
Blue Jay Buzz
January, 24th 2025
In this issue you will find:
New Info
- Upcoming Dates
- Community Corner
- Updates and Other Info
- 8th Grade Families
- Update: Traffic Flow - Drop off and Pick up Safety
- Clubs and Activities
- PTO Upcoming Events
Old News
- Cellphones, Medication, Attendance, Tardiness to school
Mark T. Schwarz - Principal - mschwarz@dps109.org
Donnie Castans - Associate Principal - dcastans@dps109.org
Marcia Klita - Director for Student Services - mklita@dps109.org
Upcoming Dates
Mark your Calendar...
Wednesday, 2/19 - Panorama Survey
Monday, 2/17 - No School (Presidents' Day)
Monday, 3/24 - Friday, 3/28 - Spring Break
Tuesday, 6/3 - 8th Grade Graduation @ DHS
Community Corner
Community Corner
L to R Ally Mart, Gabby Bursak, Joan Murphy, and Ali Chroman (District Social Worker)
The CMS Middle school counselors are educators uniquely trained in child and adolescent development, learning strategies, self management, crisis intervention, and social skills.They implement a school counseling program to support students through this important developmental period. The CMS school counseling program provides single and group sessions and intervention activities, which are integrated into all aspects of students’ lives. They are here to support all students of CMS as they navigate the sometimes rough waters of being a middle school student.
🎉 Congratulations to Our Spelling Bee Participants! 🐝
We are thrilled to celebrate the incredible efforts and talents of our students who participated in this year's Spelling Bee! These dedicated individuals showcased their hard work, focus, and impressive spelling skills, making us all proud.
6th Grade: Hayley Garrity, Milly Xu, Aunie Dasgupta, Amelia Salazar
7th Grade: Jane Adelman, Evelyn Sabau, Sara Shulman, Dana Jumagulova
8th Grade: Anastasia Poleshchuk, Leo Salazar, Besseggen Stowell, Eva Petkov
A special congratulations to Anastasia Poleshchuk, who will represent Caruso in the Regional Spelling Bee on March 19th! We wish her the best of luck as she continues to shine.
Let’s applaud all our participants for their dedication and celebrate their success together. Way to go, Spelling Bee Stars!
8th Grade Basketball Wins!
Great job on winning both games on Thursday. Good luck on Friday's game!
Mr. Tomer with Friday Jokes!
Hey! Mr. Tomer kicking off our Friday with some funny jokes.
Bowling!
Our students enjoying some treats at bowling club.
Crazy Hat Day!
Updates and Other Info
Missed a Tech Tip? We got you covered!
In October, we began sharing weekly tech tips in our newsletters to encourage digital safety. If you missed a tech tip or just want to review them, we have a Digital Hub for you to view them at your convenience. Make sure to keep your eyes open for more tech tips to come in the following weeks!
Semester 1 Attendance:
As you review your child’s semester 1 report card, please be sure to pay close attention to the attendance information included at the bottom of the report card. If your child has already missed 10 or more days of school, they may be on pace to be considered chronically absent by the end of the school year.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as absences totaling 10 percent or more of school days—including absences with or without valid cause—during the school year. If a child is absent for 17 days or more during the school year for excused or unexcused reasons, that child is considered chronically absent.
Our goal in District 109 is to work together to ensure the success of every child. As we are entering the second semester of the school year, we want to remind you that regular student attendance is vital to your child’s success. We are committed to working with you, our families, to achieve this goal by supporting your family with any concerns regarding student attendance. There are many people in our building ready to help address any challenges in getting to school regularly or on time. We can also help identify barriers to regular attendance and implement key resources to support your family in these efforts.
Upcoming Spirit Days~
See below for the upcoming Spirit Days in January!
Photos for the Yearbook
If you have any cool pictures you would like to see in the yearbook, please email to ecadkin@dps109.org or hmatan@dps109.org, or you can upload them to this link.
Thank you,
Hayley Matan and Eliza Cadkin
RSVP for the Next Coffee @ Caruso 2/20 @ 6PM
Join us for coffee @ Caruso; a way for the adults in our students' lives to build stronger connections with us at Caruso. Space is limited to 25 people per event. Please RSVP by calling the Caruso Main Office at 847-945-8430. Thanks to the PTO for Sponsoring Coffee.
Traffic Flow Update from our SRO Lauren Maldonado
Drop Off and Pick-up
- Please use only the right lane to drop off your students in the morning. The left lane is for through traffic.
- Do not stop on the crosswalk to drop off students. This becomes a safety concern for our students walking to school.
Parking and Traffic Guidelines
Please be mindful of the surrounding residences when parking. This includes:
- Avoiding blocking driveways or fire hydrants.
- Parking close to the curb to ensure that school buses and emergency vehicles, such as ambulances, can easily pass through.
Additionally, U-turns at the end of Montgomery Road. are not permitted to avoid entering the Caruso Circle around the school. This area experiences heavy foot traffic, especially during dismissal times, so please proceed with caution and be considerate.
Please note that school buses are on a tight schedule, so your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
8th Grade Families
For 8th Grade Parents: Notice of Upcoming Health Lesson
Students will use their Chromebook and headphones to individually join a Zoom call with Candor Health facilitators from our classrooms. PE/Health teachers will be present throughout the class to provide students with needed support. The live virtual format is recommended, as it allows students to use a private chat feature to ask questions they may prefer not to ask in front of their peers.
The following topics are covered in this Candor Health session: consent, definitions of orientation/expression/ identity, anatomy, forms of sexual contact, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
If interested, parents can access Candor Health’s School Program Overview for Parents webinar at https://candorhealthed.org/school-program-overviews-for-parents/. The password for the video your parents will view is Premier25. If you would prefer to opt your child out of this program, please email your child’s PE teacher and me at mschwarz@dps109.org no later than January 17, 2025.
Clubs and Activities
Old News
Student Expectations
Cell Phones
Cell phones will be off and away in lockers from 8:00 am - 3:00 pm every day (8:00 am - 2:00 pm on early release Wednesdays). Here's the why: This will help our students focus on their learning, build relationships with those around them, and hopefully disconnect from the anxiety that comes from even just having a phone in the pocket, wondering what notifications they are missing.
If students are using their phones during the school day, they will be instructed to bring their phone to the main office. There will be a progressive response when this occurs that resets each semester:
First and Second Occurrence: Email home and student picks up phone at the end of the school day.
Third Occurrence: Parent/guardian must come pick the phone up from school. Student will serve a lunch reflection.
Fourth Occurrence +: Parent/guardian must come pick the phone up from school. Student will also drop phone off at office each morning. Student will serve an after-school reflection.
Headphones
MUST be wired and are not used during passing periods.
A student who fails to meet the expectations will be asked to comply with them and may be subject to a verbal warning or behavior check in.
Backpacks & Lockers
Backpacks must be kept in students’ lockers throughout the school day unless it is a documented accommodation. They will not be traveling from class to class. Here's the why: We do not have room in our classrooms to safely store backpacks without having a tripping/fire hazard, and—by keeping backpacks in lockers—we have a wonderful opportunity to teach and reinforce important executive functioning skills with material organization, case-its, and other organizational tools.
Student Deliveries
Arrival and Dismissal
Arrival and Dismissal
If arriving between 7:30 and 7:45, students should enter at the north side of the building at the Athletics Entrance. Students will wait until 7:45 to head to class. If a student needs to see a teacher before school, they will need to present a pass/note/email from the teacher to do so.
After 7:45, students should utilize the following entrances:
All students riding the bus: Athletics Entrance (north side of building)
6th Grade - Front Door (south side of building)
7th Grade - 7th Grade Door, north side of building (walk down sidewalk towards building)
8th Grade - 8th Grade Door, west side of building
Students should enter and exit vehicles only on the passenger side and on to the sidewalk or grass, and once you drop off, please keep moving.
Respect the staff working and please follow their directions. They are doing all they can to keep all students and staff safe.
When the weather is beautiful, we have many students who walk or ride their bikes to school. When the weather is less than ideal, many more students are driven. Please ensure that you leave home early enough to account for the increased volume of traffic. It is expected that students are in class at 8:00 AM ready to learn.
Students entering after 8:00 AM must do so through the main office and will receive a tardy pass.
If you are picking up your student during the school day, please buzz the front door and we will call your student down for dismissal.
Please help us be good neighbors, and do not turn around in driveways in the neighborhood.
Medication, Attendance, & Tardiness to School
Medication
Please do not send any medication, over-the-counter pain pills (Tylenol/Advil/aspirin), or cough drops with your students. State law prohibits students from taking medication at school outside of the nurse's office with a doctors' note on file. We will confiscate any meds found outside of the nurse's office. Contact our school nurse Ms. Gwen Dowell gdowell@dps109.org
Attendance
If your student will not be in school, please report the absence to the health office by phone (847) 945-8430 x6103) or email (carusoattendance@dps109.org) before 8:00 am. If you do not contact our school nurse by this time, she will contact you at home or at work to ascertain your child’s whereabouts. Children must be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. Students will only be dismissed to a parent or legal guardian, or to emergency contacts designated in Family Access.
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Mrs. Klita, Director for Student Services
School: Crawford Day School, Chicago, IL
Mr. Schwarz, Principal
First Year of Teaching: 2013
School: Holmes Jr. High, Mt. Prospect, IL
Mr. Castans, Associate Principal
First Year of Teaching: 2009
School: Hoffman Estates High School
Caruso Middle School
Email: cmsoffice@dps109.org
Website: https://www.dps109.org/Page/9
Location: 1801 Montgomery Road, Deerfield, IL, USA