October 10, 2025
Dear Saxe MS Family,
What a week! Not only was this our first “5-day” week in a while due to where some of the recent holidays have fallen, but we packed in a TON of fun, enrichment, learning, and more! Thanks for taking a moment to scan through the Saxe Weekly to see just how special our school community truly is.
This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at the latest Saxe MS podcast, a Health, Wellness, & Safety PSA, Celebrate Saxe, Math, 3D Moon Cakes, Start with Hello, Walk/Ride to School Day, some e-bike info, Hispanic Heritage Month, welcoming new staff, clubs, scenes around Saxe, a trip to the NC Nature Center, the full Harvest Moon, 3D printing, positive quotes, Library, a.m. announcements, recess, a “throwback jacket”, a drone sighting, Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful, long weekend!
Be Well,
Dave Gusitsch
Principal, Saxe Middle School
Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:
10/13 Columbus Day – Building Closed
*Quotes that resonated with us this week:
“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese Proverb
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, ‘I’m possible.”-Audrey Hepburn
“Success isn’t built overnight; it’s shaped by the choices you make today, the lessons you embrace, and the effort you put in each step of the way.”-Unknown
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” -Helen Keller.
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion,”-The Dalai Lama.
Saxe Jokes:
What do you call a pumpkin that works at the beach? A life gourd.
What kind of award do dentists hate to receive? A plaque.
What’s a ghost’s favorite dessert? I scream!
What do you call a small pepper in late autumn? A little chili”
What is a bat’s favorite sport? Batminton!
Saxe Weekly: The Podcast
Interested in getting an overview of the latest Saxe Weekly in podcast form? Using Google’s Notebook LM, we are able to offer an option to listen to all of the great “goings on” around Saxe while you are “on the go”! We invite you to give it a listen, here. Enjoy!
Health, Wellness, & Safety PSA
We don’t typically use the Saxe Weekly as a method of informing our school community about school rules, but we felt it was important enough to share an announcement that we made this morning, reminding students of some basic rules and expectations. We have received an increase in reports of students bringing gum and candy to school, which is not allowed. We have also heard of students bringing “energy drinks” to school. Not only are these not healthy for adolescents/teens, but students are only permitted to have water outside of the cafeteria. Finally, there is a trend of students taking post-it notes and folding them to form a type of projectile. While this may be appropriate and fun outside of school, this creates a distraction, trash gets left around the building, and most importantly, may present a safety issue. Please have a conversation with your child(ren) and help us reinforce these important rules and expectations. Thank you!
Celebrate Saxe
For more information or to donate, please click on the Saxe PTC site. Thank you to EVERYONE who has already participated, donated, volunteered, or done anything else to make this one of the best Celebrate Saxe weeks to date!
“Rogue is a New York City-based Comedy Magician and Mentalist. He has appeared on American’s Got Talent and has performed his act in places like Hong Kong, China, Italy, England, and Thailand just to name a few. With over 35 years of experience under his belt, a documentary,countless shows like HBO’s Crashing, and Italy’s Got Talent – Rogue’s Magic Show is guaranteed to entertain! Let’s give a warm, respectful welcome to Rogue as he brings MAGIC to Saxe today!”
We also gave a huge shoutout to our PTC, and all parents, within our Saxe Community! Hopefully your student(s) came home and said “thanks” to you 🙂
Rogue was generous with his time as he chatted with students or signed gifts following his shows!
Staff were a big part of the show!
Ms. Carlson
Mr. Fiorillo and Mr. Young
Ms. Orlando
Ms. Freeman
Mr. Chard saw a beta fish appear right before his eyes!
Mr. Pelatowski
Mr. Tomasiewicz
Math
Mrs. Brown’s Pre-Algebra classes worked collaboratively to explore applications of the Pythagorean Theorem.
Mrs. Brown’s Geometry class worked collaboratively to explore unit analysis problems.
Mrs. Brown’s Algebra class worked on Desmos with a partner to write and solve inequalities.
3D Moon Cakes
October 6th was the Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinese culture. Both grade 7 & grade 8 Mandarin class students made their first 3D moon cakes with paper and art materials. Thanks to a G7 student’s great idea, students brought to class items that are related to Chinese culture or language. We all had a good time seeing red envelopes, art decorations, traditional clothing, panda stickers, etc. By the end of class, when students completed their 3D moon cakes, the icing on the cake was students enjoying showing off their delicious products!
Start with Hello
In conjunction with the 7th-grade Student Leadership Team, we kicked off the first “Start with Hello” week of the 2025-26 school year. It was a great lineup, for a great cause, which led to an extremely positive week! We appreciate all the work that went into putting this together for our school community! A special thanks to Ms. Nettleton, Ms. Perretti, and their team of 7th & 8th Grade Leadership Team students, for their work on this!
As part of “Start with Hello” Week at Saxe MS, students & teachers kicked it off with “Making Connections Monday” using this great Hexagon Activity! There was quite a buzz around the building as people shared new info about classmates or students they didn’t know before!
Saxe Walk/Ride to School Day
Here are a few pics from our cruise up & down Farm & South Avenues for our Saxe MS fall Walk/Ride to School Day… It was a great turnout & there were tons of smiles to start the day!
Thanks to Officer Bentley for helping keep all of our Saxe MS families safe during our fall Walk/Ride to School Day!
t may very well have been the absolute most perfect fall morning we could have asked for today for the Saxe MS fall Walk/Ride to School Day!
Thanks to our Saxe SRO, Officer Blank for grabbing the NCPD Gator to cruise the streets around Saxe MS to celebrate our students who were walking/riding in today!
Students “packed the racks at SaxeMS” during our fall Walk/Ride to School Day today!
E-Bike Info
As part of our ongoing safety and information campaign, below is the latest information on e-bikes and the recently passed legislation.
Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 through October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. During this time, we recognize and honor the many contributions of Hispanic Americans to our community and beyond. This week, we celebrate the lives and work of Dolores Huerta, Rita Morena, Alejando Mayorkas, Sylvia Mendez and Richard Cavazos—their contributions have helped shape our society and continue to inspire us all!
Welcome Aboard
Join us in welcoming our new Supervisory Aide, Mr. Benjamin Joseph, to the Saxe MS team! We’re excited to have you on board for the 2025–26 school year!
Interested in making a difference around Saxe? Check out the Biodiversity Club!
8Green has their bulletin board updated, and there are some great “student profiles” (and, artwork)!
X
Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe Middle School page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!
What says “positive school culture” more than getting a pic of a team of teachers, visiting the NC nature center, **on a Saturday**(!), to visit one of their students who was working there! This is just one example of the amazingly dedicated staff members we have at Saxe MS!
What a sight seeing the Harvest Moon (Click the link to watch!) rise over Saxe MS this week!
A few of the 3D printers churning out some student projects in the Saxe MS Design Lab & Fab Lab, respectively…
Thanks to Ms. Nettleton, Ms. Perretti, & the Saxe MS Leadership Teams for putting together this amazing quotes & affirmations board as part of “Start with Hello” week! Can’t wait to see students spread the joy as they grab a note & pass it on!
The display outside the #SaxeLibrary continues to grow & improve – looks great!
Signs that it’s the fall season at Saxe MS!
Ms DiMeglio & Mia were locked in during Saxe MS morning announcements today!
Grateful for the NCEA TGIF B-fast today at Saxe MS- thanks to all involved!
80+ degrees in October in Connecticut?! Yes, please! Hundreds of our Saxe MS students are not complaining about the terrific weather, while taking advantage of being outside!
The “a.m. crew” earned their “Rain Badge” this week at Saxe MS… Rain or shine, this group knows how to start the day the right way!
A little rainy weather didn’t stop our Saxe MS students from getting out for some fresh air, activity, & fun during Saxe Recess this week!
There were some beautiful days, too!
Every so often, you find moments that span generations… Earlier this year, our student wore this jacket & I mentioned my Dad gave me a Mustang jacket that he got in 1966 from a Mustang Club in NY. I dug it out from home & we compared stories this week! Ford has “kept the style” over 7 decades!
Ms. Ording “wowed” some of our SaxeMS students during a rainy lunch wave this week – pretty neat!
What’s one advantage of having our Saxe SRO also being one of the certified drone pilots for the New Canaan PD?! Amazing vantage points of our beautiful Saxe MS campus! Stay tuned for more views in the coming weeks…
Celebrate Saxe is officially underway! Thank you to all of our parent volunteers & each and every donor who helps make the dreams of our Saxe MS teachers come true, to benefit our students!
Good morning & happy Friday from Saxe MS! It’s a beautiful day for the fall Walk/Ride to School Day… We look forward to seeing our students & families kick off the day in the right way!
The favorite sign along East Ave has been updated with a great message – “Eat Lunch with the New Kid at School”… Fortunately, we have such great kids at Saxe MS & they truly do put this advice into action!
Dogs of Saxe
Ace & Hershey were out to drop their human off at Saxe MS this week! Dogs Of Saxe
Celebrating our Dogs Of Saxe!
Have a great week, see you next Friday!
Thank you to all of our Saxe Weekly contributors! Each weekly edition is an example of collaboration in action. A special thanks to Melissa DiMeglio for the continuous stream of positive, optimistic quotes!
Saxe Resources (live links)
Website: https://www.ncps-k12.org/saxe
Saxe Middle School
Celebrating Our Learning Community Through Caring, Communication, & Commitment
