizing a masters degree in Special Education from Framingham State University as well. Similarly, Ms. Abruzzese completed her full student teaching practicum during the spring of 2025 at Brown Elementary School in Natick in both kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms and is Massachusetts DESE certified as an Early Childhood (PreK-2nd Grade) teacher. We believe that Ms. Abruzzese will bring a strong work ethic, love of working with children, expertise in the development of kindergarten-aged scholars and excellent collaborative skills to this position.

Reading specialist, Ms. Emily Paterson, returned from her maternity leave yesterday and we are very excited to have her back providing reading instruction. She had a transition day with her long-term substitute, Ms. Deb Pellerin, yesterday and I know that Ms. Paterson is eager to work with our Loker scholars. I want to express my deep appreciation to Ms. Pellerin for sharing her tremendous expertise with reading instruction and her love of working with elementary children with us over the last four months.

Kim Pisklo will return from her maternity leave on Monday, January 5th as our strings and general music teacher. We are very pleased to have Ms. Pisklo return and I want to thank Ms. Anna Yang for her hard work and dedication over the last four months with her music instruction as our long-term substitute.

Special education teacher, Susan Parker, will return officially from her medical leave on Monday, January 5th. Thank you to Ms. Laura Trounson for doing a terrific job in providing special education services as Susan's long-term substitute while she was out on medical leave.

Wishing you a peaceful December break!

Sincerely,

Brian

Your generosity in supporting children in foster care will make a big impact this holiday season and beyond! Together the Loker community sponsored 50 foster children again this year. All gifts were delivered to the Department of Children and Families and were packed full of toys, art supplies, winter and spring clothing, skate boards, books, a treadmill and more. Your help is especially appreciated during this holiday season.