Welcome Back to School Flyer

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year! I am looking forward to all of our students returning to Fox River Grove Middle School (FRGMS) on August 21st. This year we have some exciting new changes that are discussed below! In addition, I included information about some of our procedures to ensure a smooth start to the year. Please email me with any questions at mckenziej@dist3.org prior to the start of the year!

August 20th - Supply Drop-off from 2 PM to 3 PM

August 21st - First Day of School

August 29th - Parent Open House at 6 PM

Our back to school mailing will be sent late next week and should be in mailboxes early the week of August 12th. This will include students' individual schedules, pick-up and drop off procedures, and bus routes.

The schedule has been overhauled for this upcoming school year. FRGMS is transitioning to four core periods a day consisting of Math, Science, Social Studies (SS) and ELA. These will be 60 minutes each except for 5th grade Science and SS which will be 45 minutes to allow for recess. SS and Science will have an increased focus on reading and writing with their additional time. According to The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, "building high-level literacy skills requires a team effort; teachers across grade levels and content areas need to work together to achieve this goal." This will continue to be a topic we focus on during our professional development on late start Mondays.

Each student will continue to have a daily Physical Education (PE) course, a specials course, and a daily lunch period. All 5th and 6th grade students will have one trimester of Art, STEM, and Music each, and 7th and 8th graders will have one trimester of Art, STEM, and Spanish each.

There will be two lunch periods; one for all 5th and 6th grade students and another for all 7th and 8th grade students. If weather permits, students will have time to go outside when they finish eating for the remainder of their lunch period.

Students will have a daily flex period of 40 minutes. All core teachers for the grade level will be available during this time to provide additional instruction and support for students. Full band and choir are being moved into the school day and will meet during this time. Our reading and math interventionists will work with small groups of students on targeted skills identified by progress monitoring tools. Lastly, students who receive OT, PT, Speech and counseling may meet with their related service staff member during Flex.

FRGMS starts instruction at 7:50 AM each day and ends at 2:40 PM. Students can be dropped off starting at 7:35 AM and all students should be here by 7:45 AM when students are let in the building.

FRGSD3 continues to have late start Mondays. School starts one hour later and students run a shortened class schedule.

School Supply lists can be found here.

Supply drop-off will be Tuesday, August 20th from 2 PM to 3 PM. Students and parents can come and place supplies in their child's locker, practice students new locker combinations, and walk student's schedules. In addition, teachers will be in their classroom to meet and greet students!

A virtual backpack will be available on the school website for 2024-2025 school year with important hand outs. This is in lieu of sending home paper copies and e-mail blasts. The instructions to submit an item to be included can be found here.

During the 2024-2025 school year, students in all grades will be expected to have proper shoes for PE classes.

5th and 6th grade students will NOT have to purchase and/or wear PE uniforms. 7th and 8th grade students will be expected to purchase and wear PE uniforms.

In addition to the regular PE shirts and shorts, we will be offering sweatshirts and sweatpants for the students to purchase to wear on colder days. These new sweatshirts and sweatpants are optional but 7th and 8th grade students will not be allowed to wear any other long pants, sweatshirts, or jackets in PE classes. Families can purchase through our website on Illinois E-Pay found here. Sweatpants and sweatshirts will be available for $15 each. Shirts and shorts range from $6 to $9 each depending on the style chosen.