Happy First Week of October! It's a busy time with exciting events and important updates to share. I appreciate your ongoing support and involvement in our school community.

💯Progress Reports and i-Ready

Progress reports will be mailed home next week. For the most up-to-date information about your students' grades, please log on to PowerSchool.

i-Ready reports will be included with progress reports. You will get to see your student's current reading and math levels at this point in the year. I will include more details about i-Ready in next week's newsletter.

🕛Super-Minimum Day This Thursday, October 5

Students will be dismissed at 12:00 pm on Thursday, October 5 due to teacher professional development.

SamTrans will arrive at 2:00 pm. Siena Youth, Peninsula Bridge, and RCSD transportation will arrive immediately after school.

☕Principal's Coffee This Thursday, October 5

My second Principal's Coffee will be held this Thursday at 8:45 am. I will give a brief overview and update from 8:45 to 9:00 am. Then, we will visit classrooms.

🗓️No School Monday, October 9 Indigenous People’s Day

✅Behavior Walking Home

If your student walks, bikes, or rides a scooter home, please remind them to be respectful of our community. We do not want students walking on neighbors' lawns or yards, ringing doorbells, or being a nuisance. I encourage neighbors to email me or visit the school with any concerns they may have, and I will reach out to Kennedy families in order to address these concerns.

🎱Volunteers Needed for 8th-Grade Events

If you are interested in volunteering for 8th-grade events, sign up here

🌟Students of the Month

We recognized our first Students of the Month for September on Friday. Students were honored for being prepared for the month of September. They all received a golden ticket that allowed them to choose one treat from the ice cream truck/van. Thank you, Lillian O'Connor (parent), for supporting me with the golden tickets!

🔔Reminders About Attendance

If your student must be absent, please inform us about their absence. Please remember that a doctor's note will be required after three days of absence. Students are required to make up all assignments they missed once they return. Please reach out to your student's teachers in order to get clarification about incomplete or missing work. Remember: if students miss a day, they miss a lot. One of my goals this year is to decrease our chronic absenteeism rates, so you'll hear more from me about attendance. Please reach out to us for any additional support you may need.

You can call the Kennedy attendance line and leave a message. Dial 650-482-2409 and press option 3. You can leave a voicemail message with your student's first and last name, date of birth, grade, your relationship to the student (parent, guardian), and the reason for their absence. Our office staff checks the voicemail messages from 7:30 to 10:00 am.

You can also email our new attendance clerk Tatyana Tafoya: ttafoya@rcsdk8.net.

😁Picture Day Updates

Picture Day flyers were sent home earlier in the week. If you are having trouble accessing the Jostens link because you do not know your student's PowerSchool ID, please have your student come to the office for support.

Picture Day Event Code: FE250723

🎃Halloween Dance Friday, October 27

Please be advised that in order for students to attend the Halloween Dance in the Kennedy gym, they must have a 2.0 GPA or better. This means no Ds or Fs. They must have good attendance and good behavior. This means no behavioral referrals, suspensions, or incidents with other students or staff members. We will need parents to chaperone for this event, so we will reach out in October for your support.

That's all for now!

See you soon!

Mrs. Leonardo

Hello, Kennedy Community!

Close your eyes and remember what it was like for you as a middle schooler. Was it the best time of your life, the hardest, or somewhere in between? Now can you imagine being a middle schooler who’s family is living out of their car? What if your parents both worked 2 jobs and still couldn't afford to feed you and your siblings on a regular basis? If you’re hungry all the time, could you concentrate on that Math test? Could you participate in PE without socks or wearing shoes with holes in them? What about the kiddo who wants to finish their homework but doesn’t have reliable internet access at home? Can you imagine if your parents don’t speak English but very much want to be involved in your schooling?

These are all realities for many of our current Kennedy students. Unmet basic needs affect children’s ability to bring their best selves to the learning environment. As a community, all the kids are our collective responsibility. How can we come together to care for them?

In that spirit, this week I’d like to highlight the partnership between the PTO and the Kennedy Family Center. Led by Cynthia Cardona, an incredibly passionate advocate for families, the Family Center is open and available to all Kennedy students and their families, from 8-4 each school day.

You can find the following resources at the Family Center:

• Food distribution for families

• Clothing and hygiene products for students

• Housing assistance and parent education

• Crisis intervention and emotional counseling

The Family Center is an integral part of the Community School model that offers services and opportunities to students and their families to close gaps and barriers to learning. Our shared goal is to actively involve families in school life on a regular basis, creating a community of care at KMS.

The PTO is working with the Family Center to fill some of these gaps. The PTO is able to fund part of the Family Center through generous donations from the KMS community. Our goal is $20,000. Can you help us meet our goal?!

To support KMS, DONATE at the link:

https://kennedycougarspto.org/donate

Our Family Center is also collecting clothing items to provide to students when there are dress code violations, stains, ripped clothes due to PE, etc. If you have some of the following items available, please drop them off at the Kennedy Family Center anytime between 8am-4pm. Let’s take care of each other! Items needed include:

• Gently used sweatshirts, sweatpants and t-shirts, sizes L/XL, but all sizes welcome

• New items requested: socks and undergarments in all sizes

In order to improve communication with Spanish-speaking families, the Family Center has created a WhatsApp group! If you prefer to receive information in Spanish and by text, scan the QR code to join the WhatsApp group “Padres de Kennedy 2023"! You will receive updated Kennedy Middle School information in Spanish and reminders of our school events.

Follow the KMS PTO on Instagram and Facebook, @KennedyCougarsPTO.

Check out www.kennedycougarspto.org for more info.

Kind regards,

Jess Bryski

PTO President

2023-2024

As a Title 1 school, we must have a School Site Council (SSC). Our SSC must review Kennedy's budget and School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA). Our SSC must review and approve Kennedy's School Parent Involvement Policy 23-24, School-Parent Compact, and review our district's Uniform Complain Procedures.

School Site Council Meeting Updates

Our SSC approved our 2023-24 budget. I can now begin working on Kennedy's School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA).

SSC Agenda & SSC Minutes

Election Results

We had six parents interested in the three available SSC positions. Congratulations to the following individuals. I will be in contact with you about the next steps!

Irma Zoepf

Steve Osborn

Christina Codemo

Book Club has started! We meet on Tuesdays after school. If you are interested in joining, come by the library to sign up or sign up here.

Get more details from Ms. Cooper and the awesome Kennedy Library by visiting the Kennedy Library Website.

Please join us for a casual and informative evening with Principal Karen van Putten, teachers, and new prospective parents. Karen will share an overview of the school's strong offerings as well as her vision and priorities for Woodside over the next few years, including programs and expanded course offerings. Kennedy graduates who are currently Woodside upperclassmen will be in attendance to give the student perspective.

October 16th at 7 pm

Parents of 7th and 8th Graders

Host: Angie and David Tinson

Address: 1242 Edgewood Road, Redwood City, CA 94062

Link: Kennedy Event

We are incredibly grateful for your support! Thank you!

Kennedy's Amazon Wishlist