Fugett Flash

We had a fantastic opening day today here at Fugett. Students and staff were smiling, music was blaring, and lockers were opening! We kicked off the morning in homerooms, and then quickly moved to individual grade level Town Hall meeting. During this meeting, students learned about ICARE, the CARE Card reward program, academic expectations, and student behaviors. Special attention was given to phones, devices, hallways, and bathrooms. Be sure to ask your kids about toothpaste and how it's like the words we use.

We will revisit the key takeaways during Open House, but please reinforce these programs and expectations at home by asking your children about the cards and rewards we have in store for them.

Thank you for all that you did this morning, and every morning as a parent/caregiver, to put your children on the path to success. We have so much to offer at Fugett and we deeply want every student to arrive eager and ready to learn.

Last week, all staff across the WCASD gathered at East to kick off the school year. I am proud to report the Cougars showed up strong, representing the Fugett Family well. The highlight of the event was a powerful speech by our incredible office assistant, Mary Yoegel.

It gives me great joy to highlight out newest Fugett faculty members below. As you can see, we are incredibly fortunate to welcome many veteran teachers from other WCASD schools - former WCASD school in parenthesis. Not only is Fugett a place students want to be, we are a desirable community where teachers want to spend their day. Thank you all for playing your part in making Fugett a place of learning and belonging.

Thank you all for making our Community Day such as success! We had a tremendous turnout and it was great to see the kids back in the halls! Thank you to all of the teachers, office staff, facilities professionals, and PTO members who made the night a success. We could not have done this without you all!

Our 1st Annual EHS/FMS Staff BBQ was a huge success. It was a great way to connect with our colleagues and show our school spirit to Dr. Christopher and WCASD leadership. Huge shout out to Mr. Hammond and Mr. Perry, along with their dedicated crew, for getting the building and grounds looking excellent for all of the events this week, and for Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Gallo for their grill master skills.

Please use this FMSAttendance@wcasd.net email to communicate all attendance information to the FMS main office.

Lateness will be handled in accordance with the WCASD Attendance Policies, and PA State Laws. Eight (8) unexcused lateness will result in an after-school detention for the student. A tardy is defined as a minimum of one minute of lateness to school. Late arrivals to school due to medical appointments (doctor, dentist, orthodontist, etc.) will be excused (ET) with a note from the practitioner.

Please wait until 7:00 to let children out of the car. We have staff ready to welcome students every morning, but this role does not start until 7:00.

Thank you for following the circle pick up path. This traffic pattern is in place to ensure the safety of students and staff.

To serve you better, families may drop off and/or pick up East and Fugett students at either building, as long at you are using the typical drop off/pick up location.

Phones are “Off and Away”. When the homeroom bell rings at 7:30, until dismissal at 2:15, phones are turned off and placed in student lockers. Any phone out between these bells will be turned in to the office and will begin the progressive discipline process with the student. This practice will be strictly and consistently enforced across all three middle schools.

Bring your device charged and protected. All returning 7th and 8th grade students should bring their laptop and case* to school on the first day. 6th graders will receive devices and cases on Monday. Devices should come to school daily, fully charged, to reduce the need for charging cords and cables throughout classrooms. During the school year, if a student has a district-issued laptop not in their case, this will prompt a discipline referral. This is to ensure digital learning opportunities, protect the device, and reduce potential parent invoices for damaged devices. (*We recognize not all returning students may have a laptop case on the first day of school. Students without a laptop case should notify their homeroom teacher the first day of school.)

Attendance - Students arriving late to homeroom (after the homeroom bell rings at 7:30) must report to the office for a pass. Lateness will be handled in accordance with the WCASD Attendance Policies, and PA State Laws. Eight (8) unexcused lateness will result in an after-school detention for the student. A tardy is defined as a minimum of one minute of lateness to school. Late arrivals to school due to medical appointments (doctor, dentist, orthodontist, etc.) will be excused (ET) with a note from the practitioner.

Ineligibility - Any student who is failing at least two major subjects, or at least one major subject and two minor subjects (such as a Unified Arts class like Art or PE), by noon on Friday is ineligible to attend sports practices and games, clubs, and any extracurricular, school-sponsored activities which occur from the next Sunday through Saturday of the following week. This would include musical performances*, drama, dances, and sporting events. *Culminating musical performances related to Chorus, Band, and Orchestra are not subject to ineligibility as they are curricular events and not extracurricular activities.

Monitoring grades - We highly recommend that families use the Parent Portal to monitor grades and sign up for automatic email updates in the Email Notification tab. You can also look through individual course and assignment updates by using your child's Schoology account and accessing each Class and Assignment.

Making up work – All students have three Academic Care Periods (extended homerooms) on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This is an ideal flexible time to work with any staff member in the building. Teachers have until noon Friday to grade and update any missed work or tests to improve failing grades before the ineligibility report is generated. Turning assignments in on time is the best way to keep grades up-to-date.

WCASD Discipline and Records Policy - https://www.wcasd.net/Domain/3430

Interested in science, building and designing, or experiments? Join the Fugett Science Olympiad team! The first meeting will be on Monday, September 9th from 2:30-3:30. Please be in the lobby of the Fugett gym (near the vending machines) by 2:25 where East teacher Miss Helmich will meet you to walk to East.

o Fall Athletics information and WCASD PIAA sports registration website (deadline 09/20/2024)

o For any families looking to attend an EHS football game this year, please review the attached ticketing and attendance expectations. All tickets are purchased online.

The district is surveying interest in girls wrestling across all three middle school. Please complete this form if you have interest.

Volunteer: Our School Store volunteer slots are available HERE. If you are interested in being the first to know about other volunteer opportunities throughout the school year please fill out this google form.

Donations:

Please give what you are able to. We kindly suggest $25 per family but are thrilled to receive your donation at any amount. Your support allows us to provide funding for grade level activities, assemblies, staff grants, field days, 8th grade picnic, fright night and much more! Plus the more general donations we get the less fundraising we have to do throughout the year! We accept Venmo, Paypal & Cash/Checks! (scroll down on our homepage for venmo and Paypay QR codes).

8th Grade Staff Lounge Amazon Wishlist: Spear headed by Nicole Bailey Designs, we were able to transform the 8th grade staff lounge (located on the 1st floor) to a welcoming room for staff members. Here is our amazon wishlist with some items we hope to collect to finish the space. Thank you for your consideration!

Save the Dates:

September 1st - 30th Bloom Box Fundraiser Code: FUGETT15 (More info will be sent via direct email)

Thursday, September 5th 9:30-10:30 am Parent Coffee Meet Up/Whole Foods Exton

Wednesday, September 18th 3:00-8:30 pm Ice Cream DNO/Bert's West Chester

Tuesday, October 1st 6:00-7:00 pm, PTO General Meeting/Fugett Cafeteria

Tuesday, October 1st 7:15-9:00 pm, Parent Meet Up/Stone Tavern

Beautification: Thank you to Erin P. for getting the front of the school ready to welcome students!

Membership Toolkit (MTK): If you have not already done so, please create a login/password, and confirm your information on our Membership Toolkit page. Here you will find important PTO info including our calendar, sign ups for volunteer opportunities, directory info and reimbursement forms. We will be using the email blast feature for our main form of communication. We will also list info here in Dr. Werner's weekly Fugett Flash.

Connect: Stay connected with the PTO and the Fugett community through our PTO page and the Fugett Parents Facebook page. (Be sure to fill out all the membership questions for the FB page, which helps admins keep the community FMS-focused and vet incoming members).

Friday, August 30th

Monday, September 2nd

Wednesday, September 4th

Thursday, September 5th, 6:30-8:00

Thursday, September 12th, 6:30-8:00

See attachment below for specific information regarding FMS carline directions and visuals.

Parents: Please encourage your children to check their backpack for toys and water guns before coming to school after a weekend. We understand that backpacks may serve a dual purpose over the weekend, but any items in violation of the WCASD Discipline Manual will result in student disciplinary outcomes.