The Falcon Flyer
The Official Newsletter of Brown Deer Middle School
January/February Edition - 2022
From the Principal's Desk
Greetings Falcon Families!
We hope that you have had a great holiday break, and are staying well, safe and warm! We are excited to welcome back all of our middle school students on Monday, January 24th. Remember, the doors open at 7:25am, so if possible, please drop off your students at this time so they are not waiting outside in the extremely cold temperatures. School starts at 7:40am.
We know COVID-19 may have directly or indirectly touched your family or the family of someone you know. This is a challenging time for many but we are dedicated to ensuring the success of every student in the building. It is imperative that students are following all social distancing guidelines:
- Wearing and keeping on a properly fitted mask at all times (unless actively eating)
- Staying at their designated table for lunch (no table hopping or roaming around)
- Washing their hands and/or using the hand sanitizing stations
- No sharing of food brought from home or eating off each other's lunch trays
- Keeping all personal belongings in their own locker (no sharing lockers with other students)
Families, thank you for reinforcing this message with your students at home. Together, we will come out better!
Quarter 2/Semester Grades
Teachers are busy working on final grades to close out quarter 2. If students have not completed the majority of their work in quarter 2 and are not passing at this time, they will be given an "I" for incomplete. Teachers will be working with students in this category to determine what work still needs to be completed and students will have up to 2 weeks to complete that work for credit, so the I (incomplete) can be updated in Skyward. Final semester 1 grades are the average of quarter 1 and quarter 2 grades. If you have class specific grading questions, please reach out to the specific teacher first.
New Staff
We would like to welcome some new middle school staff members to our team. Let's make sure to welcome them to our Brown Deer family!
Jacqueline Spence - 6th grade math/science teacher
Dava LeRoy - 8th grade science teacher
Maxwell Havlik - 8th grade social studies teacher
Migdalia Dybro - Spanish teacher
Kerry Wagner - Special education teacher
Daniel Grant - Special education teacher
Allison Moore - Band/Music teacher
Student Incentive - Our students looked amazing at our Winter Formal Dance in December! We had close to 290 students eligible to participate which was great to see. Students enjoyed dancing, hanging out with their friends and picking up concessions that they earned with their "catch them being good" tickets.
We want to continue celebrating all the wonderful things students are doing and how so many are meeting expectations. Our next student incentive will be a Valentine's Pajama Jam on Thursday, February 17th (tentatively) during the school day. Each grade level will have their very own dance during the school day in the gym. Students will also be able to earn tickets over the next 3 weeks to "purchase" concessions. Tickets can be earned for demonstrating great citizenship, meeting expectations and going above and beyond to do the right thing, even when they think nobody is watching. The criteria for attending the Winter Dance include the following:
- Getting to class on time at least 95% of the time
- No suspensions
- No more than one behavior referral to the office
We are looking forward to seeing your student at the Pajama Jam on February 17th!
Mask Usage - We continue to be a mask mandated district. Students can bring their own mask from home if they prefer. This would also allow them to wear a mask that may fit better. We need your help in reminding students to properly wear their masks over their nose and mouth while in the building. Masks must be worn at all times, unless they are eating.
We appreciate you being active partners in your child's education. We value you.
Take care. You matter.
Trila Pitchford
Principal
Semester 2 Schedules - From Ms. Reynebeau, MS Counselor
Hi BDMS Parents,
Just a reminder that Semester 2 starts on Monday! This means that your student's schedules will be changing. Their Nest, Math, and Language Arts classes will remain the same. For those students in Science, they will now be in Social Studies, and vice versa- those in Social Studies will now be in Science.
For our Allied Arts classes- student's music classes will remain the same, and they will continue to have Phy Ed. However, when they have Phy Ed (the period and black/gold days and possibly the teacher) may change. The remainder of their Allied Arts classes will change (Art, STEM, Spanish, Health for 6th grade, Tech Ed for 7th and 8th grade). This means that whichever of these classes that your student did not have Semester 1, they will now have Semester 2.
Students will be given a paper copy of their new schedules in their Nest class on Monday and if they are unsure of where their new classes are, staff will all be available to assist them. Their full year schedule is also always available in Skyward. If you or your student has any scheduling questions please feel free to contact me! My office phone number is 414-371-6927 and my email is kreynebeau@browndeerschools.com. Thank you all for your support of our students!
Parent Engagement Liaison
The district is looking for a diverse group of parents to create a parent advisory committee to discuss various topics. All meetings will take place on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month starting February 2022. Ellen Schimenz (Parent Engagement Liaison) will facilitate the meetings. PAC will communicate and discuss ideas to help foster a positive and effective school learning community guided by the district’s Mission and Vision statements. Examples of such topics could include Student Achievement, Parent Involvement, Extracurricular Activities, Behavior/Discipline, Students Handbook, Curriculum, etc.
If interested in participating in the PAC, please complete this Google Form.
Battle of the Books and Reading Spirit Week is Coming!
We are excited to bring Battle of the Books and reading spirit week to our middle school this year! Our goals are to encourage the love of reading, and build some stamina along the way. Reading truly is fundamental and what better way to encourage reading than by making reading fun! Here is our calendar of events, and here's a promo video to kick off our battle of the books and reading spirit week as well.
Falcon After Set is Back!
After Set will be starting back on Thursday, January 27 and will run on Thursdays only from 3:30 - 5:30 PM at BDMS. This change is due to staffing changes. We will continue to review our staffing and let all families know if we are able to add Tuesdays back into our after-set schedule.
Please contact either Mr. Henderson at jhenderson@browndeerschools.com or Ms. Griffie at sgriffie@browndeerschools.com for more information or if you have any questions.
Self-Care is Essential!
If you'd like to capture your child's memories from the 2021-2022 school year, click the link below to learn about how to order your yearbook now!
Dates to Remember
January 28 - No School - Professional Learning Day
February 11 - No School - Professional Learning Day
February 14-17 - Reading Spirit Week! (check the calendar above for our dress up days)
February 16-17 - Parent/Teacher Conferences; 4:00pm-8:00pm
February 18 - No School