French Middle School

• Feb. 2-- PTO Meeting @ 5:45pm
• Feb. 6-- Westside Strings Festival @ 6:30pm
• Feb. 8-- Last Day for Late Work/ Parent Teacher Conferences from 3:30pm-7:30pm
• Feb. 9-- Midterms/No School/Parent Teacher Conferences from 7:30am-7:30pm
• Feb. 10-- No School
• Feb. 21-- PTO Fundraiser Night at Papa John
• Feb. 24-- Late Night in the Nest for 7th & 8th Graders from 6:30pm-8:30pm
• Mar. 1-- School Musical @ 7pm
• Mar. 2-- School Musical @ 7pm

We look forward to seeing all Falcon Families this month at Parent/Teacher Conferences. It is always a great time to touch base with parents as the second semester is underway. We are almost halfway through the 3rd quarter. Midterms will be updated in gradebooks by end of day February 10th. Our first half of the 3rd quarter late work is due by the end of school day February 8th. We encourage all parents to remind their student to ask for missed work when they are absent. Appointments can be made with teachers for extra help. Please schedule with each individual teacher. Staying in frequent contact with classroom teachers is helpful in your student staying on top of their grades.

Please see attached link for information on gun safety in your home. The link will also share how parents can get a free gun safe lock. BeSmart

It is our plan to take our 8th grade class to Worlds of Fun, Friday, May 12th. This is an event that has been a French Falcon tradition for many years. This trip is a reward for all 8th graders who earn it by demonstrating Falcon PRIDE throughout the second semester. The cost of the trip will be $35 per student.

Eighth graders wishing to attend are expected to earn points each week they stay DR free. Students must also have at least one eligibility point and no suspensions in the second semester. Students will start collecting points beginning the week of January 9, 2023 and will continue until Friday, May 12, 2023. Students must earn 15 out of 17 points in order to be invited to attend. Students who purchase a ticket and become ineligible after we ordered tickets, will NOT be reimbursed for their ticket as it is non-refundable through WOF.

Students will leave French MS by 9:30 AM on the day of the trip. Students will be given ample time to explore the park independently with friends. They will be required to appear at two mandatory “check point” times. Students will need to bring money for lunch. Students will return to French around 7:00 p.m. We will leave and return from the back parking lot at French MS.

Money collection will begin on March 20- April 12th. Payment for the field trip must be paid in advance. Checks should be payable to French Middle School. Please remember that this is a reward for students who meet the criteria, not an absolute for every 8th grader. Students who are not eligible to attend the trip or do not wish to go will have an alternate schedule the day of the trip.

If you have further questions, please call your student’s Advisor Base teacher at 438-4150.

TPS Weather Notifications: As the weather begins to cool, we want to remind families and staff of school closing notification procedures. When making decisions about closing school, a number of factors come into play, including the safety of travel but also the safety of students who will be home during the day.

Should school be canceled, we will:

• Send a text, email, and/or phone call via SchoolMessenger
• Update the district social media pages
• Update the district website
• Contact our local media partners

To sign up for text message updates, text Y to 67587. To learn more about school delays and closures, please review our How We Communicate With Families document.

Beginning July 1, 2023, Topeka Public Schools is moving to a new fully integrated Student Information System, Synergy by Edupoint.

This one system will replace the district's current student information system into one platform that will host and manage student data in an efficient and user-friendly manner.

Synergy will provide access to both parents and students, just like our current system. However, with Synergy, Parents/Guardians will use a single sign-on to access all of their children’s information regardless of school.

As part of the seamless Synergy Education Platform, Synergy SIS enables schools and districts to easily extend functionality to include online registration, CI3T, assessment, analytics, and special education management in a single platform.

More information will be shared with families in the coming months.

Plan to schedule an appointment for a conference next week. Conferences will be held February 8th from 3:30pm-7:00pm and February 9th from 7:30am-7:30pm. We will be closed from 1-2pm for lunch on Thursday. Scheduling will occur through advisor base teachers, but all teachers will be available for drop in meetings. Conferences are student led as they will present a slideshow to parents on their progress. We look forward to seeing all our families!

Priority registration for 5th-8th grade students to AileyCamp 2023 is March 15th. To register, for the free, 6 week summer AILEYCAMP Kansas sponsored by the KC Friends of Alvin Ailey, follow the link.

7th and 8th graders are invited to our upcoming “Late Night in the Nest” on February 24th from 6:30-8:30. We will have dancing, snacks/drinks, open gym, open computer lab, and board games in the media center. All 7th and 8th graders can come as long as you are passing all of your classes (no F’s) and have eligibility points. The cost is $3 or $2 with an honor card. Hope to see you there!

8th graders are planning for high school! 8th graders have been working with Ms. Barnett and Ms. Ryan in science class to figure out what classes to enroll in for their freshman year. Plus, they are plotting out a 4 year plan to make sure they have all the requirements to graduate high school. We held a parent night to work on finalizing their 8th grade plan and also to look at their 4 year plan. We had a full house and those that attended said it was very helpful. The 4 year plans need to be done by conferences but if you have questions please check with Ms. Barnett or Ms. Ryan. If you were not able to attend the parent night please plan to see us during conferences.

Boys Basketball is off to a great start this year. We have 52 boys out at this time with the B team getting up early every morning to arrive at practice by 6:15 in the morning Our Varsity and JV boys practice after school 2:45-5:00. Games are Mondays and Thursdays, with one varsity tournament on Saturday February 4th@ HPHS, and the final play night on Wednesday March 1st @ Highland Park HS @ 6:00. All regular games start at 3:10 and are usually over by 5:30. Games cost $2.00 to enter; students with an honors card get in for $1.00. Students must be passing all classes to come to games. Students that become a distraction at the games will be asked to leave and not return. If a student is asked to leave a game, they may not come to any more games the remainder of the season. Students traveling to an away game must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.

Failure Policy

Just a reminder that a district wide grade policy is in effect. Any student with an F on their grade checks will be ineligible for the next game until the F is brought up. An F list will be created every Friday, with student athletes informed that day if they are on the report. It is them their responsibility to bring that grade up and communicate with the coach when that has happened with a note from the teacher.

Spectator expectations

We would like to remind spectators that French Middle School is a member school of the Kansas State High School Athletic Association (KSHSAA) and is governed by their rules. One of those rules which, we completely support is Rule 52 which states:

ALL ACTIONS are to be FOR, NOT AGAINST; POSITIVE, NOT NEGATIVE or DISRESPECTFUL

Section 1: General Regulations (apply to grades 7-12)

Art. 1: SPORTSMANSHIP is a general way of thinking and behaving. The following sportsmanship policy items are listed below for clarification:

a. Be courteous to all. (participants, coaches, officials, staff and fans)

b. Know the rules, abide by and respect the official’s decisions.

c. Win with character and lose with dignity.

d. Display appreciation for good performance regardless of the team.

e. Exercise self-control and reflect positively upon yourself, team and school.

f. Permit only positive sportsmanlike behavior to reflect on your school or its activities.

We hope that you can attend the games this year to cheer on the Falcons!

Dr. Carter G. Woodson is identified as the founder of Black History Month. Dr. Woodson wanted to make sure that the contributions of Black / African American people were recognized and celebrated. For this reason, Dr. Woodson implemented Black History Month. Black History Month was originally a week-long celebration that began the second week of February in 1926. It later became a month-long celebration in 1976.

You can celebrate Black History Month by focusing your attention on Black / African American achievements. One way is by visiting the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site located at 1515 SE Monroe St, Topeka, Kansas 66612. They are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm. Visit their website to find a self-guided tour. Admission is free.

Beauty is in the eye of the ogre in Shrek The Musical JR., based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film and fantastic Broadway musical. It's a "big bright beautiful world" as everyone's favorite ogre, Shrek, leads a cast of fairytale misfits on an adventure to rescue a princess and find true acceptance. Part romance and part twisted fairy tale, Shrek JR. is an irreverently fun show with a powerful message for the whole family. The show will be at French MS on March 1 & 2 at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $5.

According to the CDC; cavities (also known as caries or tooth decay) are one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood in the United States. Untreated cavities can cause pain and infections that may lead to problems with eating, speaking, playing, and learning.

Once your child has bad oral health, they could encounter difficulties in chewing and swallowing. They could have a hard time eating. If they do not chew correctly, this will affect their digestive system. As a result, they can experience ingestion and belly discomfort. Other severe symptoms resulting from this include vomiting and gastric issues.

Bad oral health can contribute to issues with speech. For example, an overbite or underbite can affect how your child pronounces certain words, and as a result, your child will tend to withdraw from social groups both at school and home. This is likely to affect their academic performance and confidence.

If your child has an orthodontic problem, their self-esteem could get affected. Children may be aware that their smile may not be as good, so if your child has an underbite or open bite, they may not be confident enough to smile and this can affect their overall performance at school since they won’t want to associate with other children. So, if your child has an orthodontic problem, seek help from a professional orthodontist, they can rectify this problem by merely prescribing brace treatment.

Although dental health and school performance don’t seem to be visibly related, the health and wellbeing of a child can impact many other aspects of life. It can be very hard for someone to concentrate on school work and other tasks when they are in pain. In an American Public Health Association’s study, it was determined that children with dental discomfort performed significantly worse than other kids in school. Part of the reason for this is that kids who have dental issues often miss more school, resulting in poor grades. The other reason is that these kids are feeling uncomfortable while they are at school, and concentration and performance suffer as a result.

GraceMed will be at French Middle School, providing dental cleanings during the school day on Monday May 1, 2023. If you would like your student to be seen by a hygienist, please complete the following link. A representative from GraceMed will contact you directly with more information. https://gracemed.org/dental-consent You may contact GraceMed directly at (785) 861-8800 or via their website: https://gracemed.org

Please continue to report all Covid Illnesses and Exposure to the school nurse as soon as possible. This includes Positive Tests, Close Contact and Household Exposure. In order to assure you have the most up to date Quarantine, Mask Requirements and Testing Options, information will be shared at the time of notification.

Rapid COMBINATION COVID/INFLUENZA tests are now available for students. In order for your student to be tested at school, a Consent form must be completed before the test can be administered. Parents/Guardians can find the E-Form on the Tyler SIS parent page. Once you log in to your Parent portal, you will see a yellow highlighted line that states there are New Optional E-Forms available. Once you click “view”, you will then see the 2022-23 Covid-19/Flu/Strep Testing Consent form, you will be given the option to consent to testing, and the form will be immediately available for nursing staff. Please complete this form at your earliest convenience so we have it on file should the need arise. Nursing staff will make every effort to contact you prior to any testing, even if the form is on file. (Strep Testing is not available at this time.) Students with a negative test result may still need to be excluded from school based on symptoms and exclusion policy (i.e. fever, vomiting, etc.)

French Middle School will not tolerate bullying of any kind. Bullying is defined as any ongoing verbal or physical mistreatment where there is an imbalance of power, and the target/victim is exposed repeatedly to negative actions by one or more students. Bullying can be direct (physical or verbal), or indirect (exclusion, cyber-bullying, emotional). In order for everyone to feel safe and secure at school, every Topeka Public School has adopted the following rules against bullying. “I will not bully others. I will try to help students who are bullied. I will do my best to include students who are easily left out. When I know somebody is being bullied, I will tell an adult at school and an adult at home.” Students, staff, and parents should report any bullying that they are aware of to administration through the on-line bully report link on the French website. Students who bully others will receive consequences. Our counselors will be visiting 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes in August and September to remind students what bullying is, what we can do to prevent bullying, and what students should do if they or someone else is being bullied.

The Topeka Public Schools, Unified School District No. 501 is committed to affirmative action and equal opportunity. No person shall, on the basis of age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin or ancestry be denied lawful access to any appropriate educational service, program or activity provided by the school district. The Title VI and Title IX compliance coordinator is the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching/Learning/Administration. The Section 504/Title II compliance coordinator is the Coordinator of College and Career Ready Services. For employment, the EEO/AA officer is the General Director of Human Resources. All compliance coordinators may be contacted at 624 SW 24th Street, Topeka, KS 66611-1294, (785) 295-3000. The clerk of the Board of Education has been designated to receive and redirect or handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies, regulations and procedures. The clerk may be contacted by calling (785) 295-3045 or by writing to 624 SW 24th Street, Topeka, KS 66611-1294.

Email: khoffman@tps501.org
Website: https://french.topekapublicschools.net/
Location: 5257 Southwest 33rd Street, Topeka, KS, USA
Phone: 785-438-4150
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057094524963&ref=bookmarks
Twitter: @frenchfalcons