Happy Friday to all of you!
What a great first week. We are finishing up the week with our welcome assembly.
This is the assembly where we explain our PBIS program, especially our mantra of "Making the difference" in every aspect of our lives. Our focus as a staff from a behavior perspective will be on anti-bullying and on the importance of "effort." We want to make it clear to the kids that we will not tolerate bullying of any kind, and we will not accept the words "I can't." We will follow up this assembly with our school wide individual anti-bullying pledges to take place during Wolf Reading next Wednesday.
A few things:
-ParentVUE (the new system taking the place of Edline) is not online until September 20th. Once it is online we will be letting you know specifically of how to sign up so stay tuned!
-This week has been filled with a lot of rules and procedures. We reviewed our student/parent handbook with the students but it is important that you do this as well.
-Students are required to have planners so if you haven't purchased one as of yet, please do so. Planners are available for purchase in the main office.
-We have a new security and doorbell system. All of our doors will be locked during the school day. Visitors will be required to ring the bell, come to the office and have their ID scanned. I do realize that this is going to take a little more time, but is definitely worth it as we are talking about the safety of our kids.
Absences
Every year we see more absences for trips and personal vacations. Although I understand that vacations do happen during the year, we ask that if at all possible you look to schedule extended vacations during our regular school breaks. Students can always make up work, however it is difficult to replace the loss of instruction.
Please be cognizant that we are extremely vigilant in regards to attendance. The following is the list of reasons the state provides as excusable absences:
-Student illness
-Illness of an immediate family member
-Emergency
-Doctor/Dental Appointment
-Death of an immediate family member
-Court summons
-Satisfactory arrangements, made in advance with the school for other reasons
*Absences for reasons not noted on this list will be marked unexcused.
FAQ's about standards/proficiency based grading
As all of you know we are a standards/proficiency based grading school. To gain further information, I encourage all of you to read the material on the attached link if you haven't yet . The link includes FAQs about our new grading, a rationale, and a summary of our plan. We are in year two which means that we are requiring all students who score below a 70% on any summative assessment to re-take the assessment. If you have further questions please do not hesitate to call the office. I would be happy to sit down with any one of you or to speak with you on the phone if you have questions.
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/chehalemvalley/graduation-starts-today
Student/Parent Handbook
In case you were wondering, our student/parent handbook is located on our website.
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/chehalemvalley/chehalem-valley-parent-handbook
CVMS Volunteer Opportunities
If you are interested in volunteering for CV contact our volunteer coordinator, Stephanie Carstensen, home 503-538-6102 or stephaniec@c-ware.com.
Once we get our new volunteer form loaded onto our website I will send the link out to all of you. Until then, I have attached the volunteer form to this email.
Facebook
You can now "Like us" on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chehalem-Valley-Middle-School/432691263436339
Twitter
You can now follow us on Twitter: cvmsmiddleschool @cvmswolves
Upcoming:
PTO Meeting next Thursday, 6:30 PM
Hard to believe that we are already at the end of the first week. I hope this week has been good for all of you and especially for your kids. Every year I get remarks from our 6th graders about how much they love changing classes and having lockers...the life of a "middle schooler." If it is any consolation, I am also transitioning into the world of middle school as a parent with my daughter. It is amazing how fast they grow up.
Have a great weekend!
