Good afternoon,

We hope you all enjoyed a joyful holiday season and are off to a fantastic start to the new year! A quick reminder that the second quarter wraps up on Friday, January 17th, with students beginning their next special rotation on Tuesday, January 21st. If you have any questions about your child's grades or progress in any course, please feel free to contact their teacher.

Best,

Christina & Emily

Mon. Jan 13th - Board of Education Meeting, Town Hall at 6:30pm

Tues. Jan 21st - EHMS PTO Meeting, LMC at 5:30pm

Mon. Jan 27th - Board of Education Meeting, Town Hall at 6:30pm

The Winter Band and Chorus Concert will be held on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at 6:30pm. The concert will be held in the East Hampton High School Auditorium. Students should plan to arrive between 6pm and 6:15pm. Concert attire is black and white with a splash of blue. In case of poor weather, the snow date is Thursday, January 16th at 6:30pm. Please reach out to Mrs. LaBrec and Mr. Shilansky in ParentSquare if you have any questions.

We look forward to sharing our music with you!

Each year the East Hampton Public Schools administers the i-Ready Diagnostic in Reading and Math in the fall, winter, and spring to monitor student growth and performance. The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier ones. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning. These results are reviewed as one data point amongst other assessments, observations, and data regarding student performance. The assessment is integrated into your child’s day as part of their academic learning and is paced to ensure that they work on the assessment in small chunks of time. The implementation of this assessment is completed in accordance with Connecticut State Department of Education guidelines. To maximize instructional time in ELA and Math courses, the reading i-Ready assessment will begin on Monday, January 6th in all Social Studies classes. The i-Ready Diagnostic will provide results that help our team identify your child’s strengths and determine the next steps for instruction. The math diagnostic will begin the week of January 13th in Science classes.

Math and Literacy Intervention Services

The East Hampton Public Schools uses assessment data to measure student growth and skill development in both math and literacy. Through these universal assessments, the reading and math department identifies students who may need additional tiers of support to demonstrate grade-level skill attainment. Once our winter assessments are completed, we will review student needs to determine changes to services or groupings of students. The reading and math departments communicate directly with families regarding any additional services.

What can I do to help?

To help prepare your child for the i-Ready Diagnostic, encourage them to:

• Get a good night’s sleep and eat a full breakfast the day of the assessment.

• Try their best on each question and try not to rush.

• Try not to worry about questions they do not know—remind them that it is expected they will only get about half of the questions correct.

• Be respectful of other students who take longer to finish

• Students should come to school with their earbuds and a fully charged Chromebook.

Below are students who have received Positive Office Referrals for their behaviors that have exemplified our PBIS pillars of Respect, Responsibility, Compassion and Pride. Students were able to choose a reward from our menu of options like eating outside with friends or prizes that we have. Pictured down below is last week's winner who chose to play games with friends. Great job! Some of the students rewarded are pictured below:

8th Graders

Samuel D'Amore & Ciaran Stanton

Jan 6 - Jan 10 (subject to change)

Note: please take notice to the start times on 1/10.

MONDAY, JAN 6

East Hampton girls basketball at Beman MS (Middletown), 2:20 dismissal, 2:30 bus, 3:45 pm game.

Beman boys basketball at East Hampton MS, 4:00 pm game.

Cheer attending game

TUESDAY, JAN 7

Boys basketball 2:35 until 4:30 pm

Girls basketball OFF

Cheer practice 2:35 until 4:30 pm

WEDNESAY, JAN 8

Boys basketball 2:35 until 4:30 pm

Girls study hall 2:35 until 4:15 pm in rm 29

Girls basketball 4:30 until 6 pm

No Cheer

THURSDAY, JAN 9

East Hampton boys basketball at Cromwell, 2:20 dismissal, 2:30 pm bus, 3:30 pm game.

Cromwell girls at East Hampton MS, 3:30 pm.

Note: no JV game for both girls and boys games!

Cheer practice 2:35 until 4:30 pm

FRIDAY, JAN 10

East Hampton girls basketball at William JMS (Colchester), 2:10 dismissal, 2:20 bus, 3:15 pm game

William JMS boys at East Hampton MS, 3:15 pm.

No Cheer

Please see the attached communication from our School Nurse, Melanie King, on helpful guidelines for families as we approach the cold and flu season.

Per the East Hampton Board of Education’s Attendance Policy and Connecticut statute, parents and guardians may only approve the first 9 absences of the school year with a parent note. Absences 10 and above can only be excused with further documentation and under specific circumstances.

In addition, if a student has four unexcused absences in one month or 10 unexcused absences in a year they are classified as truant. If a child misses 18 or more days in a school year – excused or unexcused absences – the student is classified as chronically absent.

A phone call is appreciated, but only an email to our attendance inbox or written note can officially excuse absence 1 through 9. Below is our attendance email:

Note: Between the school name and the word Attendance is a underscore ( _ )

EHMS_Attendance@easthamptonct.org

If a student has four unexcused absences in one month or 10 unexcused absences in a year they are classified as truant. If a child misses 18 or more days in a school year – excused or unexcused absences – the student is classified as chronically absent.

The East Hampton Board of Education and the school community as a whole promote a secure and productive school climate, conducive to teaching and learning that is free from threat, harassment, any type of bullying behavior, and teen dating violence. Therefore it shall be the policy of the Board that bullying and/or teen dating violence committed against a student by another student is prohibited. The Board believes that a school environment in which students feel safe, supported, engaged and helpfully challenged is optimal for learning and healthy development. The Board seeks an environment in which students and adults feel socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically safe; an environment that is free of harassment, intimidation, teen dating violence and bullying. Our website provides links to various policies and reporting forms including our Safe School Climate Plan. Hard copies are also available in our main office. If at any point you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to building administration for further assistance.

Happy New Year! Did you resolve to be more on top of your and your child’s health this year? Here’s an easy solution: Sign your child up for School-Based Health Care. Your child’s school works with Community Health Center, Inc.’s School-Based Health Care program to provide health services to your child during the school day. This means they won’t miss as much class and you don’t need to miss work to support their health care needs. Learn more about the services offered at your child’s school and enroll today at SBHC1.com!

The attached bulletins below were developed through a collaborative effort among the Department of Children and Families, the Department Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Office of Child Advocate, the Department of Public Health, the State Department of Education, and the Governor's Office. The content includes information on suicide, helpful tips to support people of all ages, and where to go for additional support and resources.

Board of Education Statement on School Safety: The East Hampton Board of Education is committed to a safe and secure learning environment that honors and celebrates the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. The Board of Education in partnership with the school community will not tolerate any threat of violence in the schools or any hate speech that targets any race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. Each student is held to the highest standards of responsible decision making within a culture that is expected to foster compassion, caring, and empathy.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement of the East Hampton Public Schools: The school community of East Hampton is committed to the mission of honoring and celebrating the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. We strive to guide our students to conscious, deliberate, individual and collective actions that cultivate the respect of all races, religions, and social backgrounds. Our school community endeavors to produce graduates who are equipped with a greater understanding of the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Nondiscrimination Statement of the East Hampton Public Schools: The East Hampton Board of Education, in compliance with federal and state law, affirms its policy of equal educational opportunity for all students and equal employment opportunity for all persons. It is the policy of the District to promote nondiscrimination and an environment free of harassment regardless of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability (including but not limited to, intellectual disability, past or present history of mental disorder, physical disability, or learning disability), genetic information, marital status, or age or because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetic information, marital status, or age of any persons with whom the individual associates. The District shall provide to all students without discrimination, course offerings, counseling, assistance, employment, athletics, and extracurricular activities. The District shall provide equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The District shall make reasonable accommodations for identified physical and mental impairments that constitute disabilities, consistent with federal and state statutes and regulations.

Email: camaral@easthamptonct.org
Website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/ehms
Location: 19 Childs Road, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: (860) 365 4060