Jacob Coy Middle School
Inspire, Lead, Empower
December, 2020

Mrs. Andrea Ferguson, Principal
I hope this newsletter finds you happy and healthy. Second quarter is starting to wind down as we move into Winter Break. This December looks different than those in the past. We really miss our students. The building seems empty and lonely without them. It's been great seeing their smiling faces in our Google Meet sessions! Even while learning remotely, we have continued our December Spirit Days that have become a Coy holiday tradition – complete with pajamas, candy canes and ugly sweaters!
Thank you for your continued flexibility and support in implementing Covid-19 procedures and during the transition to remote learning. We also really appreciate all of your support as we have implemented quarantines as needed to support everyone's health and safety. We have been so appreciative of everyone's understanding and compassion while making quarantine phone calls. The silver lining of having to deliver such difficult news is that we have had the opportunity to speak directly with so many more of our awesome families this year.
From the teachers, staff and administrators of Coy Middle School, we hope you and your family have a safe and happy holiday season. Our students are amazing, and we feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn from and with them every day. We look forward to seeing you back in school in January.
Mr. Josh Baker, Assistant Principal
Hello Coy Families!
Thank you for all your support and patience as we have navigated through this unprecedented school year. I have been so impressed with our staff and students resiliency as we have adjusted and adapted through the first 16 weeks of the school year. As we enter into remote/blended learning for the next couple of weeks, please know we are still here to support your students success through this instructional transition.
As we enter a busy, fast-moving couple of weeks, I want to wish you and yours, nothing but the best this holiday season. Often many of us don't get the opportunity to step back and see and feel the true meaning of this time of the year. Although this year has been unlike any other, I hope you will join me in taking a few opportunities during this upcoming winter break to "press pause" and reflect on how thankful we are for our kids, staff, and community that make Coy Middle School such an amazing place to learn.
Have a Happy Holiday Season!
CMS Transition to Remote/Blended Learning Information


Helpful Tips for Students During Remote Learning
- Check email, Google Classrooms, Progressbook daily.
- Develop a routine at home - be organized and stay on top of your assignments. Set up a workspace to complete your assignments. When you are in the school building, routines are built into your days. Having a routine at home is a whole different ball game!
- Use your agenda and/or make lists of assignments due each day/week.
- Take care of your chromebook - make sure it is ready for you to use for assignments and google meets. Don’t let your chromebook battery completely drain. If you need assistance with your chromebook during remote learning, please reach out to homesupport@gocreek.org.
- Ask for help - email your teachers, join optional Google Meets with teachers.
Securly Online Activity Report for Parents




Holiday Spirit Days!!!
Celebrating Character with the Shine Award
Our character education program is a key component to helping our students understand what it means to lead and to be good citizens. Often, our students set a high bar for themselves, demonstrating outstanding character and leadership in their schools. To recognize these students for their efforts, we have created the “Shine Award—Highlighting Outstanding Students of Character.” Every month, we honor one student in each building who consistently demonstrates two or more pillars of character, which are: Citizenship, Caring, Trustworthiness, Fairness, Respect, and Responsibility.
Please join us in congratulating these students for their outstanding character! They are inspirations to their peers and leaders in our buildings.
Congratulations to our 1st Semester Shine Award Winners!
Ireland Shawver (October - 6th Grade)

Frida Lozano (November- 7th Grade)

Ethan Papalios (8th Grader - December)

Family Matters Essay Contest Winners!

Scholastic - James Patterson Grant Awarded to Mrs. Duke!
Bestselling author James Patterson and Scholastic Book Clubs announce that Lori Duke of Jacob Coy Middle School is to receive a grant of $500 and 500 Scholastic Book Clubs Bonus Points for the purpose of building classroom and at-home libraries for her students. Lori is among the 5,000 teachers throughout the United States who received a grant, part of a $2.5 million personal donation made by James Patterson, and a Scholastic Book Clubs match of 2.5 million dollars. Teachers were asked to share in 50 characters or less how they plan to use the funds and Bonus Points to help build their classroom library. This year marks the sixth annual installment of the Patterson Partnership, created to build classroom and home libraries and assist teachers in acquiring books and other materials desperately needed by them and their students. The 2020 partnership drew a total of more than 100,000 applicants from teachers nationwide, showing the dire need for books and classroom resources. To date, Patterson has donated $11 million to school and classroom libraries through his Scholastic Book Clubs campaign.

WPAFB - STARBASE 2.0 Beginning in January!

ProgressBook - Staying Informed

Helpful Links to online information:
Helpful Links to online information:
Beavercreek City Schools 20-21 Restart and Education Options:
Coy Middle School Website:
https://www.gocreek.org/apps/pages/Coy
Edmentum Login Tips and Troubleshooting
https://4.files.edl.io/7e30/08/23/20/201833-332ffecf-31cb-475a-92b1-cf38a44c29ea.pdf
Feed the Creek
Did You Know??? - The Education Connection
Ways to get Coy News
Our daily announcements are also posted on our school website at https://www.gocreek.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1779871&type=d&pREC_ID=1958292
This is a great way to see what is being talked about in the building every day!
Mrs. Mann | Ms. Trumbull | Mrs. Becker |
Emotional Management Strategies
Whew! How is it already December?? We don’t know about you, but we are feeling ALL the emotions and stress and have been making sure to practice Emotional Management/Coping Strategies. These are things we talk to students about often as well.
This time of year can be stressful, and with everything else going on in our world right now, it is no wonder we all feel overwhelmed. It can be helpful to practice self-care and use coping strategies. Below you will find a list of strategies that are most commonly used from the School-Connect’s website (https://school-connect.blog/). This is a great resource. Check it out!
The great thing about Emotional Management/Coping Strategies is that everyone can use what works for them! We challenge you to try something on the list below this month and see how it works for you.

Feed the Creek
We have a wonderful program in the district called Feed the Creek. This program is intended to support the nutritional needs of our young developing children by providing a bag of food for students to take home and prepare and eat over the weekends.
Food will be provided by the local community and packaged and delivered to your child’s school building. Some of the items included will be Pop-top cans of fruit, vegetables, pudding, and microwaveable, as well as cereal and granola bars, peanut butter and fruit juice. The food packages are meant to help the family with food source for the child over the weekend, and to help the child learn healthy eating practices.
Participation in this program is optional. You may call or email Lindsay Mann if you would like to participate.
lindsay.mann@gocreek.org 937-458-2539
School Nurses - Mrs. Roberts
In School & Virtual Student Immunizations
7th graders, both in school and virtual, are required to have the Tdap and Meningitis (MCV4) vaccines to attend school. If you have not already done so, please submit your child's updated shot record to the Coy clinic. If your child has not received these immunizations, schedule an appointment as soon as possible and call the Coy clinic with the appointment date. If you cannot get into your doctor in a timely manner or do not have a doctor, the Montgomery County Health Department offers immunization updates at little to no cost. Call 937-225-5700 to schedule an appointment.
If you have questions or concerns, please call the Coy clinic at 937-458-2533. We're here to help.
A+ Attendance from the Coy Attendance Office!
Welcome back students! Attendance will look just about the same this year! If you are new to middle school you might notice a couple changes!
Here are a few FAQ's and reminders to have an awesome attendance year! Please refer to the Student Handbook for a more comprehensive explanation of attendance policies and procedures!
Q: My Student will be absent all or part of the school day, what do I do?
A: Please call in your student anytime they will be late, not attending school, or leaving early. You can email us at coyattendance@gocreek.org or call the attendance voicemail line at 937-429-7577, option 1. You must provide the student's name, date of birth, and reason for absence when reporting.
Q: I'm bringing my student to school late, what do I do?
A: Just pull right up and drop them off! We will take it from there. You don't need to come into the building to sign a student in.
- If your student is returning to school from a medical appointment, you can drop them off with the medical note and they can sign themselves in! We will get them a pass to their class.
- If your student is returning to school w/o a medical note, they can still sign themselves in, but it will be unexcused unless we have a phone call from a parent or guardian with an excusable reason to return to school. You can also send them in with a parent note. They can sign themselves in and we will get them to class.
Q: What constitutes a TARDY?
A: A tardy is when your student comes to school between 7:31 and 8:29...a student must be in their 1st period seat by 7:30am or they are tardy. Your student can be tardy to school 2 times a quarter before consequences will begin. The only way to have an Excused tardy is with a medical note. Traffic, weather, overslept, parent overslept, missed bus, car trouble, not feeling well, etc. are not considered Excused.
Q: How do I pick up my student early from school?
A: When picking up a student you DO need to come in the front vestibule to sign them out. Due to Covid restrictions this year you cannot enter the office area so we have set up a sign out cart in the vestibule. Please come in, show a photo ID to the camera on the cart, sign out on the blue sign out sheet, and we will get your student if they are not already in the office. Please bear with our new system! It's a learning curve for us all.
Q: Will we receive Absence letters this year?
A: Yes, House Bill 410 is still in effect and attendance notices and letters will be sent out for excessive absences as we have always done. However, with that said, we will be working with families closely this year if excessive absences are occuring. Medical documentation is essential as a student will be medically excused with documentation from the healthcare professional.
Q: Do we have more than 10 Parent Notes this year?
A: No. A parent or guardian has 10 parent notes for the entire school year. You can write a note with an excusable reason without a medical note and this is still excused (see Student Handbook for excusable reasons). A letter will be sent home if and when you hit your 10 Parent Note threshold to let you know a medical note will be needed going forward for any absence.
Q: I'm going out of town or on vacation, what do I need to do?
A: Vacation requests forms are available here in the office or on our website and are part of your 10 Parent notes. You have up to 5 out of town days that our principal can approve, but this form must be submitted prior to your trip. If a vacation form is not submitted or you go over 5 days, an out of town trip is considered Unexcused.
Please feel free to call ANYTIME with any questions!
Thanks for all you do!
Jackie Stubbs
Building Office Assistant
Attendance Office
A Note from the Cafeteria: Meal Service Available
Starting Monday, August 31 online learning students ONLY will have the option to order meals for pick-up. Meal pricing is determined by the building your child would have been enrolled in with free and reduced-price meals still applying. If you have already received notification from the Student Nutrition Office regarding your child's status then nothing further needs to be done. If you have not and wish to apply for meal benefits, you can do this online at https://www.lunchapplication.com/ or download the paper copy on the BCS website under the Student Nutrition section or the Forms section. Paper applications can be dropped off or mailed to:
Student Nutrition Office
1258 Hickory Drive
Beavercreek, OH 45434
Paper copies of the Free & Reduced Meal Application can also be dropped off at any school main office and will be sent to the Student Nutrition office for processing.
To place an order, parents/students will need to e-mail Dawn Kacvinksy at kacvinsky@beavercreek.k12.oh.us or call (937) 458-2446. Meals can be ordered daily or on a weekly basis.
For meal options, you can view menus at https://beavercreek.nutrislice.com/menus-eula.
6-12 Buildings students are allowed 1 Entree, 2 Vegetables, 2 Fruits and 1 Milk.
Meals must be picked up from 12:00-12:30 p.m. by pulling up in front of the main entrance. Parents may pick up your child's meal which will be located in the main vestibule.
Your pre-ordered meals will be packaged in to-go containers, marked with your student's name in a to-go bag.
We look forward to providing you a nutritious, quality meal during your online learning experience. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (937) 458-2446. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you.
Coy Middle School PTO News Flash
PTO Meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of the month at CMS in the IMC (Library). We discuss upcoming events and Mrs. Ferguson and Mr. Baker shares updates concerning our school and students.
Stay connected with the CMS PTO!
Remind: Text @COYPTO to 81010
Questions? Contact us at CoyPTO@gmail.com




Register to attend the December PTO Meeting on Thursday, December 17th @2:00pm - Click the link below!

