MIDDLE SCHOOL COMMUNICATION NEWS
By: Janine Kleerup
 Dear Middle School Parents:
Welcome to a new school year! We hope that your student has had an excellent start to middle school and that you and they will find that the middle school years are a time of growth and positive challenges but ultimately are rewarding.
There are some basic middle school issues I would like to address with you:
Middle School Back to School Night: Please plan to attend this informative evening. You will have the chance to meet your child's teachers for this year and hear a presentation by each teacher in your child's grade about their subject area and what your child will learn this year. A small amount of questions are taken at the end of the presentation so this is a chance to find out about curriculum. If you have questions regarding your child you should make an appointment for a parent teacher conference. Back to School Night includes early dismissal for 6-8 only at 1pm and begins at 6pm.
Parent Teacher Conferences: PTC are not automatically scheduled for your child the way they were in K-5. If you would like to have a parent teacher conference, you may do so at any time. You must simply email the teacher in question and request a conference at a mutually convenient time. If there are issues with your child that have to do with more than one teacher, you can email those teachers in question and ask to meet with all of them as a group meeting.
Parent Teacher Conference Tuesdays occur once a month with an early dismissal accompanied by a 1 hour community service opportunity. Teachers will make themselves available those afternoons but you must still email in advance and make an appointment. You can always request to meet with the teachers just to get to know them or to give additional helpful information about your child in confidence.
Procedures re Parent Teacher Conferences: Administration wishes you to know that should you have a concern regarding a particular teacher vis a vis your child, you need to follow proper guidelines. Your child needs to approach the teacher first at an appropriate time and discuss the concern. If this is not resolved to everyone's satisfaction, then the parent may request a conference with that teacher. Only if the meeting between parent and teacher does not solve the issue, then the parent may turn to administration for a conference.
PE Uniforms: We wish to thank all the parents who have purchased PE uniforms this year as this donation helps fund important programs through the PTA. We are aware that supplies are currently running short and have placed an order this week. Please be advised that the order takes a couple of weeks to be filled as the PE shorts are a special order. We feel ordering extra durable shorts is important because we all want our children's uniforms to last.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention and thank my committee: Anshu Batra, Sonal Kapur, Jenny Huang, Adrienne Isaac, Linda Barber, Natalie Hannani, Debby Soufer, Tina Wiener, Elisa Geller, Tania Schwartz, and introducing our newest members: Laurie Lande and Amy Galst. These ladies have worked hard with me the last couple of years to brainstorm ideas that will help middle school communication improve at our school.
Please feel free to send me your ideas to help with improving our middle school communication! I am open to your suggestions as this is an important part of remaining involved with your child and understanding their experience as they grow and mature.
Sincerely, Janine Kleerup
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