Dear Beagle Middle School Families,
We are excited to kick off another exciting school year, and we look forward to working with you and your child this school year! With the last few weeks of summer vacation winding down, we wanted to reach out with a few brief reminders regarding back-to-school information.
Schedule Pick Up and School Pictures:
- 7th grade schedule pick up and school picture day will be on Tuesday, August 19th from 4-7 PM at Beagle Middle School
- 8th grade schedule pick up and school picture day will be on Wednesday, August 20th from 4-7 PM at Beagle Middle School.
- Medical forms will be available during schedule pick-up; in addition, medical staff will be on hand to receive medications with necessary medical forms completed. Forms and other information can be found here: https://www.glcomets.net/family-and-student-resources/medical-forms/medical--other-forms/
- Students are not required to pick up their printed schedule; we simply offer this as an option to our students and families; schedule pick-up is a great opportunity, however, to become familiar with the building, work locker combinations, etc. In addition, school picture make-up/retake opportunities will take place during the school day in the fall.
- For parents interested in ordering school pictures, you may place your order here: https://shop.imagequix.com/g1001269846/shop/all. If you have any questions regarding school pictures, please contact our secretary, Lindsay Pelette via email at pelettel@glcomets.net.
- Student schedules will be available in PowerSchool for students and parents to view on Tuesday, August 19th. Please note that while we work very hard to provide students with as many desired elective requests as possible each year, we are not able to honor schedule change or teacher preference requests unless there are significant, extenuating circumstances as part of our district-wide practice. Also, lunches cannot be changed as they are based on 4th hour teacher assignments, which is how we balance our lunch numbers and ensure a functional learning environment during the lunch hour.
Parent Portal Access: We strongly encourage families to frequently use Parent Portal on a regular basis (weekly) for a variety of reasons. First, our teaching staff regularly update their gradebooks each week often posting pending assignments and tests with due dates in advance. Second, students will receive homework on a fairly consistent basis in middle school, and PowerSchool/Parent Portal provides an accurate communication platform for parents and students to track and monitor progress. Third, our teaching staff will post classroom/family updates within PowerSchool every other week to keep parents and students informed of upcoming learning targets, assignments, and assessments; this cuts down on our families being inundated with multiple emails from multiple teachers. In our newsletter later this week, we will provide a video tutorial for our families detailing the aforementioned information and to demonstrate the power of Parent Portal as a one-stop resource and support for our families to ensure their student’s success at the middle level.
Chromebook Distribution: 7th grade students will receive their chromebooks after Labor Day from their English teacher. 8th graders new to the district will also receive their chromebooks during the first week of school. Students are expected to bring their chromebooks to school on a daily basis. Students are allowed to carry a backpack with them throughout the school day to ensure safe keeping of their district-provided technology.
School Supplies: At the middle level, we encourage parents to wait until after the first day of school to purchase detailed, specific school supplies. The good news is that despite the fact that our middle schoolers will be working with six different teachers, the necessary supplies will be very minimal. For those interested in purchasing school supplies before the year begins, we suggest purchasing the following items: three-ring binder with six tab dividers or six two-pocket folders, #2 pencils, pens, basic highlighters, and a spiral-bound notebook. Please note that all 7th grade students will receive a school-provided planner this year to help to continue to build their organizational skills. 8th grade students will not be provided a school-issued planner as they will be able to explore other organizational tools independently to support their learning.
Lockers and Backpacks: While all students are assigned a locker, they are not required to use their locker due to the chromebooks students carry to each class. In addition, our middle school students are not required to lug around large textbooks or other items. We do, however, encourage students to use their lockers at the beginning and end of the day to store their personal possessions and athletic bags.
PTO: We have an outstanding joint PTO with the Hayes Intermediate building! Our PTO has provided several outstanding opportunities for our students, staff, and facilities over the past few years. This work is accomplished through the support of our community and family members. We always encourage our family members to attend our PTO meetings whether it's one time, intermittently, or consistently--all participation is helpful and impactful to our school culture and benefits our children. We will have more information to come regarding PTO meeting dates in subsequent newsletters.
Middle School Athletic Updates: At this time, we are still trying to fill our Middle School Athletic Director position. Questions regarding interscholastic middle school sports should be directed to our head Athletic Director, Mr. Steve Baker, at bakers@glcomets.net or Mr. Korey Knapp, Athletic Administrative Assistant, at knappk@glcomets.net. Throughout the year, we will include interscholastic athletic information in our weekly newsletters when we receive communication from the athletic office.
Sports Physicals: All students wishing to participate/tryout for football, volleyball and cross country must have a current athletic physical on file. A physical is considered current if it is dated on or after April 15, 2024. Anyone without a current physical will not be allowed to tryout/participate. Most urgent cares or the Grand Ledge Clinic located inside of our high school, https://www.glcomets.net/health-center/, offer sports physicals, and they have the forms on file. Please note that if you intend to use the Grand Ledge Clinic for a sports physical, you must call ahead to make an appointment. Please upload updated sports physicals here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc225C4DrjhHq-vdZDmyXtKhgRkIF5hGvDsDkQ0Tdyfl49CnA/viewform
Future Communications and Newsletters: We will continue to communicate via email over the next few weeks before the beginning of the school year, and these communications will contain more detailed information as we get closer to the start of the school year. In future emails, we will discuss the following: bell schedule, transportation procedures, lockers, backpacks, passing time, lunches, chromebook distribution, and many other important pieces of information that are vital to know just before school begins.
Once the school year begins, we send our newsletter to parents on Friday mornings in email format via SchoolMessenger (PowerSchool). We send our newsletters in this fashion because we embed informative links and resources directly into the email for ease of use and function for our parents. Please note that each communication will have the yellow “Looks Safe” banner at the top, so please be sure not to block or deny the newsletters or emails because future communications will not be sent if they are ever blocked or not accepted.
Upcoming Events:
Open House will be on Thursday, August 21st from 6:30-8 PM. This is an opportunity for students and parents to meet teachers and walk through the building before the first day of school.
First Day of School: Tuesday, August 26th, shortened day by 60 minutes, no CNC class–Day 1 Schedule 25-26 (1).png
Labor Day Holiday: Friday, August 29th through Monday, September 1st; classes resume Tuesday, September 2nd.
Again, we are excited to kick off another great school year, and we look forward to working with you and your child this year.
Take care,
Dave Kushman, Principal
Kelly Shumway, Assistant Principal
