The Cougar News

Hello AMS Families,

Greetings from Washington, D.C.! Our 8th grade students are having a wonderful time on the field trip, and we look forward to returning later this evening. Families of 8th graders will receive a text message when we are approximately 30 minutes away from AMS.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to host our 2nd Annual AMS Culture Night this May. We invite you to participate by sharing your family's heritage and culture with our school community—there’s so much we can learn from one another! To sign up, please [click here].

Please see below for a list of upcoming events next week:

Monday, April 14th

• Softball Game (Home) vs. Apex Friendship Middle

Tuesday, April 15th

• Spring Picture Day

• Soccer Game (Home) vs. Lufkin Road Middle

Wednesday, April 16th

• Track & Field Meet vs. Holly Grove Middle

• Softball Game (Away) vs. Fuquay-Varina Middle

Thursday, April 17th

• Softball Game (Away) vs. Pine Hollow Middle

Friday, April 18th

• Holiday, no school

Thank you for your continued support of Apex Middle School!

Mrs. Raleigh Bame
Principal, Apex Middle School

LAST CALL for Lost and Found! We have MANY unclaimed items! Please stop by the end of the week before they are donated (Deadline is Thursday, April 18th)

• Donations and Angel Fund

  We are grateful for the outreach from many of our parents and community members asking how they can help support school meals and alternative food distribution efforts.

  • To donate the balance of your student's account complete this form. You may choose for your donation to go to:
    • Helping other students who do not have sufficient funds for their meal.
    • Child Nutrition Services to support school meal programming for students.
  • Make a single or recurring donation using the auto-withdrawal feature on MySchoolBucks.com. This is the same site that CNS offers free to families to manage their student’s meal account. Just go to the “School Store” at the top of your home page, select “Browse All Items”, then “School Meal Donations".

• Angel Fund

  Individuals or organizations that want to donate to the Districtwide Angel Fund to help students who don't have enough money to purchase their school meals can complete this form to send with their donation, and those that want to engage others in their community in this effort can use this flyer for outreach.

  
  

Wake County Public Schools has launched a districtwide family survey - Panorama Education Survey, to learn more about you and your child’s experiences in our schools, more specifically here at Apex Middle School. Your responses to this survey will be confidential and only reported in combination with other responses. No one will be able to see individual responses from any parent or guardian. The survey should take about 10-15 minutes. Your honest feedback is essential as we work to create the district, school, and classroom environments that are most supportive for our students.

ELA UPDATES:

Next week we will continue examining PEAK and NON-PEAK behaviors in the characters of FLUSH. Students will be working on a 5 paragraph essay explaining these behaviors in the characters and using text evidence to support their thinking.

Also, please see the library dates below. Students should remember to return books that were checked out!

• Mon 4/14: Grzeszczak

• Mon 4/21: Simpson

• Fri 4/25: Schroeder

Upcoming Major and Minor Assessments:

• Mon 4/14: FLUSH WebQuest Due (Grzeszczak)

• Fri 4/25: Essay Due (Major)

• Mon 4/28: NC Check In C (Simpson & Grzeszczak)

• Tues 4/29: NC Check In C (Schroeder)

• NC Check In is NOT a grade on Q4 Report Card

• Fri 5/2: Daily Language Check In (Minor)

MATH UPDATES:

All 6th grade students should be completing their assignments in DeltaMath and at least 5 lessons in Dreambox each week.

Math 6: We will continue working in Unit 7: Rational Numbers. Students will complete lessons 3-6 in their workbooks. They will conclude the week with a Progress Check (minor grade).

Math 6+: Students will continue working in Unit 12: Data Sets & Distributions. Students will complete lessons 7 - 10. A study guide will go home Monday and the Mid-Unit assessment will be Wednesday (major grade)

Upcoming Major and Minor Assessments:

• Math 6: Mid-Unit Progress Check (MINOR) on Thursday, April 17. Students will receive their assessment in class and may finish at home if needed.
• Math 6+: Mid-Unit Assessment (MAJOR) on Wednesday, April 16.

SCIENCE UPDATES:

Students will begin a new unit this week. We are exploring the relationship between the sun, moon, and Earth. This will include seasons, tides, moon phases, and eclipses. We will also look at data of all the planets to analyze and compare size and gravitational force relative to Earth, surface and atmospheric features, relative distance from the sun, and ability to support life. This unit will include two in class projects (majors) as well as a unit test and other formative assessments.

PLEASE NOTE: Each team has a different order they are using for this unit. Pay attention to assignments below for which team the dates are assigned.

Upcoming Major and Minor Assessments:

None this week

SOCIAL STUDIES UPDATES:

Students will continue this week learning about the social structures in ancient civilizations, including the role of women.

Upcoming Major and Minor Assessments:

Grade Level News:

ELA UPDATES

Upcoming Minor/ Major Assessments:

• Mid-Unit Assessment Monday, 04/14 (Minor)

Math 7:

• Circles Quiz

• Tuesday, 4/15 (Minor)

Math 7+:

• Mid-Unit Assessment Friday, 4/18 (Major)

SCIENCE UPDATES

• No graded assignments this week. We will be working on the Digestive System. Digestive System Quiz on Mon 4/21 (minor)

SOCIAL STUDIES UPDATES

Upcoming Minor/ Major Assessments:

• WWII Unit Vocabulary Quiz, Tuesday 4/15

• WWII Mid Unit Quiz, Thursday, 4/17 (Minor)

Reminder: Due to updated fire code occupancy in our gym, we need to adjust the number of guests each student can invite to the ceremony. 335 students inviting 3 guests (not including the students and staff that will be present) will put our ceremony audience at roughly 1300 people. If your family does not plan to use all three alloted tickets you are welcome to give your ticket(s) to other families.

*** Based on the feedback from last year, we are moving to a ticket system for the ceremony for health and safety reasons.

ELA UPDATES

Students will begin Module 4: Sustainability of the US Food Supply Chain. Students will read sections from Omnivore’s Dilemma to examine how an author delineates an argument.

Upcoming Major and Minor Assignments:

• Museum Project due 4/14 (Major)

Math 8: Students will wrap up the Volume Unit and move on to the Pythagorean Theorem.

• Weekly Agenda

Upcoming Major and Minor Assignments:

• Volume Test on Tuesday, 4/15

Math 1: Students will continue working in the Quadratics Module.

• Weekly Agenda

Upcoming Major and Minor Assignments:

• Quiz -Tuesday, 4/15.

Math 2: Students will be wrapping up Module Six. The grace period for Module Five ends on April 17. No work will be accepted for Mod 5 after this date.

Upcoming Major and Minor Assignments:

• Honors Activity

• Mod 6 Post Assessment

SCIENCE UPDATES

Students will begin the next unit this week, Diseases. The focus will be the four main types of pathogens, the types of diseases caused by the four main types of pathogens, the treatment, and how these pathogens affect the human body

Upcoming Major and Minor Assignments:

• Ebola assessment- skills check

• Typhoid Mary assessment- minor grade

SOCIAL STUDIES UPDATES

Upcoming Major and Minor Assignments:

• None

Webinar for families April 16 and 17: Guiding your child through depression

Educational Leave Policy – Wake County Public School System (WCPSS)

The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) policy for educational leave is designed to support excused absences for educational experiences that are comparable to what a student would have experienced in school.

As per the policy:

“For an excused absence for educational reasons, the intent of the experience should have been educational from the outset and comparable to that which the student would have experienced in school. Family trips and vacations that were not designed, initially, to be educational will not be excused. Signing this form documents that this absence is for valid educational purposes.”

Educational leave is typically granted for experiences such as cultural visits, academic programs, or enrichment opportunities that align with the academic mission of the school. It is important to note that family trips or vacations that are not designed to be educational in nature do not qualify under the WCPSS policy.

Apex Middle School’s Educational Leave Flexibility

At Apex Middle School, we recognize that family travel and extracurricular activities, such as tournaments, can provide valuable experiences that contribute to a student’s growth. While these types of travel may not meet the strict requirements for educational leave as outlined by the county, we have elected to offer some flexibility for our middle school families.

To support our families, Apex Middle School will allow up to five days of excused travel per student, per year, even for non-educational travel such as family vacations or tournaments. This is a courtesy designed to help families balance educational responsibilities with extracurricular and personal opportunities. These absences will be excused under this flexibility, even though they may not meet the specific criteria for educational leave outlined by WCPSS.

However, beyond these five days of excused travel, any further requests for educational leave will need to be based on experiences that are rooted in academic or educational purposes. This includes academic programs, enrichment opportunities, or other educational experiences that are comparable to what the student would have participated in during a regular school day.

NOTE: for the 2024-2025 school year, use the form below for both and educational leave or travel leave request. We are working on creating a separate travel leave request form for the 2025-2026 school year.

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Email: apexms@wcpss.net
Website: www.wcpss.net/apexms
Location: 400 East Moore Street, Apex, NC, USA
Phone: 9193872181