The Topsail Times

Good afternoon, Topsail families.

We hope you’re enjoying the crisp and refreshing fall weather this weekend. In this issue of Topsail Times, you’ll find all the updates and announcements designed to keep you in the loop with all things happening at TMS—from important dates and upcoming events to opportunities for involvement and celebration. We look forward to welcoming students back tomorrow and making the week ahead a memorable one together!

Important Dates This Week:

• 10/20: Early Release for Students : 12:40 pm.
• 10/20: Boys Basketball/Girls Soccer Tryouts @ 3:45 pm.
• 10/21: Theater in Aux Gym @ 3:30 pm.
• 10/21: Cheer Tryouts Begin @ 3:45 pm.
• 10/22: SIT/MTAC Meeting @ 7:15 am.
• 10/22: Parent Advisory Committee Meeting @ 8:30 am.
• 10/23: Theater in Aux Gym @ 3:30 pm.
• 10/24: TMS Color Run begins at 8:00 am.

7TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

8TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

ENCORE NEWSLETTER

Lifetouch Picture Retakes will take place on 11/4/25. It is only for students who missed Picture day and for those that need a retake. Flyers will be in the front office for pick up. Payment is not required the day of picture day and can be purchased online however students will need this form completed to get their picture made.

Also, for our student athletes, don't forget to purchase fall sports pictures by CLICKING HERE for the attached flyer.

ENJOY 10% OFF your order!

CODE: F2510OFF

EXPIRES: July 31, 2026

Redeem Now

Aramark is excited to announce our 2025 Parents Thanksgiving event! Topsail Middle will be participating on November 24th. Aramark will need an estimated headcount at each school for the parents that intend to purchase a ticket and eat in the cafeteria. Please CLICK HERE to sign up for this fun family event!

Please CLICK HERE for this month's cafeteria menu.

Topsail Middle School is looking for parent volunteers to join our SIT Team.

The School Improvement Team (SIT) plays a key role in shaping our school’s direction by fostering continuous improvement. Each SIT is composed of the principal, assistant principals, teachers, instructional support staff, and parent representatives.

If you are interested in joining the team, please reach out to our SIT chair, Laura Schlegel at laura_schlegel@pender.k12.nc.us

We’re grateful to be on a team with you as we work to support your child’s mental health needs. Middle school is often a challenging time in a student’s life and their needs are growing and changing as they get older. Please CLICK HERE for a few ideas and resources to help navigate these changing needs.

Pender County Schools is partnering once again with the Pender County Health Department to provide flu shots for students this fall. This initiative will be available to all students across the district, with vaccines administered by health department nurses. To participate, students must be eligible to receive the flu vaccine and have written parental consent. For children without insurance, state-supplied vaccine will be available at no cost.

Our TMS Flu Clinic is scheduled for 11:00am on Thursday November 20th.

Paper forms are available in office.

Flu Vaccine Consent Forms:

Staff Consent Form - https://form.jotform.com/252656140740150

Student Consent Form - https://form.jotform.com/252656216931156

Formulario de Consentimiento del Estudiante - https://form.jotform.com/252656755627166

It's that time of year again for our Annual Fine Arts Halloween Spooktacular! This is a free, family friendly event at Topsail High that includes Trunk or Treating, Crafts/Activities, Food Trucks, and concert performances by the Topsail Middle, Surf City Middle and Topsail High School bands. All are welcomed to attend this amazing event on October 30th from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

• Thank you to everyone that has registered and donated to our annual Color Run fundraiser already! We are over halfway to our $20,000 goal with $10,436 earned so far. Every student with a new donation, big or small, over the weekend earns a TMS keychain, and the class with the most new pledges will earn a free kid's meal at Outback Steakhouse for EVERY student in the class. Register your student now at mybooster.com and share your link to gather donations for a chance to win some awesome raffle prizes. Every $30 donation earns a raffle ticket for a chance to win some amazing prizes. There are two raffle days remaining. Wednesday 10/22 and Monday 10/27 are the remaining raffle days.

  
  

  Volunteers are needed for our upcoming Color Run on Friday 10/24. Please see the signup below and help if you can!

  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044BA8A629A7F85-58979910-tmscolor#/

  Parents are invited and encouraged to attend. Run schedules are as follows:

  8th Grade - 9:15AM

  7th Grade - 10:10AM

  5th Grade - 11:00AM

  6th Grade - 11:45PM

  Parents are asked to proceed directly to the front field, no need to stop in the office. Color powder is corn starch and food grade dye. Students have the option to bypass the powder station if they do not want to be powdered.

• Reservations are open for this year’s “Paint the Rock”. Please sign up to reserve your date or dates now using the sign up below! Scan the QR code below to make your payment. Other payment options coming soon.
• https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=351517720099#choose_event_page
• Spiritwear is on sale now! T-shirts are stocked and delivered to your students classroom weekly. We have now closed the pre-orders for the TMS hoodies. Please note the deadline to order and the expected delivery date on the order form HERE.
• Please consider joining PTO this year! TMS PTO strive to support every student and staff member throughout the year! Your membership is important! CLICK HERE to join today!

In an effort to provide more opportunities to hear from our community, the Parent Advisory Committee met for the first time this past week. The purpose of this committee is to give parents an opportunity to bring thoughts and ideas about how to make TMS better directly to the administrative team. Several parents have volunteered to meet with administration each month to discuss how to make TMS better. They have asked that if anyone has any thoughts or ideas about how to make TMS better, they can reach out to one of the PAC members and they will make sure that it is discussed at the next meeting. Below are listed the parents that have agreed to volunteer their time:

Summer-Rain Bussard (summer.rain@icloud.com)- Special Education

Shannon Moore" (sm33339@gmail.com)- 5th grade
Laura Grones (laura@elitemarketingmedia.com)- 6th grade
Nikki Cantu (nikkigard@yahoo.com)- 7th grade

Tracy Williams (williamstracyk@gmail.com)- 7th grade
Jennifer Smith (jsmith226@yahoo.com)- 7th/8th grade
Melissa Cedeno (mcedeno24@gmail.com)- 8th grade

PAC will be meeting this Wednesday at 8:30am. Parents, please email your representative with any questions or concerns.

We will post the meeting minutes after each meeting. Here are the minutes from the meeting on 9.24.25. If you have any questions or concerns you would like reviewed at the next PAC meeting, please reach out to one of the representatives and they will get it added to the agenda for the next meeting.

Join us in reaching ONE MILLION MINUTES reading by the end of the school year.

1. Read anytime, anywhere out of school
2. Keep track of your minutes and contribute to the school and district total
3. Every minute matters - together we can meet our goal

Reading builds knowledge, imagination, and lifelong learning skills. By working together, Pender County Schools will reach this incredible goal. Let’s grow our love for reading — one page at a time!

Tracking form will be provided by the school.

October 1 - May 31

Topsail Middle School would like to remind our families and students of a few important reminders:

• Sick/late notes must be received within 3 days of absence/tardy.
• Our final check out time at TMS is 3pm.
• Please, no outside food/drink in cafeteria, and only water bottles in classrooms (i.e.: no Starbucks, Dunkin drinks, fast food drinks, sodas, energy drinks, etc.).
• To parents who are dropping off their students in the parking lot in the morning, please do not let your child out of the car before the bell at 8:10am. We do not have staff out there before that time and several parents have been dropping off before the bell, which is causing a major safety issue.

• Please remind your children that they may only use their own lunch accounts. They are not permitted to use accounts belonging to siblings, relatives, or friends. Unfortunately, we have had to turn several students away this week because of this issue.

  
  

We want to be able to showcase some of the great things our students are doing on our website and social media accounts, if you would NOT like your student to be in any of these photos, please fill out this form. This form will be open to complete until Monday, October 6th.

At Topsail Middle School, we offer a confidential program called MUNCH (Meals Until No Child Hungers).

In this program, a backpack/gym bag of food is sent home with the child each week on Friday.

CLICK HERE if you would like to participate!

TMS continues to work closely with transportation to improve our morning and afternoon bus schedules. While progress is being made, please be aware that delays may still occur. Moving forward, we will not send out general announcements about late buses unless there is a specific incident that requires immediate attention.

At this time, families should plan for buses to run approximately 15–30 minutes behind schedule each day. For the most accurate updates, please continue to use the Here Comes the Bus app for real-time locations and notifications.

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and flexibility as we work to make our routes more efficient.

We have a few important systems that will help our school year run smoothly. Please take a moment to make sure you have access to each one:

Infinite Campus

• What it does: Lets you view your child’s grades and attendance, and submit excuse notes.
• Step 1: Get your student’s activation code here: Lookup Activation Code
• Step 2: Use your code to create your account here: Infinite Campus Login
• WE ARE ALSO IN S DISTRICT COMPETITION TO HAVE THE MOST FAMILIES SIGN UP, SO PLEASE HELP TMS WIN!

Here Comes the Bus

• What it does: Allows you to see your child’s bus location, receive alerts when the bus is near, and have peace of mind about arrival times.
• What you need: Your child’s Student ID number
  • If you do not know it, email jeremy_mortensen@pernder.k12.nc.us and he will send it to you.
• District Code: 29081
• Sign Up Here: Here Comes the Bus

Rooms

• What it does: Our county-wide communication system for messaging between teachers and parents.
• Set up your account here: Rooms Information

Thank you for taking the time to set up these systems. Having access will make communication and daily routines much smoother for you and your child! We greatly appreciate the tremendous partnership we have with our TMS families!