Journey Family,

Welcome to the jungle, where we courageously navigate the unknown and embrace every twist and turn, striving for excellence in academics, character, and personal growth! Our dedicated faculty and staff are committed to providing a safe, supportive, and equitable school environment where all students are inspired to meet their fullest potential.

We believe in fostering a love for learning, encouraging creativity, and building strong, positive relationships. Whether you are new to the jungle or returning, we look forward to embarking on this educational journey together as we embrace every experience, challenge, and discovery with perseverance and adaptability.

We have a fantastic year ahead filled with engaging classes, extracurricular activities, and opportunities for every student to shine. Get ready to explore new subjects, meet new friends, and achieve great things in the jungle!

Let's make this school year memorable and successful! Welcome to Journey Middle School – where every step of your journey matters, and in the world of the wild, the Jaguar reigns supreme!

Treva Stewart, JMS Principal

All items will be shipped to your home. Our store closes September 2.

Click the link below to sign up to be a 2024-2025 Journey PTA member! It is a part-time commitment, and you will be put on our volunteer list to help when you can.

Click "Givebacks" below. Be sure to select 2024-2025 from the drop-down menu. Membership is only $10.00!

If you have any questions, email journeymiddleschoolpta@gmail.com.

Below is the link to our MCS Code of Conduct.

Below is the link to our JMS Student Handbook.

Please review our Madison City Schools district calendar.

Below are our 2024-2025 weekly rotations.

The Advisory Schedule will begin on Tuesday, August 20. Unless otherwise announced, we will be on the advisory schedule every Tuesday.

All students are required to take final exams, and attendance is very important. Please review our JMS Fall Exam and Spring Exam schedules. Please make travel arrangements after these dates, as early exams are not given. If the parent/guardian contacts the principal to make arrangements, any missed exams will have to be taken at a later time. These tests will impact the student’s grades. EXAMS WILL NOT BE GIVEN EARLY.

Below is our 2024-2025 Grading Calendar.

Below is our i-Ready testing calendar.

Below is our 2024-2025 State Testing Dates.

Schedules are viewable in PowerSchool for returning Madison City students. Parents, if your student is new to Madison City, your student's guidance counselor will email you their schedule.

If there is an issue with your schedule, please complete the JMS Schedule Error form, and a JMS staff member will either correct if there is an error or contact you via email or phone.

Please note that students are not guaranteed elective choices. Replacement electives may have been scheduled due to a lack of availability of primary and alternate choices. In some cases, scheduled electives were the only available option.

Additionally, please check to ensure your students are enrolled in English Language Arts, Math, Science (semester), Social Studies (semester), at least one Physical Education, and World Language course if they are in 6th grade, and all students should be enrolled in an Advisory course. Please remember Social Studies and Science should not be in the same semester.

This event is for new to MCS students and rising 6th graders. Print or take a photo of your schedule on PowerSchool and tour the jungle to locate your classes. Please park in the MCS Stadium parking lot and enter through the main entrance. Students and parents will not meet teachers.

Parents will be able to meet their student's teachers. Please park in the MCS Stadium parking lot and enter through the main doors and roam at your own pace to meet teachers.

You can now pay the $25.00 General Fee and $25.00 2024-2025 PE uniform fee. This year's PE uniform is a purple t-shirt and short with gold writing. All PE uniforms will given to students in PE class.

These payments can be made at the eschool payment link below. Our eschool payment link be located on our Journey homepage on the task bar labeled Online Fee Payments, click Proceed to Payment Pages, and click Journey Middle School , and complete the form to make payments.

Course Fee sheets will be given to students in early August after all schedule changes have been made. The only fees we we are accepting right now are our $25.00 General Fee and $25.00 2024-2025 PE uniform fee.

These payments can be made at the eschool payment link below and there is a quick JMS Fee Reference Sheet for parents. Our eschool payment link be located on our Journey homepage on the task bar labeled Online Fee Payments, click Proceed to Payment Pages, and click Journey Middle School , and complete the form to make payments.

All extracurricular fees may be paid on our Journey homepage on the task bar labeled Online Fee Payments (link below); click Proceed to Payment Pages, click Journey Middle School , and complete the form to make payments.

Alabama state law requires that students be present during school hours. Parents will be notified of student absences by an automated email and by written notification according to the following guidelines:

• An automated email will be sent after each absence, and a letter will be sent home after a student has accumulated five unexcused absences.
• After the seventh unexcused absence, the system's attendance office will petition the District Attorney's office.

All parent and doctor absence notes should be uploaded through your parent portal account. You will get an email notification that your note has been received from JMS personnel. If, for some reason, you are unable to upload your excuses to PowerSchool, please email your student's excuse to jmsattendance@madisoncity.k12.al.us. Please check PowerSchool to ensure your excuse note has been coded correctly. We will not accept excuses by any other means, and notes will not be accepted outside the MCS Board Policy three-day window.

As a reminder, students in secondary schools are allowed to be excused on a parent's note five days per semester. If the school needs clarification on a message, you may be asked to bring an original copy of the doctor's note to the school.

If a child is absent for more than 18 days, whether the absences are excused or unexcused, the Alabama State Department of Education considers them chronically absent. Points are taken away from the school on the A-F Accountability Report Card for EACH child who has 18 absences or more each school year, no matter the reason for the excuse.

The school administration monitors tardies. It is essential that your child is present at the beginning of the school day, and instruction begins at 8:15 a.m.

Below are the instructions to upload your excuse notes in PowerSchool. Additionally, you mail email all excusenotes to jmsattendance@madisoncity.k12.al.us.

All parent and student resources can be located on our website on our Parents/Students under Resources.

Dear Jaguar Parents/Guardians,

The time has quickly approached to welcome our students to another great year at Journey Middle School! We are excited and looking forward to meeting your students who are new to us and seeing our returning students soon. Please read the following information carefully regarding medication and supply drop-off procedures for your student.

The first day of school is Thursday, August 1, 2024 and we know that this day will be filled with a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. This day will also be exceptionally busy and as your school nurse, I would like to offer you the opportunity to drop off any medication and completed forms outside of the first day of school and Open House so that you may focus all your attention on your student during those times.

Medication(s) that will be given to your student daily, in an emergency or as needed while at school can be dropped off with the school nurse on the following days and times:

*Monday, 7/29/24 & Tuesday, 7/30/24 between 8:30 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. and 1:00p.m.-4:00 p.m.

*Wednesday 7/31/24 between 9:30a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Any medications that are considered self-carry medications can also be dropped off at the above mentioned times, but will still have to be checked in by parent/guardian so the proper paperwork can be signed. Appointments are highly recommended to decrease wait times as much as possible, but if no appointment is scheduled please prepare for any potential wait times. Parent(s)/guardian’s of diabetic students are REQUIRED to schedule an appointment for drop-off of medications, supplies and etc due to the intake process being a bit more lengthy and I want to ensure that we allot enough time for this.

What to bring:

1. Completed Provider/Parent Authorization (PPA) Forms (use the following link):

https://www.madisoncity.k12.al.us/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=2069&dataid=27828&FileName=PPA%2004-2024.pdf

2. Any prescription medications with pharmacy label (that matches the current PPA) affixed to the container (this includes inhalers, EpiPens, Insulin Pens, pills, etc) and are unexpired. PPAs are good for one calendar year. Label cannot say “See Instructions” or “At Lunch.” Ask your physician to be specific.

3. Completed Over the Counter PPA (use the following link):

https://www.madisoncity.k12.al.us/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=2069&dataid=27829&FileName=PPA_OTC_04-2024.pdf

4. Over the counter medications must be unopened, in their original container and unexpired.

5. Any supplies your child may need for specialized medical procedures in a labeled, plastic container with lid.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me via email at nnwilson@madisoncity.k12.al.us.

I look forward to extending my care to our Jaguar families and creating the healthiest journey possible this year.

Madison City Schools is excited to partner with Health Establishments at Local School, Inc. (HEALS Inc.) to offer a mobile clinic for students who do not have private medical and/or dental insurance. Click the link to see the calendar below for when the Mobile Clinic will be at our schools.

Parents and students can view weekly announcements on their PowerSchool homepage and The Journey Journal will be sent home weekly. Additonally, all events can be located on or JMS school calendar on our website. The link is below.

Lost and found items will be placed in the main office. We will donate any items not retrieved to charity at the end of each nine weeks. Students may visit the Lost and Found before or after school.

We will issue Chromebooks to our new students during the first few weeks of school. If there are any needs regarding a student device. Click the Incident IQ link below to create a support ticket.

Parents and students may view our bus stops and daily bus arrivals/departures/updates. These documents can be located under Parents & Students/Resources on our website and are linked below. JC and BJ athletic buses will pick up daily. If there is a day they cannot pick athletes up, we will notify students. We will update all bus information when we receive it form Transportation. Additionally, we will send an email via Blackboard Messenger.

The Edulog Parent Portal Lite app provides you with information on the GPS location of your child’s school bus and sends you an optional push notification when the bus is nearing your stop or other locations that you define - such as the school or neighborhood entrance. All instructions for downloading Edulog are below. We will send a Blackboard Messenger email with our school code for Edulog before school before the first day of school.

Parents will enter and exit our car line on Shorter Street from east and west. We will remove our cones to allow parents to access the stadium parking lot at 7:30 a.m. After entering Shorter Street, traffic will flow down the west side of the parking lot, and the car drop-off is on the southwest side of the campus (reference the loop near the bike rack). Once cars enter the car loop, the first car will pull around to the end of the sidewalk, and students will exit their vehicles.

It is important for everyone to follow our official car line route for safety precautions. Please remember there is no adult supervision before 7:40 a.m., and the car line closes at 8:10 a.m. Students arriving after 8:10 a.m. will need to enter through the front doors. Our afternoon carline is from 3:20-3:45 p.m. We will open carline at 2:30 p.m. After 3:45 p.m., all students waiting on a ride will be escorted to the main entrance to contact their parents and wait to be picked up at the main entrance.

Parents, if you need to come inside the school, please access the school from Celtic Dr.

If your student is a walker or bike rider, they will use the sidewalk on Garner Street and ride/walk to the pedestrian crosswalk adjacent to our car rider loop located near the back of our building. Our bike racks are near the crosswalk. Please see the snippet below from our Car Line Map.

Below is our 2024 Football Schedule.

Below is our 2024 Volleyball Schedule.

All students interested in being an athletic team manager should complete the Google form by Friday, August 16.

Website: https://www.madisoncity.k12.al.us/Journey
Location: 217 Celtic Drive, Madison, AL, USA
Phone: 256-774-4695
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/journeyjags/
X (Formely Twitter): @journeyjaguars