Principal Message March 6, 2023
Dear Kennedy Families,
I hope everyone had a great weekend and are excited that we are about to finish the 2nd trimester and be 3/4 of the way done with this school year!
We have had a lot of families visiting Kenendy the past week for tours and our teachers and students have been rocking it. Last week we were joined by many families from Roosevelt school as they will not have a 6th grade in 2023-24 so many of their students will be joining us. Great!
Families also remember we go on school tours each month for our families during principal's coffee so if you are able to make it please join us next month.
Below is the Cougar Connect for the week of March 6th to March 10th
2nd Trimester End March 9th
Grades are being finalized this week with report cards being mailed the following week. Final grades can also be seen using the district powerschool parent portal.
School Dance
This Friday 3/10 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm in the Kennedy gym. Tickets will be on sale during lunch throughout the week. If your student plans on attending parents or guardian must pick the student up from the gym at 8:00 pm.
Monthly Culture Assemblies
Administration will be meeting with each grade level this week to announce our students of the month for February as well as check in with each grade level regarding school initiatives and to prepare them for the last trimester.
Student Store Assistance
Our student store is very popular with our students and teacher but it is very hard to maintain. If you are a parent or guardian who can assist during the day one week a month to help pack and inventory our student store please complete this link and we will contact you. As of February, we have had almost 6,000 purchases made in the student store. (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
All the best,
Nikolaos Fanourgiakis
Principal
Kennedy Middle School
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. We were able to access data on the number of students leaving school after they arrived and it showed that the majority of students that leave early are because of appointments. (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.
Parents and guardians of students with 20 or more absences will be notified to set up a meeting to discuss barriers to getting students to school on time. These meetings are meant to discuss how we can work together as a team to ensure that students are at school on time every day.
i-Ready Round #3
Kennedy School will begin iReady administration this week. Its is the final round of iReady assessments for the 2022-23 school year. As a reminder iReady is a district diagnostic assessment given to all students to determine what grade level content they have learned and what they still need to learn.
Below is the schedule iReady assessment dates for March:
- March 8-10 Reading assessment in English classes
- Math 15-17 Math assessment in Math classes
* Make-ups the week of March 20th -24th
Conference Week March 20th-24th
Parent Teacher conferences will be this week March 20th-24th
School will be dismissed each day at 1:35 pm and students will be following a modified schedule. (Link)
Conferences that week will begin at 1:50 pm. Students needing a conference will be communicated with by the their teachers the week of March 13th.
For this round of conferences teachers will be scheduling conferences with students that are struggling and with families that request a conference.
If a student and family doesn't receive an invite and still wants to conference please contact the staff member you want to conference with.
Musical Information
Musical is just around the corner if you are interested in attending us this link to purchase tickets. Musical Tickets
Matilda Newsletter #8, Rehearsal schedule (Link)
Sara Rosenbloom srosenbloom@rcsdk8.net
Parent Information Sessions
Kennedy is happy to be hosting a few information sessions in the next few weeks. Below are some upcoming dates and some sessions that still need to be scheduled:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM PST
Author Michelle Icard will answer your parenting questions in a Zoom call for the Kennedy school community.
Whether you’re worried about grades, motivation, friendship issues, self-esteem or social media, Michelle can address your concerns and offer both advice and relief.
To register use this (Link)
Check out her website (Link)
Thursday, March 9th 6:00 pm Movie Showing on Zoom Screenagers Next Chapter
Film focuses on teens dealing with high stress, anxiety and depression which millions of youth experience. 7th and 8th grade students were already shown this film last school year so students in 6th grade will have an opportunity to watch the film during the week of March 6th in their science classes and the community can watch it via zoom 6:00pm March 9th. (Link)
Thursday, March 23rd 6:00 pm in person in the Kennedy Library Family Information night: Reading Focus
Families are invited to meet and discuss how to support reading performance at home. If you are interested and joining us this link to sign-up (Link)
Thursday March 30th, 6:00 pm Movie: Screenagers Under the Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs and Alcohol in the Digital Age.
Movie is being released March 3rd nationally and we are excited to be sharing it with our community March 30th via zoom. During the showing we will also have a speaker who helped develop the film available for questions. (Link)
Screenagers Movie Website: (Link)
Yosemite Information Meeting 2023-24 School Year
If you are interested in going on this trip next school year. Please complete this short form so our trip director can reach out to you. The trip dates have just ben confirmed for November 5th to 10th 2023
Remember this message is for our current 7th grade student and this trip will be during their 8th grade year. (Link)
Michelle Talvin
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