2025.10.24 – Saxe Weekly (#299)

October 24, 2025

Dear Saxe MS Family,

Fall is fully upon us! The days are getting shorter (we will have a daylight savings reminder for next weekend), but the colors are “popping” and the weather has been representing what a perfect New England autumn should feel and look like! In addition to seeing some of these classic fall views, we appreciate you scanning our newsletter to get a glimpse of the learning, innovation, experiences, and fun that happen within our school community each and every week!

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at a reminder about the end of quarter 1, a look ahead to Halloween, Social Studies, Sustainability Club, STEM, Pickleball Club, robotics, Shark Tank, some special birthdays, certificates of appreciation, new crosswalks, many Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

10/31 Halloween No Homework

10/31 End of Quarter 1

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“The simplest act of caring is heroic.” – Edward Albert

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” — Henry Ford

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”-Unknown

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”-Unknown

“Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it.” –Unknown

Saxe Jokes:

Why don’t grapes snore when they are sleeping? They don’t want to wake the rest of the bunch!

Why are ghosts so bad at telling lies? Because you can see right through them.

I applied for a job hanging mirrors. It’s something I can see myself doing!

Why don’t mummies gossip? They don’t want to get a bad wrap!

I was confused when my printer started playing music. Then I realized the paper was jamming!

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” in our school community while you are “on the go”, with the Saxe MS Podcast! We invite you to give it a listen… Enjoy!

General Reminders

Just a reminder, Quarter 1 ends next Friday, 10/31. All of our staff members have been reminded to review student grades, outstanding work, etc. and communicate with anyone who may need to get assignments in or tie up any loose ends. We encourage you to do the same! Please have a conversation within your family to determine if there is anything you may need to take care of before the end of the quarter and/or grades are complete. Communication is one of the most important skills we work to build within our school community and this is a great time to practice it!

Halloween

As we look ahead to next week, we recognize that Halloween is a fun time of year for our middle school students. While we do not plan anything formal as a school, many students choose to “get in the spirit” by dressing up. For those choosing to wear a costume to school on Friday (10/31), please be sure to follow the guidelines below:

Appropriate school dress protocols still apply as outlined in the “Personal Appearance” section of our student handbook, found on page 13.
Please arrive at school dressed in costume. Students will not be permitted to change or apply makeup or hair products in school.
If makeup is part of a costume, it should be applied in a manner that does not lend itself to smudging or transferring to anyone/anything else.
Costumes are not permitted to include anything that would be considered a weapon (or toys representing weapons).
Costumes should not include handheld props, noisemakers, restrict movement or vision, or consist of anything that would prevent students from full participation in any/all classes.
Costumes should not be distracting to classmates or teachers or be overly graphic, suggestive, or depict violence, blood, or gore.
If costumes do not follow the above guidance, are considered inappropriate, or compromise safety in any manner, students will be asked to contact home for a change of clothes.

Social Studies

On October 17th, a team representing Saxe attended the annual CT Council for the Social Studies Conference at Central Connecticut State University. Each attended sessions applicable to their areas of teaching, bringing back new learning to share with colleagues. We are grateful for these opportunities to learn and work with colleagues from across the state.

Front: Jenny Baltz (8), Tori Aufiero (8), Jen Berry (5)

Back: Mary Hanna (K-8 Coordinator), Brett Gillan (6), Dan Devine (7)

Bus Driver Appreciation Week ’25

This week, we recognized this important group of professionals who safely transport our students to and from school each day. Thank you, bus drivers!

Sustainability Club

The Saxe MS Sustainability Club has been busy harvesting seeds, cleaning out the garden beds and organizing the greenhouse as we prepare for future projects. We harvested seeds from the sunflowers and marigolds we planted last spring and made mini bouquets to bring home. We also tried a watermelon that was growing over the summer in our greenhouse. Mr. Gusitsch visited his father a few weeks ago out in Pennsylvania and brought back some Paw Paw fruit seeds for our club to try growing here at Saxe. Currently, we are germinating the seeds, which takes anywhere from 3-4 months in the refrigerator.

Note: never heard of a paw paw before?! Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Click on the paw paw fruit link to learn more about this unique fruit.

STEM for Social Good Club

Our STEM for Social Good Club is off to an inspiring start this fall! Students have been identifying real-world challenges and using the design thinking process to create solutions that make a positive impact on our community. A Saxe Intermediate School teacher noticed that his team had a problem with musical instruments littering the hallway and contacted us to help! Our students 3D designed a custom storage solution and are now developing a prototype to test their idea. Through collaboration, creativity, and iteration, they’re showing how STEM can be a powerful tool for problem-solving and community improvement. Check back to see what they create!

Knitting & Crochet Club

Ms. Pesce has built quite a club with her knitting and crochet groups! Her intermediate group meets in the morning and middle school group meets in the afternoon. We look forward to seeing some of the finished products from the projects that are currently being worked on !

Pickleball Club

Thanks to Ms. Saab for sharing some terrific action and group shots from the Pickleball Club – what a great group!

Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe Middle School page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!

We may have reached peak foliage around Saxe MS- beautiful sights & scenes!

Speaking of peak foliage, here are a few Saxe MS (Click to watch in “real time”!) students taking full advantage, with some fun & creativity (Click to watch in “slo-mo”!), on a gorgeous fall day during recess!

Note: look closely, there may be a person in that pile (below)!

Some new Social Studies visuals have made their way into the hallways at Saxe MS, for all to view… Thanks to Ms. Campbell (&, any others involved)!

It’s always a pleasure going into STEM (Click the link to watch!) Workshop classes at Saxe MS to see what they are up to… This week we saw some impressive coding & even got to play some cool games!

Creativity is on display in both the physical and digital realms!

(I wonder if my high score in the tap game still stands?)

Who doesn’t love “robots”?! Here are some of our Saxe MS (Click the link!) students trying out their latest designs to check alignment, speed, direction, balance (&, probably much more…). There is also some serious research into parts, coding, assembly, etc. Pretty impressive!

Shark Tank is back in action at Saxe MS! It’s always so impressive to see the Design Thinking Process in real time & can’t wait to see the finalists presentations! Such a meaningful experience for our Saxe Science students!

Rain or shine, we’ve enjoyed seeing the Saxe MS “morning crew” taking advantage of these beautiful fall mornings!

Birthdays are a big deal here at Saxe MS… This week, Ms. Jarosik brought in this amazing cat-cake to help celebrate Ms. Benware’s bday & it was delicious! Also, how cool there were some “birthday buddies” to share their bdays with – I hope Mr. Fiorillo & T had a great day, too!

We got to hand out a whole bundle of Saxe MS “Certificates of Gratitude” this week. These occur when students & staff are recognized for going above & beyond by contributing positively to our school community. Big or small, every opportunity to make someone’s day is always great!

Always neat to see our Saxe MS mascot “out in the wild”! Thanks to Ms. Leffers for these great shots! Go Saxe Hawks!

Grateful to the New Canaan DPW for these freshly painted crosswalks that help keep our Saxe MS students safe as they enter &/or exit our campus. Thank you!

Dogs of Saxe

We may see some more frequent “return customers” when it comes to Dogs Of Saxe if Ms. Orlando keeps that bag full of treats nearby! Teddy certainly appreciated them!

We had oodles of Dogs Of Saxe seeing their humans off to Saxe MS this week! With names like Alfie, Cooper, Snacks, Lil’ Weezy, Chuck Norris, (& more), we got to start our day with some chuckles, too!

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)