SMS Weekly Update

Thank you for making our first Meet and Greet Back to School Night at SMS a success! It was such a joy to watch the students take the lead and walk their parents/guardians through their schedule. The staff enjoyed having informal conversations that directly addressed the questions that parents and guardians had, and the energy and enthusiasm around the building was felt by all! We appreciate the opportunity to build relationships with all of our community members and work in partnership towards an amazing educational experience for your student.

If you requested a teacher to follow up with you they should begin reaching out next week. As always, we welcome open communication and would encourage you to reach out to your student’s teachers with questions or concerns throughout the school year.

September 18

• Tardies Start Counting! (see the SMS Tardy Policy below)

September 20

• Early Release, Dismissal at 2:26 pm

September 27

• Early Release, Dismissal at 2:26 pm
• Choice Flex

• Student Services Parent Partnership Meeting, 7:00pm-8:30pm

October 10

• PSO Pledge Drive Begins (see the Freaky Friday Flyer below)

October 4

• Early Release, Dismissal at 2:26 pm

October 11

• Early Release, Dismissal at 2:26 pm

October 13

• Statewide Inservice - NO SCHOOL

Additional events may be viewed on the SMS Calendar and the District Calendar.

Front Office Hours: 7:30 am - 3:45pm

Student Hours: 8:45 am - 3:26 pm (Except on scheduled Early Release days)

Doors Open to Students: 8:30 am (Main Entrance and Activities Entrance)

Wednesdays: 2:26 pm Dismissal (beginning on Sept. 13th)

The District will have one-hour Early Release days each Wednesday throughout the 2023-2024 school year beginning on September 13th. Please refer to the 2023-2024 District Calendar for the scheduled Early Release days. Dismissal for those days will be at 2:26 pm.

With the change in format this year, we are very interested in hearing your feedback on Back to School Night 23-24. Please fill out the following form if you attended BTSN.

Join us for Family Fun with food, raffle and an all new Haunted Maze!!! The event is Friday, October 20 from 5pm to 8pm. Students will come home with envelopes for the Monster Dash and we need lots of volunteers to help us pull this event off (more information to come soon).

Yearbooks can be ordered on treering.com. Please include your students flight time teacher when ordering (that ensures they get their own book.) If you have ordered a yearbook in the past few years from any elementary in Sherwood you should already have an account. You have the opportunity to personalize pages for your student throughout the year and share photos from sporting events etc. with the yearbook team. You can do this via the app on your phone or the website. There are photo folders for various categories. The SMS school code can be found on the flyer in the newsletter and on the FB PSO site as well as flyers coming home soon. If you are feeling generous you can donate a book when you check out. The school counselors will ensure it goes to someone in need.

Order by October 31st for 10% off.

Directory information means those items of personally identifiable information contained in a student education record which is not generally considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if released.

Under Sherwood School District 88J Policy JOA, directory information shall be released only with administrative direction and directory information considered by the district to be detrimental will not be released. Sherwood school district has parents update this information three times during a student's time in SSD. Once when entering Kindergarten, once when entering 6th grade, and once when entering 9th grade. Of course a parent can change or modify their wishes any time with the school.

All students and families have the opportunity to opt out of Directory Information and to not allow their information to be released. Please complete this Opt-Out form if you do NOT approve the release of your child’s directory information. Student directory information will be released with the absence of this Opt-Out form.

Studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education on truancy, which is connected with tardiness, show that school attendance is a major factor when it comes to school success and student behavior. While it may only seem like 5 or 10 minutes late is no big deal, it directly impacts your child's success, disrupts the learning environment for all students in the class, and is a detriment to everyone’s learning.

Suggestions to help with being on time to school:

• Pack backpacks/lunch boxes and lay out clothes the night before.

• Set up a “last stop” area-pick an area by the door you leaves from and put everything there for school

• Play favorite music that puts you in a good mood and gets you going.

Sherwood Middle School Tardy Policy

FIVE TARDIES IN ONE WEEK ACROSS ALL CLASSES WILL RESULT IN…

• 1st Offense: One lunch detention

• 2nd Offense: Two lunch detentions

• 3rd Offense: Three lunch detentions

*If tardies continue after the 3rd offense, additional consequences and support will be implemented.

We start tracking tardies on Monday, September 11th, and begin holding students accountable for tardies on Monday, September 18th.

PLEASE EXCUSE A TARDY THAT IS OUT OF YOUR STUDENTS CONTROL.

Call The Attendance Line:

(503) 825-5510

Email:

SherwoodMiddle_Notification@sherwood.k12.or.us

Non-Participation in PE Due to Injury:

If you have a student that is injured and needs to sit out from PE, please notify your student's PE teacher directly as soon as possible. Any injury that will require more than 3 days of sitting out must be accompanied by a Doctor's note indicating the type of injury and the dates that the student should sit out for. Students will still be expected to check in with their PE teacher every day, whether they are medically excused or not.

Is your student looking for a way to connect with others and to be in service to our community?

We are excited to partner with students at Sherwood High School to form a Builders Club here at SMS. This student-led club was originally developed by and modeled after Kiwanis International, a global network of men and women serving the children of the world. Participants will have a variety of extracurricular opportunities throughout the school year to develop leadership through service to the school and the community. Interested students will have the opportunity to participate in leadership and service activities during their monthly Choice Flex classes. We will also be hosting after school activities on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. There will be an Activity Bus.

If this sounds like a good fit for your student, please encourage them to sign up for our first Choice Flex class, September 27. Sign ups will happen at school, the week before. We are so excited to work alongside our students to help, "build a better future."

Student Services Parent Partnership Meeting - September 27

SAVE THE DATE! The Student Services Department will be hosting their first Parent Partnership meeting of the academic year on Wednesday, September 27th from 7:00-8:30pm at the District Office. The goal of the Student Services Parent Partnership meetings are to build positive connections and relationships with parents of students with disabilities. These meetings provide an opportunity to learn more about special education and Section 504, and build community with professionals and parents who have a passion for supporting students with disabilities. If you would like more information please reach out to Angela Thiemann at 503-825-5035 or athiemann@sherwood.k12.or.us.

2023-2024 Student Services Parent Partnership Dates:

• Wednesday, September 27th - 7:00pm-8:30pm
• Wednesday, October 25th - 4:30pm-6:00pm
• Friday, November 17th- 9:00am-10:30am
• Wednesday, January 31st - 7:00pm-8:30pm
• Wednesday, February 28th 4:30pm-6:00pm
• Friday, March 22nd- 9:00am-10:30am
• Wednesday, April 24th 7:00pm-8:30pm
• Wednesday, May 29th 4:30pm-6:00pm

The Annual Notice for Statewide Tests is published by the Oregon Department of Education at the beginning of each school year. This notice informs parents and families of state testing requirements, why participation matters, and parent and adult student rights regarding state testing.

Please take a moment to review the annual notice for statewide tests.

• 2023-24 Annual Notice for Statewide Tests

• English Annual Notice, Spanish Annual Notice

• Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified)

• Vietnamese, Russian, German, French

• Tagalog, Japanese, Korean, Arabic

• Chuukese, Somali

For questions about the annual notice of statewide tests, please contact psalm@sherwood.k12.or.us