Jaguar Journal

No School, Friday, April 18th: Spring Holiday

8th Grade Promotion: Save the date for out 8th grade promotion which will be Friday, May 23 at 9:30. 8th grade families should have received a letter from Mr. Freeman outlining the end of year activities and expectations.

Illinois Science Assessment (8th Grade Only): Our 8th grade students will be participating in the Illinois Science Assessment on April 22 & 23..

Community Connection Newsletter: Visit https://www.champaignschools.org/page/newsletter to view the newsletter. Be sure to sign up to receive future editions.

Community Events: Here is the link on the Unit 4 website of different events happening in our community. This will be updated each month so please be sure to check it out.

Focused Learning Statement

Jefferson Middle School students will expand their content area vocabulary knowledge in order to increase reading comprehension of informational and literary texts.

Words have power; use them wisely.

We are going to be offering an optional Roller Skating Unit from April 28th - May 16th during P.E. hours. Students will need to fill out the Permission slip and bring in a Skate Rental fee of $13. We will be skating for at least 10 days, so it breaks down to less than $1 a day! If students do not want to skate, they will be assigned to another PE Unit during this time. We have provided a paper copy to each student during their class time.

Skating slots are First Come First Serve, since we can only allow about 30 students to skate each hour. Please send your completed permission slips and fees (cash or Check made payable to Jefferson Middle School) to your student's PE teacher ASAP. All Permission slips and Fees are due by Wednesday, April 16th.

Please feel free to reach out to your student's PE teacher if you have any questions!

Congratulations to the 24-25 JMS Jazz Ensemble for a great season! They wrapped up with a final performance at the Central Jazz Festival last Saturday. A special shout out to our 8th graders: Kenzie Heggemeyer, Kaelan McDuffie, George Peterson, Jekayla Powell, and Abigail Gilliam. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to our jazz groups. We will miss you next year!

• Spring Holiday, No School, April 18

• ISA (8th Grade Only), April 22, 23, & 24

• 6th Grade Field Trip, April 28 & 29

• Early Out (12:35), May 5

• MAP Testing, May 6 & 7

Please know that the offices can no longer pass messages to students past 2:00pm. We risk students not getting the message.

If you need to get a message to your student through the offices, please call us before 2:00pm.

Thank you!

Please use the following phone number when calling in your student for an absence: 217-351-3786 or email Mrs. Madden at maddenli@u4sd.org.

8th grade science classes will build and launch bottle rockets in May. We are in need of 2 liter bottles. As many as you can give is greatly appreciated!

Sixth graders will be attending two field trips this spring! In April, we will be going to Lake of the Woods to dive into some hands-on science! Free lunch will be provided by Domino's pizza. The Leaders team is going on April 28th and the Legends team is going on April 29th. Then in May we will be taking a trip to the UIUC campus. There we will visit the Spurlock Museum to analyze historical artifacts and the Institute of Genomic Biology to check out some experiments. Free lunch will be provided by the Illinois Street Dining Center. Leaders will be going on May 15th and Legends will be going on May 16th.

Keep up to date with Jefferson Athletics on Facebook! Follow for try-outs announcements and schedules/game updates!

The deadline to purchase a yardsign is April 18th.

If you would like to purchase some Jefferson Apparel take a look at our school store!! The store has a large variety and you can order ANYTIME. Order soon to get $20 off orders over $100 with code SAVE20

The following are the names and contact information for the administrators and counselors who will be working with each grade level. They will be your first point of contact for any student concerns, questions, etc. that should arise.

• Principal: Kyle Freeman (freemaky@u4sd.org)

• Associate Principal: Megan Kirby (kirbyme@u4sd.org)

• 6th Grade:

• Mark Butler, Dean of Students (butlerma@u4sd.org)

• Abby Fadelle, Counselor (fadellab@u4sd.org)

• 7th Grade:

• Jeremy Wills, Assistant Principal (willsje@u4sd.org)

• Todd Griffith, Counselor (griffito@u4sd.org)

• 8th Grade:

• Taylor Foltz, AD/Dean (foltzta@u4sd.org)
  

• Jessica Joyner, Counselor (joynerje@u4sd.org)
  

• MTSS Counselor: Whitley Tate, Counselor (tatewh@u4sd.org)

• When dropping your student off in the morning you may drop off in the circle drive or anywhere around Jefferson. Please me mindful to not block traffic in the morning. All students will enter through the main entrance of Jefferson.

• During pick up DO NOT park in the circle drive. MTD and district buses park in the circle drive starting at 2:20. We dismiss at 2:35 and students can exit using their nearest exit of the building.

• Parking in the staff parking lots in order to drop off and/or pick up your student before or after school is NOT ALLOWED. If you are dropping off your student before school for practice or rehearsal, you must drop them off in the circle drive, and they have to enter through the main entrance Do not pull through the service drive.

• Do NOT BLOCK TRAFFIC FLOW IN AND OUT of the circle drive at any time
  

Lunch time at the Middle School is a time where students can eat (lunch is free for all Unit 4 students), socialize appropriately, and take a "brain break" from their school day.

Please note: Students are not allowed to order from food delivery services during their lunch times because they cannot exit building doors to retrieve the items. IF food is ordered (by either the student OR family) and delivered in the Main Office, your students will not receive their food order. Thank you for understanding. Food deliveries cause multiple challenges for our staff, so we appreciate your adherence to this request.

Cell Phone usage in schools has been a nationwide "hot topic." Everyone from the federal government to the surgeon general is weighing in.

The fact of the matter is this: Cell Phone usage in classrooms/schools can be distracting from the learning environment, and can also be harmful to mental/social health.

Jefferson Middle School will be following our Unit 4 School Board Policy regarding Cell Phone usage. Please review the Cell Phone & Electronic Device Guidelines with your student(s).

We encourage you to speak with your student(s) about cell phones. Cell phones will not be aloud at any point throughout the day at Jefferson, this includes lunch. Cell Phones should ideally be put in a student's locker or in a binder. They should not be sitting out on a desk/table.

Is your student concerned about their safety or the safety of others? Securly is a program the district uses for students to report issues around safety. Students can access this program through email, phone, website or app. See below for access information.

• Download the Securly Tipline app from the App Store or Google Play

• Call or text 1-833-300-STOP

• Email tipline@securly.com

• Follow this link: securly.com/tip

Home Access Center (HAC) is a great way to get information about your students' grades, attendance, class assignments, etc.!

Please read the one-pager below and feel free to watch the short videos about Home Access Center.

HAC One-Pager for Families

HAC Introduction Video
Checking Schedules and Grades Video
Checking Attendance Video