North Pole Middle School

North Pole Middle School believes all students can succeed because education is a shared responsibility between students, home, school, and community in that this partnership provides students opportunities for personal and academic growth in a safe and supportive environment.

Things at North Pole Middle School continue to move along smoothly despite challenges that we’re presented. Below are the current bus cancellations for this week and next. Once I have more information on if there are additional cancellations in coming weeks I will upload that information to both our Facebook page and our School website.

Sick Kids: Being a parent myself I know the challenges that having sick kids at home places on families especially when being a single parent who has to work or a two parent household where both individuals have to work. I’ve been there and I do understand. What I am asking of you is to please keep your kids home if they are not feeling well. Please keep them home until they do feel well. When they arrive at school they will typically go to the nurse, the nurse is then assessing them, possibly testing them and in all likelihood calling you to come pick them up.

The process we have to follow as a school in relation to positive COVID cases and close contacts is as follows:

• Identify the student who has tested positive for COVID
• Locate their seat in each of their classrooms they attend and identify all students who are within 3-6’ of them within that classroom.
• Contact families of those kids to let them know their child is a close contact and that they must now go home for up to 10 school days.

There are of course exceptions to the 10 days at home such as being vaccinated, but when ill students are sent to school it puts a larger number of students at risk for becoming ill as well, up to 15-20 kids at a time to be exact. Whether it’s a common cold or COVID, please keep kiddos at home if they are not feeling well. The fortunate piece is that nearly all of our teachers are using Google Classroom to help support students at home and each of our students who chooses to, has a Chromebook checked out to them, to help them with access to their work.

Please understand that I want your kids at school, I want my staff at school as well and I want them here every day of the week, but I need them to be healthy so we can all be here together. I have a terrific faculty, we share terrific kids, if we work together we can weather this latest COVID storm.

Warm Regards,

Richard Smith, Principal

Our new school start and end times for students are 7:50 a.m. to 2:20 p.m.

Students can be dropped off in the morning at 7:00 a.m. at which time doors will be opened.

Students should plan on leaving the school by 2:35 p.m. unless they are in an after school activity sponsored by school staff.

Just a reminder to please drive safely, cautiously, and respectfully when dropping your student off in the morning and picking up in the afternoon.

A bus deviation is a request for your student to ride a bus that they aren't registered for already and that they don't usually ride.

A few helpful hints on how to request a bus deviation:

• It MUST be requested in writing via notes, email (contact-npm@k12northstar.org) or fax to 907-488-9213. Students may NOT write their own notes.
• If you send one by email, you will get a reply saying we received it. If you don’t get a reply please call 488-2271. Please have it turned into the office by 1:00 p.m. If you submit an email after 12:00 p.m., please call to confirm receipt.

-Your request needs to have the following information on it:

• Your student's name
• Bus number (route) and the name of the street it stops at (if you don't know this, you can call the transportation office at 907-452-2000 and select option 4)
• How long the deviation is good for (just that day or for the whole school year as needed)
• Parent's name and contact information
• Our fax number is:(907)488-9213
• Email requests to: contact-npm@k12northstar.org

Click the button below to find information on:

• Operational Guidelines
• Mitigation Procedures
• Wellness Checks for Students and staff

Currently masks are not required in the FNSBSD buildings but ARE required on school busses. Please know that any student, staff member or guest to North Pole Middle School has the choice to either wear or not wear a mask and be fully supported in their decision making by those around them.

A big THANK YOU to the parents that attended our first PTSO meeting of the year last Monday. It was a great opportunity to get acquainted and help new families to NPM understand the history of PTSA and how we became a PTSO in addition to fundraising efforts we’ve done in the past and where the money has gone to in relation to supporting students and staff.

Our next PTSO meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 13th from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. At this next meeting we’ll discuss updates of topics from our first meeting and begin planning for how to respond to those results. We look forward to more participation from families at these meetings, if you can’t make it there will be other opportunities for you to contribute throughout the year. Stay tuned!

School pictures will take place September 23rd and 24th. As the date gets closer be on the lookout for picture packet information and a schedule for which day your student will have their photo taken.

January 4-April 30: Native Youth Olympics

Reminder that both breakfast and lunches are free for ALL STUDENTS for the 2021-2022 school year, no paperwork and no strings attached. The link for our Nutrition Services Department is here, https://www.k12northstar.org/nutrition if you would like more information.

Any “a-la-cart” items that the cafeteria may sell will be sold to students and that money will come out of their lunch account. Information about the cost of items can be found below. This link, https://k12northstar.nutrislice.com/menu/menus-eula will take you to a list of all schools in the district so you can see each schools’ breakfast and lunch menu if you are interested.

Office Hours 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

School Hours 7:50 a.m. - 2:20 p.m.

Email: contact-npm@k12northstar.org
Website: https://www.k12northstar.org/northpoleM
Location: 300 East 8th Avenue, North Pole, AK, USA
Phone: 907-488-2271
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/North-Pole-Middle-School-143414512397583/?scrlybrkr=0eca0abe