Cougar Courier

January 17, 2025

Principal's Message

Greetings Elm Middle School Families,

Happy Friday! We hope everyone had a wonderful week! As promised, here is all of the information you need to know for our upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences. Take a few minutes to read through these important reminders for scheduling and attending conferences.

We are using the same registration system as previous conferences (PowerPTC).
PowerPTC is only accessed through the PowerSchool Parent Portal. It is not available through the app.

Registration will open on Tuesday, January 21st at 6:00 AM for you to book times.
Registration will close on Monday, February 10th at 11:59 PM.
Please see these instructions for booking a time.

For the February 2025 Parent Teacher Conferences, building check-in is required for in person conferences. You will need to provide your ID as you enter the building.
Only those with pre-scheduled, in-person conferences will be allowed access to the buildings.

Please take a few minutes to read through this week’s Cougar Courier, As always, should you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly. Have a fabulous weekend! #TeamElmStrong

Most Sincerely,
Mrs. Ashley Groeneveld

Assistant Principal's Corner

NWEA - JANUARY 22 AND 23!

Good morning Elm Families,

This upcoming week, we will be administering the NWEA Map Winter Benchmark exam. This is a comprehensive Reading and Math exam that allows your students to get a clear picture of their progress up to this juncture in their academic journey. Our instructional teams utilize this data for students scheduling, specific interventions, and to determine teaching and learning practices to impact our students success.

Please re-iterate to your students the importance of trying their absolute best, and ensure that they are on time and in attendance. Have the students check to see that their Chromebooks are fully charged and ready for action.

We are so proud of our students progress this year; they have worked so hard. This is their time see their hard work come to fruition. Please reach out to me with any questions regarding the exam. Thank you for always being a part of the team at ELM.

Sincerely,

David Parolin

Assistant Principal

Dean's Den

Attendance E-Post Cards

Hello Elm Families,

This evening, each family will receive an E-postcard generated through PowerSchool. Here is a brief summary of what you will find on these postcards:

- The number of PERIODS missed this school year (not days)

-The amount of periods unexcused

-The amount of periods excused

-The specific periods your child missed

Earlier this week, we sent out letters generated through PowerSchool for 5, 10, and 15 day unexcused absences. We have found that there have been some errors with the letters, and there may be errors on your e-postcards. If you believe there are errors on your attendance postcards, please contact Jean Tito or myself so that we can remedy this.

Mr. Goodman

Pack The Place

The Elm Showcase

Title One Family Night

8th Grade Families

We are so excited to start this year and celebrate the Graduating class of 2025 all year long. Please fill out this form to sign-up!

This year we are collecting as one lump sum for all the activities and graduation events. Included in this one time payment is:

2-field trips with lunch included

Graduation gown with delivery to Elm Middle School

8th grade graduation t-shirt signed by all students

Graduation card personalized from parents and balloon

Total cost $100

***PAT is still hosting the dinner dance, that communication will come separately in the upcoming months.***

Cougar Athletics

We're looking forward to another very exciting year of Cougar Athletics! The Leyden Norwood Athletic Conference schedule can be found here!

As a reminder, any student interested in participating in athletics at Elm this year, must have an active physical on file! Be sure to check with the nurse to ensure your student is able to tryout! Addtionally, take time to review the student and parent code of conduct from the Leyden Norwood Athletic Conference here. We will have annoucements for tryouts and athletics meetings as seasons are approaching!

If you're interested in ordering Cougar basketball gear, please use this link here! Go Cougars!

Cougar Celebration Store

Elm Extra-Curricular Activities

Our goal is to provide as many opportunities as possible for our students to contribute to our school community not only inside the classroom but outside of it as well. We offer a wide variety of activities for our students to participate in! Encourage your Cougar to try something new or keep going with something they already have been! Here is the list of all of our offerings at Elm, with scheduled meeting days and sponsors!

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to a sponsor of an activity!

The Elm PAT

A huge thank you to our Elm PAT for always supporting our school community! Here is a detailed schedule of all things Elm PAT for the 2024-2025 school year! Mark your calendars!

Elm Middle School Yearbook

If you're interested in purchasing a yearbook, please go ahead and click the link here! For any questions, please reach out to Ms. Fiorito our yearbook club sponsor!

Box Tops for Education

Earn cash for our school by using the Box Tops app. It’s an easy way to make a difference. All you have to do is buy Box Tops participating products (like Cheerios!) and scan your grocery receipt. Box Tops are worth $.10 each and they add up fast! Use this referral code K7Y8751D when you sign up and you’ll get 25 Bonus Box Tops when you scan your first receipt through 05/31/2025. Download the Box Tops for Education app here: https://btfe.smart.link/c2jjdifkw?referral_code=K7Y8751D