Scarborough Middle School
Family Newsletter for 5-7-2021
Hello Scarborough Middle School Families,
All students will be taking their second i-Ready mathematics assessment on Tuesday, May 11 and the reading assessment on Tuesday, May 18. The test will be administered during students’ scheduled mathematics and ELA classes in-person and remotely. This online assessment helps teachers determine your child's strengths and areas for growth, personalize their learning opportunities, and monitor their progress throughout the school year. The i-Ready assessment is an adaptive test that adjusts questions to suit your child's needs.
As a reminder, components of this assessment require either earbuds or headphones that can plug into the headphone jack on their laptop. Please ensure that your student brings in headphones during the testing window. These were listed in the back-to-school school supply list. Please let us know if you need a set provided for your child.
Additionally, please have a conversation with your child about positive habits that impact learning, not just on testing days, but on all school days such as:
the importance of a good night's sleep
eating a good breakfast
working through tests at a pace that feels comfortable to them
bringing necessary materials in, such as earbuds/headphones, independent reading book, pencils, calculator
Thank you to all who volunteered for the SMS Fall School Planning Committee. This group will be meeting on Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00 PM from May 12th through June 9. The slide desk and minutes from these meetings will be shared in this newsletter each week.
Assuming that we do not have any additional "no school days" for the remainder of this school year, mark June 18th on your calendar as the final day. This will be the final remote learning day for Cohort A students for the school year, and the final in-person learning day for Cohort B students for this school year. This will be a half day for students and a full day for staff.
As a reminder, next Wednesday (May 12) is a Cohort A day.
Respectfully,
Kathy Tirrell, Principal
David Currier, Assistant Principal
TECH SUPPORT
If CDC Guidelines will allow, Scarborough Middle School is planning to hold an in-person 8th Grade Celebration Ceremony on Friday, June 11 at 6pm in the Scarborough High School Alumni Gym. The event will also be livestreamed for those unable to attend in-person.
Seating will be VERY limited due to the CDC social distancing requirements between masked adults. Our goal is to provide each 8th Grade student with 2 non-transferable tickets (8th Grade students do not need their own ticket.) The purpose of the survey is to help us determine a count of students who would participate in-person.
Families of 8th Grade students, please take a minute to complete the survey as it is a very important piece to our planning process. Thank you!
Students participated in a virtual microlab and learned about lobster biology, lobster fishing, and how changing ocean temperatures are affecting Maine's iconic crustacean. Our students asked a ton of great questions, and were wonderful representatives of SMS: participating enthusiastically, appropriately, and right-on topic!
We can not thank our SMS families enough for ALL that you do, but most recently for your thorough communication and diligence with following the ME CDC and Scarborough travel guidelines over April break. THANK YOU!! We know it's not easy and sincerely appreciate you.
As many of you know, on May 1st under the Moving Maine Forward plan, Maine will shift its COVID travel policy to automatically exempt all states, unless a state is otherwise deemed as being 'high risk' by the Maine CDC. The most recent update from the ME CDC states that after 5/1 all states within the US are currently exempt from travel restrictions. If, at a later date, a state is determined to be 'high risk' by the ME CDC that list will be publically updated accordingly.
Please reach out to our Nurses Patty Bolduc or Amanda Eason with any questions, if you plan on traveling to a non-exempt state as determined by the ME CDC on or after May 1st or if you plan to travel internationally as these guidelines continue to differ from domestic travel. Thank you!"
Kimberly French, one of our SMS parents has graciously offered to organize a Staff Appreciation event for our middle school staff! She is looking for donations and volunteers to help. More information can be found on the Sign Up Genius Kim created, which can be found here.
In-Person Wednesday Schedule:
- Wednesday, May 5 - Cohort B in person
- Wednesday, May 12 - Cohort A in person
- Wednesday, May 19 - Cohort B in person
- Wednesday, May 26 - Cohort A in person
- Wednesday, June 2 - Cohort B in person
Memorial Day - No School
- Monday, May 31
8th Grade Celebration
- Friday, June 11, 2021- 6pm
Last Day of School - June 18th for both cohorts
Scarborough Middle School
Email: msoffice@scarboroughschools.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/scarboroughschools.org/sms/
Location: 21 Quentin Drive, Scarborough, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 730-4800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarbmeschools/
Twitter: @scarbmeschools