Fair Haven Union Middle School

Dear Middle School Students & Families,

Thank you to those families that made the time to respond to the Family Input Survey sent out in the last newsletter. Your feedback is valuable and appreciated! We did do bus evacuation drills, a fire drill and an all options drill this week and all were completed successfully. We thank students for paying attention during these drills and practicing the procedures that will help to keep us safe in an emergency.

It is that time of year when we get our Middle School Student Voice group organized. Middle School Student Voice is our student leadership group. One or two students from each TA meet with Mrs. Crumb, the group's faculty advisor, to plan activities for students through the school year. Past activities have included: decorating for school dances; doing a "Specials Mixup" where students get to go to a different specials class one day; and Winter Activities, where students choose a winter themed activity to do with a middle school teacher. We look forward to getting this year's Student Voice group up and running! Each advisory will have 1-2 representatives in Student Voice. Students can apply for participation in this group by filling out an application. Advisory teachers will review the application process one day next week and interested students fill out the application, have their advisory teacher and a parent sign it. Ideally, the applications should be turned into Mrs. Crumb by Tuesday September 16. (There is a photo of the application above.)

I aim to send these Middle School Family Newsletters 1-2 times a month depending on the amount of information we need to share out with families. If you have a question or topic you would like to see addressed in the Newsletter, please send me an email with your suggestion!

Jennefer Paquette

FHUMHS Co-Principal

7th and 8th grade students, along with all Middle School faculty and staff, sported custom-made FH Slater t-shirts and headed out to the football field for a big team-building activity. Together, they formed the letters FHUMS—with staff making not one, but TWO exclamation points (!!). The sun was shining, spirits were high, and the bleachers later held everyone for an awesome group photo.

These shirts were made possible through a VSAC/GEAR UP Grant. Thanks to this program, we’re fortunate to have outreach counselor Rachel Casey (a proud FHU graduate!) in our school four days a week. Rachel supports our middle schoolers with monthly workshops focused on college and career readiness.

Major kudos to Mrs. Erin Haley and Ms. Lisa Cacciatore for organizing this big endeavor, and a huge shoutout, as well. to Mr. Eugene Fox, one of our incredible custodians, who came in on his time off to capture the day with his drone—thank you for giving us such a memorable view of this special moment! #WeAreSlateValley #SlaterPride #SlaterNation #Teamwork

The FHU Middle School PTO will be meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 5pm in the FHU library. All Middle School parents are invited to join! The PTO fundraises in various ways to be able to support our Middle School in a variety of ways.

In the 24-25 school year, the PTO:

sponsored and chaperoned middle school dances,

provided support, materials and time to help decorate the MS hallways for Slaterbration,

recognized teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week in May,

provided funds to support our 8th Grade trip at the end of the year.

The first meeting is September 9th at 5pm in the FHU Library.

At the end of last year, we had a committee that included middle and high school students as well as staff members update our Dress Code. Please see the updated Dress Code Procedure below.

The rafting trip started years ago (15 +/-) at FHGS as a middle school team-building activity. It weathered the transition to a district middle school and after reflection and input from students and staff here at FHUMHS, we happily decided to continue it for 7th grade students as a way to kick off middle school. The activity allows for a chance to talk about how students in an advisory can 'row together' to complete a goal. It also allows us to get outdoors, move our bodies and have a new experience (for most). 7th Grade Students will be going rafting on September 12th.

Academic Success is a program offered to all students. It is a supervised space after school where students can get school work done. This year it will be supervised by Chris DeSimone. It will be offered M-F from 3:15-4:30.

We provide numerous eligibility checks. These eligibility checks do not result in removal from an extra-curricular. However, if a student is failing (less than 2.5) two or more classes, at the time of the eligibility check, they will be expected to attend Academic Success for 8 days in order to continue participating in the extra-curricular. Our goal is to support student participation while placing a priority on academics. There is more information in the Athletic and Co-Curricular Handbook (linked below).

The dates of the Eligibility Checks are: Sept. 26th, Oct. 31st*, Dec. 12, Jan 23rd*, March 6th, April, 3rd*, May 8th and June 15th*. The four dates with asterisk's are the end of Quarter 1, 2, 3, and 4. You will receive a MS Report Card in the mail shortly after the end of a Quarter. We will remind you, and students, of these as they come up. However, it it important to get this on your radar early.

We want to help students develop the consistent habits and routines that allow them to maintain a steady level of success. We hope to avoid the "let it slip and then scramble' when an eligibility check is coming up.