Whittier Wire

• Week of October 21: Student Led Conferences
  
• October 31: Great Pumpkin Mile
• November 8: Middle School Dance 6:30-8:30
• November 10: Tri-Town Family 5K at 10:00am
• November 11: Veterans Day
• November 27-29: Thanksgiving Break

Click here for the RSU 16 District Calendar

Progress Reports went home with students on Friday. If your child lost their copy or you need another copy, please contact Administrative Assistant Maureen Mooney (mmooney@rsu16.org or 998-3462) and she can send you a hard copy or email version.

On this progress report, you are only seeing students’ progress toward meeting standards. The progress report is printed from the online gradebook, JumpRope. For much more detail, including missing work, log into your child’s JumpRope account (https://www.jumpro.pe/). Ask your child or contact Shawn Vincent (svincent@rsu16.org) for username and password.

If you have questions about your child's performance in a particular class, please contact the teacher of the class. He or she will be able to provide you with the most detailed information. Contact information is available on our website (https://www.rsu16.org/bwms/people).

Parents and students had some questions about academic probation. Students are on academic probation when they are not keeping pace with their classes. Due to the low number of summative assessments at this time, we will not start the academic probation process until the end of the first trimester (Thanksgiving break). Our specific guidelines are as follows: 1) If a student is receiving at least a 2.5 in all academic standards grades, he or she is eligible to participate. However, please be aware that a 3 indicates the student is meeting the standard. 2) If a student has less than a 2.5 in any academic standard, but he or she has at least a 2.5 for his or her Habits of Work (HOW) grade in that class, the student is eligible to participate. The 2.5 for HOW indicates that the student is working toward meeting standards.

We are dedicating this year's reading challenge to our beloved librarian, Julie Purdy, who is battling cancer. Mrs. Purdy is the best at inspiring our students to read, and now we want to encourage reading while supporting Maine cancer warriors.

Next week, we will send home Purdy Good Readers Pledge Forms, where families and businesses can choose to donate on behalf of Mrs. Purdy. The more books Whittier students read, the more funds we can raise for the Maine Cancer Foundation.

If you are willing to pledge for any or all of our 4 reading checkpoints, please send the pledge form to school with your child. We'll announce when we hit each checkpoint.

We have reached the final stretch of our Mile-a-Day Challenge. A number of students have mentioned missing a day here or there, but there seems to be some good energy around the challenge overall. One student told me he is well on his way to 100 miles this month. #WhittierMADChallenge

Our 2nd Annual Great Pumpkin Run is on October 31st. The mile starts in the middle school baseball field and ends on the high school track. If you would like to join us to volunteer or cheer the kids on, plan for 1:00 on 10/31. We could use people to help monitor the course, record finishers, and hand out snacks afterward. Send me a quick email (svincent@rsu16.org) if you would like to help or look for me at Student Led Conferences.

Students should be building ice cube devices at home this weekend. Their goal is to keep an ice cube from melting for the longest time, and the best solutions are usually made from very simple materials. Please bring your divide in Tuesday!

Ms. Adler's ELA classes practiced spelling by first completing a Halloween Crossword puzzle and then playing either Scrabble or UpWords. Ms. Adler wishes to thank her parents (Mike and Bonny Adler) for the donations of the board games to the classroom. Students enjoyed the day and asked for more days like today.

Come travel to South Africa with PRHS in the Spring of 2026. There is an informational and enrollment meeting on October 29th at 6pm in the PRHS library. Please RSVP using the link below to see how to participate in hands-on learning across the globe. Reach out to Kristin Ross for more information at kross@rsu16.org

RSVP: https://bit.ly/3U2Ecps

District II Auditions are on Thursday, October 24. Families of students who are auditioning should have received information by now, but reminder emails will go out this weekend. All of the RSU16 auditions are scheduled between 3:30-5:00pm at Frank Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth. We will bus students to and from the auditions, and will return to Whittier around 5:45pm if all goes according to schedule. If you have questions about your student and auditions, please email Mrs. Edwards at jedwards@rsu16.org for chorus students and Mr. Williams at lwilliams@rsu16.org for band students. Thanks for supporting your musicians in taking on healthy challenges!

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Uniforms

It is important for students to return their uniforms so that we can use them next year. Please return them at the assigned times, usually when the end of season event is scheduled. Uniforms not returned will be billed.

Eligibility

Students must be eligible to participate in basketball. Late sign ups will not be allowed.

Registration

Currently, with basketball practices two weeks away, we have only 12 boys (7th and 8th combined) and 12 girls (7th and 8th combined) registered. If there are not more sign-ups this will result in only one girls team and one boys team. I suspect more will sign up. Registration has been open since October 1. Early registration allows us to plan for coaches, gym space and to commit to other schools for the number of games, and to check physicals. PLEASE register if you intend for your child to participate.

https://hello.students.arbitersports.com/

Whittier Middle School's Tri-Town Family 5K will take place on Sunday, November 10th, 2024 and it is open to everyone. Join us for a fun family morning on the Minot trails and fields.

Registration is open...and it's free! Let's get the word out there and make this the biggest and best event so far. Don't let 3.1 miles scare you! You will finish the course in less than an hour. Visit the website to register or get more information.

Email: svincent@rsu16.org
Website: https://www.rsu16.org/bwms
Location: 1457 Maine Street, Poland, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 998-3462