Parents and Guardians,
I hope this email finds you all well after our spring break. It was a beautiful week. We are happy to have the students back even if some of them weren't so excited to get up this morning.
There are just a few important items that we need parents and guardians to be aware of as the year moves forward:
RISE Testing
Our end of year state assessments (RISE) have started. We schedule the assessments in such a way that the teachers have a week to complete them but it will not take students the whole week. Most students should be done within two class periods. The assessments are given ONLY during the class period of the subject being assessed unless students need to make up assessments or complete unfinished assessments. These assessments cover the standards and concepts in the Utah State Core Curriculum that are covered throughout the school year in that particular subject. Parents can help their students perform their best on these assessments by making students have a good night's sleep and eat a good breakfast the weeks the students are testing.
We ask that you let us know if your child is going to be gone anytime during the RISE testing window so that we can make sure to complete your student's testing prior to them being gone or arrange for them to finish after they get back (depending on the dates absent). Be aware that during testing we cannot call into the classrooms that are testing and will need to send a runner to get any students out of class to be picked up. This will take extra time so please plan accordingly.
The testing schedule is as follows:
Week of April 24th - 28th
6th Grade - Language Arts
7th Grade - Science
8th Grade - Language Arts
Week of May 1st - 5th
6th Grade - Math
7th Grade - Math
8th Grade - Math
Week of May 8th - 12th
6th Grade - Science
7th Grade - Language Arts (given during the Utah Studies class period)
8th Grade - Science
Week of May 15th - 19th will be make-up testing as needed for students.
School Safety Changes
We have implemented some changes in regards to school safety over the last few weeks. Please be aware of the following changes (and some reminders of procedure) that are going to directly impact you as a parent.
- ID - Parents, or anyone, will be asked to show ID both to pick up a student from CMS as well as to have any contact with them during the school day (even if it is just calling them out of class to give them something). This is to ensure that all adults that have access to students are supposed to have access to students and are listed on their PowerSchool as such. We encourage you to let grandparents, or others that may pick up students, know that ID is necessary.
- PowerSchool Emergency Contacts - As a reminder, in order to pick up a student the person picking up MUST be listed under emergency contacts in PowerSchool or you will be getting a call from one of our secretaries or administration to approve the pick up. We will not allow the student to go with someone that isn't listed or hasn't been confirmed through a phone call and doesn't have matching ID.
- NEW - Front Door Locked - For years we have had all doors locked in our building for safety with the exception of the front door. Starting today we will be moving to ALL doors locked all day with a doorbell on the front door (to the right of the door). Any visitors or students coming to the building after 8:00 will need to ring the bell and wait for a secretary to come to the door to let them in. Because of this new system we are asking for parents to please consider the following:
- Please have ID ready when you come to the door planning to pick up or talk with a student to minimize trips for you and the secretaries.
- If you drop off students please plan your mornings so that students are at the school prior to 8:00 AM when the doors lock.
- Please plan appointments around school hours as much as possible to minimize the need to come and pick up students.
- Please do not try to "beat the rush" at the end of the day and pick up children early unless absolutely necessary.
We appreciate your help and understanding as we make changes for safety. It is not always convenient and it may require changes on everyone's side to make it work. Please be patient with us as we work to implement the changes (especially when the secretaries ask you for ID) and they become the new normal. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to email, call, or stop by the office.