January 20, 2023

Dear Beagle Middle School Parents, 

Here are some updates we wanted to share with you at this time:

Winter NWEA: Winter NWEA will take place next week: Tuesday, January 24th (Math) and Thursday, January 26th (ELA).  Students will report to their CNC class in the morning on these two days where they will test during the morning hours until 10:40am.  Students that receive audio accommodations as part of an IEP or 504 plan are to bring earbuds with them to school for both days of testing; we will also have earbuds available in our Student Services office, if necessary.  Students with other accommodations under the aforementioned plans will be provided additional necessary accommodations in collaboration with their case manager.  All students must bring their independent reading novel from ELA class, for silent reading will be the only approved post-test activity to ensure a quiet, orderly testing environment.  NWEA is not a timed assessment, so it’s imperative that the ELA independent reading novels are brought to school both days as students will finish testing at their own rate. After testing, students will attend all classes on a modified schedule with 29-minute class periods, and lunch will also be served.  There will be no CNC at the end of the day. Staff will share the modified bell schedule next week with students. In addition, staff will use CNC time to reinforce the importance of putting forth best effort during testing as we use NWEA data to provide necessary supports and interventions to our students; we greatly appreciate parent support in echoing this message at home.  Solid effort and not rushing through the test gives us an accurate picture of student achievement and needs.  Students flagged by the system as rushing through the assessment (rapid guessing) will be pulled outside of testing days to take the assessment again to gain an accurate picture of growth, achievement, and potential intervention needs. 

Winter Dance: Our winter dance will be Friday, February 10th from 6:30-8:30.  The dance will be a western theme, and students are encouraged to dress casually for this dance.  We will be in need of parent support to both supervise and provide food for the dance, and our PTO will be sharing some sign-up geniuses for us to place in upcoming newsletters.  The sign-ups will also be on the PTO Facebook page in the near future.  Wristband tickets for the dance are $10, and they will be sold during lunch the day of the dance.  We will also sell tickets at the door during the dance, but our preference is to have students purchase their wrist-band tickets during lunch to ensure they maximize their time at the dance versus waiting in line for a ticket.  We also thank Mrs. Abbey Taylor, PTO Beagle Activities Coordinator, for working with several parent volunteers in planning another wonderful opportunity for our students. 

Recent Social Media Issues Impacting Learning Environment: Recently, we have had several situations over social media that have manifested outside of school hours and even over holiday break. These situations have had a significant impact on our student body, which interferes with a safe and orderly learning environment.  Without the use of social media, these issues and concerns would not have happened. Unfortunately, these outrageous social media blow-ups that cause such an impact on the learning environment often lead to a significant amount of lost time on our part investigating situations that are beyond our control--taking us away from our necessary roles as instructional leaders and maintaining an orderly, safe, and welcoming environment for our students. At the middle level, most tweens–based on neurological research–are not ready to handle the temptations (impulsiveness, peer attention, and peer approval) and consequences (shame, rejection, guilt, or even fear) that come with using social media such as SnapChat, Tik Tok, etc.  In addition, tweens often struggle with the permanence factor: once posted, it’s there forever.  Therefore, our stance as verteran middle level educators and parents ourselves is that students should not use social media at this age level for the aforementioned reasons and beyond. However, that choice is up to each individual parent, and we wanted to send along a gentle reminder to please continue to monitor your child’s social media accounts if you allow them to engage in social media use. Your continued support is greatly appreciated here. 

Joint Hayes/Beagle PTO Meetings: The next PTO meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 21st.  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/extra curricular 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. 

Take good care,

Dave and Eric