I hope you are enjoying your extended weekend. My sister-in-law was brave enough to watch my two-year-old this weekend. This meant I had time to do all (okay...SOME) of the things I needed to do. Woohoo!

🏫No School November 1, 2023

Please add this date to your calendars. There will be no instruction Wednesday, November 1 due to RCSD teacher professional development.

🎯Goal Setting Conferences

One of the amazing things about Kennedy is our teachers' ability to collaborate with one another. We met on Thursday to discuss our upcoming goal-setting conferences and figure out how to make sure all teachers supported students in this new endeavor. Thank you, Kennedy Staff, for your cooperation!

Teachers created sign-up links for conferences, and they will email these links to their first-period classes this week. I previously said I would email the links to families this week, but teachers wanted to take ownership of this and email families directly to prevent any confusion about which teacher to sign up with.

Goal-setting conferences will empower our learners as they set goals for themselves, determine a plan to meet these goals, and learn how to advocate for themselves. We want every student to attend their goal-setting conference with their parent or guardian.

Conferences will be held Monday, October 23 through Friday, October 27 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Students will conference with their first-period teacher.

☕Principal's Coffee

Here are the slides from last Thursday's Principal's Coffee.

🎓High School Fair

Kennedy will host our annual High School Fair in the Kennedy gym from 6:00 to 7:00 pm on Thursday, October 19. Come learn about local public, private, and charter high schools. This is a district-wide event, so any Redwood City family is welcome to attend.

📚Kennedy Book Fair

The Kennedy Scholastic Book Fair is coming November 13-17th! Click here to explore Kennedy's Book Fair website. Click here to learn more about e-wallet.

🐾Kennedy Student Store

The student store will be open online from 8:30 am to 10:00 am on Monday, October 9. Our 6th-graders can pick up their items on Tuesday at lunch from the student store. Our 7th and 8th graders can pick up their items on Wednesday at lunch from the student store. Thank you to parent volunteer, Julia Feng, who spent over three hours with me on Friday taking inventory and updating our student store. Also, shout out to students Ella T., Lola B., Julia L.P., Ava B., Michael H., Jack R., and Samantha S. who took pictures of all items for our store. Ella, Lola, and Julia also cleaned up and organized the store, too!

Students do not use real money for the student store. Students earn Cougar Cash by showing their P.A.W.S. They must be prepared for class, have a positive attitude, make wise choices, and be safe. Teachers and staff can give students Cougar Cash!

⚽Intramurals

Intramural lunchtime soccer is back! We have a volunteer, Jordan, who is creating the schedule and referring the games. We have six teams playing three games at a time. We have 16 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teams who have signed up to play. It's great to have intramurals back!

☺️Kennedy Clubs

We have over 15 clubs at Kennedy. Clubs will be held during lunchtime or after school. We will have K-Pop Club, Art Club, Rock Band Club, Cooking Club, Community Service Club, and so much more. We encourage every Kennedy student to be involved in a club or a sport. Please see our list of clubs here. Ms. Williams will organize and lead a Club Rush this week--a space where students can learn more about the clubs and sign up.

Student Council

Congratulations to the Student Council Executive Board for 2023-2024:

Matthew S. - President
Sofia S. - Vice President
Ria E. - Secretary
Troy S. - Treasurer
Eibhear W. - Press Secretary
Corinthian M. - Community Service Chair
Brody P. - PTO Student Representative
6th Grade Senators: Michelle G. M., Lyla L., Makai P., Joanna O.L., and Yealenne V.

Please bookmark the Student Council Website to get the latest information on spirit days and other events.

https://sites.google.com/rcsdk8.net/kmsstuco/home

💯Progress Reports and i-Ready

Progress reports will be mailed home this 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.

🔔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.

🎃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!

Our middle school is so special because students are able to choose from many electives that enhance their academic and social-emotional growth! This week I’d like to shine a spotlight on Kennedy’s amazing Art Program that serves over 180 of our students and is led by Mrs. Segal.

Students taking Art classes with Mrs. Segal work on projects and activities that will boost critical thinking habits, improve collaborative participation, grow creativity and develop communication skills through writing and talking about art. Many media types are explored, such as graphite pencil, colored pencil, acrylic paint, textiles, watercolor and more! Art students also help with set design and decoration for Kennedy’s spring musical. This year, Mrs. Segal hopes to introduce the students to ceramics as well. So stay tuned!

If you’d like to support the Art program specifically, please click the link to view Mrs. Segal’s Amazon wishlist.

Thank you to the 25+ parents who were able to join us for the September PTO meeting last week. The group received school updates from our admin team, were briefed on grant-writing efforts to fundraise for our drama program, learned more about the Student Store, and engaged in a discussion about the PTO budget process and priorities.

Here is a link to the draft Meeting Minutes for September 26, 2023, for further details.

Everyone is invited to join us for our next PTO meeting on Tuesday, October 24, at 7:05 pm via Zoom. Remember, all parents are automatically members of the PTO and your voice is important!

To support KMS in general, PLEASE DONATE at the link:

https://kennedycougarspto.org/donate

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

Flag Football

Wednesday, Oct. 11

4:00 - Kennedy Gold vs. Roy Cloud at Hawes Field

5:00 - Kennedy Green vs. KIPP at Hawes Field

Volleyball

8th Grade

Thursday, Oct. 12

5:30 - Kennedy White at Hoover

6:15 - Kennedy Green at Hoover

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!

We got some Kleenex this week from an anonymous donor. Thank you!

Kennedy's Amazon Wishlist