Family Update - September 15, 2024

Dear Families,

We had a great week last week marking the midway point of the 1st quarter. Our athletic teams are competing well and representing Jones proudly. We had a Service Learning Fair during lunches on Friday. We hope your students came home excited about some of the opportunities shared with them. Please check out a few pictures from the week below.

We celebrate Start with Hello this week! It's an initiative to facilitate belonging and connection in our school. The list of events is shared below. It has become a Jones tradition and always proves to be fun!

Wednesday is an early release day for students at 1:30 pm. Teachers and staff will attend professional development at UAHS. Students taking the Panorama survey will do so on Wednesday during Flex.

We hope you are having a relaxing and enjoyable weekend!

Warm regards,

Aimee White, Principal

Keona Walker, Assistant Principal

Here is the link to Jones Weekend Update: https://youtu.be/sN9bwhw1hK0

JMS Club and Activity Fair! (Sep 16-20)

Students will learn more about Student Clubs and Activities offered at Jones.

Posters will be displayed in the cafeteria with more information.

Students can express interest by filling out this google form

We have several activities planned for the Start with Hello Week to foster connections. We’d appreciate a couple parent volunteers to support the activities during lunch on Wednesday, September 18th. We need 2 parents for each lunch to support outdoor Jenga during lunch period. You could just 1 shift or all 3.

• 6th grade lunch - 10-11
• 8th grade lunch - 11-12
• 7th grade lunch - 12-1

Reach out to Angie Theaker at atheaker@gmail.com if you’d like to volunteer.

The district has assessed course fees and they are available to pay online. These courses include:

Science (6, 7 and 8) and physical science, language arts (6, 7 and 8) and Concilium, tech ed, art, life skills, French 1 and German 1. If your child is taking one or more of these classes, please go onto EZ Pay and pay fees for this year. Thank you!

MATH COUNTS club is for any Jones student who loves math! MATH COUNTS is a nation-wide middle school mathematics competition that builds problem-solving skills and fosters achievement through four levels of fun, in-person "bee" style contests. Our second meeting will be at 7:30am on Friday, September 13th in Mr. Shininger's room (246). Typically we will meet on Fridays before school, but that schedule is subject to change. Contact Mr. Shininger at bshininger@uaschools.org with any questions!

Please go to: https://shop.hrimaging.com

With the youth and middle school seasons fast approaching, the UA Girls Basketball high school coaching staff is excited to offer our annual preseason youth skills clinic for 2024. This fun filled and high energy three-day session will focus on core fundamentals, individual skill development and foundational habits. If your daughter is unable to attend all three sessions due to conflicts, please prorate the correct amount based on $30.00 per session.

Where: Upper Arlington High School
Dates: Sept 28, Oct 5, Oct 19
Time: 8:30 - 10am
Cost: $90.00

For payment, please Venmo to @uagirlsbasketball or bring a check on day 1. Please make the check payable to "UA Lady Bears Basketball". To register, please click here: https://forms.gle/5szfQTxKqzXVzKiB9

If registering multiple children, please complete one form per player.

Each player is required to bring an indoor ball (size 28.5) and water bottle to the session.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Camp fees and forms should have been turned as of September 6th. If your student is not planning on going to 6th grade camp (we hope all do), you still have to complete the forms in PowerSchool and be sure to mark "Not Attending". Remember that all medication forms should be turned in to Nurse Johnson by September 13th. We are two weeks away and so excited to see your students in the beautiful Hocking Hills. Please refer to the attached PDF for information that was shared last week. You can reach out to Laurie Sutherin (lsutherin@uaschools.org) or Karl Kirkpatrick (kkirkpatrick@uaschools.org) if you have any questions.

If your child requires medication while at camp, please submit forms/meds to Nurse Shannon by 9/13/2024 - this is a hard deadline to ensure that dosages/times can be verified. The deadline is the same for both 6E and 6W.

For prescription medication, the

Prescribed Medication Authorization Form

must be completed by parent and provider for each medication.

For over-the-counter medications that you are sending, please complete the medication plan and indicate if your camper is administering the medication/s.

Please call 614-487-5091 or email snjohnson@uaschools.org with any questions. An email with more info was sent on 9/3/2024 to refer to as well.

Thanks!

We are excited to offer a trip to Washington, DC for the 8th-grade class from May 13 to 16, 2025! In order to prepare for the trip, there is a MANDATORY parent and student meeting on October 1, 2024 at 7:30 pm in the JMS auditorium. This is a required meeting that we have been advertising since June. Please make sure it is on your calendar so that the date and time are reserved for this meeting. You will hear some details about the trip, learn about the registration process, and complete a required form. PLEASE BRING A PEN! If you have questions, please contact Frau (Christy) Charlton: ccharlton@uaschools.org.

If you are absolutely unable to attend the meeting at Jones on 10/1, please attend the meeting at Hastings on 10/2 at 7:30.

See you in October!

Friday, September 20th during Advisory, Dan Willis from the Central Ohio Stand Down Organization will come speak with the 8th graders. We have partnered with him for many years. He will speak to the students about Veterans, how their organization supports them, and great questions to ask the Veterans when they come on November 8th for our annual Veterans Day Celebration.

After hearing Dan speak, the students will write Veteran Thank You’s during their flex time on September 20th for the organization to attach to Girl Scout cookies for their upcoming event. If you would like more information, please visit https://www.centralohiostanddown.org/. Below is a picture of some of the notes the 8th graders made last year:

Every year, 8th graders at both middle schools honor Veterans during the month of November. Eighth grade students at JMS received blue invitation forms on Tuesday during their town meeting. If your 8th grade student wants to invite a veteran or active military member to our annual 8th-Grade Veterans Day Celebration on Friday, November 8th, we need the form completed and returned. Veteran Invitation Forms are due back Friday, September 20th to your student's history teacher.

Once we receive the blue forms, we will send out a formal email invitation to your guest with times and information for the celebration. Any questions please contact Nicole Morgan (nmorgan@uaschools.org). We need the blue forms back in order to invite your guest and place them with students on November 8th.

Are you interested in a middle school science fair opportunity? If so, please visit this link below for more information. There is a zoom meeting next Tuesday, September 17th for anyone interested.

https://barjosciencefair.com/

Help us Go Gold this September for our UA Go Gold Games!

• UAHS: October 4 @ 7pm
• Jones vs. Hastings: October 10 @ 6:30pm at the Marv!
• All proceeds of t-shirt sales goes to Bearing Hope!

Thank you to everyone that has donated to this years Golden Bear Spirit annual fundraiser at Jones so far. We are grateful for all of our sponsors and those of you that have purchased a limited edition bear or bear pack. This is our only PTO fundraiser during the school year. We greatly depend on the success of this fundraiser to be able to continue providing support to our students and our school community. Please consider participating!

This year our fundraiser will run from September 30 - October 14. There is still plenty of time to join the fun as a sponsor or by purchasing a bear pack. We have 3 sponsorship levels (Platinum, Gold and Black, all with different benefits) and several other ways to participate and contribute. You can "bear" a friend, neighbor, family member, etc. They do not have to be a Jones family and bears can travel anywhere in UA! As we continue to work on finding generous sponsors, please help us get the word out about our fun bear packs that travel around the community. We are very excited to start seeing our bears move around Upper Arlington!

If you haven't done so already, please consider supporting this very important initiative for our school. Click this link for more information, as well as to purchase a sponsorship or bear pack https://www.jonespto.com/ golden-bear-spirit

Additionally, in the coming weeks we will be sending out a sign up for those that would like to volunteer to help move our bears. If you sign up, you will be contacted with information about when and where to move bears. Jones students can received service hours for participating.

Thank you for your consideration and support!

Jones PTO

SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2024

September 18 - Early Dismissal Day, 1:30pm

September 23 - 26 - 6th Grade Camp

September 30 - October 14 - Golden Bear Spirit Fundraiser

October 2 - Picture Makeups/Retakes

October 4 - Pep Rally, Flex

October 7 - PTO Meeting, 8:30am

October 7 - Packing for the Streets, 3:30pm

October 9 - Parent/Student Ski Club Meeting, 7pm - NEW DATE

October 10 - End of Quarter 1

October 11 - No School for Students

October 14 - No School - Teacher Work Day

October 16 - Fall Athletic Recognition Night (see coaches for time and place)

October 18 - 20 - Fall Production