**Weekly Flash**

November 10, 2025

Dear OHS Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

This Tuesday is Veteran’s Day, and we have no school in recognition of our veterans. To all of the veterans connected to the Osborn Hill Family, I just want to say thank you for your service and sacrifice. Your commitment and courage are an inspiration to us all, especially to our children at OHS. You are a great example of how important it is to be of service to your community and to your country. Thank you for setting that example for our students.

Please keep the following in mind for this week at OHS:

• Please make sure your SDM is accurate for each day of the week- consider ASA’s.

• No School on Tuesday- Veteran’s Day.

• We will be doing bus evacuation drills on Wednesday: The safety liaison from the bus company talks to the students when they arrive at the school in the morning, and the students practice exiting off of the back of the bus with our help.

• Students will get a vision screening by the nurse on Thursday or Friday.

• There is a PTA Meeting on Friday at 9:15 AM in the APR

We look forward to another terrific week ahead at OHS! Take care.

Sean F. Smyth, Principal

The Board of Education will be updating the calendar for this current school year to account for the special election on February 3, 2026. School will be closed on that day, so please update your calendars and make arrangements now. To accommodate this change, the Board will remove two early dismissal dates from the calendar, making them full days. The Board will finalize this on November 12th, and we will share the updated calendar as soon as it is available.

The Board has also begun discussing the calendar for the 2026-27 school year. This is your opportunity to weigh in, should you have strong opinions. 

Topics for discussion:

• 2026 start date
• Reducing the number of half days in favor of more full days off
• Potential for a full week of February break

On 10/28, Superintendent Testani presented the Board of Education with the proposed calendar for the 2026-2027 school year. The first date of school was listed as August 24, 2026; however, as per Board of Ed policy 6111 this date is too early. The Board entered into a discussion on whether to update the policy to make an exception or to keep the policy as is, forcing the start date to be August 31, 2026, so that children are not in school two weeks prior to Labor Day weekend. 

Board members also expressed their unhappiness with the number of early dismissal days. There was a discussion of replacing sets of two half days with a full day off during school conference months. This could impact our ECC families who have half days included in aftercare tuition.

Some Board members expressed support for a full week February break, but in order to do this, days off would need to be taken from elsewhere in the calendar, including staying longer into June. Superintendent Testani also suggested removing the Veteran's Day holiday and having children in school for this day to actually learn about the important sacrifices of our Veterans. 

You can watch the Board meeting here, the discussion begins around one hour forty-two minutes. If you have opinions about the proposed changes, please email the Board at boemembers@fairfieldschools.org. The Board welcomes parental input and would love to hear from you before their next meeting on November 12th.

Please join OHS parents as we decorate a 12-inch wreath, complete with pinecones, statice, berries, glass ornaments, boxwood, eucalyptus, magnolia leaves, starfish, dried pods, and more! A handmade beautiful bow will complete your creation!

Class fee includes:

- instructions

- 12” ring size fresh green balsam wreath

-beautiful decorations

-your very own handmade bow

Cost is $79.76 per person (includes taxes)

*Attendees must fill out THIS FORM, including all their information and bow choice! Please fill this out at least 2 days before your class. If you don't choose a bow, you will have to pick from the surprise box of bows!

Let’s keep those pumpkins out of the landfill and put them to good use! Tell your neighbors, friends, and family to bring their pumpkins to OHS for composting!

Let’s bring home the win for OHS!

 - The OHS Green Team

November is Turkey Trot season! The Turkey Trot Food Drive to benefit Operation Hope and OHS Families in need starts on Monday, November 3rd and runs through Thursday, November 20th.  The food drive culminates with a school-wide fun run around the building during school on November 25th.

Please consider bringing in non-perishable goods from the list below to be donated to Operation Hope.  Donations can be brought right to your child’s classroom.  The classroom with the most items collected will receive a Crumbl Cookie Gift Card! (We know the food drive gets competitive between classes, so please remember when you purchase a box of hot chocolate that has 8 packets, that counts as one item, not eight!)

We are also in need of cardboard boxes to transport all of the items to Operation Hope.  If you have any small moving boxes please consider dropping them off at the main office.  

Below are a list if items requested by Operation Hope:

We are looking for volunteers to help deliver the cans collected for the Turkey Trot Food Drive to Operation Hope on Friday, November 21st, at 9:30 am. It takes about 2 hours between loading the cars and delivering. Larger cars appreciated! Osborn is an extremely generous community, and we always have tons of cans to deliver! Sign up here. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Kate Fierman, Courtney Cataldo and Morgan Marcinek.

OHS had 14 sales, totaling $614.79 and resulting in $62 for OHS. B&M generously added $50 to the total, bringing our final fundraising amount to $112. 

Thank you to those who participated!

Osborn Hill Elementary School

760 Stillson Road

Fairfield, CT 06824

www.ohspta.com