Hello Scarborough Middle School Families,

Please take a close look at this week’s Friday Family News. There are lots of important pieces of information included this week.

Respectfully,

Kathy Tirrell, Principal

Chris Murphy, Assistant Principal

Parent conferences will be held from Monday, March 10 to Thursday, March 20, with all teachers being available until 7 pm on either Thursday, March 13, or Tuesday, March 18. This time is another way for you to get feedback about your child’s learning, aside from PowerSchool, and any individual communications that you might have with teachers throughout the school year. Scarborough Schools use an online format, Conference Manager, to schedule conferences.

Key points in regards to conferences:

• Conferences are set for 15 minutes each.

• Students are encouraged to attend with parents, as they are critical participants in their learning.

• Conferences will be held in person. If you need an alternative accommodation, please reach out directly to the teacher.

• Time constraints allow for families to sign up with one core subject teacher (Mathematics, ELA, Social Studies, Science) from your team. All teams work together in advance to collect feedback to share with you from all core classes.

• You may also sign up with Allied Arts (PE, Health, Art, Music, Band, STEM) or World Language teachers.

• Special education teachers, counselors/social workers, and support teachers are also available to meet during this time.

We strongly encourage you to reach out to school personnel ANYTIME, not just at conferences. Staff are always available by email, and would be happy to talk via phone call or meet in person at a mutually agreed upon time as well. We are committed to partnering with you towards your child’s benefit.

We have been working hard to create a new, engaging and team building fundraising opportunity for our students. We would like to introduce our 1st Annual (hopefully!) Penny War that will run from March 17 - April 10!

A Penny War is when students collect points in the form of money in rounds. Pennies and paper are POSITIVE points (ex. 1 cent is 1 point, $5 is 500 points), silver coins are NEGATIVE points (ex. $0.25 is -25 points).

What we NEED... students will be counting their points weekly, and turning their bags into THE BANKERS (that's you!!) to be double checked for elimination. HERE is a sign up to become one of our bankers. Since this is the first time we have done this, timelines are approximate, please be flexible with us!

Money raised from this school wide fundraiser will be used to support activities for students at all grade levels!

Please reach out to

msoffice@scarboroughschools.org or

nmarceau@scarboroughschools.org

Thank you in advance for your support on our exciting fundraiser!

SMS Staff

Thank you to all the families who have donated so far! We are still in need of 21 large empty and cleaned out pretzel/cheese ball containers or similar size/style see through containers with lid for our upcoming Penny War Fundraiser!

If you have any empty containers at your home that you would be willing to donate please drop them off at the SMS main office.

Items needed by March 11th!

The 6th Grade Learning Community is participating in the Junior Achievement Program, It’s My Future, on Monday, March 10 during the first four class periods of the day. During these presentations, students engaged in a variety of hands-on activities and experiences. We are excited to share that this year’s 20 presenters are all Scarborough Alumni!

Each year, as part of the eighth graders’ transition from middle school to high school transition, Scarborough High School hosts a Step Up Night. This year’s Step Up Night is on Monday, March 10, 2025! This event will take place in the SHS Auditorium (Winslow Homer Center for the Arts). It will start at 6:00pm and run until approximately 7:30pm.

If you missed the prior communication about Step Up Night see the link below!

SHS has put together a Step up video please take a moment to watch with your 8th grade student!

The 7th grade team is seeking 11 volunteers for their Junior Achievement Day on May 19th. Please reach out to Jesseca Steele (jsteele@jamaine.org) for more information.

Please consider donating your Hannaford School dollars to Scarborough Middle School. With your help last year SMS was one of the top participating schools!

We are excited to announce the 3rd Annual All-Town Chorus Concert! This concert features student musicians from all six schools in grades 2-12. Due to popular demand, this year’s event will be held in SHS’s Alumni Gym. As such, families will not need to reserve tickets ahead of time. The concert is free and open to the public. Please join us in person or via livestream on Tuesday, March 25th at 6:30pm for this wonderful community celebration!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzUFTVb9nUs

Tooth Protectors Inc. Dental Care is Coming Back to Wentworth!

We will provide Fluoride and Screenings at no cost for all School Age Children on behalf of the State Oral Health Program Click HERE for more Information

Return this PERMISSION FORM by March 20.

Students who attended the fall clinic do not need to fill out a new form, simply notify the clinic so we can plan for appointments and coordinate transportation as needed.

Please contact the clinic at 207-730-4800 if you need assistance, or email msnurse@scarboroughschools.org

Once signed up and appointment times are assigned students from SMS will be escorted to Wentworth for their appointment times.

Reminder that yesterday was our second (and final) "Traditional Snow Day." This means that per our school calendar and plan, any future school cancellations due to inclement weather will be remote learning days. Remote learning days will be asynchronous days (students will not login for live classes).

Lessons and Assignments

Teachers will give students an assignment a day or a couple of days before a possible snow day, in case school is canceled. Teachers will also post the assignment on their Google Classrooms. Students are responsible for checking their Google Classrooms based on their class schedule. The assignments will be due within two school days upon returning to school.

Teacher Availability

Provided that teachers/staff have power, they will be available between the hours of 7:40-2:40 by email to support students who may need assistance in completing their assignments or need to check in for any other support.

Attendance

A Google Form will be sent out to students’ email addresses by the office staff to collect attendance/participation information. The form will be sent out by 8:30 a.m. and we ask students to fill the form out by 10:00 a.m. Parents will also receive a reminder email that their student(s) need to fill out the attendance form. If this information can not be collected due to power outages, please contact the office the next day at 730-4800 or by email msoffice@scarboroughschools.org.

SMS Remote snow day #1 Attendance form: this form will be accepting responses on the day of our first remote snow day.

SPS Closure Hub

Meals will be provided during remote learning snow days. Non-perishable meals will be sent home in advance with all students who a meal has been requested for. Please fill out this form to have your child's name added to the list of kids receiving a meal. If you have multiple children, please fill out the form for each child individually. After each remote learning snow day, we will send home another non-perishable meal for possible future remote learning days. You do not need to resubmit on the form again for each remote learning snow day. Once you are on the list you are on it for the winter, if you would like to be removed from the list, please contact your school.

2024-25 Scarborough School Calendar

MARCH

• Spring Parent Teacher Conferences

March 10

• 8th Grade Step up night @ SHS at 6:00

March 11

• Grade 6-12 Band Concert at SHS at 7:00

March 14

• Staff Only Day, NO SCHOOL for Students

March 25

• All Town Chorus Concert 6:30 at SHS

APRIL

April 3

• End of Quarter 3

April 9

• Early Release Day

April 18- April 25

• April Break- NO SCHOOL

Looking Ahead:

MAY

6th Grade Dance-

• Friday, May 2 from 5:00pm-7:00pm

7th Grade Dance-

• Friday, May 16 from 5:00pm-7:00pm

JUNE

8th Grade Celebration and Dance

• Friday, June 6

Families should report their middle school student's absence from school by calling the SMS main office at 207-730-4800 or by email at msoffice@scarboroughschools.org. A reason for the absence must be stated, otherwise SMS office staff will reach out to determine the reason for the absence.

Excusable reasons for an absence:

• illness
• appointment
• religious holiday
• family emergency
• planned absence

For Planned Absences (a day out of school which is not illness or medical appointment related), families should fill out the Scarborough Middle School Planned Absence for which is found here.

For questions about attendance, please contact the Scarborough Middle School main office at 207-730-4800 or email us at msoffice@scarboroughschools.org

Email: msoffice@scarboroughschools.org
Website: https://sms.scarboroughschools.org/
Location: 21 Quentin Drive, Scarborough, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 730-4800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarbmeschools/
Twitter: @scarbmeschools