Emerson Middle School Newsletter

Emerson Families,

As we finish the school year, please make sure to stay updated on all that is happening in our District and at Emerson Middle School. I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Best,

Samantha Alaimo
Principal

On Friday, April 28th, we will host a Music Assembly. You can view the schedule here.

There is still a limited supply of Yearbooks available to pre-purchase available through the Emerson Office. Yearbooks are $25 via cash or check made out to District 64. Yearbooks are distributed at the end of the year.

Please remember that the required Proof of School Dental Examination forms for 6th grade are due by May 15th. Please email em-nurse@d64.org to submit your form or if you have any questions. The required dental form can be found HERE.

What a nice turnout of sacks makers at Emerson! We collected 390 sacks for those in need. The sacks were taken to:

• Cornerstone Community Center, 4628 N. Clifton, serving meals in uptown to the needy.
• St. Stanislaus Kostka Soup Kitchen, 1351 W Evergreen, serving meals daily to the needy
• St. Leonard’s House, 48 N Hoyne, serving men exiting the prison system
• Grace House, 1801 W Adams, serving women exiting the prison system
• Deborah’s Place, 2822 W Jackson, working to break the cycle of homelessness for women providing housing and comprehensive services.
• St. Sylvester Food Pantry, 2157 N Humboldt, serving the needs of the surrounding community.

The recipients were very pleased to be remembered in this special way. Thanks to all who worked to make this sack event happen.

The food drive collected about 1000 items to be donated to the Maine Township Food Pantry. Thank you to the Student Government Association (SGA) and Shannon Tenner for organizing this great event!

Membership

PTO membership is the main fundraiser for the Emerson PTO. It helps fund our whole yearly budget for student events, support staff and all the other little things. If you have not yet joined, please do today!

https://emersonmspto.membershiptoolkit.com/

Promotion

Promotion: Tuesday, June 6th at 6:30pm on the Maine South Football Field

Rain Date: Thursday, June 8th at 6:30pm on the Maine South Football Field

Promotion Practice: Tuesday, June 6th (AM)

Each student will be allowed 6 guests at the promotion ceremony. If you need to request extra guests, please email em-office@d64.org.

Great America

Monday, June 5th

Promotion Party

Friday, June 2nd 7-9pm

The Emerson Green Team would like to thank everyone who contributed to the plastic bag collection. It was a HUGE Success. Maine South went beyond their goal of 500 pounds -- they gathered 548 pounds!

While we know it's not possible to eliminate all plastic from our daily lives, many of the grocery, produce, and ziplock bags collected could be swapped out for reusable bags. Next time you head to the store consider bringing your own bag and using reusable containers instead of ziplocks.

Thanks to everyone for your help!!

As we experience warmer weather, we want to make sure families are mindful of appropriate school attire. To view our policy, please click here for our D64 handbook (page 17).

General guidelines include:

• Decent and appropriate coverage of the body, including the midriff, is expected. Clothing must cover undergarments and must be opaque (i.e., not see-through).
• Hats or hoods should not be worn in the school building. Students may wear a hat or hood at recess.
• Student clothing and/or accessories may include numerals, logos, slogans, and drawings that are not offensive, obscene, or profane.
• Health and safety standards require that clothing and shoes not have ornamentation that will damage furniture or floors, or create a safety hazard to the child or others.
• Flip-flops are strongly discouraged, as they are unsafe for use on playground equipment and difficult for stairs. Roller shoes should not be worn on school grounds.
• A sweatshirt or sweater should be kept at school for days when the weather changes unexpectedly.

Niles-Maine District Library is hosting a Poetry Contest.

To Submit

• Compose up to four (4) original poems.
• Poems can be typed, photographed, recorded as audio or video–any way you want just as long as they can be shared in digital format.
• Each entry must include your name, grade, school, zip code, email address, and phone number.
• Submit your original poems by email to teen@nileslibrary.org with the subject line: Teen Poetry Contest. Attach poems as separate files or include sharing links to Google Drive, YouTube, etc.

For more information, see the Niles-Maine District Library Website

Emerson/Lincoln will host a Career Day for 8th graders on Wednesday, May 17 in the morning! The purpose of Career Day is to expose students to a variety of careers in order to jumpstart their thinking about the future. We are currently recruiting parent volunteers to speak to homerooms (30 students) for 15 minutes. Parents will rotate to 4-5 homerooms. In addition to sharing information about your career, each session will include a few minutes for student questions. Career Day activities will occur between 8:40-11:20 a.m. If you, a family member, or friend is interested in volunteering to speak about a career, please complete this form by Friday, April 14. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at salaimo@d64.org. With your help, we look forward to having an engaging Career Day for students!

Start your summer off with some fun by joining us for a week of building, creating, designing and investigating through engaging activities focused around science, engineering and technology! This camp is open to all students residing within Maine Township who will be entering grades 6, 7, and 8 in the fall.

Dates: Monday through Thursday June 12 - 15, 2023

Times: 8:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Location: Maine West High School

Cost: $50, which includes all materials for the camp

For more details and registration information, please click HERE.

Registration will be open March 20 - May 1 unless filled before then. Space is limited to 75 participants.

Each Friday Emerson airs WEMS, our local news broadcast, to all students in homeroom. Check out last week's edition HERE.

Please see the Vocal Music Notes Newsletter #28 Mrs. Broeker.

Check out the TLC Website for more information on how to start a TLC, descriptions of available clubs, and the calendar of when you can join in the fun!

Email Mrs. Contreras or the TLC sponsor(s) with any questions.

Early Entry into Emerson begins at 7:35am. ONLY students who have a signed pass from a teacher or parent may enter the building early. Students may enter through the main entrance by the office and will be let in once the door supervisor opens the door to check passes. Entry BEFORE 7:35 will not be allowed unless there is extreme weather or a situation approved by the school. Please use this link to find extra passes for home use.

EARLY ENTRY PASS LINK

District 64 continues to utilize many different platforms to ensure you have important information delivered to you in the most convenient way. One of those ways is through our SMS Text Messaging Service.

Getting messages delivered to your mobile device is a helpful tool, and District 64 is reenergizing our efforts to bring this to you.

These alerts will be info about events, school closings, safety, and more. That said, our SMS Text Messaging Service will be used supplementally in our communication efforts and does not replace any school emails or calls you are receiving.

How to receive text messages:

• You must opt-in to receive text messages. To do so, you will need to text “Y” or “Yes” to 67587.

• If you’d like to no longer receive District 64 text messages, you have to send “Stop” to 67587.
  
  

If you have any questions regarding the use of text messages to communicate District/School messages, please email Christopher Lilly at clilly@d64.org.

The cafeteria will not be accepting cash to purchase lunch items. Students must use their MySchoolBucks account to purchase any food. Please see this flyer for more information from Quest, our food service company. You can also get a food service overview by clicking HERE.

Unlike elementary school, you do not need to pre-order meals or beverages. Students may select from daily offerings in the Emerson cafeteria. More information about our school lunch offerings and payment can be found here on the D64 Middle School Lunch webpage.

Though we have many food choices in our cafeteria, most Emerson students bring their lunch to school. We strongly encourage this during the first weeks of school while we get our cafeteria systems and procedures up and running.

We highly encourage waste-free lunches. To help reduce waste, please consider using reusable containers for your child’s food and drink, rather than disposable bags and bottles. Emerson is committed to green efforts in the lunchroom. The cafeteria also has a lunch waste sort station for students to empty their lunch waste into recycling, compost and trash. We encourage all students to do so every lunch period.

FORGOTTEN LUNCHES

If students forget something at home or are being brought a lunch, items may be dropped off at the Emerson Office. We instruct students to check in with the office during passing periods to pick up these items. We will not interrupt class to notify students of items/lunches delivered to the office. As noted in our district student/parent handbook, parents are discouraged from delivering lunch to the office from local restaurants; lunches brought to the office should be reserved for emergency situations, such as a forgotten lunch.

There will be three 4:00pm activity buses that will go to the Franklin, Carpenter, and Field areas. The buses will run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. These buses leave the the school around 4:15, giving students time to get from their activity to the bus. Please note: there is no 4pm bus on Wednesday or Fridays before long weekends/holidays.

Tardiness

All students are expected to be seated in homeroom at 8:05 a.m. Students who arrive at school after the homeroom period (8:05 to 8:10 a.m.) must report directly to the office before proceeding to class. A doctor’s appointment or a bus problem are acceptable excused tardies. All other reasons will be considered unexcused. Exceptions must be approved by the principal. To assist students and parents in correcting this problem, a sequence of escalating interventions is followed after three unexcused tardies. These range from calls home, parent letters and conferences at school, detentions, tardy contract, and possible legal action against the parents.

Early Check-Out

If a student needs to leave the school before the end of the day, a parent note giving the reason, date and time of departure, and person picking up the student should be given to the teacher whose class the student is leaving. If you email this message to the teacher, please be sure to include the school secretary (em-office@d64.org) as a recipient. The student should report to the office at the time of departure. The parent or guardian must come into the office to sign out the student for the length of time the student will be away from school. If your child returns to school before the end of the day, please enter the school building and sign your child back in before he/she returns to class. Please note that students must arrive by 9:20 a.m. or be dismissed after 1:45 p.m. for their attendance to be counted as a full day.

Absences

For safety reasons and in compliance with state law, a parent is requested to notify the school office in writing or by phone within the first hour of school. If notice is not received, the school secretary will call parents at home or work to confirm the absence. To report an absence, please call the school office anytime, day or night, to access the voice mail system at 847-318-8110. When calling, please provide: student’s name; classroom/ homeroom; date of absence; and reason for absence. For illness, please share symptoms or diagnosis.

• EXCUSED: A valid cause for absence includes illness, observance of a religious holiday or religious instruction, death in the immediate family, family emergency, other situations beyond the control of the student, other circumstances that cause reasonable concern to the parent/guardian for the student’s safety or health, or other reason as approved by the Superintendent or designee. For a student to be released from school as an excused absence to observe a religious holiday or for religious instruction, parents should give written notice to the Building Principal at least five calendar days before the student's anticipated absence.

• UNEXCUSED: Absences due to vacations, travel, attendance at a cultural or sporting event, or participation in a team sport, acting or fine arts performance are considered unexcused. This also includes tiredness (unless your child is ill), oversleeping. If your child is NOT called in by 10am, they will be marked unexcused for the day, and parents will be contacted by the office to verify the absence.

Vacations

Every school day is important, and the District strongly discourages scheduling family vacations on school days as these are considered unexcused absences. If your child will be absent from school for an extended period of time for a family trip, please inform the school office and your child’s teacher. Work will be given upon return for students leaving the country or immediate District area when your children RETURN to school. It must be completed at home under a parent’s supervision. Teachers are not expected to provide homework or assignments in advance for students who will be absent for an extended period of time for family vacation and other activities.

School hours for student classes are from 8:05 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. Please note that each Wednesday, students are dismissed at 2:10 p.m. for staff professional development activities.

Doors to the school open for students each morning at 7:58 a.m. Homeroom begins at 8:05 a.m. Students with an early entry pass will be permitted to enter the school between 7:35-7:45, but not before. There will be a teacher opening the door to permit entry at that time. We WILL allow students to enter before this if there is inclimate or cold weather.

School office hours are from 7:20 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Remember that our student absence line (847) 318-8110 is available 24 hours a day. Please let the Emerson Office know as soon as possible if your child will not be in attendance. Please do not rely on e-mail notification for reporting absences as it may not be seen until later in the day.

All Emerson students and parents are provided access to schedules via the PowerSchool parent and student portals. The PowerSchool Parent Portal allows you access to your student’s academic information, including student schedules and grades. If you have any questions on how to login, please contact the Emerson Main Office for assistance at (847) 318-8110.

Emerson Middle School, along with all District 64 schools, operates in accordance with policies and practices that have been reviewed and implemented by the District 64 Board of Education. Please review the D64 Student-Parent Handbook prior to the start of the school year to familiarize yourself with the information contained in it. We want to work in partnership with you to ensure a positive school year, and having an understanding of this information will help to promote a successful school year. This handbook is intended as a convenience for District 64 families and staff by summarizing selected information about procedures, services and programs. It also provides a quick reference for contact information and District timelines.

The Emerson website and Emerson school calendar are valuable resources to keep informed of important updates and events throughout the year. The calendar is kept up to date throughout the school year, and new information is posted regularly. We hope that these tools are helpful resources for keeping you and your student organized and informed as we progress through the year.