September Eagle Edition

What a great start to the school year! We spent time this week reviewing our building wide expectations, class expectations, student handbook, athletic guidelines, chromebook guidelines, and spent time building classroom community with team builders.

Classes were bustling with a lot of important conversation and I can already to tell that it's going to be an amazing year at SBMS.

We made some changes to pick up in the 5/6 area and it is now very student safe. I appreciate your flexibility as we put this new structure in place. The good news is that dismissal is running on the same time as previous years, so we're thrilled that this didn't make the process any longer for our dismissal time.

I'm looking forward to classes diving into content this next week and really getting the year rolling. Stay on the lookout for updates on all the fun happening at SBMS on our school social media pages.

You can find the 24-25 district calendar for students by clicking on the button below.

We have updated our matrix, see picture below, and these are posted throughout our building and in every classroom space. We are excited to dig into the work during our Eagle Time to make our building a place where students consistently demonstrate safety, being respectful, and responsibility.

Students will have lessons every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'm sure they will have many things to share about how they are demonstrating the Big 3 at SBMS!

As a reminder, students are expected to silence or turn off their phone before leaving the gym to head to first hour. At that time, it should also be stored in their backpack along with their headphones. This week we had many students keeping headphones on during the day. We have asked students to put their headphones away. Please help us out by having a conversation with your child about putting these items away before leaving the gym. Below are the guidelines for phones and headphones. This week we will begin taking action on these items, using the outline below.

• SBMS does not allow students to use cell phones during the school day (7:56am-3:10pm)

• This includes using bluetooth devices (Airpods, headphones, etc)

• Students must have wired headphones for the school day (non bluetooth)

• Wired headphones are to ONLY be used with chromebooks at the direction of the classroom teacher

• Most students tend to get caught on their cell phones texting a parent or a parent texting their student.

• If there is some sort of emergency (student not feeling well, bad day, etc) please call the office rather than texting with your child.

• Students on their phone will be asked to bring their device to the front office for the first violation, and can pick it up after school.

• 2nd cell phone violation, a parent/guardian must come pick up the device.

• 3rd violation, parent/guardian must pick up the device, and the student must serve an after-school detention.

• Students are not allowed to take their cell phones to the restroom. Each classroom will have a procedure in place for a location to leave their phone (near the teacher) when going to the restroom.

Below is a visual of the drop-off and pick-up locations for all students at SBMS. Please ensure that you are only dropping off where indicated and only picking up where indicated. Thank you for helping to keep our students safe with an organized arrival and dismissal routine.

This week we have noticed, during drop off in the morning and some pick up in the afternoon, parents and/or high school siblings are stopping in the middle of the road to let students out or pick students up. This is causing some pretty significant traffic issues and is unsafe for student to unload and load from the street. Please follow the drop off/pick up procedures outlined below.

Drop off students in the South Lot (between the MS and Public Library). Students will enter through the double doors. See picture above.

Families with students in different grade levels may use either drop off location!

Pick up will happen in the same lot as drop off. Please do not park, we will be making 2 lines for release. The picture above shows the traffic flow through our parking lot. We will be directing the cars in the right lane to turn right and the cars in the left lane will turn left.

Drop off students in the front loop of the new construction (Main Entrance to the Middle School). See picture above.

Families with students in different grade levels may use either drop off location!

Pick up will occur in the Ash Street parking lot, next to the Ag Building (similar to last school year). See picture above.

You can click on the picture of the breakfast menu to go directly to the website to view the whole menu.

You can click on the picture of the breakfast menu to go directly to the website to view the whole menu.

We encourage our students to attend our SOBOCO sporting events for both middle school and high school. We do ask that our students practice safety, being respectful, and responsibility. Below are the guidelines for attending sporting events. Please review these with your child before dropping them off and remind them that any adult supervising may ask them to follow these guidelines and we would ask that they do so in a respectful way.

Football/Soccer Stadium Guidelines:

• PreK-4th Grade: Students must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and sit with them.

• 5th-12th Grade: Students must sit in the designated student section or with their parents/guardians.

• No Recreational Items: Footballs, frisbees, soccer balls, and similar items are not permitted in the stadium.

• Seating Requirement: Students should remain seated in the bleachers unless visiting the concession stand or restrooms. Playing, socializing, and running in open areas of the stadium are not allowed.

• Field Access: Fans are not permitted on the track and field.

• Restrictions: No outside food, drinks, pets, large bags, or student re-entry are allowed.

If a student does not follow these expectations, their parent or guardian will be notified to pick them up from the game.

Students that are participating in a sport, may stay at school on Wednesday early release to wait for practice to begin at 3:30. There are specific guidelines for staying after school on this particular day, please see below. We are happy to provide supervision, but we do expect students to follow adult direction during this time and follow the guidelines.

• Students will sit together in the gym and have adult supervision. This is a study hall time, students are not allowed to play games in the gym.
• Students may not wander the hallways during this time.
• Students may not leave campus to go somewhere and come back. If they leave at dismissal, they won't be able to get back in until practice begins at 3:30.

If you have any questions about specific fall sports, please reach out to the respective head coach:

Middle School Fall Sports

Football: Lee Bradley ebradley@sbschools.us

Volleyball: Trevor Roebke troebke@sbschools.us and Connie Schu cschu@sbschools.us

Cross Country: Kristina Wortmann: kwortmann@sbschools.us

Cheer: Kelsey Singleton: singletonk330@gmail.com

If you have other questions regarding Southern Boone Athletics and Activities, please feel free to call Trent Tracy at central office at 573-657-2147 or send me an email at ttracy@sbschools.us

Each month we will have updated information on what Student Council is currently working on. The student council sponsor is Mrs. Kennedy. If you have questions about Student Council work, please reach out to Mrs. Kennedy at: lkennedy@sbschools.us

We are excited for our Student Council to get our Eagle Store up and running and to begin preparations for our homecoming parade and pep assembly on October 4th!

Yearbook sales run now through May 1st. However, if you order by 9/13/24, they are $10 off for a total of $29.00. If you have questions about a yearbook, please reach out the the middle school office.

Principal:

Dr. Dawn Day - dday@sbschools.us

Assistant Principals:

Alex Fields (5th/6th) - sfields@sbschools.us

Amanda Toepke (7th/8th) - atoepke@sbschools.us

Counselors:

Sarah Williams (5th/6th) - swilliams@sbschools.us

Brett Strauser (7th/8th) - bstrauser@sbschools.us

Administrative Assistants:

Mary Millar - mmillar@sbschools.us

Dana Schultz - dschultz@sbschools.us

Nurse:

Katie Cobb - kcobb@sbschools.us

Email: dday@sbschools.us

Location: 303 N Main St, Ashland, MO 65010

Phone: 573-657-2146

Twitter: @Dr_D_Day