Eagle Eye JMS Parent Newsletter #29

Hello, Jefferson Middle School families and parents!

As we begin our final round of benchmark testing this week, we are anticipating success in all of our classes! Students and teachers have been working so diligently towards specific, measurable, timebound goals. We are so honored to be part of a team that impacts student progress and achievement. We will say it again; JMS has the very best families, and we are so thankful for your support and efforts as we are on our last leg of the race this year. Please encourage your child to sleep and eat well, arrive to school on time, and to perform their best on their MVP benchmark tests. We will also do our best to ensure all students have an optimal testing environment with all accommodations.

We have several events and upcoming opportunities for families and students in our newsletter. Be sure to check it all out.

Please do not ever hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Have a wonderful week!

Phil Cox, Principal, pcox@ortn.edu

Ben Fowler, Vice Principal, bjfowler@ortn.edu

Brian Tinker, Dean of Students, bjtinker@ortn.edu

Elizabeth Leavitt, Instructional Technology Coach, ealeavitt@ortn.edu

Monday 27, A Day

• Human Sexuality Presentation 8th Gr during PE
• Track Practice 3:00-4:30 Chess Club Library 2:45-3:45
• Board of Ed Meeting SAB 5:00
• Wilderness Connections Parent/Student Meeting JPAC 6:30
  

Tuesday, 28, B Day

• Human Sexuality Presentation 8th Gr during PE
• Track Practice 3:00-4:30
  

Wednesday, March 1, A Day

• Spring Benchmark-Math/Soc Studies
• Track Practice 1:00-2:30
  

Thursday, March 2, B Day

• Spring Benchmark-Math/Soc Studies
• Track Practice 3:00-4:30
  

Friday, March 3, A Day

• Youth for Christ Band Room 7:10 AM
• Spring Benchmark-Math/Soc Studies
• Ms. Kala’s class to The Oak Ridger Wilderness Connections to Big South Fork NRAA 3:00
• Track Practice 3:00-4:30
  

Saturday, March 4

• Wilderness Connections return 3:30
  

March 9th, from 5:30-7pm come out to JMS's STEM Night. We have 30 different presenters from around the Oak Ridge area that demonstrate the myriad of jobs available in STEM. We will offer concessions and coffee and fun for the whole family! Come join us!

Laptop Repairs for Test Time

Testing season is just around the corner, and we want to make sure our students are as prepared as possible to do their best work. In order to have all student laptops in working order come test time, we ask that students give damaged or malfunctioning laptops to the Student Help Desk no later than March 1st.

Parents, check out the Class of 2027 newsletter; it is LOADED with valuable information, documents, and tips to help your 8th grade child be successful, even before the first day of high school!

Class of 2027 Counselor Connection | Smore Newsletters

Please be sure to mark your calendars for the following TCAP Testing Dates! Attendance and punctuality on these dates is critical and gives students a chance to show what they have learned and is also an indicator of JMS success overall! We so much appreciate your efforts in being sure your child is here for our testing days.

Access the button/bar below to learn more about the tests, time per test, and content at our state website!

JMS's very own Joseph Golden was presented with "EMPLOYEE of the YEAR" award, and while we want to congratulate him, we are not at all surprised. Anyone who knows or meets Joseph is well aware that, as his last name echoes, he is so valuable to all of us and shines with a golden heart and work ethic. He consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that our school, students, and staff are accommodated. Hats off to Joseph! Well-deserved!

Please be sure students are coming to school in dress code and dressed for success! JMS Administration has noticed an increase in the areas listed below and would like to remind students and families of ORS Code of Conduct.

Students are prohibited from wearing:

• Clothing that resembles sleepwear such as lounging pants, or other lounging items. This also includes house shoes.
• Students are not permitted to wear pants or shorts with holes above the knee. This includes wearing any type of shorts or leggings underneath ripped attire.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH CONTEST 2023 The Branch’s Education Committee is sponsoring a Black History Month Contest for Oak Ridge School/Anderson County Schools Middle (6-8) and High School (9-12) youths. Awards will be given to 1st, 2nd and 3rdPlace winners from Oak Ridge Schools and Anderson County Schools. The Black History Month Contest question will be:

“How would you create a curriculum to include the Clinton 12 or the Scarboro 85 in the school system.” You could create a podcast, develop a lesson plan, or develop a creative or dramatic art project (like a mural or a play for example).

*Please see the attached flyer for details!

JMS Track & Field is in full swing; coaches and students are dedicating time and energy to conditioning and practicing. We are so excited for the upcoming competitive season!

We also took time to celebrate our Eagles, Lady Eagles, and Cheerleaders now that basketball has ended for a short season.

The 2023 JMS Track & Field Schedule is below.

As always, GO EAGLES!

Thank you,

Coach Bolling

🏀😀🏀

Attention Parents and Guardians of 6th and 8th grade students

On February 16th, 17th, 6th graders participated, and this week during PE; this week (Feb. 27 and 28), 8th graders will participate in the Oak Ridge Board of Education approved Family Life curriculum.

The programming will be age appropriate and address topics covered in the 6th and 8th grade Health Education standards.

6th Grade Family Life Information

Lessons presented will be age- appropriate information on the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up. Boys and girls will be separated for this presentation, but will watch the same video. The link for the video is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw1N06PKhu4

8th Grade Family Life Information

Lessons presented will be age-appropriate information on the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up. Information on sexually transmitted diseases, refusal skills, abstinence, HIV/AIDS is also included. Students will remain in the same classroom, unlike when boys and girls were separated in the 6th grade program. This information will be presented by Mrs. Tracey Robbins.

Per School Board Policy 4.213, a parent/guardian has the right to opt their child out of participating in the family life education programming. Your child may be assigned alternative health activities and will not be penalized academically.

https://forms.office.com/r/gGV1b9H2pc

If you would like additional information about the program, or if you have further questions, please feel free to contact Katie Bolling, Sean Jessie or Casey Ensley at 425-9301 or by email at ksbolling@ortn.edu, skjessie@ortn.edu, or ceensley@ortn.edu.

All 8th graders interested in trying out, please access the document below. An interest meeting will be held April 10 at ORHS Amphitheater.

Take a moment right now and think about when your family sits down together to eat a meal—is it something that happens frequently or a rare occurrence? Is a TV usually on? Do you all sit and linger, or does everyone hurry in and hurry out to continue whatever they were doing? The family meal has become a bit of a lost art in the modern age, where life moves at breakneck speed, long work schedules are juggled, screens are glued to everyone, and activities and other commitments fill up the “off” hours.

But whether your family is just two people or ten, eating together at the table should be a priority because it offers more benefits than most people realize. Family meals don’t have to be extravagant or consist of complicated dishes; it’s less about what’s on the table than who’s at the table.

Why eat together?

Besides the obvious fact that family time is important for bonding, here are other research-backed benefits to eating together:

Physical health:

Meals tend to be more balanced and nutritious, containing the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. People eat slower and talk more, which allows more time for digestion and helps prevent overeating because there is more time to recognize fullness. Kids who eat with their family are exposed to a wider variety of foods and become less picky.

Mental and emotional health:

It’s much-needed time to catch up, reconnect, and find out what’s happening in your children’s lives. This builds closer bonds, and you recognize potential issues your children may be having.

Through this time together, kids build greater self-esteem and parents are able to role model healthy behaviors, whether it’s choosing nutritious foods or problem-solving a conflict. Kids and teens who eat family meals may earn higher grades in school, experience fewer symptoms of depression, and are less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, like drug use. For kids in early childhood, family meals help develop language and social skills.

And one final benefit? It saves money—potentially quite a bit, depending on how frequently your family eats outside the home.

For more tips on how to make the most of family meals, visit Action for Healthy Kids Web Site.

This past week, we spent time Wednesday morning with the following topics in each classroom.

• 8th Grade: 9th grade Registration Discussion and Folder!
• 7th Grade: Check-in
• 6th Grade: Exercising Well-Being
• 5th Grade: Strengthening Friendships

We are especially still in need of Ziploc bags! We so much appreciate all of our parents. Feel free to continue sending in any donations for our clinic.

Congratulations to our students who were recognized for honesty this short week back to school. We are so proud of our Character Trait winners each week!

6th Grade: Erica Schildt😁

7th Grade: Gretchen Grubb🙂 and Kaleigh Wright😃

8th Grade: Brody Parker😊

We also want to note that our Character Trait program is tied directly to our ORS district POG, as represented in "LIFE READY" above: Students exhibit traits of citizens ready for life with age-appropriate measures of self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy.

Important Information for Rising 9th Graders:

The ORHS Academic Planning Guide can be found here:

https://orschools.wpenginepowered.com/highschool/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2021/01/ORHS_APG_2023-2024.pdf

• Class of 2027 Newsletter : https://www.smore.com/uyxm1

February Character Strong Trait – COOPERATION

This month’s focus is Cooperation or “working together to reach shared goals.” We all experience situations in which we must work with others to accomplish a goal or task in our life. Whether we are working with friends or with someone new, we need tools to help us navigate those situations successfully and keep our relationships healthy. As a family, talk about how this definition applies to how you work together at home. What are some goals you share?

Family Fun Activity: Cooperation Activities

Review Cooperation as a family! Search through your cupboards for some board games your family has not played in a while or grab a deck of cards for a simple game of Go Fish. Pop some popcorn and have fun playing together! Look for moments of Cooperation that you can point out.

For example:

• Choosing which game to play
• Choosing who gets to go first
• Handling wins and losses
• Working together to solve a problem

WE NEED YOUR HELP: After School Program

Our After School Homework Help Program needs nutritious, prepackaged snacks. All donations can be dropped off in the School Counseling Office. Thank you for your willingness to support this wonderful program.

Clothing Closet Accepting Donations

JMS is pleased to offer support for students in need through our “Clothing Closet”. We are now accepting clean, gently used clothing items for the warm, winter months (mostly in need of, girl pants in all sizes and boys clothing in small). Please make sure all donated items meet the JMS dress code policy. Donated items can be dropped off in the Counseling office. Thank you for your support!

Mental Health Resources

For mental health support, please feel free to reach out to the Jefferson Middle School Counseling Department at (865) 425-9301.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please refer to the information below:

Mobile Crisis/Youth Villages: 866-779-9225

Ridgeview Behavioral Health in Oak Ridge: 482-1076

Statewide Crisis Hotline: 1-855-Crisis-1 or 1-855-274-7471

Statewide Crisis Text line: Text TN to 741741

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-273-8255

School Counseling Support Team

Ms. Price – Counselor (5th & 7th Grade) - clprice@ortn.edu

Mr. Sudderth – Counselor (6th & 8th Grade) - pwsudderth@orth.edu

Ms. Myers - Registrar - amyers@ortn.edu or 865-425-9302

Wednesday Homework Help is in FULL SWING. If students have questions about an assignment, need guidance about their homework, or are looking for a quiet place to work, Mrs. Huddleston and Mrs. Ozcan will be available in the Innovation Center on Wednesdays after dismissal. Students will need to be picked up by 3:00 pm. All grade levels are welcome to attend. Please e-mail Mrs. Huddleston (cdhuddleston@ortn.edu) or Mrs. Ozcan (mozcan@ortn.edu) with any questions.

Remember when dropping off/picking up your student:

• JMS's weather policy is to load busses and release car riders during most weather events EXCEPT lightning or severe rain/wind. When lightning is present we will push our students back to the building and delay releasing students. We have had three major lightning issues and a major wind/rain events during our releases over the first term, and we wanted to reiterate what our hold policy is. We thank our parents for their patience as we do our best to keep our students safe.
• DO NOT enter the bus loop when buses are present!
• Please pull your vehicle all the way up so we can keep as many cars as possible off of Fairbanks Road.
• When dropping off AFTER 7:30am, students will be directed towards the main entrance. Go ahead and pull all the way up.
• Make sure your child is ready to exit the vehicle and doesn't have to access the trunk for items, as this holds up the line.
• DO NOT park or leave your vehicles in the neighborhoods across the street from Jefferson. Traffic is heavy during pickup and drop off and parking on those streets only increases the danger to our students and parents attempting to navigate the traffic.

Oak Ridge Schools will be providing resources for families as we collectively tackle this growing vaping problem in our schools and families. For the complete schedule, please follow this link:

Vaping Prevention Week - Jefferson Middle (ortn.edu)

Parents,

We are sad to report that student vaping has increased significantly at the secondary level this school year. School Administration and staff are committed to addressing this concern, but effectively controlling this trend will be challenging. Student access, the ability to hide vapes and the odorless nature of vapes increases the difficulty of monitoring and reducing this dangerous trend.

This trend is resulting in lost instructional time for many students. Students using or possessing vapes that contain nicotine products are being assigned multiple days of out of school suspension. Students identified as using vapes or being in possession of vapes containing THC, are being expelled for a full calendar year. Approximately 50% of the students currently assigned to the Secret City Academy are there due to using a vape that contained THC.

Due to the increase in vapes containing THC, we are informing parents that the Secret City Academy is currently at capacity. The Oak Ridge Schools Code of Conduct clearly communicates our expectations regarding the unauthorized use or possession of drugs. Students confirmed of using or being in possession of drugs at school, or at a school activity, will be expelled in accordance with the Oak Ridge Schools Code of Conduct.

If your child is expelled, it is likely that they will only have the option to participate in on-line learning. Expelled students will be placed on a waiting list and granted access to the Secret City Academy when a student complete their time at the SCA. Choosing to use a vape containing THC or participating in other zero tolerance events while at school or at a school event will remove your child's ability to participate in face-to-face instruction.

Oak Ridge Schools clearly recognizes the value of attending school in person, but we also understand the importance and are committed to providing students a drug free learning environment.

Please continue speaking with your child or children regarding the harm of vaping and drugs. We are in the process of scheduling a Vaping Education Week which will focus on providing students an educational assembly to communicate the harms of vaping. We are also looking to provide a similar evening opportunity for parents to attend.

Respectfully,

Oak Ridge Schools

Youth Vaping Prevention - Additional Resources & Information

2022-2023 ORS Student Code of Conduct Handbook (see pgs 22-24)

National Institute of Health (NIH) - Smoke Free Teen

Alcohol & Substance Abuse Prevention of Anderson County - Parent & Teen Resources

CATCH My Breath - Vaping Epidemic - Parent Toolkit