CMS Families,

It is great to be back in the school routine! Students have adapted quickly to their schedules and are cruising around the school with ease. If you feel your student is struggling with anything at the start of the year, do not hesitate to reach out to their guidance counselor or teacher(s). Speaking of communicating with us, be sure to note the “button” below with a link to our "Who do I call?" handout. We recommend printing out or bookmarking this page and keeping it handy! Please be sure to put CMS as a contact in your phone if you have not done so already at (716) 407-9200. 

We don't want to take up too much of your time because we know the start of the year is busy! Please see the reminders/information below:

• Middle School:  May be difficult for your student (or you!). Students can be consistently inconsistent during this phase of life. It is often a time where academic demands are increased, students are trying to find more independence, and relationships with their peers are sometimes hard to navigate. All of this happens while the adults in their lives expect them to build resilience, show empathy, and make the right choices! While it doesn't feel great, conflict is a natural part of the middle level years - it is how students build their socialization skills. Parents and caregivers can best support students at home by providing clear and consistent expectations, monitoring devices/social media access, and modeling/coaching students on social skills. If you or your student is struggling with the middle years, do not hesitate to reach out to the house office.

• Threats: As you are likely aware, last week was a difficult week for the district in terms of school threats. We want to emphasize that safety is our top priority. Students are being reminded, during assemblies this week, that threatening comments will be taken seriously. Please be sure to talk about this issue with your student(s), including what they say and do outside of school. Comments or jokes related to threats, even when made in jest, can lead to significant disruptions, investigations, and consequences. 

• Student Handbook: This week, we have our first grade level assemblies to review some important information for the year. Students were also given time to go through our student handbook in their social studies classes earlier this month. This is a important document for both students and families to review at the start of each year.

• Chromebooks: Students should come to school each day with a charged Chromebook. We encourage you to establish a routine where the device gets charged each night. Please be sure your student takes care of their device. Any personalization of the devices should not be permanent or damage the device. There is a new device policy implemented this year where students and families will be responsible for damaged devices. Please see Dr. Frahm's communications for more information.

• Cell Phone Policy: CMS has a no cell phone policy during the school day (8:58am - 3:35pm). Students may have cell phones with them but they are not to be seen or used. One of our roles, as middle level educators, is to help foster social skills. Cell phone use during the school day takes away from that effort. Additionally, cell phone use is distracting during classes. We ask for your cooperation with our no cell phone use policy by not texting your student during the school day expecting a response as they are not permitted to respond. Our house offices are happy to get messages to your student and to allow them to use our phone to call you when necessary.

• Arrival and Dismissal:  We ask that you take a minute to look over our traffic pattern information. We recognize that drop-off and afternoon pick-up can be busy and hectic. It is critical to the process that drivers are patient and follow the proper procedures. Parents may drop off students using the front loop beginning at 7:55 am. Students will be housed in one of our cafeterias until the building opens at 8:35 am. Please Note: the district recently did a traffic study of CMS because of our dismissal congestion. We anticipate some changes in future years. However, we will communicate with you if there are any short term adjustments.

Thank you for sharing your student with us each day. It is our pleasure to help guide them through their middle level years. We realize that this time of life may come with some challenges, but we are here to help. Please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Thank you,

Ashley Dreibelbis

Principal

PS - Please be sure to check out the other “buttons” and sidebars below which includes other helpful information. The CMS Resource Guide is a middle school handbook for families and has helpful videos for using our digital resources Schoology and PowerSchool.