Banks Middle School

Dear Families,

It's been an awesome week back after spring break! We are finishing off the week with the spring "Pajama Party" dance tonight, from 6-8 pm in the BMS gym. Tickets will be sold at the door only, and are $10 (cash or check written out to the BMS PTO). Phones are not allowed in the dance, but students can check them in with the chaperones at the entrance. The dance ends promptly at 8 pm so make sure your student knows how they are getting home. Many thanks to our amazing PTO members, parent chaperones, and Leadership students for making it all happen!

Additionally, we will be starting the Forecasting process next week in Homeroom classes for our current 6th graders, and Tech class with our current 7th graders. Please take some time over the next week to review our BMS Curriculum Guide with your student. Additionally, you can use the Incoming 7th grade and Incoming 8th grade Forecasting Planning Sheets to write down your student's choices (we will also be passing out hard copies of these next week in classes for students to bring home). We hope that students pick electives that align the most with their goals and interests, so take some time to read over the course descriptions in our Curriculum Guide. We also have some new elective offerings for next year!

Our teachers will have a grading day next Friday, April 11th to work on progress reports. It is a great time for your student to take a look at grades over the weekend and submit any eligible work. See the monthly grade level newsletters and Google Classroom for more details about each class's due dates and assessments. As a reminder, you can always check your student's grades on ParentVue, but we do update grades thoroughly during progress reports, so that will be an accurate picture of where your student stands when those are mailed home the week after next.

Students have also done a great job completing their state tests in Language Arts this week. Next week, we will be testing in math, and the following week is science for just the 8th graders. You can fill out this opt-out form and turn it in to the main office to opt your student out of testing.

Best wishes,

Caitlin Everett

April 7: BMS PTO meeting in the library from 5-6 pm

April 11: No School - Grading Day

April 11: Regional Northwest Science Expo for our BMS Science Fair winners! (read more below)

Week of April 14th: Forecasting for Current 6th and 7th graders

April 17: Middle School Track meet (volunteers needed for concessions, see below)

April 22nd- 25: Outdoor School for 6th graders

April 24: Concert Band Festival Field Trip

April 30: 7th Grade Field Trip to the Zoo

May 2: Spirit Assembly

May 15: BMS Talent Show (rescheduled)

June 10: 8th Grade Promotion

Every Tuesday and Thursday after school from 3:15-4:00 - Homework Club

Mr. Smith hosted Guest speakers in his Intro to Engineering class from the Washington County Road Department. Students learned about what an engineer does and worked on building towers that could withstand earthquake forces. Thank you Mr. Smith for setting up this awesome learning experience!

One of our bigger BMS PTO fundraisers for the year is selling concessions at the two home Middle School Track meets. If you are able to volunteer for this, you can sign up here. Thank you to our PTO for organizing this fundraiser in support of our school!

The top 5 projects from our BMS Science Fair were selected and those students will be representing BMS at the Northwest Science Expo next Friday. Thank you to Mr. Smith and Ms. Zakrevsky for putting on the fair and mentoring students to get ready for this opportunity! The below students will be going to PSU to show their work and speak with judges about their research next Friday at NWSE, congratulations to these young scientists and engineers!

• Nolan Richter
• Eli Grossnickle
• Rowen Lux
• Carter Hitson
• Johannes Skovron

We have some field trips coming up this spring, parents wishing to chaperone must have an up to date background check on file with the school district. You can access the background check form here!

Leadership is kicking off our first fundraiser of the year! We are now a BottleDrop Give organization and participating using “blue bags”.

Once you fill the bag, you can:

1) Have your student pick up a blue bag with QR code sticker from Ms. King

2) Return it to Mrs. King full of cans/bottles and she will take it to a BottleDrop

3) You can also return it to a BottleDrop location and make sure they scan the BMS Leadership QR code.

Homework club is an after school activity where students can work on school work in a supervised setting. Homework club is from 3:15-4:00 on Tuesday and Thursday in the library. Permission slips are required, students can get a permission slip in the office. Please note, a student needs to have work to do during homework club. It is not a place to "hang out" or pass time after school. Also note that attendance is not taken, please be aware of your child's homework club attendance plans ahead of time and ensure they have a way home, as transportation is not provided.

If you shop at Fred Meyer you are now able to support our PTO by enrolling in the Community Rewards program with Fred Meyer. Once enrolled, they will contribute $ to the PTO for all eligible purchases.

Signing up is easy. Visit https://www.fredmeyer.com. Once logged into your Fred Meyer account, you can search for Banks Middle School PTO either by name or "VI069" and then click "Enroll". New users will need to create an account, which requires some basic information, a valid email address and a rewards card.

Please see below for our full updated student handbook.