September 9, 2022
Dear Beagle Middle Parents,
We are off to a great start this year, and we wanted to thank our parents for supporting such a wonderful start to the school year! Our students have also done an amazing job in demonstrating Comet PRIDE on a consistent basis in all environments.
Here are some important updates we wanted to pass along at this time:
Comet PRIDE Lessons: At Beagle, we model and reinforce Comet PRIDE in all that we do together on a consistent basis. This means that we are/show/have:
Positive
Respectful
Integrity
Determination
Effort
During the first two weeks of the school year, our teaching staff systematically teaches the specific behaviors and expectations across all school environments, including the classroom, hallway, cafeteria, restrooms, and even on the bus. Over the past few days of school, it is evident that our student body continues to demonstrate strong Comet PRIDE on a daily basis, and we appreciate parents continuing to reinforce Comet PRIDE at home as well.
7th Grade Student Support Presentation: We met with all 7th graders during their Social Studies class on Wednesday this week to provide our Student Support Presentation. Our school counselors, Mrs. Driscoll and Mr. Saade, along with our student success coordinator, Mr. Lester, also joined us for this presentation. This presentation is multi-faceted, addressing how students can access various supports within the building as well as procedures and expectations to ensure we maintain a positive, safe, and engaging learning environment at all times. Next week on Monday, we will meet with our 8th grade student body in the same fashion to provide the same information.
Planners: Students received planners last week on Thursday in Check and Connect (CNC) class. Students are expected to use their planner on an hourly basis, and planners are reviewed daily in CNC class. Our goal with planners is to help support our students in building executive functioning and organizational skills, which benefit them now and in the future. Supporting organization and executive functioning at this age level is paramount to both academic and social/emotional development. Planners are also a great support for parents as they provide another level of communication from the classroom to home and vice versa.
Chromebooks: At this time, all students should have received a Chromebook, and teachers began using Chromebooks on Thursday of this week. If your student still needs a Chromebook, they are available in the media center before or after school. Beagle staff began using Chromebooks for instructional purposes yesterday. It’s also important to note that the vast majority of assignments and daily activities are available to students electronically via Schoology or Google Classroom.
NWEA Testing: Fall NWEA testing begins next week in all Math classes. The week of September 19th NWEA testing will continue in all English classes. Fall NWEA data is used as a baseline for instruction, and it helps to identify which students need timely interventions. After the completion of fall NWEA testing, teacher teams will engage in a thorough review of the data to help guide instruction moving forward along with necessary interventions.
New Method for Attendance Reporting: During Schedule Pick-Up and Open House, we provided families with a document titled “The Scoop on Beagle.” Within this document, we listed our attendance line to report student absences. At this time, we are implementing online attendance reporting via Parent Portal, and this will begin on Monday, September 12th.
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 will be our preferred method moving forward; however, we will continue to keep our attendance phone line available to parents as well that may not be able to access the online attendance reporting form. 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.
Buses: We thank our parents for yielding to buses attempting to enter and depart from Beagle on a daily basis. While we understand that the parking lot can be busy for a short time before and after school, we must continue to give our buses the right-of-way at all times because they have to get to and from several other buildings in a timely fashion. We thank you for continuing to give our buses the right-of-way at all times, and we appreciate your patience with this.
Arrival/Departure: While the parking lot can seem busy from 7:45-7:55 am and 2:30-2:38 pm, we are happy to report that things have been moving very smoothly. We thank our parents for continuing with:
Pulling all the way forward to the South end of the building, using the inside lane for drop-off, pick-up
Using the outer lane to safely pass cars dropping off
Ensuring students dropped off inside the parking lot cross at the main entrance crosswalk.
Escorting students through the South roundabout as there is no direct crossing guard at this location.
Parking on South Street, North Side of Building: We have noticed an influx of cars parked on South Street at the end of the day for student pick-up. Moving forward, we cannot have vehicles parked in this location for any reason as it interferes with timely bus departure; in addition, at some point next week we will most likely have DEAN transportation buses parked in this location, and these buses will have to leave Beagle ahead of our other buses to make it to the high school on time. We appreciate your support in following this expectation moving forward.
Blessings in a Backpack: For more information and to sign up for Blessings in a Backpack, please go to: https://www.glcomets.net/downloads/beagle_middle_school/biab_permission_slip_2022-2023.pdf
FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law, requires that Grand Ledge Public Schools, with certain exceptions, obtain your written consent prior to the disclosure of personally identifiable information from your child’s educational records. However, Grand Ledge Public Schools may disclose appropriately designated student directory information without written consent for yearbooks, honor rolls, sports activities, drama playbills, publications, and other media. If you do not want us to disclose your child’s directory information, you must provide written notice each school year prior to 4:00 p.m. on September 30. More information and Written Notice form at http://GLcomets.net/FERPA
Voluntary Student Accident Insurance: Grand Ledge Public Schools has partnered with Student Assurance Services to give families a choice to purchase accident insurance for their children. If you choose to enroll, this coverage will provide financial assistance with your out-of-pocket medical expenses should your student sustain an accidental bodily injury. Grand Ledge Public Schools is not responsible for any accidental injuries that occur to students while under the school’s supervision or while participating in interscholastic sports. We encourage all families to consider accident coverage for their children, especially before the child participates in any interscholastic sports or if your current primary health insurance has a high deductible, co-insurance clause, and/or limitations on medical benefits. However, this coverage is strictly voluntary! If you feel you have adequate health insurance coverage for your student or simply are not interested, you do not have to participate. For more information or to view a brochure, visit http://GLcomets.net/StudentInsurance.
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
