Fugett Flash

Calendar -- Look Ahead and Plan

💝***Monday September 22nd through Friday September 26th is Yellow Ribbon Week*** 💝

Monday September 22 -- Day 1 ***1/2 Day PM Teacher In-Service***

Tuesday September 23 -- NO SCHOOL (Rosh Hashana)

Wednesday September 24 -- Day 2 (Care Period - Academic)

Thursday September 25 -- Day 3 ***Alice Training for Kids/Kona Ice Fundraiser***

Friday September 26 -- Day 4 (Care Period - Academic)

Monday September 29 -- Day 5 (Care Period - Academic) ***8th Grade Cyber Safety/Building Character Assembly***

Tuesday September 30 -- Day 6

Wednesday October 1 -- Day 1 (Care Period - iCARE)

Thursday October 2 -- NO SCHOOL (Yom Kippur)

Friday October 3 -- Day 2 (Care Period - Academic)

Fugett Middle School will acknowledge World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th and celebrate Yellow Ribbon Week from September 22–26, 2025. Throughout the week, students will hear daily announcements promoting mental health awareness and suicide prevention. On Friday, September 26th, we encourage all students and staff to wear yellow in support of suicide prevention.

Hey Parents and Fugett Students,

Below is a letter from the EHS athletic department outlining the process for buying tickets. Just as a reminder no outside food or drinks are permitted into the game. Additionally, all K-8 students must be accompanied by an adult. Please read carefully and should you have any questions please reach out!

Reminder: Picture retakes are on October 15th. Students should sign up in the main office if they need to be scheduled for a retake.

Fugett Middle School - Attendance

WCASD Attendance Guidelines

Family Vacations

• Students may be excused from school for up to five (5) days of school per year for a family vacation. Family Vacation days must be pre-approved by your child’s administrator. A family vacation form must be completed and turned into the office prior to the absence.

• Please submit vacation requests at least one (1) week in advance to the attendance office: FMSAttendance@wcasd.net. Please note that parents or guardians will only be notified if any or all of the request is not approved.

Absences

• If your student is going to be absent, please submit their absence on Parent Portal.

• You may also send an emailed Parent Note or copy of the doctor’s note directly to the attendance office: FMSAttendance@wcasd.net. Please note that you must send the email from the email address we have on file. If documentation is not provided within 3 days of your students’ return to school, the absence will be considered unlawful.

• A student is allotted 10 Parent Notes and 5 Family Vacation days for the school year. Every absence after that will require a Doctor’s Note or the absence will remain unlawful.

• If a student is absent for 5 consecutive days, a Doctor’s Note is required by the 6th day of absence, even if PNs have not been exhausted.

• At the 4th unlawful absence, a Student Attendance Improvement Plan (SAIP) meeting will be held with our Home & School Visitor.

Lateness & Early Dismissals

• Following ten excused tardies and/or early dismissals in a school year, the school will require a doctor’s note or other corroboration beyond a note from a parent/guardian. Failure to provide corroboration beyond the allotment will result in absences being classified as unlawful.

• All students are expected to locker and report to their homeroom by 7:30 a.m. every day. Students arriving after this time will be considered tardy.

• A tardy is defined as a minimum of one minute of lateness to school. Eight (8) tardies to school will be considered one (1) unlawful absence in grades K-8.

• Late arrivals to school due to medical appointments (doctor, dentist, orthodontist, etc.) will be excused with a note from the practitioner.

• Any late arrival when the student does not arrive by 11:30 a.m. without a doctor’s note will be considered a full day absence.

• If your child must leave school early, a request must be submitted on Parent Portal or emailed to FMSAttendance@wcasd.net. An early dismissal pass will be given to your child to meet you in the office at the requested time. A parent/guardian must come into the office with a photo ID to pick up the student.

• In order for an early dismissal to be excused, a doctor’s or dentist's note must be turned into the office or emailed to FMSAttendance@wcasd.net upon the students return to school.

• Any early dismissal where the student leaves before 11:00 a.m. and does not return to school with a doctor’s note will be considered a full day’s absence.

Just a friendly reminder to all parents that if you need to come into the building to pick up your student or drop something off to them to please check in with the main office. Thank you for your cooperation with this to help keep our school safe and secure!

Thank you for following the circle pick up path. This traffic pattern is in place to ensure the safety of students and staff.

To serve you better, families may drop off and/or pick up East and Fugett students at either building, as long at you are using the typical drop off/pick up location.

See attachment below for specific information regarding FMS carline directions and visuals.

Parents: Please encourage your children to check their backpack for toys and water guns before coming to school after a weekend. We understand that backpacks may serve a dual purpose over the weekend, but any items in violation of the WCASD Discipline Manual will result in student disciplinary outcomes.

Phones are “Off and Away”. When the homeroom bell rings at 7:30, until dismissal at 2:15, phones are turned off and placed in student lockers. Any phone out between these bells will be turned in to the office and will begin the progressive discipline process with the student. This practice will be strictly and consistently enforced across all three middle schools.

Bring your device charged and protected. Devices should come to school daily, fully charged, to reduce the need for charging cords and cables throughout classrooms. During the school year, if a student has a district-issued laptop not in their case, this will prompt a discipline referral. This is to ensure digital learning opportunities, protect the device, and reduce potential parent invoices for damaged devices. (*We recognize not all returning students may have a laptop case on the first day of school. Students without a laptop case should notify their homeroom teacher the first day of school.)

Attendance - Students arriving late to homeroom (after the homeroom bell rings at 7:30) must report to the office for a pass. Lateness will be handled in accordance with the WCASD Attendance Policies, and PA State Laws. Unexcused lateness will result in an after-school detention for the student. A tardy is defined as a minimum of one minute of lateness to school. Late arrivals to school due to medical appointments (doctor, dentist, orthodontist, etc.) will be excused (ET) with a note from the practitioner.

Ineligibility - Any student who is failing at least two major subjects, or at least one major subject and two minor subjects (such as a Unified Arts class like Art or PE), by noon on Friday is ineligible to attend sports practices and games, clubs, and any extracurricular, school-sponsored activities which occur from the next Sunday through Saturday of the following week. This would include musical performances*, drama, dances, and sporting events. *Culminating musical performances related to Chorus, Band, and Orchestra are not subject to ineligibility as they are curricular events and not extracurricular activities.

Monitoring grades - We highly recommend that families use the Parent Portal to monitor grades and sign up for automatic email updates in the Email Notification tab. You can also look through individual course and assignment updates by using your child's Schoology account and accessing each Class and Assignment.

Making up work – All students have two Academic Care Periods (extended homerooms) on Monday and Friday each week. This is an ideal flexible time to work with any staff member in the building. Teachers have until noon Friday to grade and update any missed work or tests to improve failing grades before the ineligibility report is generated. Turning assignments in on time is the best way to keep grades up-to-date.

WCASD Discipline and Records Policy - https://www.wcasd.net/families-students/discipline-manual

🍧❄️ Kona Ice is coming to FMS! ❄️🍧

Mark your calendars: Thursday, 9/25 🌟
Be sure to bring CASH 💵 (cash only!) so you don’t miss out on a sweet treat.

Let’s chill out together, Cougars! 🐾💙💛

Extra Extra Read All About It!
Are you interested in writing, drawing comics, photography? The Fugett Lowdown might be the perfect fit for you! We will be holding an informational meeting Wednesday, September 24th after school from 2:15 to 3:00 in room 321. All interested students in all three grades are encouraged to attend. Any questions? See Mr. Nefos in room 321.

Do you play a band instrument, guitar, piano, drums, or bass? Are you interested in playing Jazz, Funk, Rock, Pop, and Latin music with friends? Audition for Fugett MS Jazz Band! Info flyers and sign ups can be found outside of the band room - 231. There will also be a help session during CARE on 9/19 - See upstairs* Mr. Turley to sign up or with any questions!

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Do you enjoy reading? Do you love to talk about what you're reading with others? Do you like a little friendly competition? Then Reading Olympics is for you! Join us in the library on Friday, September 12 during CARE for an informational meeting. Please see Dr. Moyer in 201 or Mrs. Conaghan in 301 if you have any questions or can't make the meeting.

Fall Athletics information and WCASD PIAA sports registration website (deadline 09/20/2025)

For any families looking to attend an EHS football game this year, please review the attached ticketing and attendance expectations. All tickets are purchased online.

Hello and Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year! We are delighted to lead the PTO this year and have listed some very important information below. As always, do not hesitate to reach out with any questions, comments or concerns. We look forward to making this school year a great one for our students!

Membership Toolkit (MTK)

If you have not already done so, please create a login/password, and confirm your information on our Membership Toolkit page. Here you will find important PTO info including our calendar, sign ups for volunteer opportunities, directory info and reimbursement forms. We will be using the email blast feature for our main form of communication. We will also list info in Dr. McGloin's weekly Fugett Flash.

Donations

-Monetary: Please give what you are able to. We kindly suggest $25 per family but are thrilled to receive your donation at any amount. Your support allows us to provide funding for grade level activities, assemblies, staff grants, field days, 8th grade picnic, fright night and much more! Plus, the more general donations we get, the less fundraising we have to do throughout the year! We accept Venmo, Paypal & Cash/Checks! (scroll down on our homepage for Venmo and Paypal QR codes).

Upcoming events

Wednesday, September 24th 6:00-7:00 pm, PTO General Meeting Fugett Cafeteria, PTO Meet Up Stone Tavern 7:15-9:00 pm

Thursday, September 25th 4:00 - 8:00 pm, Dining Night Out, Panera West Chester. More information to follow.

September 1st - September 30th Bloom Box Fundraiser

Volunteer

-If you are interested in being the first to know about volunteer opportunities throughout the school year, please fill out this google form.

-We're so grateful for all the volunteer signups to help at the school store! If you'd like to be placed on a list of backup volunteers to be contacted when someone can't make it, please email Lani Aquino at laquino6548@gmail.com

Bloom Box Fundraiser

BloomBox website: https://getblooming.com/ Code: FUGETT15

The Fugett PTO is pleased to announce our 2025 Fall Fundraiser in Partnership with BloomBox! BloomBox is a local online garden center that sells fall plants, mums, planters, pumpkins, fall décor and more. You will order these things online on their website and they will deliver them by hand, right to your home!

When you order your fall mums, flowers & décor from BloomBox, they will donate 15% of your purchase amount directly to us. We are so excited about this fundraiser because it’s an easy way for us to earn money, and all of you have the opportunity to purchase beautiful plants & décor, have it delivered, and support a local business at the same time. It’s a win-win for everyone!

1: Visit www.getblooming.com on your computer or cell phone
2: Shop for fall mums, flowers, shrubs, pumpkins, planters and porch décor. Add them to your shopping cart and head to the checkout page.
3: On the checkout page, you need to enter our unique code FUGETT15 into the ‘fundraising code’ box.
4: After you order, BloomBox will hand-deliver your purchase directly to your home in 3 business days or less.

- Stay connected with the PTO and the Fugett community through our PTO page and the Fugett Parents Facebook page. (Be sure to fill out all the membership questions for the FB page, which helps admins keep the community FMS-focused and vet incoming members).