Dear Beagle Middle School Families,
Here are some updates we wanted to share at this time:
PBIS Store Opened Today for Students: Today during lunches, students were able to “purchase” treats using their Comet PRIDE Blue Tickets earned by showing positive behaviors at our school store. Our PBIS team is excited to bring this new approach to our student body in lieu of doing Comet Pride Ticket drawings in CNC class. This approach allows students more voice and choice in regards to how they want to use their earned tickets.
Trimester Two: Trimester one grades have been finalized within PowerSchool, and parents are now able to view their student’s grades. As we get into the second trimester, we wanted to inform parents, especially 7th-grade parents, that the second trimester is the most challenging trimester for our adolescent students for a variety of reasons. First, it’s the longest trimester with two long breaks within, creating a start, stop, and start effect. Second, the winter weather places a significant halt on outdoor recreation, which we all can agree is very much needed for all people. Therefore, we may see some changes–behaviorally and academically– in our tweens during the winter months. Over the years as adolescent educators and as parents ourselves, we have found the following strategies work very well to support students during these challenging times: sticking with established routines even on breaks; earning technology time by completing non-technologically based activities and/or going outside for a period of time; planning family or friend-based activities and outings on weekends strategically as something to look forward to; and continuing to promote clubs, sports, activities, etc.
Morning Arrival and Winter Weather: For the first few days of this past week, we opened our cafeteria doors around 7:25 am for our students due to the conditions. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with our families that we take several factors into consideration when deciding whether or not to open early, including precipitation, ambient air temperature (below 20 degrees), wind velocity, wind chill, etc. For example, if the ambient air temperature is 25 degrees and we have a wind pushing through at 10-15 mph, then we are going to open up around 7:25 am to bring students into the cafeteria as the wind chill factor would be around 15 degrees. On the other hand, if the ambient air temperature is 30 degrees without any wind, we will open at 7:37 am as usual.
Outdoor Recess: We have been informing students that we intend to continue to take them outside regularly–conditions permitting– for outdoor recess through the winter. We have been encouraging students to continue to dress for the conditions, and students know they may access their locker before and after lunch to obtain their coats, gloves, hats, etc. During inclement weather or colder days, we will have recess in the gymnasium.
Girls’ Basketball Parent Meeting: Wednesday, December 6th at 7 pm in the Beagle cafe’ for all interested 7th and 8th grade girls wanting to play basketball.
Wrestling Meeting for Students: Coach Cohoon will be meeting with students interested in wrestling this year on Thursday, December 14th in our cafeteria during CNC. We will have more information about the upcoming wrestling season in subsequent newsletters.
PTO Meetings: The Hayes/Beagle PTO meetings will be hosted here at Beagle Middle School in our media center. Parents should enter through the cafeteria doors as they are open for athletic events. The media center is located in the first hallway to the left once in the cafeteria. Meetings are held from 6:30-7:30 pm. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, December 12th. We greatly appreciate parent support and participation at these meetings. In addition, please follow the Hayes & Beagle PTO Facebook page for more information and updates regarding upcoming events.
Students’ of the Week: To view our Students’ of the Week, please click here https://www.glcomets.net/ourschools/beagle-middle-school/studentoftheweek/. Please note that Students’ of the Week are updated to our website the Monday after receiving their certificate on Friday.
Family Communication Archive: Please click here https://www.glcomets.net/ourschools/beagle-middle-school/parent-communication-archive/ to review family communications (current and previous newsletters) sent to Beagle Families.
District and Community News: To review district-wide and community news, please click here https://www.glcomets.net/parentcommunityresources/fun-things-to-do/#upcoming
Looking Ahead:
- December 22-January 5th: Holiday Break, classes resume January 8th
- Winter NWEA Testing Later in January–more specific information to come soon.
These are all of the updates that we wanted to pass along at this time. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.
Take care,
Dave and Kelly
