Banks Middle School

Dear Families,

We have lots of exciting things happening and coming up soon at BMS! With so much to share, I'll keep this week's letter short with just a few quick updates:

• Do you have cans? We could use them! BMS is a Blue Bag school and would love to take soda can donations to fund the Leadership program. These funds will be used throughout the year to support fun, community building activities for our students. Send your students with cans and they can bring them to Ms. King's room.
• All students should have their StudentVue accounts activated and able to check their grades. Students can see Ms. Turner in the office if they need help.
• If you do not yet have access to ParentVue, contact Ms. Turner in the office and she can get you set up.
• Check out BMS Social Media! facebook https://www.facebook.com/BanksMiddleSchool and Instagram @banksmiddleschool

Read on to learn more about the following topics:

• Upcoming events
• Science Fair --> STEM Fair
• 6th Grade Outdoor School information
• Halloween Dance and Haunted Hallway- save the date and volunteers needed
• PTO Fundraiser - Boo your student!
• PTO football concessions volunteers needed
• Yearbook - on sale now, and community photos needed
• BMS Student News
• Free dental clinic at BMS in October (this is opt-in, permission slip below)
• Suicide prevention month
• Forest Grove School-based Health Center

Best wishes,

Caitlin Everett

Banks Middle School Principal

Oct. 2: Picture retakes in the BMS cafeteria

Oct. 14: National Parks class field trip to Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

Oct. 17: Halloween Dance, 6-8 pm, hosted by PTO, with Haunted Hallways by Leadership students!

Oct. 20: BMS PTO Meeting, 5-6 pm in the Library

Oct. 31: No School (Grading Day)

Nov. 5 & 6: Evening Conferences

Nov. 7, 10, and 11: No School

After a lot of consideration and planning, our science team has decided to shift how we do science fair. Instead of all three grade levels doing this project, we are shifting to the following:

6th Grade: Incorporating science and inquiry elements into the World Expo Project instead of science fair. Our rationale here is to focus on one, rather than two, long term projects with our 6th graders. We also teach Health in Homeroom now, so this change allows us the instructional time to implement those units.

7th Grade: Science fair for all students (this grade level will be doing a similar process to past years).

8th Grade: Instead of doing a science fair project, students will complete an engineering project tied to the physics units they cover in semester 1. The project will be to create Rube Goldberg machines (if you aren't familiar, here is an example).

If a student in 6th or 8th grade still wants to participate in science fair, they are absolutely welcome to do so and we will make sure to support them with it, just know that class time will not be dedicated to it for those grade levels.

Replacing the science fair, we will now have a STEM Night in mid January to showcase the work of our 7th and 8th graders, as well as bring in community partners and fun experiential learning opportunities for families to explore. More information and the date to come! Later in the year, 6th graders will have an opportunity to showcase their World Expo projects, which aren't completed until the spring.

Our hope with this change is to boost student engagement and ownership as well as give more instructional time to Engineering, which are a core part of our state science standards. If you would like to read more about our rationale and reasoning for this change, check out this doc.

Save the date! Our 6th graders will be going to Outdoor School April 14-17 this year at Camp Cedar Ridge in Vernonia. This is the same site we went to last year and requested again because of the awesome experience and programming they provided to our students. There is much more information to come, and we will hold a family night in the winter to share details and answer parent questions. For now, if you want to learn more you can check out this FAQ for parents.

Our PTO and Leadership Students are working together this year to build on the success of last year's Haunted Hallway and Halloween dance, which was a huge hit with our students! We are in need of parent volunteers to help supervise, you can sign up here (just make sure you have completed the district volunteer background check).

Dance tickets are $10, paid at the door. Students can also bring a little extra cash if they want to go through Leadership's Haunted Hallway (each time through is $1 and raises money that our student leaders can use to host fun events for our students for the year).

The PTO is thrilled to offer a special opportunity for you to recognize and celebrate your student(s) this Fall. In honor of the upcoming spooky season, we are launching our "Boo Your Student" campaign. For just $10, you can send a festive, fun-filled package to be placed in your student's locker during the week of October 22nd. Just fill out this form to sign your student up!

Each package will be decorated and include a variety of treats such as snacks, drinks, stickers, fidgets, and other enjoyable items designed especially for middle school-aged students.

If you have multiple students, please fill out one survey per student! We will except sign-ups and payment until October 15th. For Payment using a card please go to https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/boo-your-student or Venmo @Banks_Middle_School_PTO.

Thank you for your continued support of the Middle School PTO, and we hope you enjoy this fun way to bring a little extra joy to your student(s) this Fall!

Yearbooks are on sale now! They are $25 and you can order here.

Yearbook Photo Share: Families can submit any photo to be in the yearbook. We rely on photos from the community because our staff cant be everywhere. Weekend sports, band/choir concerts, students with pets.... we would love to use your photos! https://photos.jostens.com/TMZT36

BMS Leadership Students have been busy! They hosted our first Spirit Day last week, Jersey Day! Avery L and Tenley P are the Leadership Spirit Coordinators, go team!
We also held our first Pep Assembly- organized by Claire E and Memphis T. We got to see an awesome performance from our Cheer Team, and our featured game was Head, Shoulders, Knees, Cup! 6th grade Madi C and Bailey L battled for the win- with Bailey L taking the win for 8th graders!

Also, our newest elective class, Video Production, is hard at work prepping to film and publish our first video announcements. Once we have this going, our hope is to have a fun, student-let, video announcements segment every week. Stay tuned to our social media and newsletters to follow along!

The PTO is still looking for volunteers to help with football concessions on September 23rd. You can sign up here: Football Concessions Sign-Up.

We are excited to host the Virginia Garcia Dental Team three times this school year. This team offers free dental assessments, sealants and fluoride to children across Washington county. If you are interested in your child utilizing these services, please see the flier below and complete the referral forms. The clinic will visit Banks School District on 10/17/2025, 2/20/2026, and 5/22/2026.

You can also see additional services available to all Banks School District students the the Virginia Garcia School based Health Center, located at Forest Grove High School, by clicking here.

September is Suicide Prevention Month. We know this can feel like a heavy topic, but our district is committed to supporting the mental health and well-being of our students and families. Every school has a caring School Counselor who is trained in suicide inquiry and prevention through ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training). If you ever have worries about your child’s mental health, please know you don’t have to navigate it alone—our counselors are here to help. At BMS, you can reach out to our School Counselor, Cory Del Villar, at coryd@banks.k12.or.us or by calling the school at 503-324-3111.

Did you know that Banks School District students can access care through the Forest Grove School-Based Health Center? The center provides a wide range of services for students, including sports and well-child physicals, immunizations, care for minor illnesses and injuries, management of ongoing health needs, and mental health support. Please review the flier for more details!

BMS Student Leadership is continuing their BottleDrop fundraiser this year as a BottleDrop Give organization and participating using “blue bags”.

Once you fill the bag, you can:

1) Have your student pick up a blue bag with QR code sticker from Ms. King

2) Return it to Mrs. King full of cans/bottles and she will take it to a BottleDrop

3) You can also return it to a BottleDrop location and make sure they scan the BMS Leadership QR code.

If you shop at Fred Meyer you are now able to support our PTO by enrolling in the Community Rewards program with Fred Meyer. Once enrolled, they will contribute $ to the PTO for all eligible purchases.

Signing up is easy. Visit https://www.fredmeyer.com. Once logged into your Fred Meyer account, you can search for Banks Middle School PTO either by name or "VI069" and then click "Enroll". New users will need to create an account, which requires some basic information, a valid email address and a rewards card.

Please see below for our full updated student handbook.