Cubs Newsletter

Bell Schedule: A, A, *A = Modified A days on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

The Bell Schedule for this week is called a "modified A day." Students will start the day in Homeroom and then follow their A day class progression with all 7 periods and lunch.

We start the day with Homeroom so that students can get to know their "home base" and so that homeroom teachers can help get the day started successfully for their homeroom students. We run the A day schedule so that students can learn where their classrooms are, the best routes to take, and their teachers and classmates. We want to give them a chance to get comfortable with the school before we start changing things up. On Friday we will have an all school "Welcome Back" assembly to end the day. I have attached the bell schedules below.

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A WT HR Bell Schedule.pdf

A Friday HR and Assembly Bell Schedule.pdf

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Oh No! We missed Cub Palooza

If you missed Cub Palooza don't worry. You can stop by the school on Monday or Tuesday and pick up your schedule in the office. We will take your picture for the student ID card and yearbook on picture retake day in September.

Getting to School

If your student rides a bus you should have received a phone call from the bus garage. If you have not, please give them a call at 208-882-3933. They can tell you what time your student will be picked up at home or at a bus stop. You can also email Jim, our bus garage dispatcher, at shookj@msd281.org.

The busses drop students off on the west side of the building near the Bear Den and students walk around the building to the east side where they will wait with their peers to enter the building when the bell rings.

If you are dropping your student off by car, you will do that on the east side of the building off of D Street in the parking lot by the tennis courts. You will pull into the lot, students get out, and then you exit the lot. If you want to park for a long goodbye, please find a parking space so that traffic can continue to flow around you, and others can get on their way. Students will wait there on the east side of building until they are allowed to enter the building.

Please allow for extra time. It will take a minute. You will have to wait in a bit of a line, but I promise that it is a relatively quick parent drop off process compared to many other schools. Remember that there are kids getting out of cars, walking on the sidewalks, riding bikes, and riding scooters all around the school. Slow down and be alert.

Please use the designated parking lot for dropping off your student. I know that it is tempting to pull into a different lot or drop your student off on the street nearby. The east side tennis lots are by far the safest place to drop off your student. The west side of the building is reserved for busses. MSD busses use both the upper and lower west side lots and they need to be able to pull in, park, and drop-off kids without navigating around folks parked temporarily dropping off students. It is scary when those bus drivers start pulling out and kids dart out from parked cars in the parking lot toward the school. Busses are big and they can't stop as fast as cars. We keep these drop-off spaces on opposite sides of the building on purpose.

Regardless of how they arrive at school - students will assemble on the east side of the school and hang out until they can enter the building.

Breakfast

We offer a school breakfast for students. We start serving at 7:45. Students that are eating breakfast are allowed into the building at that point. Only students that are eating breakfast are allowed into the cafeteria. We are not allowed to serve a school breakfast to students after 8:30 a.m. so if you would like your child to eat a school breakfast, it is important that they get to school on time.

The first bell rings at 8:05 and the tardy bell rings at 8:15

The day starts at 8:05. Students must have their cell phones, airpods, and all other personal electronic devices stowed in their backpacks before they enter the building. They will make their way to class, and be ready to learn by 8:15. If your student arrives after 8:15 they are considered tardy and need to check in at the office before heading to class. (more on cell phones later).

The day begins

If you need to pick up your student, or contact your student at any point during the school day, please give our office a call at 208-882-3577. We will get your student out of class, or pass along a message, or make whatever other arrangements need to be made to help you.

If you are picking your student up for an appointment, for example, and we know about it, we will call them out of class, they will check out at the office, and then be ready and waiting for you on the bench just inside the main door. They will simply watch for your car to pull up and then come out. You won't need to park your car and come in. If we don't know ahead of time, or if your student is delayed for some reason, you are always welcome to find a parking spot on the west side of the building and come into the office. You will need to ring the bell before the door will be unlocked, and then you will need to come directly to the office. Please don't try to find your student on your own, or go to a classroom or other location without checking into the office. If you do need to be in the hallways we will either escort you or give you a visitors badge to wear. Also, please don't leave your car parked in front of the building. It blocks other cars and busses. The bus drivers in particular will be grumpy if you block them in. Our special education busses are picking up kids and dropping them off throughout the day, not just at the regular bus times, so please be mindful of that.

Lunch

Students are welcome to eat school lunch or bring a lunch from home. Whenever possible, we encourage the students to eat outside. We have even provided new spaces for them to eat! All students can eat outside - even though that have a school lunch. We do ask that they clean up after themselves and not make a huge mess outside, and most of them do a great job. Others just need a friendly reminder. :)

There are often lunchtime clubs that students can join. The library is open during lunch and lots of kids like to hang out there. We have a lot of space for running around and hanging out and we encourage our students to enjoy this time. We do have lunch detention, and students are assigned detention from time to time. You could probably name the things that would get a student some detention time - being disrespectful to staff, not following lunchtime rules, or being unkind to peers can earn a student a day or more of lunch detention. This idea is a bit scary to the 6th graders especially, but the vast majority of students at MMS have never served a lunch detention...ever. Those that have don't love it, but they almost always understand what it is they did to earn it, and make better choices moving forward. We aren't heavy handed - I'm not assigning detentions here there and everywhere, just for the fun of it, but we do have behavior expectations and standards that we expect students to meet so that EVERYONE can enjoy a pleasant lunch time.

Our Lunch Lady, Miss Bobbi, is amazing. She is happy, and nice, and just wants to feed everyone and make them happy. We have lots of options for school lunch - kids have choices every day. Miss Bobbi is always trying new recipes and products to try to give the kids food they will enjoy. There is almost always pizza on Fridays. Some of our students like Miss Bobbi's pizza so much that they eat the lunch they brought from home, and then eat a school lunch too! If you are worried about affording lunch for your student, PLEASE fill out a Free & Reduced lunch form. We will help you. We really don't want any hungry kids at MMS.

One other note - we are not the food police. We supervise the students in the lunchroom and outside, but we can't and don't monitor everything they eat or how much they eat. Kids this age are ready to learn to manage that for themselves. If your student has a food allergy please call us and ask to speak to our school nurse. She will work with our nutrition director and Miss Bobbi to provide allergy free options for your student if you choose school lunch for your child. If your student has a medical condition that requires special attention to their diet - like Type 1 Diabetes - our school nurse will lead a team of parents and school staff and develop a plan to make sure your student is safe and able to learn at school. If you ever have concerns about your student regarding lunch please email me so we can chat about it.

End of the day

The school day ends at about 3:05 most days, and 2:15 on Fridays. Students riding the bus will make their way to the bus area.The bus area is a very busy place so ONLY students that ride a bus will be allowed in that area. Students being picked up by parents will wait on the east side of the building, near the tennis court parking lot, for their rides. Students that are participating in sports or clubs will go directly to those activities. Students that are walking or riding bikes/scooters home will make their way off campus. Students are not allowed to hang-out or wait around on campus once school gets out.

Our office is open and staffed until 4:00 p.m. Please call us if you have any questions about your student, school stuff, or anything...we are happy to help!

What is the cell phone rule at MMS?

Last year Governor Little issued an executive order directing school districts to implement stricter cell phone policies. In accordance with that directive, the Moscow School District created and implemented a new cell phone policy last year. I've attached it below, so that you can read the entire thing, but in short, students at MMS are not allowed to have a cell phone "on their person" during the school day. Once the bell rings at 8:05, students will need to turn off their phones and put them in their backpack, a locker, or other bag/purse until the last bell of the day. They cannot use smart watches, wireless listening devices such as airpods, or other "personal electronic devices" during the school day - even at lunch. They cannot have a phone or device in their pocket or tucked into clothing. That's it - it is pretty simple.

And if a student doesn't follow the rules?

Per the policy, "In all cases, students found in violation of this policy will be required to surrender their student-owned device to a staff member who will deliver the student-owned device to the building principal or assistant principal. A parent or guardian will be required to pick up the device from the office."

If a student refuses to surrender their cell phone to a staff member - any staff member - we will call you to come to school to take the phone directly from your student yourself. Further cell phone restrictions and/or consequences would be discussed with you and your student at that time.
I know that sounds like a lot, but students that are in an escalated state and refusing to come with a Principal to the office, or hand over a phone to the Principal, or comply with efforts to calm the student and de-escalate...in those very rare situations, the safety and well-being of other students and staff is at risk, and that becomes the priority.
If you are worried that your student might have behavior challenges when expected to comply with the cell phone policy, we encourage you to keep the cell phone (and all other devices) at home with you until your child can get used to being without it and can surrender their phone or other devices to an adult without escalating.

I urge you to have a conversation with your middle school student before the school year starts about cell phones. They need to know about these rules before the first day, and need to know that we do enforce this policy at the middle school. I realize that kids often feel like their phones are a possession that they have a right to have and use at all times, and that surrendering their phone to a staff member will be difficult. I realize that it can be hard for kids to be cut off from constant access to social media, texts, and games. They need to know what your expectations are, as parents (and the adults that actually sign the contract and own the phones) regarding their behavior with phones at school. I realize that this might also be hard for parents!

But, what if...

There is an exception for the "on their person" rule, but only in very specific instances. If your student has a physical medical condition that requires the use of a medical device to keep them alive, that communicates or operates via a smartphone, such as a cardiac pacemaker or insulin pump, they will be allowed to carry their cell phone on their person. Please contact me, or our school nurse, if your student utilizes this kind of a device.
We have a fabulous group of ladies that work in our main office. If you need to communicate something to your middle school student we are more than happy to help you with that. We will get messages to your student and/or arrange for them to come to the office to chat with you directly.
Students have access to a phone in our office and are allowed to use it to make phone calls to parents. They can call you if they need you, have questions for you, etc. using this phone.
I promise that we will always call you if your child is sick. We will call you if they get injured. We will call you if they are distressed or upset or just having a particularly bad day. We know that you and your child have a special bond and relationship - we love that and know it is important. It is also an important skill for students to learn to get help from the adults that are here with them, ready and able to assist them with whatever they might need. We have kind and knowledgeable nurses, counselors, teachers, and other staff ready to help with friendship issues, frustrations about schoolwork, headaches, and heartaches. We need your child to tell us if they are being bullied or if something at school is not safe. Telling a parent is always good, but it is us folks here at school that can actually provide immediate help and assistance. Getting past the initial fear of talking to adults they don't know as well as they know their parents, is an important skill for students to learn and practice as they grow toward greater independence.
In the unlikely event of a school wide emergency please remember:

Students are allowed to carry a backpack or other bag with them at all times. If their cell phone is kept in their backpack, they would have access to it in an emergency. If they needed to call 911 or contact you, they would have their phone. If this is something you or your student are worried about, we encourage you to have them keep their phone in a bag/purse/backpack and with them throughout the day.
The most reliable information that you will get, if the worst thing ever happens, is directly from school officials. We have the ability to text you all, send emails, post on social media, and communicate via mass media and law enforcement if - heaven forbid - we experienced a serious building wide emergency. If that were to happen, we would be working hard to first and foremost, protect your kids, and then to get you the most accurate information on what you need to do as parents. You would want to be watching for and responding to these types of communications from us and from local law enforcement. You would want your child to be attentive to the adults that were with them, in that moment, protecting them and getting them to safety.

I saw first hand the negative impact that cell phones had on kid's learning before the new policy. I witnessed a remarkable change last spring, when we first implemented the new policy. Most notable - kids started talking to each other face to face again. There were more smiles. More laughter. More kids playing and reading. The kids were markedly more relaxed when they were no longer worried about things like their picture being taken, videos being taken, social media posts, SnapChat streaks, and being bombarded with notifications and alerts almost constantly throughout the day. I admit that I was apprehensive about the new policy, because I didn’t want to be fighting about cell phones all day long, but that didn’t happen. The kids were great! They adjusted very quickly and with only a little bit of whining. :) Many students confided in us that it was a tremendous relief to have cell phones gone. We only confiscated a handful of cell phones - fewer than before the policy! I believe that this policy, although it seems strict, is what is best for our kids.

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Executive Order 2024_11 (2).pdf

Section V Policy 5157 Student-Owned Electronic Devices approved 1-22-25.pdf

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