Cougar Courier

September 13, 2024

Principal's Message

Greetings Elm Families,

Happy Friday! We hope everyone had a wonderful week. Next week is a big week at Elm. On Wednesday & Thursday we will be taking our Fall NWEA Map benchmarking test. It is so important for your students to be in attendance on these days as this benchmark assessment will give us a picture of how your student is performing academically. NWEA Map allows for us to dive deeper into your students academic success and plan for how we will support them for the year. Furthermore, as part of our advisory Olympics this year, any advisory with perfect attendance for testing will be given 10 Olympic points! Additional points will be awarded to those advisories that have high percentages of attendance as well! Should you have any questions regarding the testing, please see the letter here for additional information.

A huge congratulations to our boys and girls softball teams for coming out strong in their first games of the season and to our cross country team for competing in their first mini-meet. If there's one thing I know, Cougar Athletics never disappoints! Keep it up, team! Go Cougars!

Don't forget; save the date! Elm Middle School Picture Day is September 17th, 2024. No worries if you don't take pictures this day, we will have a retake day on October 15th!

Please take a few minutes to read through this week’s Cougar Courier. As always, should you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly. Have a fabulous weekend! #TeamElmStrong

Most Sincerely,
Ms. Ashley Groeneveld

Assistant Principal's Corner

ELM - Student Grade Update - Time to Check PowerSchool

Good afternoon Elm Families,

Our academic year is now full swing and there are multiple assignments in the gradebook. As a reminder, your students efforts and performance in ALL content areas are factored in to their ability to stay on track to participate in athletics, extracurriculars, and even the continuum that will impact their ability to participate in graduation functions. As of now, there are 243 grades in the gradebook that are below grade level expectation. Some students may have multiple "1's" in their profile. Please check your students grades; they can and should make up any missing work. If your student expresses that it is "too late" to make up work, or "the teacher will not accept it," I assure you this is not the case. Your student always has work that he or she can do to improve their academic performance. Please reach out with any questions regarding your students current grades.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

David Parolin

Assistant Principal

Dean's Den

The Advisory Olympics!

Hell Elm Families,

This year, we have created a fun new opportunity for our students to get more involved and promote a better school culture through our Advisory Olympics! This has been a great opportunity for students to build community, while also being a little competitive!

This week, we had our Door Decorating contest. Please enjoy some awesome Doors that were decorated by our awesome students!

Ms. Korteling- Monaco!

Ms. Berkery- Egypt!

Ms. Mastrianni- Equador!

Ms. Slokva- Cyprus!

Ms. Kulikowski- Australia!

8th Grade Families

We are so excited to start this year and celebrate the Graduating class of 2025 all year long. Please fill out this form to sign-up!

This year we are collecting as one lump sum for all the activities and graduation events. Included in this one time payment is:

2-field trips with lunch included

Graduation gown with delivery to Elm Middle School

8th grade graduation t-shirt signed by all students

Graduation card personalized from parents and balloon

Total cost $100

***PAT is still hosting the dinner dance, that communication will come separately in the upcoming months.***

Cougar Athletics

We're looking forward to another very exciting year of Cougar Athletics! The Leyden Norwood Athletic Conference schedule can be found here!

As a reminder, any student interested in participating in athletics at Elm this year, must have an active physical on file! Be sure to check with the nurse to ensure your student is able to tryout! Addtionally, take time to review the student and parent code of conduct from the Leyden Norwood Athletic Conference here. We will have annoucements for tryouts and athletics meetings as seasons are approaching!

Boys Soccer Tryouts

We're excited for another season of Boys Soccer at Elm, here is the information regarding tryouts! As a reminder all athletes must have an active sports physical on file to try-out!

6th grade tryouts are Tuesday, September 10th

7th grade tryouts are Friday, September 13

8th grade tryouts are Tuesday, September 17th

Tryout Location for the 10th and 17th- Elmwood Elementary

Tryout Location for the 13th- Elm Middle School

Times: 3:30- 5pm

Physicals must be in with the nurse before tryout date.

Questions please see Ms, Mastrianni or email at mastriannil@epcusd401.org

Cougar Celebration Store

Elm Extra-Curricular Activities

Our goal is to provide as many opportunities as possible for our students to contribute to our school community not only inside the classroom but outside of it as well. We offer a wide variety of activities for our students to participate in! Encourage your Cougar to try something new or keep going with something they already have been! Here is the list of all of our offerings at Elm, with scheduled meeting days and sponsors!

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to a sponsor of an activity!

The Elm PAT

A huge thank you to our Elm PAT for always supporting our school community! Here is a detailed schedule of all things Elm PAT for the 2024-2025 school year! Our first meeting will be next Thursday, September 19th at 5:30pm in the Elm library! We're looking forward to an amazing year connecting with our families.

Box Tops for Education

Earn cash for our school by using the Box Tops app. It’s an easy way to make a difference. All you have to do is buy Box Tops participating products (like Cheerios!) and scan your grocery receipt. Box Tops are worth $.10 each and they add up fast! Use this referral code K7Y8751D when you sign up and you’ll get 25 Bonus Box Tops when you scan your first receipt through 05/31/2025. Download the Box Tops for Education app here: https://btfe.smart.link/c2jjdifkw?referral_code=K7Y8751D