Principal Message February 6, 2023
Dear Kennedy Families,
Thank you for a busy fun week last week. We had many families join us for Principals coffee and 8th grade graduation meetings, your participation and input is so important. We also were able to complete student store purchases and deliveries for all students who made requests.
Our student store is very popular as students have made close to 6,000 purchases so far this school year! It really is a community effort to keep it going. Great job students for meeting school expectations and for teachers recognizing students meeting those expectations. Thank you also to our 8th grade office aides and our awesome administrators, Mr. Camarena and Mrs. Leonardo, who have been pulling a heavy load doing inventory, and packing student purchases!
Below is the Cougar Connect for the week of February 6th-Feb 10th
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. See link for the correlation between student achievement and chronic absenteeism: (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.
Charged Chromebooks
Students should have their chromebooks charged everyday. If chromebooks are not charged it means the student is not prepared for school. Please remind your students to charge your chromebooks every evening.
Principal's Coffee Thursday 2/2/2023 (Link)
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
COVID Testing over the Three day Weekend:
Students will be given COVID tests on Thursday or Friday 2/09-2/10 to be administered Monday 2/13. If students test positive, keep your students at home and complete this RCSD COVID reporting (Link). If your student tests negative, no action is needed.
Safety during pick-up and drop off
Please obey all city traffic laws when on the road around the school especially during pick-up and drop off times. Also, if you are parked across the street, encourage students to use the crosswalk when getting to your vehicle. Please refrain from parking in the neighbors’ driveways.
All the best,
Nikolaos Fanourgiakis
Principal
Kennedy Middle School
8th Grade Families
8th Grade Updates
Thank you to the over 60 8th grade families that joined us over zoom to learn about 8th grade activities this year. If you missed the meeting below is some important information shared.
Slide deck (Link)
Parent Volunteers needed (Link)
8th Grade parent meeting Feb 16th 7 pm(Zoom link coming)
Donate to 8th grade activities (Link)
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High School Information
High School Registration & Transfer Requests for SUHSD
All families must complete registration and address verification for the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) (Link)
High School visit to Kennedy in March. Specific dates coming soon
We hope to have the counselors from Sequoia and Woodside conduct a presentation on their programs. These presentations will take place in Social Studies classes. More details to follow.
Musical Information
Rehearsal schedule (Link)
Please use the link below to access the Matilda Jr.
Sara Rosenbloom srosenbloom@rcsdk8.net
Yosemite Information Meeting 2023-24 School Year
Join us for a short information session scheduled for Thursday February 9th 6:00pm - 7:00 pm via zoom for our current 7th grade students and families. The Yosemite Trip is for our 8th graders and will be between October and December 2023. (Link)
7th Grade Grand Canyon Trip
Mandatory Grand Canyon Meeting on Tuesday, February 14th begins at 6:30 pm. This meeting will cover all the details for the trip, payments, and the distribution of backpacks.
Lastly, a reminder that payments can be made before our meeting in February via Zelle. Making payments ahead of time will help our meeting run more efficiently. Families have received information about how to submit their payments. Payment information is also available online.
Kennedy Grand Canyon Field Trip Website
Please email Maestro Alfredo (aoropeza@rcsdk8.net) if you have any questions.
SEL PARTNERSHIP ACKNOWLEDGE ALLIANCE
Project Resilience by Acknowledge Alliance will commence on January 13th-March 3rd with our 7th grade students and go for 7 weeks
Students will receive weekly lessons in their social studies classes on Fridays.
Project Resilience is a partnership where Acknowledge Alliance facilitators work with our students on developing their social emotional skills, including identifying strengths, recognizing and managing emotions, demonstrating caring for others, coping strategies for dealing with feelings, establishing and maintaining positive relationships, making responsible decisions and working with others.
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)
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Kennedy Middle School Redwood City