Southeast Middle Cougar Families,

We have reached week 14 of the school year. Tuesday November 17th students received progress reports. Students shouldh be able to have "accountable talks" with parents about how they can maintain or improve their grades throughout the rest of the nine weeks. Yes, our Cougars are only two days away from Thanksgiving Break and four weeks away from Winter Break. They have been working incredibly hard in all of their classes and our teachers are preparing them for the next set of benchmark assessments as well as mid-term exams. Our teachers have set goals to increase each student's profieciency and performance in all subject areas and we are using multiple resources to help students read better and feel more confident using their math skills. Literacy and numeracy are our focus, more specifically using textual evidence and understanding complex text. Parents, continue to help by requiring reading and writing time as practice, limiting social media time, building home libraries, visiting community libraries for study and reading time, and monitoring proper rest and eating habits. We are working on our social emotional health as a student body and faculty and we welcome parent support to maintain a positive school culture. We have noticed when our students behave better, more teaching and learning happens, and they perform better in class. We appreciate the time parents have taken to come for parent conferences and respond to phone conferences. The parent-teacher partnership has helped to keep students engaged and we are beginning to see some improvements in all areas of the school. Check our website smsdataschool.com for any information and upcoming events. School will be closed and there will be no classes the week of November 22. Students and teachers return to school November 29th. We continue to work to make each day a great day to be a Cougar! Happy Thanksgiving from our Southeast Middle Family to yours.

Principal Shalonda Simoneaux