Bronco Bulletin April 19, 2024

Greetings Bronco Families!

I am excited to share great news from Crews. We had a wonderful time celebrating special recognition weeks including Support Staff Appreciation, Exceptional Children, and SGA School Spirit. In honor of National School Library Month, we continue to celebrate our media center team and look forward to celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week May 6-10. With district and state competitions in full throttle, we want to congratulate our students for winning several awards at the Georgia Science & Engineering Fair and in the Young Georgia Author Competition.

With less than five weeks in the semester, continue to stay Connected @ Crews by monitoring your student’s progress and engagement. Great tools to use are StudentVUE, ParentVUE, and the Crews MS Expectations for Students handbook. To help all finish the school year strong, please read our Crews MS End-of-Year Student & Family Guide carefully. It covers a variety of topics including district and state testing, deadlines for make-up work, promotion criteria, chromebook renewals/collections and more.

Until then, here are some school events on the horizon:

• April 22-26: Georgia Milestones Testing
• Award Programs by Invitation: 6th Grade (May 6th-Crews Gym), Exceptional Programs (May 7th -Crews Café), 7th Grade (May 8th-Crews Gym), and 8th Grade (May 15th -Brookwood HS)

In service to others,

Principal Moffett

TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK COMING SOON

Please help us celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6 -10. Our theme is "Sun-Sational". Here is how you make the week very special for them!

• Celebrate your child's teachers in your own way and encourage others do the same
• Contact Crews MS PTSA to volunteer time so teachers can have duty-free lunch that week
• Donate items for our teacher raffle. Items can be dropped off at Crews with the school's administrative assistant, Chevonne Baker. Suggestions include:
• Gift Cards of Any Amount: Chick-fil-A, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, AMC, Academy Sports etc.
• Free passes to enjoy gyms, art classes, dancing, spas etc.
• Themed gift baskets

8TH GRADE CELEBRATION

The 8th Grade Celebration is Friday, May 17th from 1-3:30. Students will enjoy snacks, drinks, a DJ, outdoor activities, yearbook signing, and more. Purchase tickets from the Crews PTSA Store at https://crewsms.memberhub.com

Tickets purchased by April 19th will include a class shirt so don’t delay! Signup to volunteer or donate here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0445AFAD22A2FF2-8thgrade9 or access from the signup page on the PTSA website.

Rising 9th Grade Yard Signs are also available in the Store until April 19th.

8TH GRADE DANCE

You're invited to a Royal Gala! The 8th grade dance is May 10th from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased for $20 on My Payments Plus until May 3rd. Please note, students with referrals since March 29th or any outstanding tech/media fines cannot attend.

MILESTONES REMINDERS

All students must come to school with their fully-charged chromebook and charger each day they are testing. See above schedule.

Please note that checkouts are not permitted during testing.

We will not hold help days in the mornings during Milestones testing.

CLINIC UPDATE

If your child has medication in the clinic, please note that it must be picked up by a parent or guardian by the last day of school, May 22nd.

IMPORTANT YEARBOOK INFORMATION

Yearbooks are now available for purchase until we sell out - get yours soon so you don't miss out!

You may purchase a yearbook here. Our school code is 291.

You’ll have three payment options — eCheck, debit/credit card, or PayPal.

If you choose PayPal, you can also choose their free service to “Buy Now Pay Later.” Their free “Pay in 4” plan will split the amount into four equal payments every two weeks.

Not sure if you bought a yearbook yet?

Visit http://www.yearbookordercenter.com/ and use school code 291.

Once in the site, scroll down under "Already Placed an Order?" and click "Find Your Order."

You will enter your email address. If you have ordered a yearbook, your order will come up. If it does not, you have not yet purchased a yearbook.

Homeroom teachers have a list of students who have purchased a yearbook as well. Students can check with them to verify.

CREWS CARNIVAL

The Brookwood cluster is invited to attend Crews Middle School's first Carnival! The CMS Student Experience Committee is bringing together the community to enjoy games, prizes, food and more! Please join us on Saturday, May 4th from 11-1 on the Crews Field.

We are also looking for sponsors! If your family or company is interested in sponsorship, please see the information below or email Eboni Jones at eboni.jones@gcpsk12.org. Thank you!

We can't do this without you! Purchase Sponsorship Packages Here

YOUNG GA AUTHORS

7th grader Armaan Deen Sesay was selected as the winner of the Young Georgia Author Competition across three levels – district grade level winner, district middle school level winner, and RESA-level third place winner! What an achievement!

GA SCIENCE FAIR

Our very own Sirish Subash won The Georgia Science and Engineering Fair 2024, receiving the highest Middle School award of the evening: The Junior Division Pinnacle Award!

Both of our advancing students, Sirish Subash and Armaan Singh, took home over 8 awards combined including special awards and GSEF Best in Category, to name a few.

Aarmaan received:

-Department of Defense STEM Leadership Prize (special award)

-American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Atlanta section Award (special award)

Sirish received:

-Agricultural Research Service Award for Excellence in Agricultural Research (special)

-Office of Naval Research Naval Science Award (special award)

-Best in Category: Environmental Engineering (GSEF)

-Georgia Science & Engineering Fair Outstanding 8th Grade Project (GSEF)

-Georgia Science & Engineering Fair Junior Pinnacle Award (Top MS GSEF Award)

Congrats, gentlemen - we are so very proud of you!

WEEK OF APRIL 22-26

*For a full list of club information, please visit gcpsk12.org/cmsclubs

MONDAY

Art & Photography, 8:15

Percussion Ensemble, 4:15

BroncoBots, 4:15

TUESDAY

History Club, 8:15

Running Club, 4:15

Garden to Table, 4:15

WEDNESDAY

Science Olympiad, 4:15

Soccer, 4:15

THURSDAY

SGA, 8:15

Honors Orchestra, 8:15

FRIDAY

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BROOKWOOD COMMUNITY SCHOOLS SUMMER CAMPS

Camp opportunities are available for elementary and middle school students this summer through the Brookwood Cluster Youth Summer Camps! Offered programs include baseball, basketball, band, entrepreneurship, softball, and musical theatre! See the full schedule here.

GIRL SCOUT FUNDRAISER FOR CREWS OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

We have a Girl Scout working on her Gold Award Project (The Girl Scout equivalent of Eagle Scout) here at Crews. Our Outdoor Classroom (on the hill) was not in good shape and was removed last summer. A local Girl Scout and Crews Middle Alum, Valencia Crawford, chose to construct a new Outdoor Classroom as her Gold Award Project.

Valencia is raising funds to help with this project. She has already raised over $1000. If you would like to support Valencia in achieving her goal, there is a link below.

Give Lively page

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/girl-scouts-of-greater-atlanta-inc/gold-award-projects-b0c71b7b-8ae0-4a18-a557-476dcd1922b8/valencia-crawford

BASEBALL CAMP

Brookwood High School Baseball Camp will take place June 11-13 from 9am-1pm. This annual camp blends baseball fundamentals and fun with our Brookwood Broncos players and coaches! Register on MyPaymentsPlus- look for "Brookwood CS Boys Baseball 2024 Summer Camp - June 11-13". We look forward to having you join us at Baseball Camp!

BROOKWOOD LAX

Brookwood Lacrosse will be hosting a free clinic for 3rd-8th grade boys. Visit https://georgia.team91lacrosse.com/news/growing-the-game-clinics-brookwood-april-14-21/ for details and to register.

PTA ICE CREAM SALES

PTA is selling ice cream during Wednesday lunch periods for $1 each, cash only.

NO DRINKS OTHER THAN WATER

We are in the process of getting new carpeting at here at Crews. Please ensure your children do not bring any drinks other than water to school. This includes Starbucks, sports drinks, soda, etc. Thank you for your assistance in ensuring our school remains clean!

BUS PASSES

Please make a note that when asking for your student to receive a bus pass, it must be for emergency reasons only. Your student needs to bring a note from home with the emergency reason explained. This is a request directly from GCPS transportation. Thanks for your understanding of this matter.

ABSENCES

If your student is absent, send a parent note or doctor's excuse with your child upon returning to school (and no later than two weeks following the first day returning to school) to receive an excused absence. Excuse notes should be submitted to the student’s grade level office. Parent emails to teachers about student absences (partial or complete day) are not the official excuse but are suitable as an informational courtesy.

Parent Portal: If you don't have a Parent Portal account, click here for more information and to get a form to request an account. The Parent Portal is the best way to stay up-to-date on your child's grades, attendance, and more!

Newsletter: We will be sending our weekly newsletter, the Bronco Bulletin, to all parents every Friday. Be sure to check your Parent Portal account to make sure we have the correct email address so you don't miss any upcoming news and events!

Social Media: Follow us online! We are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

ParentSquare:

If you have not yet activated your account or you have questions, please check out GCPS' site at www.gcpsk12.org/Page/35909. You can find instructions for activating your account, customizing your notification settings, and more.

We did want to clarify a couple of things about ParentSquare. First, there is a ParentSquare app, but you do not have to download it if you do not want to. Using the app will give you quick access to the announcements, as well as the option of having push notifications, but you can also just use the web version of ParentSquare through your Parent Portal.

Second, ParentSquare gives you the opportunity to customize how and when you receive your notifications. You can choose whether you would prefer instant (as soon as the message is posted) or digest (a compilation of all messages sent through ParentSquare that day) for email, text, and app notifications. You can choose a different setting for text, email, and app notifications. For example, you can set email to digest, texts to instant, and app notifications to off, if you prefer. Be aware that the digest option begins to send at 6:00 pm, so you will receive all messages together typically between 6:00 and 7:00 pm. The default setting for parents is digest, so you will need to go in and change this if you would prefer instant. Emergency/time sensitive messages will still be sent instantly, regardless of settings.

Quick Links

Activating Your Account

Customizing Your Notifications

We want all our students to get involved at Crews! Visit our Clubs and Activities page to check out all the options available. Be sure to pay close attention to the morning news show for announcements on club signups and upcoming events!