Principal Message February 27, 2023
Dear Kennedy Families,:
I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. School blackboard access and powerschool parent portal are back online and ready for use thank you for your patience as we waited for it to be fixed. As we prepare ourselves to start our 8 month of school please remind your students that the 2nd trimester is over in two weeks and that all the work they are doing is an investment in themselves.
Let's have a good week everyone and finish the year strong!
Below is the Cougar Connect for the week of February 27th to March 3rd:
Tuesday, Feb 28th Super minimum dismissal at 12:00 pm (Link)
After school program will begin directly after school and continue to its normal end time of 5:30 pm. Also buses will be available for students that go to the Siena Youth Center at dismissal and program will go till normal end time.
Principal's Coffee Thursday in-person Kennedy 8:45am-9:30am, via zoom at 5:00 pm (Link)
Site Council / ELAC / PTO (Link)
Meeting Tuesday Night at 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
Attendance
Attendance is very important, no matter what time of year, as every instructional minute counts. If students are sick, please keep them home. However, when possible, please schedule vacations and appointments when school is not in session. We were able to access data on the number of students leaving school after they arrived and it showed that the majority of students that leave early are because of appointments. (Link)
Parents and guardians should be notifying our office staff when students are absent. Truancy and attendance letters will be sent home to students who have excessive absences. Doctor’s notes are required for three or more consecutive absences.
Parents and guardians of students with 20 or more absences will be notified to set up a meeting to discuss barriers to getting students to school on time. These meetings are meant to discuss how we can work together as a team to ensure that students are at school on time every day.
Powerschool Parent Portal
Real-time grades are in PowerSchool and can be accessed at any time. Families that need support accessing students' grades should contact our Family Center or email Ms. Calderon.
Family Center # 650 482-2110
Ms. Calderon ecalderongarcia@rcsdk8.net
All the best,
Nikolaos Fanourgiakis
Principal
Kennedy Middle School
i-Ready Round #3
Kennedy School will being administering its final round of i-Ready assessment in Reading and Math in March. As a reminder i-Ready is a district diagnostic assessment given to all students to determine what grade level content they have learned and what they still need to learn. Below is
i-Ready assessment dates for March:
- March 8-10 Reading assessment in English classes
- Math 15-17 Math assessment in Math classes
* Make-ups the week of March 20th -24th
Conference Week March 20th-24th
Parent Teacher conferences will be this week March 20th-24th
School will be dismissed each day at 1:35 pm and students will be following a modified schedule. (Link)
Conferences that week will begin at 1:50 pm. Students needing conference will be communicated with by the their teachers the week of March 13th.
For this round of conferences teachers will be scheduling conferences with students that are struggling and with families that request a conference.
If a student and family doesn't receive an invite and still wants to conference please contact the staff member you want to conference with.
Musical Information
Musical is just around the corner if you are interested in attending us this link to purchase tickets. Musical Tickets
Matilda Newsletter #7, Rehearsal schedule (Link)
Sara Rosenbloom srosenbloom@rcsdk8.net
Parent Information Sessions
Kennedy is happy to be hosting a few information sessions in the next few weeks. Below are some upcoming dates and some sessions that still need to be scheduled:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM PST
Author Michelle Icard will answer your parenting questions in a Zoom call for the Kennedy school community.
Whether you’re worried about grades, motivation, friendship issues, self-esteem or social media, Michelle can address your concerns and offer both advice and relief.
To register use this (Link)
Check out her website (Link)
Thursday, March 9th 6:00 pm Movie Showing on Zoom Screenagers Next Chapter
Film focuses on teens dealing with high stress, anxiety and depression which millions of youth experience. 7th and 8th grade students were already shown this film last school year so students in 6th grade will have an opportunity to watch the film during the week of March 6th in their science classes and the community can watch it via zoom 6:00pm March 9th. (Link)
Thursday, March 23rd 6:00 pm in person in the Kennedy Library Family Information night: Reading Focus
Families are invited to meet and discuss how to support reading performance at home. If you are interested and joining us this link to sign-up (Link)
Thursday March 30th, 6:00 pm Movie: Screenagers Under the Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs and Alcohol in the Digital Age.
Movie is being released March 3rd nationally and we are excited to be sharing it with our community March 30th via zoom. During the showing we will also have a speaker who helped develop the film available for questions. (Link)
Screenagers Movie Website: (Link)
Yosemite Information Meeting 2023-24 School Year
If you are interested in going on this trip next school year. Please complete this short form so our trip director can reach out to you.
Reminder this message is for our current 7th grade student and this trip will be during their 8th grade year. (Link)
Michelle Talvin
Winter Sports (Redwood City Parks and Recreation)
Below is the schedule of practices and games through February. If there are any changes we will announce it during morning announcements and coaches will inform families.
Practice Schedule (Link)
Game Schedule (Link)
If you have practice questions contact your coaches or Recreation Coordinator Michael Smith msmith@redwoodcity.org
Academic Supports
Kennedy school provides a variety of academic support for students. Some of the academic support are provided in person but there are also many that are online. Attached is a document that provides details of some of these supports. If you have questions please contact me or our family center director Elizabeth Calderon.
Elizabeth Calderon, ecalderongarcia@rcsdk8.net
Nick Fanourgiakis, nfanourgiakis@rcsdk8.net
Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
Kennedy Counseling Team February update
See document links
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Kennedy Middle School Redwood City