JMS Weekly Update
October 11, 2020
Dear JMS Families,
This week's Update includes new information about our Virtual Open House and our Yearbook Sale. Also included is a reminder about self screening before arriving at JMS.
We want to keep the children in school and we need your help to do so. In an effort to continue to keep our students and staff safe and healthy, please remember to complete the self screening before arriving at JMS. Ask your child the following questions:
- Do you have a temperature of 100.4 or greater?
- Do you have a new onset cough, new loss of taste or smell, or shortness of breath?
- Have you traveled out of the United States within the last 14 days?
- Have you traveled out of Pennsylvania within the last 14 days?
- Have you had known exposure to a COVID-19-positive individual?
Any person with a positive symptom will not be allowed to attend school.
Thank you for helping keep the JMS community safe. Please reach out to myself or Ms. Deet if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Dr. Sarah Shaw, Principal
Ms. Katelyn Deet, Assistant Principal
Weekly Schedule
Monday (10/12) - No School - In Service
Tuesday (10/13) - Day 4
- Cohort A (A-L) - Report to school by 8:00AM.
- Cohort B (M-Z), Cyber Cohort - Home - log in to homeroom by 8:00AM.
Wednesday (10/14) - Day 5
- A-Z, Cyber Cohort - Home - log in to homeroom by 8:00.
Thursday (10/15) - Day 1
- Cohort B (M-Z) - Report to school by 8:00AM.
- Cohort A (A-L), Cyber Cohort - Home - log in to homeroom by 8:00AM.
Friday (10/16) - Day 2
- Cohort B (M-Z) - Report to school by 8:00AM.
- Cohort A (A-L), Cyber Cohort - Home - log in to homeroom by 8:00AM.
New Information
Open House - October 15th - 6:30PM-8:30PM
We are excited to welcome our families to our 2020-2021 Virtual Open House!
Our hope is that the virtual format provides parents a glimpse into their child’s experience during remote/hybrid learning and allows parents to “meet” each teacher to learn about the themes, goals, and objectives of each course. This night is designed for you to meet your child’s teacher and to get a general overview of the curriculum. You should not expect to have any one-on-one conference time with a teacher. If you need this, please schedule an appointment with your child's teacher.
Please click the link above for more detailed information about this event.
JMS Yearbooks are on sale now through January 1, 2021.
Prices:
- Now- Thursday, October 31 at 11:59 PM: $40
- Friday, November 1 at 12:00 AM- Wednesday, January 1 at 11:59 PM: $45
Limited extras will be sold on the last day of school for $50. 8th Grade Advertisements are also for sale from now until January 1 for $30. Order your yearbook and take out an 8th grade ad TODAY! yearbookforever.com
Breakfast
We will be serving breakfast beginning at 7:30. Only students who will be eating breakfast are permitted to arrive at 7:30 due to occupancy limits in the cafeteria. Children eating breakfast should enter JMS through entrance C-23 (in the back of the building). Students who are not eating breakfast will begin to arrive at 7:45.
Mt. Lebanon School District has now transitioned to a Hybrid Instructional Program. The Food Service Department will be distributing meals daily outside of each elementary school during remote instruction! Meals will be available from 10:45 until 1:15 every day to accommodate all students during their lunch periods. Click on the Lunch link above for more information.
If your student is attending an in-person instructional day at one of the secondary schools, they will receive their meals in the cafeteria – breakfast will be available prior to the start of the school day and lunch will be available at the normally scheduled lunch periods.
Reflections
Calling All Artists, Dancers, Musicians, Writers, Photographers and Filmmakers - it is time for the 2020 Reflections Program sponsored by the PTA!
This year’s theme of “I Matter Because" inspires our students to use their imaginations to consider their role in and contributions to their world!
Click HERE for additional information. Student winners from the local level have the opportunity to move up through their district, region, council and state PTA programs to the national level.
National Reflections winners are announced in May and celebrated annually at the National PTA's Convention and Expo in June. National PTA then collects and curates the traveling exhibit for the next year.
Submissions will be accepted the week of October 12 through October 16. More details to come.
Submission Form (separate form required for each entry)
Please confirm that your artwork meets the requirements for your category!
Arriving to School
Arriving to School - 7:45-8:00AM
Students should arrive to JMS between 7:45-8:00AM. In an effort to physically distance we are asking students to use the following doors for arrival:
- Twisters = D-28
- Wildfire = A-2
- Stars = C-18
- Thunderbolts = A-1
- Emerald = C-27
- Sapphire = C-25
Entering through these doors will allow the students to enter the building nearest to their lockers/homerooms. You can view a map here.
We will have adults at each door to welcome and guide the students to their homerooms.
Suggested Drop-Off Routes - 7:45-8:00AM
In preparation for returning to school, I would like to provide some guidance regarding traffic flow around campus so that we can ensure a safe environment for all students, and also reduce congestion and lengthy delays for drivers. If you are not the person that will be dropping your child off, please this information with the appropriate person.
Please drive slowly around the campus during drop off and dismissal times. If possible, have your children walk or carpool to reduce congestion. Families that are dropping off need to pull ahead along the green painted curb all the way up to the auditorium/gym entrance (A-2), by the steps, before letting your student(s) out of the car. Cars that pull up just to the JMS main doors and let students out cause additional back ups to occur, and cause much of the drop off zone to go unused.
There will be traffic. Please be patient and present when you are driving around the complex.
See the link below for suggested drop off routes for those families that choose to drive their children. Please keep in mind that you cannot turn onto Moffett from Bower Hill during drop off and pick up times. You will need to access the complex from Old Hickory to Pin Oak, or from Ruth Street to Pin Oak.
If you need to turn right onto Bower Hill after drop off, it is recommended that you utilize the yellow route. Right turns are not recommended from Moffett because there is a crossing guard at that intersection and only 1-3 right turning cars can get through because of students crossing.
If you need to turn left onto Bower Hill after drop off, it is recommended that you utilize the blue route. The left turn is not affected by the crossing students.
If you do not need to access Bower Hill after drop off, it is recommended that you utilize the red route through the JMS parking lot, which allows you to exit the back of the campus to Pin Oak.
Following these guidelines will help to create the safest environment and best flow of traffic possible. Thank you for your attention to this. The staff at JMS is looking forward to many smiling faces on Monday.
Athletics
7th & 8th Grade Boys Basketball
Attention all 7th and 8th grade boys interested in trying out for basketball! The dates and times have been set.
- 7th grade will try out on Tuesday October 27th and Wednesday October 28th from 3:15-5:15.
- 8th graders will try out on Thursday October 29th and Friday October 30th from 3:15-5:15.
Tryouts will be held in the Jefferson Middle School Gymnasium.
A face mask will be required for all participants to be worn before and after tryouts and while not involved in a game or drill.
Please remember to have your family ID registration and updated physical form submitted on the athletic website under registration. https://athletics.mtlsd.org/registration. If this is not completed by your designated day for tryouts you will not be permitted to take part.
We are excited to announce that we are now offering the convenience of online registration for our athletic programs through partner company, FamilyID (www.familyid.com). FamilyID is a secure registration platform that provides you with an easy, user-friendly way to register for our programs, and helps us to be more administratively efficient and environmentally responsible. When you register through FamilyID, you enter your information once for multiple uses, multiple kids and multiple programs.
Technology
Families In Need of Technology
As we prepare to start the 2020-2021 school year, we are asking families who need to borrow student technology to please complete the form linked below:
Be sure to list every student for whom you need to borrow a device on this form. Once you have submitted your form, you will receive status emails including device pickup details from an @mtlsd.net email address. Please also be sure to whitelist @mtlsd.net email addresses with your email provider to ensure that you receive these communications from us.
Please direct any and all questions regarding loaned equipment to our support address: RemoteSupport@mtlsd.net
JMS PTA Information
JMS PTA membership drive is open. In a typical year, your membership fee to the JMS PTA helps to meet our budget commitments to various PTA-sponsored school programs. This year we have reduced the membership cost to $15, to cover primarily the national and state dues and fees associated with the organization, and we have included an option to make a donation, 100% of which goes to JMS PTA-supported activities. Membership includes one vote per household at PTA meetings, inclusion in the Membership Directory, and PTA Newsletters. Families can link a second parent's email to their first at no additional cost or decide to purchase memberships for two parents. Membership Toolkit has a mobile app for your convenience.
You will be prompted to update your family's information, opt in or out of the directory, and update your child's team, optional phone contact info, and the elementary school from which they came.
Please join us!
Help JMS Earn Money While You Shop!
AmazonSmile
If you haven’t used AmazonSmile Before:
- Go to smile.amazon.com and sign in with your regular Amazon username and password.
- You will be prompted to choose a charity. You should enter "Jefferson Middle School PTA Inc” into the search box that appears. It will say "Pittsburgh, PA" as the location for the charity.
- Make sure whenever you check out, you always go to smile.amazon.com on your browser.
If you already use AmazonSmile:
- Go to smile.amazon.com and sign in with your username and password
- Make sure the charity you’ve selected is "Jefferson Middle School PTA Inc." This information is located under the search bar where it says “supporting”.
- If it isn’t, you can change it by clicking on the charity and selecting “change”
- This will bring you to a page where you can search for “Jefferson Middle School PTA Inc” and allow you to switch charities.
- Make sure whenever you check out, you always go to smile.amazon.com to checkout.
- If you shop on the Amazon app. Please activate Amazon Smile on your mobile app by opening the app and finding ’Settings’ in the main menu (☰). Tap on ‘AmazonSmile’ and follow the on-screen instructions to turn on AmazonSmile on your phone.
Box Tops
Clipping Box Tops is an easy way to earn money for our school. Each Box Top is worth 10 cents, so don't forget to physically and electronically clip the for us! The clipped Box Tops can be turned into the office.
See Box Tops for more information on how to scan Box Tops and to download the app. Receipts must be scanned within 14 days for the Box Tops to be scanned electronically.
Giant Eagle
Giant Eagle Support our students! Enroll your Giant Eagle Advantage Card and earn points for FREE educational rewards with every shopping trip.
Click here to register your card. Our school code is 3369. The Giant Eagle card program is also easy to use - just register your card and shop away as usual!
Office Depot/Office Max
Office Depot/Office Max has a school rewards program. When shopping, remember to ask the cashier to tag Jefferson Middle School. For online orders, enter our school ID (Thomas Jefferson Middle School ID:70088453 Pittsburgh, PA) on the Thank You Confirmation page.
Resources For Families
Safe2Say Something is a youth violence prevention program run by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. The program teaches youth and adults how to recognize warning signs and signals, especially within social media, from individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others and to “say something” BEFORE it is too late. With Safe2Say Something, it’s easy and confidential to report safety concerns to help prevent violence and tragedies.
Here’s how it works:
- Submit a report through the Safe2SaySomething system
- Crisis center reviews, assesses and processes all submissions
- Crisis center sends all submissions to school administration and/or law enforcement for intervention
- If needed, crisis center may contact tipster anonymously through the app
Jefferson Middle School
The Jefferson Middle School learning community has an exceptional reputation for its dedicated teachers, staff and parents working together to provide learning experiences for our children that include high expectations, a challenging curriculum and a shared commitment to provide the best education possible for each and every student.
Email: sshaw@mtlsd.net
Website: https://jms.mtlsd.org/
Location: 21 Moffett Street, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Phone: (412) 344-2120
Facebook: facebook.com/jmslebo
Twitter: @JMSMTLSD