OJ DeJonge Middle School
AUGUST 2022
From the Principal's Desk
Dear Oriole Students and Families,
As summer 2022 winds to a close, the faculty and staff would like to welcome you to the 2022-23 school year at OJ DeJonge Middle School! We are excited to welcome the Class of 2029 into our school community while also welcoming back the Class of 2027 and the Class of 2028 to our amazing school. Over the course of the summer, our faculty and staff have been working hard to learn new skills to bring to our classrooms and to our community this coming school year.
There is much to celebrate as we return to school. Over the summer, we were informed of our school’s scores on the PSAT assessment that our 8th graders took last April. Once again, our students did a fantastic job, outpacing the state average by 35 points! In addition, over 76% of our students were proficient or advanced in the reading and writing section of the PSAT, which is the highest percentage we have had here at OJ in the six years that we have administered the PSAT.
While we are proud of the work that we have done in the past, our school community always strives for continuous improvement. Our main avenue to experience this continuous improvement here at OJ and across the school district is working through professional learning communities, or PLCs. Our teachers work through the PLC process in collaborative learning teams, where they work together with a focus on helping every single student achieve to the best of their abilities through their own professional learning. This PLC process is a great opportunity for our faculty and staff to help each other succeed!
As we start the school year, we will spend time working with our students in learning our PBIS attributes of being responsible, being respectful, and being an Oriole. We have seen great success in the PBIS process here at OJ and will continue to work hard to teach our students what the expectations are here at school while also recognizing students that exhibit positive behavior within our community. We will also continue to teach our students the #YouMatterAtOJ curriculum in our weekly Monday Message videos for students.
This year will bring about a great deal of change here at OJ and the entire secondary school complex as the renovation process begins. There will definitely be some changes that will take getting used to throughout the course of the school year but we will keep our eyes on the prize, a completely renovated 21st century school building that will match the quality of the educational experiences that we provide for our students! As the year moves on, we will be sure to communicate changes to any of our routines as a result of the renovation process.
Speaking of communication, we will be working hard this year to increase the level of communication from school to home. We hope to create YouTube videos for families regularly to inform you of what is happening here at school and provide families with timely information on all things related to OJ and middle school in general. The first installment of the OJ Family Update includes information regarding our back to school events and can be viewed at this link - https://youtu.be/Tf6dr526JuI.
Our back to school events are also listed in detail on the calendar below. We look forward to seeing our students and families back in the building for our Back to School Night on Tuesday, August 30th and welcoming students into the building for our orientation and sneak peek events on Thursday, September 1st.
As always, please feel free to contact us here at school with any questions! We can be reached via phone at 231-845-3810 or I can be reached via email at mhart@LASD.net.
Let’s have a wonderful school year!
With Oriole Pride,
Mike Hart
Principal, OJ DeJonge Middle School
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE!
The renovations at the middle school and high school complex have begun! Currently, construction crews are preparing additional learning spaces for middle school students and teachers to use during this school year. Middle school classrooms are being created in both the middle and high school libraries so that the renovations can begin in other spaces within our building.
Later in the year, construction will begin on our new classroom additions. These new classrooms will be constructed on the west side of the building, near where the current bus loop is located. Because of this, there will be a new pattern for bus drop offs starting on the first day of school. Please see the photograph below detailing the changes. Middle school drop off will still take place at the pool doors as it has for the past several years.
We are looking forward to changing the landscape of our building for generations to come!
CANVAS LMS
The Canvas Learning Management System is a game changer for families to understand what is happening in classrooms at OJ DeJonge Middle School! Families are able to see the learning targets and assignments for each class each day. Here at OJMS, all of our teachers use a similar home page for each of their courses and each course is organized so that the Learning Modules button takes students and families to what they need to know! Below is an example of what a Canvas home page looks like from Mrs. Keson’s ELA class.
Our school is committed to helping students and families understand this amazing learning tool. The LASD tech department has created a number of helpful videos for families, available at this link, to assist in learning more about Canvas.
Please reach out to your child’s teacher or to the main office if you have any questions or need help with this amazing tool!
STUDENT SCHEDULES
Student schedules are now available in the PowerSchool Parent Portal! To access the PowerSchool Parent Portal, you can visit this website: https://psl.wsesd.org/public/home.html.
Your child’s username is their student ID number and their password is their birthdate with no leading zeros (for example, if your child’s birthday is January 1st, 2010 the password would be 112010 or if your child’s birthday is December 21st, 2009 the password would be 12212009).
If you are using the PowerSchool app, you may need the District Code to log in. Our District Code is NGQL.
News from LASD Athletics
Please check the lasd.net website/athletics or lasd.net calendar for the most up to date information. Things change daily. Please call the athletic office at 845-3811 with any questions or concerns or email us at athletic@lasd.net.
CALENDAR
AUGUST
30: Back to School Night @ 7:30 p.m.
SEPT
1: Orientation Day!
- 6th grade @ 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
- NEW 7 & 8th gr students @ 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
- Returning Students @ 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
6: First Day of School!
19: 8th Grade Camp
30: NO SCHOOL - PLC Day for Teachers
Contact OJMS
Email: OJnewsletter@lasd.net
Website: www.lasd.net
Location: 706 East Tinkham Avenue, Ludington, MI, USA
Phone: (231)845-3810
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/OJMSParentInfo
Twitter: @OJ_Orioles