Good Afternnon,

It was brought to our attention that the next scheduled parent support group meeting which we had moved to Oct 17th is in conflict with a Parent connection event that some of you may want to attend. Our normal parent support group meeting is the second Tuesday of the month which would be Oct 10th. That happens to be a professional development day for staff. Working in the system, I am aware that when there are professional development days and students are not in the building during the day, the need for custodial staff in the evening is unnecessary  so we do not have access to the building. I did not think we would be able to get into Millennium on the 10th in the evening. I found out yesterday that the school board has a meeting that night in one of the conference rooms so Millennium will in fact be open. I have re-scheduled our meeting for the 10th in the large all purpose room where we usually meet. The topic for our parent support group Oct 10th meeting is: Anxiety/Depression--when is it serious, when to be concerned; how to get help. That will be from 7-8:30. Please see below for more information about the Westford Parent Connection event on the 17th:

WESTFORD PARENT CONNECTION - Teens: What Are They Thinking? If you have teenagers in your life, you’ve probably wondered (more than once) what they’re thinking. Or whether they’re thinking at all. The Westford Parent Connection kicks off its 2017 – 2018 speaker series with Joani Geltman, MSW, on Tuesday, October 17, with her talk, Adolescent Psychology: The Parent Version. During her presentation, parents will learn how the brain affects behavior, and how teens often struggle between thinking and feeling. Parents will also learn effective strategies to keep the lines of communication open and keep teens safe in what is a very challenging time in their lives. Joani has more than 30 years of experience working with parents, children, schools, and community groups. She is a clinician, parenting coach, college professor, and public speaker, and has addressed hundreds of schools and community organizations across the country. She is also the author of A Survival Guide To Parenting Teens: Talking To Your Kids About Sexting, Drinking, Drugs, And Other Things That Freak You Out, copies of which will be available for purchase the evening of her talk. Joani’s presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Stony Brook Middle School, 9 Farmer Way, Westford. The event is free and open to the public, made possible by the Westford Parent Connection’s generous sponsors. For more information about Joani, check out her website at http://joanigeltman.com or follow her blog at http://joanigeltman.blogspot.com/. For more information about the Westford Parent Connection, contact Mary Anne Seraphin at mseraphin@comcast.net or go to http://www.westford.org/wpc/.

Hope to see some of you on the 10th. 

Thank you, Sue Hanly Westford Board of Health Member