Dear Kennedy Families,

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Thank you PTO for providing breakfast for our staff and the the many families that joined us in the evening for our Musical and Teen Talk meetings last week. We appreciate your participation and feedback.

We have 5 1/2 -weeks left in the 2nd trimester please remind your students to turn in all assignments and earn the best grade they can.

Below is the Cougar Connect for the week of January 23rd-27th

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. See link for the correlation between student achievement and chronic absenteeism: (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.

Reclassification Ceremony Monday 1/30 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm @ Hoover's Gym

We are excited to reclassify 41 Kennedy students. Reclassification is the process whereby a student is reclassified from English learner (EL) status to Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) status. Families of those students received an individual notification and invitation for that evening.

Site Council / ELAC / PTO (Link)

Meeting is Tuesday January 24th 7:00pm - 8:00 pm

All the best,

Nikolaos Fanourgiakis

Principal

Kennedy Middle School

nfanourgiakis@rcsdk8.net

8th graders students completed the MIRA math assessment last week. This week any students that was absent will be given time to complete the assessment.

Below are some reminders for 8th grade students and families for the next two weeks:

High School Registration & Transfer Requests for SUHSD

• All families must complete registration and address verification for the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) (Link) The Transfer Request (Open Enrollment) deadline is fast approaching for students wanting to transfer to another school within the SUHSD district. You have until Feb. 1st to make a request (Link). No late submissions will be accepted. Please note that the Kennedy Administration or RCSD does not make any decisions regarding high school placement.

• Panorama 8th grade Photo - 1/31 Tuesday at 2:00 pm

• 8th grade parent meeting Tuesday January 31st 6:00pm (Zoom) to discuss 8th grade end of the year activities

Thank you to the families that joined us last week for the Teen talk meeting, If you have questions on the curium that students will be using their is a binder in our front office that families can look at it.

Teen Talk begins this week in our students 7th grade science classes.

Teen Talk Jan 23-Feb 3rd

Kennedy 7th grade students will be participating in Teen Talk in their science classes Jan 23-Feb 3rd. Science teachers will be sending further information on January 9th which will be added to the Cougar Connect. Please reach out to our 7th grade science teachers if you have any questions:

Irma Aguilar Figueroa, ifigueroa@rcsdk8.net

Chelsea Strangman, cstrangman@rcsdk8.net

Rehearsal schedule (Link)

Please use the link below to access the Matilda Jr.

Newsletter #4 Musical Newsletter #4

Sara Rosenbloom srosenbloom@rcsdk8.net

Mandatory Grand Canyon Meeting on Tuesday, February 14th begins at 6:30 pm. This meeting will cover all the details for the trip, payments, and the distribution of backpacks.

Lastly, a reminder that payments can be made before our meeting in February via Zelle. Making payments ahead of time will help our meeting run more efficiently. Families have received information about how to submit their payments. Payment information is also available online.

Kennedy Grand Canyon Field Trip Website

Please email Maestro Alfredo (aoropeza@rcsdk8.net) if you have any questions.

Thank you to the families that joined us in December.

The meeting went well so we will be offering it again on January 26th 6:00 pm in the Kennedy library (In-Person)

Goal of Meeting:

• To provide families resources in order to support math at home

• To give some general grade level math expectations for families

If you are interested in attending please complete this short ticket. (Link)

Project Resilience by Acknowledge Alliance will commence on January 13th-March 3rd with our 7th grade students and go for 7 weeks

Students will receive weekly lessons in their social studies classes on Fridays.

Project Resilience is a partnership where Acknowledge Alliance facilitators work with our students on developing their social emotional skills, including identifying strengths, recognizing and managing emotions, demonstrating caring for others, coping strategies for dealing with feelings, establishing and maintaining positive relationships, making responsible decisions and working with others.

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>

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

Step #1 School (Link)

Step #2 School Passcode 1015926081674110

Price $35

Deadline April 5th

Official Flyer with information (Link)

Visit the Student Council website

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

Check out www.kennedycougarspto.org for more info.

Kennedy Student / Family Handbook

Calendar 2022-23