Wow, it has been a busy week at the Middle School. This week we had our Fall Pictures taken. If your child was absent, we will have a Fall Picture Makeup Day. I will include the make up date in the newsletter as soon as we have the date. Visiting classrooms has been lots of fun as there is so much outstanding teaching taking place and so much learning. Our students are settling in nicely and understanding the ins and outs of school.
Our 4th, 6th, and 7th grade teachers had their Curriculum Night Sessions this week and I must say all three teams did an awesome job providing you with much valuable information. We are also in the middle of Volleyball tryouts for girls in grades 6 - 8. We have lots of girls interested in playing volleyball and that is awesome.
Please remind your children that it’s important for them to be focused on their teachers so they can learn what is being taught. Some of our students need to be reminded that we all have work to do when at school and we have time to socialize after instruction takes place.
PowerSchool - Please make sure that your information in PowerSchool is correct - that includes mailing address and phone numbers. You also need to make sure that you have access to your child’s PowerSchool Account. This year we will email report cards to you for Quarters, 1, 2, and 3 and will be using the PowerSchool information.
Guest Speaker - Our students had the opportunity to have a guest speaker talk with them today, Friday, Aug. 19. Mr. Larry Long spoke with our grade levels and stressed the importance of working hard, making great decisions, and displaying the Voyager Core Values along with other great info. Ask your middle school student what they heard and learned! We will be in they gym as we listen to Mr. Long. We will have the students spaced as we will have grades 4 and 5 in the gym and then grades 6, 7, and 8.
We are also in the process of our Student Council Election. I am sure you noticed the campaigning this week during morning carline as our candidates had their signs at carline this week. Our candidates also shared their speeches with our school during morning announcements. They did an awesome job! Voting is Friday and we have great candidates!
CAR LINE UPDATES: Oh my, everybody’s favorite topic! Thank you for being patient as we are diligently working to make the car line procedure better and better. Listed below are a few updates:
The morning carline at the middle school begins at 7:45 and ends at 8:15. We have given a grace period for tardies as carline has been a little bumpy but getting better! Most of our cars are on campus by 8:15. We really need all students in class by 8:15. We’ll keep working to get to that 8:15 mark and hopefully by the end of next week all students will be in class no later than 8:15.
Please make sure your child is unbuckled, has on their mask and has their belongings when you pull up to drop off. The goal is for the student to quickly step out of the car so that cars can continue to move through the line.
In the afternoon the middle school line begins loading and moving at 3:15 hoping to end at 3:45. We try to merge elementary school/middle school cars into the traffic. The officer on duty closes the middle school entrance until 3:15. This allows the elementary traffic to move and leave campus. On Wednesday and Thursday, we had our cars off Ben Franklin and on our campus by 3:42 and 3:38 and that was awesome. Each day is getting better and it’s because we are following the carline procedures.
PLEASE DO NOT START THE LINE ON THE ROAD PRIOR TO
3:15 AS IT IS NOT SAFE. ONCE OUR CARLINE STARTS
MOVING WE MOVE QUICKLY IF THE STUDENTS ARE
WATCHING FOR THEIR NAME ON THE BOARD IN THE CLASS.
VAMS HAS SOME SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF:
1. It is important that students begin school each day with a mask that fits them properly. Please make sure your child has a mask that will stay over their nose. This is our number one safety feature.
2. When we returned in April of last year, we had specific directions for lunch. We will continue to reinforce the fact that students will have 14 minutes to eat lunch and then their masks will go back on. If students do not finish their lunch in that amount of time, we will have the students who need more time to sit at a table while the other students can talk as they will have on their mask.
3. Students will be asked to keep their masks on for outdoor recess if and when they cannot be at least 6 feet apart. If they are distancing during outside play, the mask may be removed.
4. Students need to continue to wash hands and use hand sanitizer when needed.
5. If students have any symptoms of sickness, the student should remain home until they have no symptoms. Please do not send a child to school if he or she has a fever.
6. Our school nurse and managing director are keeping a very close eye on the ever changing safety guidelines for schools. We will keep you updated as information is shared with us.
7. If we have a student who tests positive for Covid, that student will be asked to isolate for 10 days before returning to school. Voyager will send out a health email that tells families we had a positive case within our school community. Positive cases are reported to the health department. Students who are exposed to a positive Covid individual within their home, should report that to the building principal as soon as possible. That student will be asked to quarantine based on the most recent guidelines. All cases will be followed by the school nurse. If a student begins to show any Covid symptoms then that student would need to quarantine. Thank you for working with us as we seek to keep every student and every staff member as safe as possible. I understand we may not like the various guidelines, but I think we can all agree we need to do everything possible to keep our Voyager family healthy.
Need Information
As always if you have questions or have concerns or have suggestions feel free to contact me at gjohnson@voyageracademy.net. I am happy to help you or if I don’t know the answer, I will find out for you!
Loaner Computers
Help, we have not received all of the loaner computers that were provided for the past school year. We need all of the loaners returned so please drop off the loaner during the school day or have your child bring it to the office. Make sure you also bring the charger! We really need these loaners ASAP so we can do maintenance if needed and provide students with them.
Thanks for your continued support!
Gwen Johnson
Middle School Principal
gjohnson@voyageracademy.net