Loker Doors will open at 9:45am and school will start at 10:00am

Dismissal will be at regular time.

Dear Loker School Community,

I hope that you are staying warm and enjoying the snow! I want to begin by congratulating many of our 5th grade scholars ((Henry Stewart, Harper Tandon, Nikki Garibaldi, Julia Kurson, Elliot Bing, Morgan Mardirosian, Alex Franiczek, Caroline LeClair, Claudia Herold, Carina Mascari, Erin Shin, Saanvi Kotadia, Amelie Franiczek, Clara Walsh and Alp Yardibi) for their wonderful performances in the Wayland Junior Broadway play, "Seussical, Jr." It was inspiring to watch this amazing production on Saturday evening to see the tremendous talent and confidence that our fifth grade scholars demonstrated!

The latest edition of our scholar newspaper, The Loker Lion News,can be found at the following link: The Loker Lion News Congratulations to our scholar authors and photographers on their hard work!

Staffing Update: Our mathematics coach/interventionist, Ms. Elah Lazin, will go on maternity leave in early February (current due date is Sunday, February 8th). I led an external search this fall for this important position and, unfortunately, I did not find a candidate that I felt would be effective in this role. When I began an internal search for this position, it become evident that Rosemarie Furey would be an excellent fit for the mathematics coach/interventionist position based on her tremendous skill as a mathematics teacher, strong collaborative skills and the fact that she has taught several grades at Loker so she possesses a wide range of knowledge around curriculum. Therefore, I hired 3rd grade classroom teacher, Rosemarie Furey, to be our mathematics coach/interventionist long-tem sub when Ms. Lazin goes out on maternity leave. We expect that Ms. Lazin's maternity leave will continue through the end of the school year. Please note that I do not take it lightly that I am changing the classroom teacher in the middle of the school year so I ensured that I had a strong replacement before moving forward. In Ms. Furey’s place, Ms. Laura Trounson will become the third grade classroom teacher in room 14. Ms. Trounson is in her 17th year working in the Wayland Public Schools and is a certified elementary school teacher. As you may know, she has been serving as a lead special education teacher long-term substitute this fall. She has worked extensively in third grade during her time at Loker and is quite familiar with Ms. Furey's classroom routines and the third grade curriculum. From a school-wide perspective, I am confident that we are bringing great value to both positions instead of putting someone in the mathematics coach/interventionist position that will not be valuable to us.

Last spring, our district began a thoughtful process to review and strengthen our reading curriculum. We were fortunate to receive a DESE PRISM Grant, which supports districts in evaluating and selecting high-quality instructional materials and helps fund 50% of our PreK–3 literacy resources.

As part of this work, we were looking for reading programs that:

To guide this work, we formed a Reading Curriculum Council made up of 18 educators and administrators. This team reviewed programs vetted by DESE through CURATE and evaluated by EdReports. Over several months, the council examined materials, met with publishers, and visited schools currently using these programs. Through this careful and collaborative process, the team narrowed the options to two strong programs: Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) and its Spanish counterpart Caminos, and Benchmark Advance and its Spanish counterpart Adelante.

Both programs were selected because they offer strong foundational reading instruction, use knowledge-building units that help students develop background knowledge and vocabulary, and continue word study, spelling, and word knowledge including Greek and Latin roots through fifth grade. These features support reading, writing, and comprehension over time. Throughout the process, we intentionally included general education teachers, Spanish immersion teachers, co-taught classrooms, special educators, English Learner teachers, and reading specialists to ensure the programs meet the needs of all learners.

This year, 22 classrooms teachers volunteered to pilot in grades K–5 across our three elementary schools will pilot these programs including Spanish Immersion classrooms. Students in grades K–2 will pilot each program for six weeks while students in grades 3–5 will pilot each program for four weeks. Teachers have carefully planned instruction so students’ learning builds on what they have already worked on earlier in the year, ensuring a smooth and supportive transition.

We will gather feedback from teachers, students, and families throughout the pilot to help inform our next steps. We are excited about both programs and grateful for the opportunity to evaluate them thoughtfully and intentionally.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our Curriculum Leaders, Sarah Sontag Sarah_sontag@Waylandps.org or Liliana Smith Liliana_Smith@Waylandps.org . Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

Join the WPSF and our Reading Challenge from Monday January 26th to March 1st, we are challenging you to get reading! Sign up and download a check list and see how many challenges you can complete! Everyone who is registered will be interred to win awesome book related prizes! You can register here.

Join us on March 1st from 12:00-3:00 at WMS to meet with local authors, swap books, crafts and more! 

Have books you are ready to pass along? Email WPSF. We will be collecting books for a book swap event. 

We will have multiple prizes for each age group category, registering automatically enters you to win. All winners will be announced at the end of the challenge. Cost to participate is $25 per participant, however sponsorships are available as needed. Your donations will go directly to our annual grant fundraising and allow us to continue to fund critical grants across all our schools. More information can be found on our website:

You can download your checklists here.

When: 7:00–8:30 pm on February 10, March 10, April 14, and May 12, 2026

Where: First Parish, 225 Boston Post Road, Wayland (in person only)

Who: Parents and other adults who live, work, worship, or send children to school in Wayland—whether you speak up often, tend to hold back, or fall somewhere in between

Facilitator: jamele adams

Registration: Required. Attendance at all four sessions is encouraged but not required. REGISTER here.

This four-session workshop focuses on building practical skills for real-life and online conversations—especially when perspectives differ or conversations feel uncomfortable. Participants will practice empathetic listening, curiosity, and self-awareness while learning from one another in a supportive setting. Together, the group will select the discussion topics for each session.

By the end of the series, participants will leave with concrete tools to engage across differences without losing connection, helping to strengthen relationships and our broader Wayland community.

This program is sponsored by Wayland Public Schools and the Wayland Human Rights, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (HRDEIC), and is made possible through the generous support of the Lydia Maria Child Fund of First Parish in Wayland.

Flyer: Download here

Questions: chairHRDEIC@wayland.ma.us

Have a great week! Let's hope that things warm up sometime soon!

Best,

Brian