Gotha Gram 
School front
Monday, Sept. 19, 2016

Florida flag

Windermere, FL
Number of the Week

-3%

Drop in the average daily attendance rate across all grades from August when the school year began and the first half of September (chart below). Attendance is an essential indicator directly tied to future student achievement. 
Connect With Us
Gotha Middle School
    

Gotha Greetings!

I look forward to seeing all of our families at our Open House on Tuesday! There will be food available as early as 5 PM. The Jazz Band will be playing music in the courtyard. Stop by the media center to fill out online consent forms, purchase items from the Book Fair, and more!  Grade level presentations will begin at 6 PM. 

Thank you for your continued partnership and I hope to see you Tuesday evening!

Sincerely,

Principal Knowles

Upcoming Events
  • Ongoing through September: PTO Donation Drive
  • Monday, Sept. 19-23: Scholastic Book Fair
  • Monday, Sept. 19: Grade Level Assembly
  • Tuesday, Sept. 20: Open House 5-7:30
  • Wednesday, Sept. 21: Hearing Screening
  • Thursday, Sept. 22: Soccer vs. SunRidge at home
  • Monday, Sept. 26: Family Day
  • Tuesday, Sept. 27: Soccer vs. Bridgewater Away
  • Wednesday, Sept. 28: Dad's Take your Daughter to School Day
  • Wednesday, Sept. 28: FFA Field Trip
  • Thursday, Sept. 29: 8th grade field trip to DP Performing Arts Center
  • Thursday, Sept. 29: Soccer vs. Southwest at Home
  • Friday, Sept. 30: Last day for Yearbook pre-sale
  • Friday, Sept. 30: SAFE Field trip
  • Friday, Sept. 30: 7th grade Guest Speaker - Khiree Smith
Teacher of the Year / Support Person of the Year
Mrs. Keli McCue and Mrs. Ragini Patel

We are very proud to recognize our amazing Teacher and Support Person of the Year, Mrs. Keli McCue and Mrs. Ragini Patel These ladies are not only outstanding examples of leaders within our school, but kind and helpful models to us all.

 
2016-2017 Teacher of the Year, Keli McCue, with Gotha Middle's
2016-2017 Support Person of the Year, Ragini Patel. Congratulations!
(Sept. 2016)

Vital Signs


Partner in Education of the Month



Metrowest Location
2457 S. Hiawassee Rd.
407.294.5522

We would like to recognize our Partner of the month, Marco's Pizza Metrowest. Marco's has been a long-time partner with Gotha Middle school. We are excited to continue to bring pizza parties, student incentives and more to Gotha this year. Be sure to check them out at our Open House!

Rigor in the Classroom
Scenes from around campus over recent days . . .

The V/P Arts class worked on the concept of symmetry this week. They were given half of a leaf picture and were asked to hand draw the other half as a mirror image. 


Clockwise from top left: Michard Ulysse, Emma Stein, Michelle Alie-Martinez, Eric Paige

Athletics
Soccer Results:
9/8 vs. Windy Ridge
  • Boys lost 4-3
  • Girls lost 0-3
9/13 vs. Carver
  • Boys won 7-1
  • Girls won 1-0

Gotha Soccer Team's Good Deed . . .
On Monday, September 12 the soccer program was visited by a giant tortoise. We took time out of our practice to ensure the tortoise's safety and contact its owner. The seventeen-year-old 
tortoise had been missing for about 24 hours. 


RISING TITANS Youth Night at Olympia High School


On Friday, September 9th, 8th graders from Gotha had the chance to experience a 'Friday Night Lights' session at Olympia High School. Our students were able to rock with the high school band in the stands and stir up some school spirit on the sidelines with the Titan Varsity Cheerleaders!

Media Center News

This Week: 2016 Book Fair
OPEN DURING OPEN HOUSE
 The Scholastic book fair is HERE September 19-23 and will be open during the Open House on September 20th. ADDitions volunteers are welcomed and needed, especially during the first three days of the fair and the evening of Open House.

2016-2017 Yearbook
Get your student's yearbook now through September 30th for the lowest price of the year at $25 plus tax. When you buy your book during this sale, you also get to submit a photo of your choice of your student to go on the front cover - we have a special cover planned for this year!

Just order your book online or use the order forms that went home, then submit your photo with your student's name to Mrs.LaBaw at trina.labaw@ocps.net with your student's name and yearbook cover photo in the subject line. You can tag your photos you post with #gms17 and upload them to www.Replayit.com in order for the yearbook staff to use your photos in this year's book.

Replay it!
If you take photos of school events, please download the Replayit app from Josten's and share your photos with our yearbook staff for possible inclusion in this year's book. You may also visit www.replayit.com to register and upload.

Student Spotlight!
Congratulations to the following students who achieved perfect scores on their FSA from 5th grade!
  • Deena Shiblaq - 5th Grade Math
  • Anna Gordon - 5th Grade Math
  • Harmanbir Grewal - 5th Grade Science
  • Tanielle Maccabe - Science
  • Ryan Repeidad - English Language Arts
  • Alexandra Rowe - Math
  • Joshua Grovo - Science
  • Frank Yang - Math

 
Congratulations on their Certificate of Achievement Award:
Jeffrey DeGroof, Janice Im, Mickelle MacCabe, Susan Smucz, Vishanth Murugesan, Laurel Deaton and Olivia Bowman.


CONGRATULATIONS to our former students, now students at Olympia High School, who received perfect FSA scores this past year!

 
Olympia High School Principal Swenson with Principal Knowles presenting perfect 
FSA score awards to former GMS 8th graders.

Club Rush '16

 
This past week our students had the opportunity to hear about and signup to join the various clubs we offer here at Gotha Middle School:
  • G.R.O.W.L.
  • P.E.A.R.L. Girls
  • Dance with YMCA
  • FFA
  • Future Problem Solvers
  • SGA
  • Yearbook
  • Battle of the Books
  • Destination Imagination
  • History
  • Chess Club
  • National Junior Honor Society
PTO Update
Welcome to another great year at Gotha Middle Schooll! Our PTO is very excited to have you all as members and we welcome you to join us the 2nd Monday of every month at 5:30pm in the media center for our SAC/PTO general meetings.

We are currently in the middle of our school-wide donation drive and WE NEED YOU!!! All of our donations stay right here at our school and directly benefit our students. Your donation helps to fund: honor roll celebrations, student incentives, campus beautification projects and so much more!!! 

Please stop by our table at Open House to make your donation. Thank you!

Leadership Team

Principal: Patrice Knowles patrice.knowles@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Celeste Hunter celeste.hunter@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Matthew Owens matthew.owens@ocps.net
Dean: Dr. Richard DeLamater richard.delamater@ocps.net
Dean: Kimberly Hayes kimberly.hayes@ocps.net
Dean: Richard Taylor richard.taylor@ocps.net

-----------

This communication may contain information that is legally privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure, and intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above.  If you are not the intended recipient, please note that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Anyone who receives this message in error should notify the sender immediately by telephone or by return e-mail, and delete the message from their computer and any printout thereof.  Please note that OCPS utilizes spam and junk e-mail filtration applications in its e-mail systems.  That filtering process may prevent or delay delivery of certain e-mail communications. If you do not receive a timely response to an e-mail communication, please contact the intended recipient by phone.

Copyright Notice
Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS - Gotha Middle School is forbidden without written consent.  Thank you for your support of Gotha Middle School. Please contact Celeste Hunter (Assistant Principal) at celeste.hunter@ocps.net with any questions or for further information.