C.H.S CHRONICLES

Dear C.H.S. Middle School Parents,

Our terrific staff and I look forward to seeing you at Parent Teacher Conferences on Wednesday, November 5th. Please note that you can view your child’s 1st card marking grades via Skyward Family Access beginning Monday, November 3rd. Simply click on Gradebook and look at the Marking Period 1 (MP1) column for your child’s1st card marking grades. The 1st card marking report card will be accessible through Skyward Family Access after 3:00 p.m. on Friday, November 7th.

Similar to last school year, you will be provided with a master list of teachers and the teacher’s corresponding TEAMS Link Tuesday morning.

As our district transitions from four middle schools to three, we’ve carefully reviewed how to best structure our middle school swim & dive program. In past years, we offered two separate teams, but this change has made it difficult to maintain an even and effective split. Moving forward, we will have one combined middle school swim & dive team representing all three schools. This approach aligns with other districts that also combine multiple middle schools into a single team, helping us create a stronger, more unified program. To ensure that all swimmers and divers, receive quality instruction and support, we will also be adding additional coaches to meet the diverse needs of our athletes.

We will have a pre-season meeting on Thursday November 13 at 6:00pm at WL Central HS Cafeteria.

Hello Clifford H. Smart Families!

We’re so excited to be partnering with Walled Lake Northern High School for their annual gift drive this year for the first time! Our 8th Grade Leadership Class will be sponsoring the Pre-K students at Emma & Ayat Bennett Elementary School in Detroit. We hope to make their holidays a bit brighter by providing them with 3 items they need, and about 3 items they’ve been wishing for. This is a great way for us to spread kindness during the holiday season. Below are news broadcasts of Northern’s 2019, 2021 and 2024 Gift Drives:

Northern’s 2019 Gift Drive Northern’s 2021Gift Drive Northern's 2024 Gift Drive

Northern’s very successful Gift Drive gives students/ families the opportunity to adopt a child. Any Clifford Smart Student/ Family can take part by sponsoring a child at Bennett Elementary. The week is October 30th - November 7th during lunch. Students will come to the Gift Drive table during their lunch and complete the steps to sponsor their student at Bennett. We ask that you consider speaking with your middle schooler about this opportunity and encourage them to take part. We hope you’ll consider participating in the Gift Drive, allowing the Pre-K students from Bennett Elementary to have an extra special holiday season!

If you feel like you are unable to sponsor a student, any gifts for kids, wrapping paper, etc. would be greatly appreciated! In addition to adopting a child there is an Amazon Storefront to provide extra gifts for the Pre-K students at Bennett Elementary. Items that you purchase from this list will be shipped to us. While this is an additional and optional way to contribute, any donations are greatly appreciated. The link is attached below: The Amazon Storefront

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to Northern Student’s Dean Babington and Haley Sutherby via email at:

Dean: DeanBabington@icloud.com Haley: haley0808@icloud.com

Thank you for your continuing support and kindness during this holiday season.

Mr. Nathan Bruce and the Clifford H. Smart Leadership Students

Parent Teacher Conferences are right around the corner. The PTSA provides dinner and treats for the staff that day because it is a long one! If you can help by donating anything in the signup below, we would greatly appreciate it!

Items are due to the office by next Monday, November 3.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A48A5AD2FA0FDC43-60020336-conference#/

Thank you!

Nayal Maktari and the CHS Middle School PTSA

This past week school administrators visited classrooms for our scheduled classroom expectations visits. The intent of the scheduled visits is to review behavior expectations with students. Please take a moment to ask your child about our visit to their classroom.

Thank you in advance for your support!

It’s time to collect candy for the Blood Cancer Foundation! Each year Smart collects bins of candy to donate. Help make someone's life a little sweeter by donating candy for kids battling leukemia. You can drop off your candy on Monday in either lobby in the special bins as you enter school, or in a bin in the Attendance Office.

All donations are going to the Blood Cancer Foundation of MI, formerly the Children’s Leukemia Foundation of MI. Donate candy you like or candy you don’t. Grab some extra on after Halloween sales and donate it. Big bags or small! Grocery bags or lunch bags. Unopened bags or bags you took just a few out of—we need them all. Anything helps!

Thank you!

Entries are due by Tuesday, November 11th. Please contact our CHS Reflections Chair Jessica Trotter jrosetrotter82@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Keep in mind that students can submit multiple entries, but only 1 entry per art category. You will need to submit an additional entry form per additional entry.

Lakes Area Youth Assistance (LAYA), in partnership with Huron Valley Hospital and generous community volunteers, is once again offering its beloved Holiday Adopt-a-Child program. Each year, hospital departments and community members "adopt" children by purchasing gifts from their personalized wish lists—bringing a little extra holiday cheer to families who could use it. Parents also receive gift wrapping supplies so they can wrap the presents themselves and enjoy the joy of giving.

To apply, visit https://www.wlcsd.org/community/lakes-area-youth-assistance to download the fillable application. Submit one application per family and one wish list per child, along with the required financial documentation, via email to LAYA@wlcsd.org by Friday, November 7, 2025.

✨ Coming Soon: Shop With a Hero! ✨
From Nov. 10–21, kids will have the chance to shop for holiday gifts alongside local heroes—Commerce Firefighters/Paramedics and Oakland County Sheriff's Officers—at Meijer stores in Wixom and Commerce. Applications for this exciting event will be available starting Nov. 10.

October 31st is a half day of school at CHS with dismissal at 11:40 a.m. Students are permitted to wear costumes to school on this day if they choose.

To help you at home, below are our costume guidelines and requirements. These are in place for safety and student comfort while at school.

• If students choose to dress up, they should come fully "costumed" when they come to school (changing at home, putting on makeup at home, hair at home, etc. Please leave all extra make up, hair spray, etc. at home.
• Costumes should follow dress code expectations.
• No masks of any kind worn during regular school time (may bring in a bag to wear for contest only).
• No weapons of any kind, fake or look alike at any time.
• No oversize/ blow up costumes.
• Face make up may be worn, but in moderation so as to still be able to identify the student. All makeup must be applied prior to coming to school. Students should not bring makeup to apply or share.
• No excessive gore

Students may see Mr. Maktari, Mr. Hess or Mr. Spickard with costume questions. In addition, there will be an optional Halloween costume contest run by our counseling department during 1st hour.

Michigan will unfortunately soon be turning cold and dreary. Last year, thanks to the wonderful support of our PTSA and families we were able to offer a game room for the students during inside recess. This was filled with cornhole, foos ball, ping pong and air hockey. We had chess and cards and variety of things for kids to do. We need more stuff like that. Believe it or not middle school kids are hard on stuff even when they are not trying to be. We are welcoming any donations, Facebook Marketplace purchases, etc. This is a great opportunity to get rid of that old ping pong table that is taking up space in your basement.

Please reach out to Mr. Spickard stevenspickard@wlcsd.org if you would like to help. He will even come pick it up.

Thank you!

Our Annual Scholastic Book Fair is November 10th-14th and we are in need of volunteers. If you would like to help us, please sign up through by clicking on the tab below.

Thanks in advance, we appreciate you!

If you haven't already, we encourage you to join the Clifford H. Smart PTSA for the 2025-26 school year!

Simply scan the QR code below to visit our website, discover some ways our PTSA enriches our school community, and sign up.

As an added perk, members will receive a digital copy of the school directory.

Thank you for your support!

Our Music Appreciation Club is back. Please click on the PDF and link below for more information!

You can also click on the QR code to register your child.

Picture retakes for students who have already had their picture taken will be on Wednesday, November 12th.

We need your help. Please make every effort to avoid picking up your child during their lunch hours. It often takes quite a bit of time to locate a student during lunch/recess and pulls staff from their lunchroom supervisory responsibilities.

Excluding emergencies, please avoid picking up your child at the times below for any prescheduled appointments and plans.

6th Grade Lunch 11:18 a.m.-11:48 a.m.

7th Grade Lunch 12: 25 p.m.-12:55 p.m.

8th Grade Lunch 11:53 a.m.-12:23 p.m.

Thank you for your support and help!

Process for requesting service for district issued chromebooks if needed:

1. If a student needs support, he/she should fill out a Student Chromebook Support Form linked on all of the Google Classrooms and on the school website under Students. Being logged on to the school google account is required to access the form.
2. The information in the form will be sent to Mrs. Stasak, our Middle School Computer Resource Teacher. She will reply to the student at his/her school gmail account. She will offer suggestions to fix the issue or, if it needs service, she will tell the student to take the chromebook to the office and give it to Mrs. Wilseck in the main office.
3. The chromebook in the case will be sent through inner office and the student will be allowed to use a loaner chromebook AT SCHOOL. It will be the student’s responsibility to pick it up each morning from the office and return it at the end of the day.
4. When the chromebook has been repaired, it will be delivered back to the school for the student to pick up.
5. If the family purchased insurance, the first repair is free and all additional repairs carry a deductible. Deductible invoices or repair invoices, for those that did not choose insurance, must be paid before the repaired chromebook is returned.

If a student with a personal chromebook has a network issue, the same form can be used. We are not able to fix physical problems with personal devices and loaner chromebooks will not be provided.

Please click on the above tab and join our CHS Middle School Remind 101 text group. You will receive helpful reminders, time sensitive information along with other pertinent texts.

*Reply @LEAVE to the number you are receiving messages from if you'd like to leave the text group at anytime.

Medications are administered at school under the supervision of our office staff. This includes BOTH prescription medications AND over the counter (ibuprofen, pain relievers, etc.) medications. BOTH types of medication require a completed and signed WLCSD medication authorization form by BOTH the parent/ guardian AND the child’s doctor.

For safety and confidentiality reasons, we will not be accepting medications at Smart Start. If you would like to drop off medications and the required documentation prior to the start of the school year, please contact our office secretary, Mrs. Jen Schloegl , directly at 248-956-3512.

As you have questions about this process please contact our main office at 248.956.3500.

Please remember to please call 248.956.3090 for ALL bussing questions. Please click on the link below to visit our transportation website for more information. A reminder that bus passes are not allowed.

Please feel free to call our main office with any questions at 248.956.3500. You can also email us.

Counseling Secretary: JulieSmith@wlcsd.org

Principal's Secretary: MelissaWilseck@wlcsd.org

Building/Attendance Secretary: JenniferSchloegl@wlcsd.org

6th Grade Counselor: KathleenHoover@wlcsd.org

7th Grade Counselor: MaureenBratke@wlcsd.org

8th Grade Counselor: JulieBraley@wlcsd.org

DROP OFF 8:00 A.M.

SCHOOL STARTS 8:10 A.M.

DISMISSAL 3:00 P.M.

1/2 DAY DISMISSAL 11:40 A.M.

Nayal Maktari, Principal

Jake Hess, Assistant Principal

Steve Spickard, Dean of Students

Please contact us with positive or constructive feedback, questions, and/or concerns.

Website: www.wlcsd.org/smart
Location: 8500 Commerce Road, Commerce Charter Township, MI, United States
Phone: 248-956-3500
Twitter: @CliffordSmart