Diplomat ROAR

A Note from the Principal

Hello Wildcats,

As we continue to focus on staying successful this school year, your administrators and teachers are also starting to work on the success of next school year. You will begin signing up for next year’s electives in about six weeks. Can you believe it?

Eighth graders, you will pick your first set of high school electives in April or May. We will have another newsletter before you start choosing, but, sixth and seventh graders, I want you to have a heads up so you can make informed decisions when the time comes.

Mrs. Petro has asked that we offer another advanced art class--that’s exciting. The district is introducing a middle school class called, Latinos in Action—that’s exciting. Mrs. Gross is continuing the advanced health course which has a competition component—that’s exciting. Don’t forget about all the music, theater, arts, PE, health, history fair-with a competition component, coding, yearbook, Greek myth, TV, finance, health, culinary, business keyboard, chorus, and anything I did not list here. Whew! That’s a lot.

Spring break is only a couple weeks away. I hope you plan to relax and have fun. Give your best effort to everything you do. I’m glad you are a Wildcat.

Proud to be in the Pride,

Maura Bennington, Principal


Join us for our next SAC meeting Diplomat Middle School SAC meeting will be held on March 27 from 5:00-6:00 in the Media Center.	Open Enrollment for 8th Grade Students Student Open Enrollment Applications will be available Online for rising 8th graders January 17 to March 3 in the FOCUS Parent Portal. Parents must have a Focus Parent Portal in order to use the online Student Enrollment process.	No School for Students SPRING BREAK- March 20-24

Join us for our next SAC meeting

Diplomat Middle School SAC meeting will be held on March 27 from 5:00-6:00 in the Media Center.

Open Enrollment for 8th Grade Students

Student Open Enrollment Applications will be available Online for rising 8th graders January 17 to March 3 in the FOCUS Parent Portal.

Parents must have a Focus Parent Portal in order to use the online Student Enrollment process.

No School for Students

SPRING BREAK- March 20-24

Focus Parent Portal

Focus is the district's platform for all grades, student information, attendance and test history. Creating a parent portal gives you 24/7 access. In the portal, there are required forms that we need in order to ensure you are receiving the most current information. There is also a required form for your child to receive care in the clinic. Without this clinic form, we cannot assist your child. If you have not already completed these online forms, please create an account and complete them.

Safety First

Students are not to be on campus before 9:15 without being enrolled in our before school program.

When dropping students off in the morning, the safest way is through our parent drop off loop. Stopping along the roadway to drop off students creates a safety issue for you and those travelling the roadway. No drop offs should occur in the DMS faculty lot or the elementary school parking lot.

When picking up students in the afternoon, the safest way is through our parent pick up loop. Our parent pick up line moves quickly and clear by 4:20 each afternoon. As a reminder, school dismisses at 4:00 and students need to be picked up from school 4:30, if they are normally a parent pick up student.

Please congratulate the Unified track team on their 1st place finish !!!

4x100 team 1 -1st place

4x100 team 2 - 3rd place

4x200- team 1- 1st place

Combined athlete partner long jump

Team 1 - 1st place

Team 2 - 2nd place

The Gen Ed partners were absolutely amazing and really made the athletes feel like a team. What an awesome day. Our teams were so amazing! Go Wildcats!!

Living the Dream,

Coach Ziemer

HOSA Competition Results

1st place- Exploring Medical Innovations

Martin Garcia

Nicholas Garcia

Nhu Nguyen

Nathan Zukowski

1st place- Medical math

Avril Alarcon Gonzalez

1st place- Prepared Speaking

Ivan Langaney

Health Career Displays:

1st place- FORENSIC SCIENCE

Ashleigh Russell

Leslie Nichols

2nd place- SUBSTANCE ABUSE NURSE

Andrea Santos

Destinee Rollings

3rd place- VETERINARIAN

Lacy Crane

Daniela Cuevas

4th place- FORENSIC NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Grace Wheeler

Grace Senna

5th place- REGISTERED NURSE

Ella Spencer

Brielle Christiano

For our Advanced Health first year to promote a junior medical academy here at Diplomat MIddle School, we will have students competing in medical competition for HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) in April.

See the article in the Cape Coral Breeze: https://www.capecoralbreeze.com/news/local-news/2023/02/09/diplomat-middle-hosa-team-advances-to-state/

Good Luck HOSA Wildcats!

Jamie Gross, jamiesgr@leeschools.net.

Diplomat Spirit Night

Join us at Jeremiah's Ice on Thursday, March 2 for Spirit Night. Mention that you are supporting Diplomat Middle School and proceeds from your purchase go directly to DMS.

Every Monday is Pizza Night at Iragazzi Pizza!

Counselor's Corner

Student last names A-L: Ms. Evenson

Student last names M-Z: Mrs. Toadvine

It’s been a busy New Year in the counseling department at Diplomat. We would like to welcome our two school counseling interns – Kirsten Mears from FGCU and Dawn Miulli from Liberty University. During February, we have been working with students on academic success and reaching out to parents to communicate. Also, we are engaging in some or our tier 2 programs including small groups and peer mentoring. We want to thank FK Your Diet for providing 24 lunches a week for our small groups and Chick-Fil-A for providing lunches for small groups once a month.

In March we are excited to organize our first ever 5K color run. This will take place on March 17th during the school day and the ticket will be $20. We will be running for kindness and proceeds will support Diplomat Middle and a portion will go to a local charity. We will reiterate the importance of being kind by implementing the Sandy Hook Promise – “See something, say something”. During the week of March 12th, we will remind students why it is important to say something including reaching out when you see that others are being unkind, let’s all work on being kind to each other. We hope that everyone has a wonderful spring break!