8th Grade

Dear Parents of SMS Health Students:

Ohio’s 134th General Assembly recently enacted Senate Bill 288, which updated the prescribed curriculum for health education. It added requirements to provide developmentally appropriate instruction in child sexual abuse prevention, dating violence prevention and sexual violence prevention. The law includes requirements for student instruction, parent and legal guardian notification and training for school personnel. This law, also known as “Erin’s Law”, went into effect in January of 2023, with a mandate for Ohio school districts to implement these new requirements in grades K-12 during the 2023-2024 school year. More information about the requirements can be found here.

For middle school students, SB 288 requires that students in health classes receive developmentally appropriate instruction in dating violence prevention education and sexual violence prevention education, which must include instruction in recognizing dating violence warning signs and characteristics of healthy relationships in health classes.

Strongsville Middle School will begin teaching Speak Up - Empowered, to students enrolled in Health 6 and Health 8 during the 2023-24 school year. School personnel selected this curriculum due to its age-appropriate content regarding abuse prevention and healthy relationships, as well as its approval from the Department of Education. Participating in the abuse prevention curriculum may help to create a greater awareness of the warning signs associated with unhealthy relationships and prevent abuse before it occurs. The content includes instruction on the following required components:

• Personal safety and assault prevention

• Dating violence prevention education

• Sexual violence prevention education

• Dating violence warning signs

• Characteristics of a healthy relationship

Link to copy of opt-out form

💥COMPLETING THIS FORM ONLY IF YOU ARE CHOOSING TO OPT OUT YOUR CHILD💥

To opt out of this curriculum, please complete this FORM by: Feb. 1st, 2024.

ORDER YOUR YEARBOOK - DEADLINE IS COMING UP IN MARCH

Each year SMS works with LifeTouch Photography to create a yearbook. This year our very own art teacher, Mrs. Ganim is working behind the scenes to make this happen. If you are interested in purchasing a yearbook please use the information below to do so. It's a great book to look back at memories from SMS!

Click on the link below - and use the ID Code for your order!

The link would be https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/Order/SelectJob with the ID Code 14459924.

Every year, 8th graders get the opportunity to visit Polaris Career Center on a field trip. This year, Vanguards and Crusaders will be visiting on January 24th and Pirates and Dragons will be visiting on January 25th. If you would like to learn more about Polaris, check out this website!

The purpose of this field trip is to expose students to the many programs and career options that Polaris offers. Students at Strongsville High School have the ability to enroll in a program at Polaris during their junior and senior year. All 8th graders will be attending this trip as long as the field trip permission slip was filled out at the beginning of the year by parents. If you aren't sure if you filled out a field trip form for your child, please reach out to your child's team leader.

In addition, our high school counselors will be coming in the morning of January 24th and 25th to discuss high school scheduling with our 8th graders. We will be scheduling students for high school in February. If you have any questions about Polaris or high school scheduling, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you!

One of my roles as a school counselor is to see students individually for issues regarding social/emotional learning, academics, and career exploration. In the last week, 50% of my individual sessions have been with students that are struggling academically. To succeed in 8th grade and beyond, students need to build and practice important life skills such as time management, organization, study skills, and more. Children often need to develop these skills at school and at home. The following article (especially tips #3, #4, #5, #6, and #9) provides great information on how parents can help their children build these skills and improve academically in middle school. I encourage you to have a conversation with your child about how you can work together to improve their grades and as always, please reach out to me if needed!

https://www.akronchildrens.org/kidshealth/en/parents/school-help-middle.html

Email: amarozsan@scsmustangs.org
Phone: 440-268-5292

Our 8th graders have a great opportunity coming up! On December 15th, 18th, and 19th, our high school ambassadors will be visiting to discuss any questions or concerns that our 8th graders may have about going to high school next year. This opportunity is open to all 8th graders and will take place during lunch in the 3rd floor media center. If your child is interested, please have them fill out this form or send me an email. Thank you!

Hello! My name is Celia Joyce and I am the district social worker. Please reach out for any of the following needs:
- Help with basic needs
- Referrals for community/family support
- Mental health services/support, groups, therapy referrals
- Crisis intervention
- Safety planning for student/family

Celia Joyce, LISW

Email: cjoyce@scsmustangs.org
Phone: 440-268-5588

Email: bszczepanski@scsmustangs.org
Phone: 440-572-7090

High Expectations, High Accountability

One focus this year has been on our behavior systems and making sure we are holding our students to the high standards that we have here at SMS. To help with that we've made some changes to our behavior system and discipline.

Detentions

• No longer after school
• Will be served at 7:00 am and students need to report at that time to the main office
• If a detention is not served, they will be give a Saturday detention
• Saturday detentions will be held at the high school for 2 hours

Progressive Discipline for minor behaviors

• Students can receive 3 detentions then they will be issued a Saturday Detention
• Then students can receive 3 Saturday Detentions then they will be issued In-School Suspension
• Then students can receive 3 In-School Suspensions before out of school suspensions will be issued

**This does not include major behaviors according to the hand book.

Please access our handbook HERE . It is also available on the website. Students and parents should review this together. Students will also review this with staff as well the first week of school.