GVMS Weekly Update

GVMS Community,

We would like to celebrate our second exceptionally successful school week. The students are becoming more comfortable and secure in managing their daily schedules and welcoming the high expectations being established for learning and behavior within their grade level teams.

Our students continue to embrace our school mantra, "Jags are safe, respectful, responsible, and compassionate." As a school, we continue to learn, practice, and model these expectations in various school settings like the classroom, hallway, bathroom, and cafeteria. This week our administrative team hosted two separate assemblies reinforcing these principles by reviewing the 2024-2025 Procedural/Discipline Manual and our digital citizenship expectations. We would like to provide you with our GVMS Digital Citizenship Presentation and the video Teen Voices: The Pressure to Stay Connected we shared with students to help you open up dialogue with your child to support our district’s initiative in Developing Digitally Disciplined Students. If you recall, Dr. Bertrando sent the following communication to our entire school community to come together and help our students gain the necessary skills and habits to safely and successfully navigate this digital world.

The students learned that being on time for school means being in their Advisory classroom by 8:00 AM. They also learned that after four unexcused lates a meeting with an administrator and a consequence will occur. So, let’s keep going strong and get to school on time. As a reminder, we still provide free breakfast for all students in our cafeteria from 7:45 to 7:58 a.m. It is a wonderful opportunity to start off the school day with proper nutrition.

This Wednesday, September 11th and Thursday, September 12th will be our first MAP testing days. As a reminder, these assessments are given three times throughout the year to provide our teachers and our students with information to understand better who they are as learners and how they have performed over time. Please make sure to get some rest, eat a good breakfast, and come in with a charged iPad. As a reminder, we have free breakfast for all students here at the middle school.

The historic Garnet Valley Middle School Constitution Day event is just around the corner! Mr. Constitution himself will be arriving at GVMS on September 17th. We encourage students to dress in their favorite red, white, and blue attire. Our social studies teacher will provide more details about this fantastic day.

Should you have any questions about your child’s courses, we encourage you to review the teacher’s Schoology pages, which contain introductory information, course descriptions, and class expectations. We also learned that our technology support link was incorrect in our last parent communication. The correct link is GV Technology Support 1 to 1 plus.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lisa Stenz, Principal

Mr. Rick Martin, Assistant Principal

Dr. Gerry Weinhardt, Assistant Principal

As a reminder, our counselors are now grade-based. Below, you will find the counselor assigned to each class cohort:

• 6th Grade: Mr. Matt Bradshaw

• 7th Grade: Mrs. Marisa Mahon

• 8th Grade: Ms. Wendy Xanthopoulos

• School Counselor: Mrs. Christy Francart

Although Mrs. Francart isn't assigned a specific grade, she will focus on delivering targeted, short-term, small-group interventions throughout the school year. This will allow us to expand and improve upon the various MTSS supports we offer our students.

We sincerely appreciate your trust and support as we implement these positive changes. Our commitment to your child’s well-being remains our top priority. We are confident that this reconfiguration will lead to stronger relationships and better support for all.

It’s almost here, Constitution Day is Tuesday September 17th!

GVMS is hosting the Constitution’s 237th birthday party. As always, the usual "who's who" of American heroes are confirmed to attend the party. In addition, a special visitor will be on the guest list.

The party’s dress code is Red, White and Blue. Start planning your patriotic outfit today!

Party guests are encouraged to donate a non-perishable food item for the “Loaves of Love” food bank located right here in Garnet Valley School District. Collection tables will be set up in the commons area.

Are you interested in being an active member of our school community? We hope you consider joining Student Council this year!

The GVMS Science Olympiad team will have tryouts on Thursday, September 19th in the cafeteria from 3:00 to 4:30. 6th, 7th, and 8th grades are welcome to try out.

Join the Schoology course (code: R44N-28NF-7HHTZ) to see all of the necessary components. As you’ll see, this tryout has 4 parts:

• Teacher Recommendation- Google Form that needs to be submitted by Friday, September 20.

• Student Survey- A Google Form that needs to be submitted by Friday, September 20.

• Meet Sheet on Anatomy- Make a "Meet Sheet" on Anatomy (Skeletal and Muscular Systems (read event description on Schoology). Bring this to the test on Thursday, September 19th.

• Tryout Test-Take the tryout test on Thursday, September 19th.

Students must complete all 4 parts of the tryout on time to be considered for the team. Please read the Schoology directions carefully.

Questions? Email Mrs. Sohail (sohails@garnetvalley.org), Ms. Kunze (kunzec@garnetvalley.org) or Mrs. Hampson (hampsoe@garnetvalley.org)

The GVMS Mathcounts team tryouts will be held on the following dates:

• Test 1: Sprint Round
  Date: Thursday, September 12th
  Time: 3:00 PM - 3:50 PM
  Location: Cafeteria

• Test 2: Target Round
  Date: Tuesday, September 17th
  Time: 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM
  Location: Cafeteria

All 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are welcome to try out. Please bring your own calculators and make arrangements to be picked up by your parents/guardians at 3:45 PM. Remember, you must take both tests to qualify for the team.

This year, our middle school will be hosting the MathCounts Chapter Competition, so this is an exciting opportunity to get involved!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Mrs. Sohail at sohails@garnetvalley.org.

We strongly believe that punctual arrival to school each morning is critical to our student’s success.

• Five parent notes denoting illness or emergency will be accepted throughout the semester, and the lates will be marked as excused. After 5 excused lates, additional lates will be regarded as unexcused unless a legal doctor's excuse is provided. Oversleeping, car trouble, and missing the bus are not excused reasons for lateness (even if accompanied by a parent note).

• Students who accumulate more than four unexcused latenesses per semester will be called to the office and school actions will be taken, which may include detentions and a home and school team meeting to establish an action plan for improvement.

If your student is coming in late or leaving early due to a doctor/ortho visit, please ask the office for a return to school note and send it in with your student to the main office when they return, so their attendance file can be updated.

• Doors will open at 7:40am.

• You will have TWO options for carline drop-off only in the morning. You may utilize the Poolside entrance drop-off location or the GVES parking lot drop-off location.

• Please do not let students out of the car until you’ve reached the GREEN drop-off area.

• School buses will drop off in front of GVMS.

• Carline students are not permitted to use the main entrance of the building.

Students should be seated in 1st period by 8:00am. Late students must be checked-in at the main office.

• We will begin dismissal at 2:54pm.

• Students will be dismissed into two bus locations.

• There will be one parent pick-up area and is located in the GVES parking lot. Please enter off of Station Road.

• Parents needing to also pick up a student from GVES should exit and join the GVES pick-up line.

• The GVES pick-up line forms off of Temple Road entrance at the star on the map.

• Students may not cut across the parking lot.

Health Information

Please update your child's SNAP Health Portal. This needs to be completed each year for your child's medical history as well as OTC medication administration permission.

SNAP Directions

6th Grade Requirements

Physical Exam - Students entering 6th grade are required to have a Physical Exam completed within the last year according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health and submitted to the school nurse. Your child’s physician may use their own form or you can provide the form below for your physician to complete

PhysicalExam.pdf

7th Grade Requirements

Dental Exam: Students entering 7th grade are required to have a Dental Examination form submitted to school.

2024 dental form.pdf

For more health related information, please visit our website.

Breakfast will continue to be free for the the 24-25 school year. Students are able to pick up a breakfast prior to 8:00am. A paid lunch program also remains available.

Click here to access and learn more!

This eBook contains tips and tricks for navigating the transition to middle school as well as how to best support your learner in their quest for agency and growth toward independence. The contents express the ideas of teachers, caregivers, students, and administrators who understand what life is like "in the middle."

Remember to trust in your learner's resilience and embrace the opportunity for growth!

We know that there is so much information shared at the beginning of the school year. Please access Garnet Valley's parent portal, which keeps all of our information in one place. Click here to access the parent portal. To get direct access to some of our services please click the following links.

• Alma - Garnet Valley's Student Information System
• My School Bucks - Register your child for our school lunch program
• Safe Arrival - Report an absence
• Schoology - Garnet Valley Middle School Learning Management System
• GVSD Parent Tech Support - Issues with district technology.
  

Click the link below to access a video that overviews what to do to update your information in Alma.

Video - Alma Navigation for Parents

We look forward to welcoming caregivers into our building throughout the school year. In order to volunteer, community members must obtain clearances. If you have previously submitted clearances to our Human resources Department they are good for five years.

In order to obtain or re-obtain clearances, check out the info provided by the district: Volunteer Clearances document. If you have any questions please contact our office at 610.579.5102 or our district HR office at 610.579.7387.

IMPORTANT: Please add notifications@getalma.com to your email contact list to avoid having future messages blocked by your email provider. Also, be sure to monitor your Spam folder for misrouted messages.

Below are a few suggestions for helping your family navigate the ever-increasing presence of technology:

PA Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force - Safety Tips & Resources

https://onlinesafety.com/#

American Academy of Pediatrics Family Media Plan

https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/media-and-children/family-media-plan-promotional-materials/

Common Sense Media - age recommendations for games, apps, movies, books and more

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Shape the Sky Parent App guide

https://shapethesky.org/app-guide/

Cannabis Resources:

• Cannabis 101 Series for Parents and Caregivers – This video series offers tips and strategies for parents to have open and honest conversations with their child related to substance use, specifically marijuana.
  
• Cannabis Fact Sheet - This fact sheet provides research-based information to help lessen some confusion and help children make educated decisions about what they put into their bodies.
  
• Conversations that Matter Podcast– Cannabis – How it Affects the Behavioral Health of Our Youth Learn why our children and teens are more at risk and how cannabis impacts the developing brains and bodies of our youth.

We know you are swamped right now! We’ll send our update out mid-Sept to give you a little breather...

Achieving our best through creativity, compassion, and community.

Email: stenzl@garnetvalley.org
Website: https://www.garnetvalleyschools.com/gvms
Location: 601 Smithbridge Road
Phone: 610-579-5100
Twitter: @GarnetValleyMS