James Madison Intermediate School

As we continue emphasizing independence, it’s essential for students to know their parent’s or guardian’s phone numbers. Students should be able to recite these numbers from memory. If your phone number has recently changed, please update your contact information in the Parent Portal as soon as possible. If you need assistance with this, feel free to email Ms. Genoval or Ms. Luciano. Having accurate contact information for every parent/guardian is crucial, especially in case of an emergency.

Regarding student phones, the Family Handbook outlines that phones must remain off and stored in book bags during school hours. Smartwatches may only be used as timepieces. Any misuse, such as texting, calling, gaming, or taking pictures, will result in the smartwatch being confiscated and held in the office.

Finally, as the weather turns colder, students will continue to go outside for recess whenever possible. Please ensure your child comes to school dressed appropriately with coats, hats, mittens or gloves, and any other necessary outerwear. While outerwear isn’t permitted in the classroom, these items are important for outdoor activities and transitions to and from the trailers.

Congratulations to Mrs. Agostinacchio for being named JMI's 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year. Congratulations to Mrs. Rizwan, a paraprofessional, for being named JMI's 2024-2025 Educational Support Professional of the Year.

During the month of December, our character education program focuses on CARING. There are many ways that students can show that we are caring school community this month:

• all students are encouraged to wear RED on Friday, December 6.
• our annual Giving Tree is ongoing through Monday, December 9. If willing to particpiate, students can take a tag from the Giving Tree located in the lobby and attach that tag to a new, unwrapped gift that aligns with the gender and age on the tag.
• our Student Council is hosting a Coat Drive to provide new coats to local students in need. The Coat Drive will start Monday, December 9 and end Friday, December 20.

On Monday, December 16, our picture vendor, BNL Photographers will be back at JMI to do individual retakes or to take individual pictures for any student who enrolled after September 24, 2024. We will also be doing our Club Pictures that day. Please keep this in mind if your child will be involved in pictures that day.

If you want to have your child's picture redone from September, please contact BNL directly at https://bnlschoolpictures.com/customer-support/

JMI will be having our winter class parties on Friday, December 20, 2024. Please take a moment to click on the picture of letter and reach out to your child's homeroom teacher with any questions. Unlike the Halloween parties, the Winter Class Parties will take place at different times throughout the day depending on the class' schedule.

JMI is buzzing with anticipation of the Annual Scripps Spelling Bee that is held each year at JMI.

Students will have the opportunity to partake in the spelling bee on Thursday, December 19th with their homeroom. The student, with the highest score, will be selected to represent their homeroom in the school level bee that will take place on Friday, January 10th.

Please see the attached letter with Word Study Lists for each grade level and further clarifications.

This is an optional activity, and students are not mandated to participate in any level of the bee. There will be no makeup opportunities for students who are absent.

NJSLA will take place again in MAY 2025. Specifically, JMI will be testing starting on Monday May 5 and we will be testing through May 15. While make-ups are available, students are pulled out of their class to complete the test. This means that while taking the test, they are missing work that is going on in their classroom. Unless a child is sick, all students should be coming to school for NJSLA Testing and all travel should be avoided.

PAST EVENTS

During the month of November, our PTO hosted several major school events. Our Diwali Celebration on November 15 was a great success and the students had a lot of fun creating crafts and dancing the night away. It was so wonderful to see our students and families attend in traditional attire for the event! The PTO also hosted the Scholastic Book Fair where students had the opportunity to shop for books and novelties. Finally we closed out the month with our annual Thanksgiving Feast. The cafeteria was transformed into a beautiful dining hall with amazing decorations that really help set the mood.

Thank you to our PTO Executive Board and all the volunteers who put in so much work behind the scenes to make these events come to life. They would not happen without you so THANK YOU!!!

UPCOMING EVENTS

On Tuesday, December 10, the PTO will host their annual Gingerbread Night. Flyers went home with the students and registration closes on December 3 at 7:00 PM. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT before it's too late!

The Holiday Shoppe will take place December 17, 18 and 19. All classes will have an assigned time to come down to the Holiday Shoppe to make purchases for themselves or loved ones. That schedule will be shared with you after the break. There will be an opportunity for students who are absent when their class goes to the Holiday Shoppe to come and make purposes on a different day.

As always, we are looking for volunteers to help set up the Holiday Shoppe, assist at the Shoppe during the day and breakdown the Shoppe at the end. The flyer that will come home soon will have the schedule and directions on how to volunteer for the event.

Our next PTO meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 7 at 6:00 PM.

Of course, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mrs. Abatemarco (donna.abatemarco@edison.k12.nj.us) or the JMI PTO (jmipto@edison.k12.nj.us).

Every Sunday (or the day before the first day of school that week), Mrs. Abatemarco will send out a weekly update. Please check your spam/junk folders and send the emails to your inbox to ensure you are up to date on all the latest and greatest JMI news!

If you have checked your spam folders and are still not receiving the weekly updates, please email Mrs. Abatemarco to be added to the list.

Instead of asking families to email the homeroom teacher, we are asking that families email our JMI ATTENDANCE EMAIL ACCOUNT at JMI.ATTENDANCE@EDISON.K12.NJ.US. Both secretaries can monitor this account. We were finding that if teachers were absent or were not able to check their attendance because they were teaching, student's attendance reporting was delayed.

Therefore, we ask that moving forward, families email JMI.ATTENDANCE@EDISON.K12.NJ.US to report your child's absence. If you would like to cc your child's teacher, you may, but the attendance email is the priority account to inform the school of your child's attendance.

Of course, families can still call the school at 732-452-2960 and Press 1 to call in their child's absence as well.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

If your child needs to get picked up early, or if there is a change in dismissal procedure (i.e., your child will be a walker instead of taking the bus, etc.), CALL THE MAIN OFFICE TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE DIRECTLY to ensure that a child is dismissed accordingly. Please do not email changes of dismissals because the email might not be read before dismissal.

Birthdays are very important to the students, and should be celebrated! They are just as important as the academic instruction that our children receive on a daily basis. While we recognize the importance of the celebration, food or goodie bags of any kind (containing food or non-food items) are NOT ALLOWED for birthday celebrations. This includes sending things into school to send home with the students. The following are “non-food” birthday options:

• read a book to the class (either by a parent/guardian, grandparent, or child)

• donate a book to the classroom library

These options will allow for your child to celebrate his/her birthday while having a limited interruption to the classroom instruction.

Invitations to birthday parties cannot be distributed during the school day or on school grounds unless the entire class is invited.

Our Parent Helpdesk and Support Solution has the following modules to support your needs (click on the department name to access the respective helpdesk):

• Technology Department
• Enrollment Department
• Transportation Department
• Special Education Department
• Food Service /Maschio’s Support

Email: donna.abatemarco@edison.k12.nj.us
Website: https://jmi.edison.k12.nj.us/
Location: 838 New Dover Road, Edison, NJ, USA
Phone: 732-452-2960
Twitter: @JMI_Edison