September 23, 2022

NWEA: Our students finished up NWEA testing this week in their ELA classes.  At some point by mid-October NWEA scores will be accessible to parents within Parent Portal under the “School Net” icon.  Staff will use this data to adjust instruction to meet the needs of our students.  

Planners and Homework: As we have discussed, students are required to use their planners on an hour-to-hour basis, and planners are checked daily during CNC class.  Teachers are currently modeling for students how to fill out their planners on an hourly basis.  Because it’s the time of year where homework will begin to increase and classroom assessments are on the forefront, we encourage parents to review planners with their students on a daily basis as this is a catalyst for conversations around learning in the classroom.  

Grades: While our 8th grade families are used to letter grades being updated regularly in PowerSchool for all assignments and assessments, our 7th grade families may not be aware that our middle school students receive traditional letter grades throughout the trimester.  We also encourage parents to access Parent Portal on a regular basis to review academic progress.  Staff update PowerSchool on a consistent basis, and they use helpful codes if assignments are missing.   

School Pictures: Students that had their school picture taken back in August during schedule distribution received their pictures in CNC class earlier this week. For students that did not get pictures taken during schedule distribution or for students who did not like their original pictures, we will be hosting an additional picture-taking opportunity on October 4th during the school day.  For students requesting retakes, please bring the original picture packet to school on October 4th to return.  For those that did not have pictures taken, order forms will be available when pictures are taken.  

Joint Hayes/Beagle PTO Meetings: Joint Hayes/Beagle PTO meetings are being hosted in a hybrid-fashion this year with the in-person opportunity being hosted here at Beagle in our media center.  Meetings are the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:30pm.  Our next PTO meeting will be on Tuesday, October 11th.  We welcome parents to attend our PTO meetings either in-person or virtually.  If interested in attending virtually, here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82744686994

Online Attendance Reporting: At this time, we are implementing online attendance reporting via Parent Portal.

To report absences in this fashion from a web browser please follow these steps:  

• Log into the Parent Portal https://ps.glcomets.net/public
• Click on “Forms” on the left-hand navigation menu
• Select Student Absence Form.  
• Steps to complete this process from the PowerSchool App:
• Log into Parent Portal App
• If already logged in, you may have to log out and back in to see all of the form
• Click on “More” on the bottom left, Click on “Forms"
• Select Student Absence Form.  

Please note that parents can use the online method to report hourly, half-day, and full-day absences.  In addition, online reporting of absences is our preferred method for reporting attendance; however, we will continue to keep our attendance phone line available to parents as well.  We are moving towards online reporting to increase efficiency in our main office as we are short staffed.  We thank you for your use of the online attendance form moving forward.  Note: if your student needs to leave early for an appointment, please be sure to call the school as this online form is monitored periodically, and we want to ensure that your student is ready in the office when you arrive.  

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. 

Grand Ledge Travel Basketball: Attention 7th & 8th grade girls interested in playing travel basketball for Grand Ledge in the Red Cedar League. Evaluations are on Sunday, October 2nd at the Beagle Main Gym. 7th Grade is from 5-7pm & 8th grade is from 7-9pm. Pre-Registration is required. Visit the GL Athletics website at http://grandledgecomets.org and click on the Travel Basketball tab for more information and to register.

These are all of the updates that we have at this time.  Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.  

Take care,

Dave and Eric