Dear Beagle Middle School Families,
Kelly and I are excited to welcome everyone back for another great school year! Whether you are new to Beagle as a 7th grade family or returning as an 8th grade family, the beginning of another school year is filled with excitement, inspiration, and hope. At the same time, the beginning of the school year can be overwhelming for students and families, especially newcomers to middle school.
Please take it from us, everything will be just fine as we ease into the new school year, and any worries will be assuaged by the end of the first week. Kelly and I are both veteran teachers and administrators. I began my career in education nearly twenty years ago as a special education teacher for students with emotional impairments and learning disabilities at Grand Ledge High School, and I also taught English 10 at the same time. After nine years in the classroom, I became an administrator at the middle level in the fall of 2016 as the assistant principal, taking over as the head principal in the fall of 2018. Kelly has over twenty years in the classroom, teaching middle level Science and Math, and she was also part of our teaching staff at the middle level in Grand Ledge before rising to leadership four years ago to become our assistant principal. We have a vast and diverse background working with middle level students, and we both have teenagers of our own at Grand Ledge High School.
Beyond our background as administrators, educators, and parents of teenagers, our staff is a very veteran staff that has primarily worked at the middle level their entire career, many of them on this specific staff. Our staff are required to be out in the hallways during passing times along with us as we move throughout the building supporting and monitoring students. Our Beagle teacher family will ensure a calm, supportive start to the school year for your family. As we get into the first few days of the new school year, we will also host our Student Support Presentations in our media center during Social Studies classes throughout the day–beginning with our 7th graders on Friday, August 28th. This way, our new-to-Beagle students get to meet the Student Support Team members once again at the top of the year, learn how to access supports from different members of the team, and learn more about our expectations around Comet PRIDE at Beagle.
As we head into the last few weeks of summer, here are some important reminders/updates:
August 17th–Schedule Distribution/School Pictures: Schedule distribution for both 7th and 8th grade will be on Monday, August 17th from 12-3pm or 4-7pm. Please note that this is completely optional as we are aware that some families may still be away on vacation at this time. If you and your child are able to come up on August 17th, it will be a great opportunity to walk the building, find classes, locker (for 7th grade), etc. There will be additional opportunities for school pictures later in September during the school day.
Lockers: This school year all 7th graders will be assigned a locker for the year. 8th graders that would like to have a locker may sign up for a locker the second week of the school year. We will provide more information to our 8th grade students about this once the school year begins. Please note that our students are allowed to carry their backpacks to classes with them each day.
Schedule Changes and Lunches: Because we allow our students to make elective requests in the spring and then build the master schedule around those requests, we are not able to make schedule changes unless there are significant, extenuating circumstances as determined by the administrative team. Lunches are also assigned and permanent for the year because they revolve around 4th hour. Specific teachers are assigned a specific lunch to keep overall numbers and the balance of 7th and 8th grade students equal in each lunch. Therefore, lunches cannot be changed as they are schedule driven for the aforementioned reasons.
August 19th–Open House: We invite our families and students to engage in our Open House on Wednesday, August 19th from 6:30-8pm. This is a great opportunity for families and students to meet our teaching staff. There will also be an opportunity for school pictures and schedule pick-up at this time for those that were not able to attend on August 17th. One point of caution regarding obtaining pictures and schedules during Open House is that Open House is very well attended and quite busy, which is a good thing! However, trying to obtain a printed schedule, getting a school picture, and then meeting teachers may result in feeling rushed/short on time. Therefore, if you can make it to schedule distribution on August 17th, we encourage taking that route to ensure there is time to connect with your student’s teachers.
Nuts and Bolts of the Middle School Schedule: The middle school schedule consists of six classes that are approximately 53-55 minutes in duration in addition to a Check and Connect class at the end of the day, which is 25 minutes in duration. Check and Connect class at the end of the day is where students engage in targeted Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons, PBIS lessons, IXL activities, and have intentional organization and homework/support time. Core content classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, and English) are provided to all students, and students maintain the same teachers within the same hour assigned for the core classes all year.
August 25th–First Day of School: August 25th is the first day of school across the district, and it’s a half day. School begins at 7:50am with dismissal at 10:55am; students do not attend their Check and Connect class on the first day.
Helpful Information on Webpage: On our Beagle webpage, we have several pieces of helpful information for our families to peruse before the start of the school year. To review the morning drop-off/pick-up procedures, bell schedules, policies, and who to contact, please click here: https://www.glcomets.net/ourschools/beagle-middle-school/aboutourschool/. Here is the link to our main page, which contains other information: https://www.glcomets.net/ourschools/beagle-middle-school/.
In closing, we are excited to kick off another school year! We will reach back out later next week with some updates and reminders. As we move throughout the year, we will continue to communicate with our family members on a regular basis. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Take care,
Dave Kushman, Principal
Kelly Shumway, Assistant Principal
