August 21, 2015
Good morning. I hope everyone is doing well.
I am leaving at mid-day, so
I wanted to get this out before the weekend got away from me. If I have omitted anything of importance, or
have made an error in my haste, I will provide a follow up message at my
earliest opportunity.
CONGRATULATIONS
and THANKS
Thank
you to everyone who was able to attend this week’s Meet The Teacher Night. Assistant Principal Scott Lackey and our
office and custodial staff members do a wonderful job of planning this yearly
event. There is a link below if you
would like to provide feedback as we look to next year’s event.
CALENDAR ITEMS
Monday, 8/24
SRI Reading assessments; Grade 7
Tuesday, 8/25
SRI Reading assessments; Grades 6 and 8
After School Activities for Quarter 1
begin (More information to follow.)
Wednesday, 8/26
School Pictures (More information to
follow.)
6th Grade Camp Parent
meeting; 7 – 8:30 pm; LMS Cafeteria
Thursday, 9/3
LMS Fundraiser Kickoff and Assemblies;
LMS Gym
·
8th Grade
– Period 1
·
6th Grade
– Period 2
·
7th Grade
– Period 3
Friday, 9/4
Early Release Day; 12:40 pm;
Professional Development
Monday, 9/7
Labor Day: No School
Tuesday, 9/8 through
Friday, 9/11
Discovery Education testing; Block Day
schedules
Thursday, 9/10
Fundraiser turn in day #1 (all lunches)
Thursday, 9/17
Fundraiser turn in day #2 (all lunches)
CORRECTIONS/ADDITION
NEW ITEMS
8th
Grade Sports
Coed Cross Country and Girls Volleyball will be our fall 8th
grade sports. A sign up for any
interested 8th grader was today.
If a student would like to participate, but did not sign up, forms are
available in the Welcome Center. Forms
should be returned to Jason Theodosiou (LMS Sports Coordinator) or Sarah
Schwartz (Grade 8 Assistant Principal) by the first day of practices on
September 1. Please take note that LMS
school sports are only offered to students in grade 8, and participation is
subject to academic and behavioral requirements.
MAP
LMS was positively noted in today’s article in the
Post-Dispatch, if you have not seen it.
The article is entitled “8 St. Louis area middle schools that mastered
the MAP test.” The link is below:
Megan
Meier Assembly
The Megan Meier Foundation, which provides anti-bullying
presentations, will provide two assemblies to our school on October 9 (this is
an Early Release day). Since each
presentation in the Gym will last longer than our regular ER day class periods,
we will utilize the following schedule:
·
8th
Grade: 8:20 – 9:15 am
·
6th
and 7th Grades: 9:49 – 10:45 am
Fire
Drill
We held our first Fire Drill of the year yesterday morning. The Ladue Fire Department was present to
monitor our performance and provide input.
Students and staff (totaling over 1000 people) did a good job of
evacuating the building in about 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
One very unfortunate situation occurred with a portion of our
students and staff whose assigned evacuation area is in the back of our
building between LMS and the Administrative Center. Unbeknown to us, a large swarm of wasps or
hornets had take up residence in a mulch bed surrounding one the trees in this
area. As a result, approximately 8 to 10
students and at least one adult were stung.
All those requiring treatment were sent quickly to our School Nurse and
parents were notified. We contacted
Maintenance, who treated mulch beds in this area. I have communicated with staff, particularly
with those classes that normally evaluate to the space between the two
buildings, and we have made adjustments until I can verify that there is no
future risk.
I would like to offer my sincere apologies to those students and
their parents that were affected.
UPDATED ITEMS
Fall Parent Conference format
After
considerable study, discussion, and feedback, we have decided to maintain our
past format for Fall Parent Conferences.
This involves four sets of parents meeting with each team, for a total
of 20 minutes. Each individual
conversation lasts 5 minutes, with team teachers rotating around the room. Elective and off-team teachers are located in
our Gymnasium, where they meet with parents individually.
As
previously communicated, this format allows parents to meet with all team
teachers who serve their children. There
is a challenge in meeting all parent requests and we will do our best to meet
these requests. Please note that
alternate conference times may need to be scheduled outside of normal
conference days.
Another
challenge will involve conferences with teachers of students who are
accelerated in mathematics. Since these
teachers will be involved in team conferences of their own, we are working on
how to address this. One possibility
will be for these affected teachers (Matt Strayhorn, Megan Grossbauer, Nancy
Chambers and Kevin Kearns) to communicate student performance via note or email
to the home team teachers, who can then share this input with parents during
their conference time.
Online
parent signups for conferences should be available by Friday, August 28.
Meet The Teacher Night survey
Thank you to all parents who attended our Meet The Teacher Night
on Wednesday, August 19. We appreciate the time you give in partnership
with our school to benefit our students. Please provide us with some
feedback about the evening through this short survey.
REPEAT ITEMS
Picture
Packets/Picture Day
Picture Day packets should have gone home with students on
Monday, August 17. Please be aware that
you can order pictures prior to August 26 by accessing www.WagnerPortraitGroup.com,
using the password LMS. If you wish to
pursue this option, you can fill out the envelope attached to the picture
packet and include your online receipt.
We ask that all students have their picture taken on August 26
so that we can update our school information system. This applies to any student, regardless of
whether they or you wish to purchase a package or not.
Please make sure that your child brings their completed picture
packet, with either payment of an online order receipt, with them to school on
August 26.
After
School Activities
After School Activities for LMS occur on Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons. Activity buses are available
for those who are on regular bus rosters.
Activities for quarter 1 will begin on Tuesday, August 25. A list of activities for quarter 1 should be
posted on our website by this weekend.
Sixth Grade Camp
All 6th graders saw a
camp presentation either Aug, 18, 19, or 20 in their Middle School Skills class
(8th period). All camp paperwork will be sent home Friday, Aug 21.
Our informational 6th
Grade Camp parent presentation/meeting with a Q & A session will be
held August 26, at 7 PM in the LMS cafeteria. All parents
are encouraged to attend. The students will have already seen this.
7th Grade Trip
To all 7th grade
parents: The permission packets for the
7th grade trip to Trout Lodge and City Museum on Monday, September 21 were
sent home last week. If your child needs another copy please see
the home page of the LMS website. The cost of the trip is $75 and financial aid
is available for any family that requests it. Students that have an out of school suspension
or more than one in school suspension assignment will not be eligible to
attend. We will gladly welcome donations
to help cover the costs of scholarships. We are also in need of parent chaperones. We would ideally like 20 parents for Trout
Lodge and 40 parents for City Museum. Please email lcrabtree@ladueschools.net with any questions. Thank you.
From the LMSPA
An all-day Dine to Donate event for the Ladue Middle School
Parents Association is scheduled at Granite City Food & Brewery in Creve
Coeur on Tuesday, August 25. Please see the attached flyer on the
Blackboard Connect parent email for more information.
From the Nurse
Medication must be brought to the
nurse’s office by a responsible parent or adult. Medications may not be
transported by a student and will not be released to a student.
Contact
Information
It is important for the middle school to
have the correct contact information, address, and phone numbers for your child
in case of an emergency. Address
changes must be done by contacting our registrar and providing appropriate
documentation. Please take a few
minutes to make sure your child’s contact information is correct by logging on
to the Parent Portal. If you have not signed up to access the Parent
Portal, please stop by the middle school with a picture ID and see our
registrar, Ms. Breidenbach. You can also update your information by
contacting our registrar, Ms. Breidenbach at 983-5511.
LMSPA eBlasts
If you are not currently receiving LMSPA
email news blasts but would like to, please click on the following link to
subscribe:
Board Briefs
Information regarding Ladue Board of
Education meetings and work sessions can be found on boardbriefs.blogspot.com
I hope you have a great
remainder to your Friday and a wonderful weekend.
Thank you,
Greg
