November Newsletter

The November newsletter is now attached to the blog on the left.  Please take a few moments to review the content.  The final page of the newsletter has a request form for parents.  The purpose of the request form is for parents to elect to receive the newsletter in paper form.  You may print the form from this attachment or you can use the paper version sent home in this month's newsletter.  Anyone not electing to receive the newsletter will have the newsletter emailed to them, if we have an updated email address in Power School, or it can be found here on the blog.  We will begin the process of sending newsletter in this fashion with the December/January newsletter.  If you have any questions, please contact the middle school office.

Thank You.

6th Grade Camp Scheduling Issue

I wanted to inform you of a problem we ran into, how it came to be and how we decided to resolve it.  Camp Pinewood, the camp we have attended for the last 10 years, had a series of transitions over the summer.  The Director of Operations and the Camp Director are new.  We worked with them through the transition for our camp experience but someone on their end dropped the ball.  They had us scheduled for camp October 31-November 4. They emailed us on Tuesday evening to let us know they were looking forward to us coming next week and if there was anything we needed from them.  Alarm bells rang and panic ensued. 

We have documented communications regarding our plan to go on November 7-11 but no contract, our fatal flaw.  They booked another school on November 7-9.  Therefore, they bounced us from that as an option because of the contract they had with the school.  We felt it improbable to organize with parents for next week when we were informed of the issue on Wednesday/Tuesday evening.  We looked at other camps for the window we had communicated to our students and families but none were available.  We also considered moving camp to the spring but the power of the experience is the team building and relationship building.  We have it as late as we can stand now because MEAP forces our hand.  We felt that was not conducive to what we have organized camp to be.

Our team decided to use the back half of our planned week for both teams.  The rationale for our decision is that we had already inconvenienced one half of our kids and families, especially the parent chaperones, because of the change from the first half of the week.  We did not want to do that to the other half.  In addition, we are hopeful that the parent chaperones might have some flexibility to move their time away from Monday-Wednesday to Wednesday-Friday. 

I apologize for this inconvenience and any possible strife or conflict that this creates.  We value your support and involvement as parents and detest the idea of causing our supporters anything negative. We value your time and assistance and look forward to its continuation.  If you have any needs of me, please email me at, joel.stoner@staff.spartaschools.org or call our office at 887-8211.

Thank you.

Basket Fundraiser, From Meet in the Middle Chairperson

Dear Parents-

Sparta Middle School parent teacher conferences are Thursday, Oct 27th from 4:30pm - 7pm and Tuesday, Nov 1st from 4:30pm - 7pm.  Again this year, Meet in the Middle is doing Theme Baskets by silent auction bid sheets on conference nights.  We have some AWESOME baskets this year and here's a few to get you fired up:

    Doggie Basket                         Sparta Pride

    Movie Night @ Home               Breast Cancer Awareness

    Blue & White                          Travel Basket

    Sweet Treats                           Cute Lil Bucket O'Tooles

    Pamper Me                             Winter Retreat

    Octoberfest                              Pamper Yourself

Be sure to take a look, and make your bid.  Final bids will end at 6:45pm Nov 1st, and highest bidder will be able to take their basket home that evening, if you are not present your basket will be held in the office. 

Please clip your BOX TOPS, and bring those in at conference times!!  We will have a container at the theme basket table to collect what you have. 

THANKS FOR YOUR SPARTA SUPPORT!!

Meet in the Middle Parent Group

October Student of the Month

Each month the grade level teachers identify students to recognize for their exceptional academic and citizenship behaviors.  I want to recognize these students for their accomplishment.  Please open this link to see this month's honorees.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1SR27IdumQPYzQ2YTMzYTgtYjliYy00YTZhLWI0YTgtYTlkZGZhMjc1OTAz

Thank you and good job, well done!

Advisory Baskets at Conferences

For the second year, we will have some really nice baskets that were put together by various advisories.  You will be given the opportunity to bid on these baskets and the best bid at the end of conferences on November 1 will be awarded the basket.  This is a fundraiser for our Meet in the Middle parent group.  Similar to the PTC at the elementary buildings, the purpose of this group is to support the students and teachers so that the education provided to our students is maximized.  All proceeds come back to our students and school. 

In addition, if you wish to contribute to the baskets as a business owner or individual, please contact your child's advisory teacher.  I am confident we can find a valuable use for your generosity.

Thank you for your consideration and assistance.  We look forward to seeing you on October 27 and/or November 1at Student Led Conferences.

Interesting Article About Public Schools

I do not ordinarily push out articles that I find on the web or have shared with me.  This article did not seem to take a position that would lead me to feel it might offend or alienate someone.  If you are reading this blog, you are probably a public school supporter.  This article speaks to the facts around public schools.  All in public education, working in and supporting of, need to do a better job getting out the facts regarding our performance.  This article speaks to that specifically.  I hope you enjoy it.....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-niles/public-schools_b_1002466.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

Parent Volunteers

For the next two weeks, we are in need of a couple of parents to help with extension activities in math classes in the 6th grade.  These students have tested out of the unit and we are providing them challenges beyond the curriculum.  We will need the help in the afternoons from 12-2:20.  There is a need every day but if you can only give a couple days a week, etc, we will take it!  If you are willing and able, please contact Mrs. Karen Owen at karen.owen@staff.spartaschools.org.  You must complete a volunteer permission form/background check through our office before you can volunteer. If you have done these previously, you are all set.  The form is attached below and can also be found to the left under "School Forms".

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1SR27IdumQPZjVjYWU3NzMtMzI0NS00NGQyLWFlODItZDhhM2Y1MzJiZjhi&hl=en_US

We value and appreciate your help and time.  Thank you.

Homecoming and Parade

We have the Homecoming Parade tonight at 5 pm.  Please come join us downtown.  Our middle school 7th and 8th grade bands will be performing.  This is a tremendous celebration of the Spartan spirit.  Following the parade, stay for our last home varsity football game.  The boys are 6-1 and playoff bound. Any additional wins will help toward solidifying a home playoff game. 

I want to remind you that under the athletics information you can order state playoff gear.  Help support our team and wear your Spartan Pride.

Picture Retakes

We are planning for picture retakes on October 19.  Picture forms are located under School Forms on the left.

State Football Playoff Clothing Orders

It has been a few years since we have been able to order football playoff gear.  If you are interested in ordering something, please print the form attached under Athletic Information to the left and fill out what you want.  Checks need to be made out to “Sparta Football”.  Orders need to be turned into the school by Tuesday, October 18.  This will allow for the items to be returned before the playoff game.  You can send the order to the middle school or submit them to the high school.  This is an exciting time and, as always, it is good to be a Sparta Spartan!

Open House Feedback

At the start of the school year we sent a survey to parents of students that could not attend our Open House.  We want to know what conflicts we create with our scheduling that we might be able to alleviate to improve our attendance.  This year we had 85% of our families attend.  Having 15% not attend is reason for concern.  We are collecting the feedback of the 15% to help drive any changes. 

We also understand that those who attended may have had to make sacrifices to make that happen.  So....if you are so inclined, we would appreciate your feedback as well.  I am attaching the survey that you can print off and complete. Please consider giving feedback to us so we can meet your needs.

Thank you.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r3vdhnSkww5-w5g5JDsBZALV7vJaT50QZDlL7yZCwKY/edit?hl=en_US

Student Led Conferences

There were different dates posted for our conferences this fall.  The accurate dates are Thursday, October 27, and Tuesday, November 1.  Both evenings begin at 4:30 and end at 7:00.  We apologize for the confusion and error.  If you have any questions, please contact our office at 887-8211.  Thank you.

MEAP Begins Tomorrow

MEAP testing in grade 3-8 will begin tomorrow.  Testing will occur for all grades on Tuesday and Wednesday and just 4th and 7th grades this Thursday.  We will have scheduled make ups following that.  We again test all students in grades 3-8 next Tuesday and Wednesday.  All days following that will be used as make up days.  If you can have your child in school on the testing days, it will make life a lot simpler for your child.  Make ups tend to disrupt the instructional hours for kids.  There is a complete schedule attached on the left.

Paint the Town

Today we had a large group of kids and parent volunteers help Mrs. Aitken "Paint the Town" in preparation for the Homecoming Parade on October 14.  A few local businesses in downtown Sparta graciously allowed our kids to add a bit of Spartan spirit and pride.  Please take time to drive through town and view their artwork.  If you have any needs that these local businesses can provide for you, please consider using their business as a thank you for supporting our schools.  Their willingness to allow this will make the Homecoming experience even better.

Camp Coffee and Art Prize Update

Our sixth graders have been selling coffee to help offset costs of camp. Today we had close to nine hundred pounds of coffee delivered from Herman's Boy. Students will be delivering the coffee soon. In the meantime, the halls smell fantastic. Not something you can say about a middle school very often, actually. We will enjoy it while it lasts.

Art Prize 2011 was a tremendous experience for our seventh grade students. The weather was amazing and our students represented our school very well. We are very thankful for the many parents who volunteered to help chaperone the trip. Having a local artist in the top ten was a great thing to experience. This is a tremendous cultural experience that we will plan to share with our students for years to come.