April 6, 2023
Dear Beagle Middle School Parents,
Here are some updates that we wanted to pass along at this time:
April 12th for 8th Grade–PSAT in the AM, Classes in the PM: As we discussed last week, our 8th-grade students will attend school all day on Wednesday, April 12th. 8th-grade students will be taking the PSAT, a mandatory standardized assessment, that assesses both Math and ELA skills. Buses will run in the morning as usual for our 8th-grade students, and school will begin at the usual time: 7:55 am. Students must be in their assigned testing room location by 7:55 am. Testing room assignments have been posted around the building. Students that arrive at school after 7:58 am will not be allowed to enter their assigned testing room as the standardized test begins promptly at 8:00 am. Therefore, it is imperative that our 8th-grade students are on-time for school on April 12th. This past week, our 8th-grade students were provided information regarding the PSAT test, and they also engaged in test pre-administration to help expedite the test-taking on the 12th. In addition, students were also provided a copy of “The PSAT 8/9 Student Guide” during pre-administration. This guide helps students and parents prepare for the test, and it also contains information regarding accessing scores after the test in conjunction with additional support for taking this assessment over the next few school years. Because this is a required assessment per the State of Michigan, timely attendance is imperative on the 12th. If students miss the assessment on the 12th, we will have to pull them from classes when they return to school to complete the assessment within the extremely narrow timeframe allowed by College Board and the State of Michigan. Things to bring on the 12th for the PSAT include: (2) sharpened #2 pencils and a scientific calculator (if possible as our math department will help in providing calculators). We also recommend that students either leave their cell phones at home or place them in their lockers before entering their assigned testing room. If a student brings a cell phone into the testing room, it will have to be placed on the testing proctor’s desk for the duration of the assessment. This is a very regimented test, and these are the guidelines we are ordered and expected to follow by the College Board. We thank our parents for their continued support here in ensuring a successful testing day next week. After testing, our 8th graders will go straight to lunch at 11:20, and they will attend all of their classes on an altered schedule later in the day. We will continue to discuss this with our 8th-grade student body next week.
April 12th for 7th Grade–11:10 Drop Off, Classes in the PM: Because our 8th graders will be taking the PSAT in the morning and because the testing protocols for the PSAT are persnickety, we cannot have our 7th-grade students attend during the morning hours on April 12th. From a logistical standpoint, we need to utilize every room in our building to give the mandatory assessment to our 8th graders. Therefore, 7th graders will come to school at 11:10 on Wednesday, April 12th. Buses will run 3.5 hours later than the typical pick-up time for 7th graders; the “Here Comes the Bus'' application will NOT be active for this later run–FYI. Parents dropping students off may drop off beginning at 11:10, and all 7th-grade students are expected to enter through the cafeteria doors and head into the gymnasium. 7th-grade students will be released from the gymnasium at 11:20, and they will attend their 4th-hour class. After their 4th-hour class, they will come down to the cafeteria for lunch. This will allow our 8th graders who have been testing all morning to have lunch first. After lunch, students will attend all classes on an altered schedule. Just as with the 8th graders, our staff have been communicating this information to their 7th-grade students. We will continue to share this information via morning and lunch announcements next week as well.
Track and Field: Track and field practice began this week. All track and field athletes must have a physical on file dated on or after April 15th, 2022. In addition, all track and field athletes must be registered by Wednesday, April 12th; please see the yellow sheet track students brought home after practice this week. Practices are Monday-Friday from 4:30-6 pm; athletes will continue to meet in the cafeteria until further notice. Please feel free to contact Mrs. Alyssa Arnout, head coach, directly at arnoutsa@glcomets.net with any questions.
6th-8th Grade Boys and Girls Tennis Doubles League: Practices begin next week on Monday, April 10th. Practices are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30-7:30 at the GLHS tennis courts. Matches will be held on Saturdays from April 22nd–May 20th, 10 am-12 pm. The participation fee is $85. Registration is online at grandledgecomets.org, click on the recreation tab. For more information, please contact Jen Daly at dalyj@glcomets.net.
Spring Dance–Friday, April 21st: We have announced to our student body that the Spring Dance will take place on Friday, April 21st. We thank our parents that continue to be involved in supporting these wonderful opportunities for our students. During morning announcements, we have also shared that beginning Monday, April 3rd students that receive formal discipline (half-day or more of ISS or OSS) will not be allowed to attend the dance. We will continue to share more information about the spring dance in subsequent newsletters.
Spring Dance Committee Planning Meeting: Parents interested in supporting the planning of our spring dance may attend a planning meeting on Tuesday, April 11th at 5 pm in the Beagle Media Center with the PTO meeting to follow thereafter at 6:30 pm.
Joint Hayes/Beagle PTO Meetings: The next PTO meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 11th at 6:30 pm. We welcome parents to attend our PTO meetings either in person here at Beagle or virtually. If interested in attending virtually, here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82744686994
Students of the Week, Community, and Extra Curricular Resources: To view our students of the week or to review additional community/extracurricular information on our webpage, then please click https://www.glcomets.net/ourschools/beagle-middle-school/ and then click on the appropriate icon on the left side of our homepage.
These are all the updates we have at this time.
Take care,
Dave and Eric
