Whittier Wire

• October 10: Grade 7 to Camp Connor
• October 11: Staff Workshop Day - No school for students
  
• October 14: Indigenous Peoples' Day/Columbus Day
• October 18: Progress Report 1 goes home
• Week of October 21: Student Led Conferences
• November 10: Tri-Town Family 5K at 10:00am

Click here for the RSU 16 District Calendar

• Grade 7 students brought home permission slips for a Camp Connor Trip on Thursday. Students need to bring the slips back signed to participate. See the slips for details about the outdoor learning day.
• Last call for summer reading forms! If your child read a book or books last summer, they should write the books and authors on a sheet of paper with their name and submit the sheet to Ms. Olson in the library by Wednesday. We have a summer reading party coming up soon.
• Student Led Conferences invitations will be sent out this week. We hope everyone will have the opportunity to join us during the week of October 21. Evening conferences will be available on October 23.

There seems to be some good energy and high participation in the Whittier Mile-a-Day Challenge. As I shared with the students, weekends can be streak-breakers because sometimes we forget to schedule our mile.

We were really lucky with great weather this past week. Temperatures look like they are going to drop in the week ahead, and we may have a rainy day in there. Keep those streaks alive! #WhittierMADChallenge

We plan to have our 2nd Annual Great Pumpkin Run on October 31st. It was awesome last year. If you would like to join us to volunteer or cheer the kids on, plan for 1:00 on 10/31. I will communicate more details next week.

We held our first grade-level assemblies of the year this week. The first topic on the agenda was attendance. Did you know that if your student misses just 2 days of school each month for an entire school year they are considered chronically absent? This would mean they have been absent 18 school days over the course of the school year and missed 10% of school for that academic year. If a student misses 2 days a month every year they are in school they would have been absent for an entire year of school by the start of their 10th grade school year! That statistic is alarming. Two days a month may not seem like much time missed from school but it adds up. Attendance at Whittier Middle School for September was 95.04%, with the 7th grade attending 95.33% and the 8th grade attending 94.8% of school days. We were able to celebrate 137 of our students who had perfect attendance this month!

Second, we celebrated our Mid-Knights of the Month. Teachers recognized students who started the year strong and stood out for a variety of reasons. Although many students could have been selected, a special congratulations goes to 7th graders Elyse H., Max K., and Junia T. as well as 8th graders Ellis N., Eddie J., and Abby B..

We concluded our assembly by recognizing that October is Bullying Prevention Month and students had a presentation about bullying and how to be the kindness you crave in order to prevent bullying in our school.

Last spring, these 8th graders wrote argumentative letters proposing a change in the world and sent those letters out to someone who had the power to make that change. Congratulations to Eli, Ian, Summer, Ava, Nina, Lauren, Ranger, Elliot, Juliette, Lily, Tucker, Abigail, Liam, and Ellis for receiving personal letters back from Representative Chellie Pingree, Senator Susan Collins, members from the US Department of Education, MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr., and President Joe Biden.

Your voices matter!

Students in Mrs. Gilbert’s class learned about story elements as characters in an adventure that ended in an epic dragon battle climax.

Come and get your stitch on! The Whitter Stitch Club will resume on October 16, 2024.

Time: End of school until 3:30 (Please make sure you have a prompt ride)

Location: Room C137 (Mrs. Shanning's Room)

Questions: Please reach out to Ms.Carmody with any questions. ccarmody@rsu16.org

Current 8th graders are eligible to travel to Ireland in June 2026 with PRHS. This will be a 10 day STEM based tour investigating agriculture in Dublin, Galway and Kilkenny. There will be an informational parent meeting in the PRHS Library on Wed Oct 9th at 6pm. RSVP to the meeting using THIS LINK to get more information.

Registration is open for Winter Athletics at Whittier Middle School. Please register early. We will begin Basketball practices November 12. We appreciate early registration!

Register here: https://hello.students.arbitersports.com/

We have a Spirit Store for Whittier Middle School. Access it here:

MidKnights Sideline Store.

This week in Whittier Athletics:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Whittier Middle School's Tri-Town Family 5K will take place on Sunday, November 10th, 2024 and it is open to everyone. Join us for a fun family morning on the Minot trails and fields.

Registration is open...and it's free! Let's get the word out there and make this the biggest and best event so far.

We are seeking local sponsors to help make the big day a special one. Tell your friends. Last call for sponsors - deadline 10/11! Interested potential sponsors should contact Shawn Vincent (svincent@rsu16.org or 998-3462). Sponsors are coming in! This week, we added Quarter Acre Construction in Minot. This is a great event for students, families and all members of our communities.

Visit the website to register or get more information.

Email: svincent@rsu16.org
Website: https://www.rsu16.org/bwms
Location: 1457 Maine Street, Poland, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 998-3462