The Seahawks Call
November 14 - 27, 2022
A Message from Principal Taylor......................
Attendance Reminders!
Student common assessments and first quarter grades
This year, Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) began administering mandatory common assessments with students for the core content areas across all grade levels. Common assessments measure students' mastery of standards being taught. These assessments provide valuable student achievement data at the student, class, grade, school and system levels about which standards need to be revisited for mastery, and where adjustments may be needed in terms of pacing, resources and/or supports.
Teachers were instructed at the beginning of the school year to include the common assessment as one of the first quarter product grades. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue with grading of the common assessments, they will not be included in first quarter grades. CCPS learned about a technical error with the electronic grading system used to score the assessments. The error is prohibiting teachers from seeing their full class rosters when attempting to retrieve first quarter common assessment scores.
The vendor is currently working on the problem but will not have this matter rectified before first quarter report card grades are issued. To ensure fairness, CCPS has made the decision not to include common assessment scores on any student report card grades for the first quarter. Teachers were instructed to remove the common assessment tasks from their gradebooks before posting their first quarter grades. If you have questions about the common assessments, please email Kevin Lowndes, Chief of Teaching and Learning, at klowndes@ccboe.com. Report cards will be posted to ParentVue/StudentVue accounts on Monday, Nov. 14.
Make-Up and Retake Picture Day!
Make-up and Retake Picture Day will be held Monday, November 21st until 10am. All photos will be taken during this time, so please make sure that if you need your photo taken that you are in school before 10am. Students can have their picture taken on this day if:
- they were absent or not enrolled at Somers during the original picture day in October.
- they purchased a package in the Fall and need to retake their photos. (These students should bring in their original, uncut picture package)
- they are purchasing new photos and have a new order form. Order forms are located in the main office.
If you have any questions about make-up picture day, please contact either Ms. Strobel or Ms. Villela.
Important Dates to Remember!
(Monday) - November 14th
- Report Cards Post on ParentVUE and StudentVUE
- Book Fair begins
- CoGAT for select 6th, 7th, and 8th graders
- Thanksgiving Food Drive continues
- Archery practice until 3:30 pm
- Educators Rising until 3 pm
- Newspaper Club until 3:30 pm
- Yearbook Club until 3:30 pm in rm 212
- LPBK ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Tuesday) - November 15th
- Book Fair
- Thanksgiving Food Drive continues
- CoGAT for remaining 7th graders
- Board Meeting
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Wednesday) - November 16th
- CoGAT make-ups for remaining students from all grades
- Thanksgiving Food Drive continues
- Archery practice until 3:30 pm
- Drama Club until 3:30 pm
- Student Council until 3:30 pm
- GSA until 3:15 pm
- VEX Robotics until 3:30 pm
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Thursday) - November 17th
- CoGAT make-up date for remaining students from all grade levels
- ESOL Nest until 3 pm
- NJHS sorts Thanksgiving Food Drive donations until 3 pm
- DI until 3 pm
- Math Counts until 3 pm
- Choir field trip to Westlake HS from 9-1:30 pm
- Sea Perch until 3:30 pm
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Friday) - November 18th
- Archery tournament @ Somers in the gym from 8 am - 2 pm
- 8th grade GTT and STEM classes field trip to Air & Space Museum
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Saturday) - November 19th
- Student Council Fall Leadership @ Anne Arundel County for MASC from 7:30 - 5 pm
- LPBK football on football field from 8am - 8pm
(Sunday) - November 20th
- Mattawoman Creek Art Show from 1-4 pm at Mattawoman Creek Art Center. Presentation at 2 pm.
- LPBK football on football field from 8am - 8pm
(Monday) - November 21st
- Fall Picture Retakes in the gym
- LPBK ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Tuesday) - November 22nd
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Wednesday) - November 23rd Thanksgiving Holiday Break
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Thursday) - November 24th Thanksgiving Holiday Break
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Friday) - November 25th Thanksgiving Holiday Break
- LPBK Ball fields 1 & 2 and space behind soccer fields from 5-8 pm
- LPYSA Soccer fields 5, 6, 8, 9 from 5-8 pm
(Saturday) - November 26th
- LPBK football on football field from 8am - 8pm
(Sunday) - November 27th
- LPBK football on football field from 8am - 8pm
THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE
Celebrating Somers' Staff Who Served Our Country!
Staff Members pictured:
Mr. Robert Adamson - US Navy
Ms. Elsie Barnett - US Air Force
Mrs. Michelle Coney - US Air Force
Mrs. Kristi Kipp - US Navy
Mrs. Tamekia Ramey - US Air Force
Mr. Marlon Walker - US Marine Corps
A Note from our PTSO
From the Circulation Desk of Ms. HJ.................
Library News:
And the winners of our 2 Sentence Horror Story Challenge were: Logan Miranda, Ashlynn Hansell, Christopher Ellison, Charlene Dangan, and Ava Francis. So many excellent entries made it hard to narrow down to just one winner!
Book Fair begins Monday!
Our Fall Scholastic book fair begins Monday in the library. Items purchased in the book fair help us help our students by enabling us to add new popular titles to our library shelves.
Students are scheduled to visit the book fair through their language arts classes and can purchase items during their class visit. There will also be other scheduled opportunities for them to shop.
The Scholastic eWallet is easy to use and a convenient, cash free option. You can find information about our fair on our book fair web page: https://www.scholastic.com/bf/miltonsomersmiddleschool2
Congratulations to our November Seahawk Stars!
Ways to STAY CONNECTED
Follow us on Twitter: Somersptso
SCHOOL SUPPORTS
Cynthia Panizzi - 6th Grade AP - cpanizzi@ccboe.com
Nancy Hines - 7th Grade AP - nhines@ccboe.com
Marlon Walker - 8th Grade AP -mwalker@ccboe.com
Zachary Ortolano - Administrative Intern - zortolano@ccboe.com
COUNSELING SUPPORTS
Ken Tojek - 6th Grade Counselor - ktojek@ccboe.com
John Craddock- 7th Grade Counselor - jcraddock@ccboe.com
Maureen Toler - 8th Grade Counselor - mtoler@ccboe.com
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM
Linda Forrest - Reading Resource Teacher (Reading) - lforrest@ccboe.com
Jennifer Branham - Instructional Resource Teacher (Math) - jbranham@ccboe.com
Jasmine Proctor - Learning Resource Teacher (Gifted Education and Testing Coordinator) - jnproctor@ccboe.com
Email: somersms@ccboe.com
Website: https://www.ccboe.com/schools/somers/
Location: 300 Willow Lane, La Plata, MD 20646
Phone: 301-934-4663
Twitter: @miltonsomersms