Dear JRMS Families,

Another busy week at JRMS provided many opportunities to focus on something important for students and adults alike: growth.

Whether talking with families about helping students become more independent, working with teachers on instructional practices, refining our School Improvement Plan, or examining our student support systems, all great schools must continue to learn, reflect, and improve.

Supporting Our Students: PPS Webinar

This week, our administration and counseling staff participated in a PPS webinar for families. We reflected on the strong start to our school year and emphasized our continued openness to feedback.

Courtney Fragomeli, our counselor for Grades 5 and 7, discussed the transition to fifth grade, supporting students on their path toward independence, and helping them learn to advocate for themselves and ask for support.

Perhaps the most important message was also one of the simplest: it's okay to make mistakes! Middle school is a time to try new things, take appropriate risks, solve problems, and learn from the times when things don't go exactly as planned.

Writing to Think and Learn

Our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) continued their instructional work with a focus on writing across content areas.

Teachers reflected on how they currently use writing and explored the difference between writing for recall and using writing as a tool to demonstrate thinking and understanding. Writing can help students process ideas, make connections, and explain their reasoning in every subject—not just ILA class.

Refining Our School Improvement Plan

Our administrative team continued refining the JRMS School Improvement Plan, carefully reviewing our goals, strategies, and priorities.

Our academic goals focus on math, reading, and writing, supported by high-impact instructional strategies. Our school climate work will center on three areas that emerged in conversations or surveys with staff and families: communication, consistency, and systems of support.

These priorities will help provide direction for our work and meaningful ways to measure our progress throughout the year.

Advisory and SEL

At our Team Leaders meeting, we reviewed feedback from an internal staff survey and continued discussing Advisory and how we can ensure that social-emotional learning is delivered to every student in a consistent and meaningful way.

We are taking time to consider what is working, what needs to change, and what approach will best serve our students. At this time, we have decided to take a pause from the weekly Advisory period; however, this important conversation will continue with staff and other stakeholders.

Collaboration Across the District

Important work was also happening beyond JRMS this week, including a Counseling and Health co-teaching planning session, discussions through the Professional Development and Evaluation Committee, and continued work around social-emotional and behavioral supports within our MTSS framework.

While much of this work happens behind the scenes, each conversation contributes to stronger and more consistent experiences for students.

We regularly remind our students that growth requires us to try, reflect, learn, and adjust. The same is true for us as a school. With that in mind, I want to inform you that I will be out of the district on Monday and Tuesday for professional development.

Thank you for your continued feedback, trust, and partnership.

~Chris