The Sedgwick Scene

10/3 - Rosh Hashanah - No School

10/7 - 10/11 - Dyslexia Awareness Week

10/14 - Indigenous People's Day - No School

10/18 - Principal's Coffee - 9:00 am

10/23 - PTO Meeting 6:00 pm - In the Library

Dear Families,

It’s hard to believe that October is right around the corner, the fall season is upon us!

It was so nice to see so many families this week at our Grades 7 & 8 Open House. The teachers worked collaboratively to create meaningful, informative and engaging presentations for you. I hope that you enjoyed the opportunity to connect as much as we did! As you are aware, the home-school partnership is essential to a child’s success here in school, not only in terms of academic success, but overall social and emotional well-being as well. We value you and your support tremendously, and really enjoyed spending the evening with you. Also, thank you very much to all of the families who emailed to share their individual feedback with me on the structure and format of our Open House evenings, all of your thoughts and suggestions are highly valued as we begin our planning for next year.

You may have noticed Assistant Principal Steve Brouse and I were joined by members of our police department, town engineers and safety representatives, etc. out on our front lawn after school this week. We are engaging in a Sedgwick “Road Safety Audit”, focused on ways that we can improve our safety measures around the school and within our neighborhood, with a particular focus on student and pedestrian safety at both arrival and dismissal times. We are seeking your input! You know best here, as you certainly “live it” every day..please share your thoughts, suggestions and ideas with me and I will pass them along to our team. Many thanks!

We hope you will join us at our first PTO Meeting of the school year, held on October 23rd in our library. We will have guest speakers in attendance from the district to share our safety and security measures in place at Sedgwick Middle School. Our district Director of Security Eric Dency will join us, along with our community resource officer Mike Eden, and members of our security team. We are looking forward to it and we hope that you can join us.

Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson is coming to Sedgwick on October 17th! The West Hartford Public Library is highlighting Jacqueline as part of their West Hartford Reads! annual literary celebration. This is such a wonderful opportunity, and we are delighted to serve as host. Many thanks to our amazing library media specialist Shannon McNeice for her efforts to promote this event and raise awareness with our students! In addition, thank you to our entire ELA Department for their support in fostering a love of literacy and reading in our students. Please see this link for additional information: West Hartford Reads! Author Jacqueline Woodson

Important Updates/Reminders:

• In light of recent events we would like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of our Anonymous Alert system, where families and/or students can make reports of concerning events, any type of bullying behavior that may be occurring, etc. The link is on our website, and we will continue to bring this up with students to raise awareness throughout the school year. Here is a link to a poster that we are displaying around the building, along with a qr code for easy access: SMS Anonymous Alerts

• Many thanks to West Hartford Social Services for helping to support Sedgwick families. They have very generously donated Target gift cards to assist families in need with purchasing necessary school supplies. Please let me know if you need our help, we are here to support you!

• IMPORTANT news from the SMS PTO - Please join Konstella, the parent communication vehicle for all things Sedgwick PTO! Here is the link with information:SMS PTO - Join Konstella! AND a huge bonus to joining is that you will be able to access your child’s full team list!

• Sedgwick Ski Club is getting ready for another great season! Many thanks to parent Lynn Carbone for her continued efforts to coordinate and organize this wonderful opportunity for our kids! The program will run every Wednesday, beginning on January 8th. Here is a flier with additional information: Sedgwick Ski Club.

• We are honoring and celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with our students AT Sedgwick. Here is a link to a beautiful display case in our hallway: Hispanic Heritage Month Many thanks to our counseling team, in particular Ms. Maxine Smith, for her efforts. To learn more and access additional resources, you can visit the National Hispanic Heritage Month website hosted by the National Archives.

• Our Intramural Program is well underway - it is so nice to see so many students participating in our wide variety of activities! Late buses have started, please encourage your child to stay after school with us and get involved, Sedgwick Pride! See this link to our SMS webpage and click on “Clubs, Activities and Intramurals” to view our clubs and activities available for students: Sedgwick Middle School Webpage

• Join the Scouts! Open to boys and girls, come join the adventure! Many thanks to parent Rob Richards for his involvement in this wonderful organization. Here is a link to the flier for additional details: Scouts Troops Flier - Join Us!

• If you have not already done so, please set up your Parent Portal account. If you need directions on how to set up or login to your child’s PowerSchool portal, please click here for sets of directions from the WHPS Office of Information Technology. If you are experiencing difficulty accessing the portal please call our main office at 860-570-6500. On September 30th we invite you to log into the portal and view your child’s progress report, a reflection of our mid-year point of quarter one. Please reach out to your child’s teacher(s) or school counselor if you have any questions or concerns.

• Last but certainly not least, the State of CT has recently released Suicide Prevention Booklets in both English and Spanish that are available on the District's website under Pupil Services Resources. You will find many other important resources here as well.

• A reminder that we will have NO SCHOOL next Thursday, October 3rd, in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions, ideas, or concerns that you may have. I encourage parent suggestions and value opportunities to brainstorm ideas to help make Sedgwick Middle School the very best that it can be! I am always available and appreciate your honest feedback. Our partnership is critical to our collective goal of providing the VERY BEST middle school experience for our kids. I am deeply committed to this mission at SMS.

Our next Principal’s Coffee will be held on Friday, October 18th at 9:00 AM. Hope to see you there!

Take care and be well,

Karen Kukish, Principal

Illness

Please keep your child at home with any symptoms of illness such as fever or vomiting. Call us with any questions. As always, please report your child's absences to the office by calling (860)570-6501. If you have taken your child to the doctor's office due to illness, please provide a doctor's note so we are able to excuse the absence.

Screenings

We will be providing Scoliosis screenings on select students in Grades 7 & 8. If you do not want your child screened or if your child is already followed by their pediatrician for diagnosed Scoliosis, please contact us.

Over-the-Counter Preparations

Our nursing offices offer basic over-the-counter preparations including Benadryl, hydrogen peroxide, saline solution, first aid cream, and other similar products. Caregivers must give permission for a child to receive such preparations. This needs to be done every year and does not carry over. If you would like to review the preparations, please open the Health Information-OTC and Medical Contact Information form in Powerschool and review it. If you give permission for your student to receive any of these preparations, please check the “I agree” box at the bottom and sign and date the document electronically. If you do not wish for your child to receive these preparations, please check NO and contact the nurse.

1) Log into the Parent Portal

2) Under General Forms tab, click on Health Information - OTC and Medical Contact Form

If you have already responded to this inquiry, please disregard. Otherwise, thank you in advance!

Medications

If your child will need medications administered in school, please have your medical provider fill out a medication authorization form. You will then need to provide the medication in the original bottle/packaging to the nurse’s office.

Authorization For Administration of Medication By School Personnel

Use of Crutches/Injury Accommodations

Please notify us if your child has had an injury that will need any accommodations in school. If they will be using crutches we will need a doctor’s note that will specify elevator pass use. ** if your student uses crutches they are not able to take their regular bus. Please contact the nurses to get parking passes/or to arrange for mini-bus transportation (this takes a week to set up)

Maria_Folan@whps.org 860-929-5310

Heidi_Hobert@whps.org 860-929-5309

Nurse Fax # 860-929-5315

The following is the breakdown of counselor assignments, email contact and phone extensions:

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Clinical School Counselor

School counselors started their visits to the classrooms this week and began their series of presentations for each grade level. They are discussing the role of school counselors, administering a survey to determine student needs and briefly going over the activities and lessons that will be provided this year.

Vacant Seat Program – Application Start date is Monday, October 7, 2024.

The West Hartford Public Schools vacant seat program utilizes available space on school

buses. This program allows students to ride buses, where space is available, who under

the West Hartford Public Schools Transportation policy are not eligible for

transportation. No additional bus stops are added to the routes for this program.

Interested parents should contact the West Hartford Public Schools Transportation Office

at (860)561-6647 for additional information on or after October 7 th . Requests are taken

in this office by telephone on a first come, first served basis starting at 8:00 am.