October 2023

Dear JH & HS Tiger Families: 

The chill of Fall is in the air and we are are gearing up for the busy month of October at Newton Falls Junior High and High School! 

We are very excited to be hosting our first ever Cross Country meet in school history, Hill-Man's XC Adventure, on Tuesday, October 10th! NFXC also wants to invite our 5th and 6th graders to participate in this event.  Any young athlete interested in running must report to the elementary school playground by 6pm for check-in. Be sure to be dressed and ready to run; the one-mile race will start at 6:30.  Please come out and support all of our runners on this momentous occasion!

Parent/Teacher conferences will be held this week on Wednesday, October 11th, from 3-8 PM. Please call the respective offices to reserve your appointment with your child's teacher. We encourage all parents to regularly access their child's grades through Progressbook's Parent Access. 

On October 12th, the Junior Class will be sponsoring a College, Career, and Trades fair in the Junior High gymnasium from 8-10:30. Our Junior Class, led by Mr. Gross, has been hard at work planning and organizing this event as a community service project. Please stop by if you are interested in learning more and show support for our students who planned this awesome event for our school community! 

We have started the Junior High After School Program in collaboration with Alta Care Group. The After School Program runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 2:30-4:30 and focuses on academic support, community outreach, social recreation, and healthy habits. The students who participate also get the opportunity to partiicpate in multiple field trips at zero costs to families! Parents of students in grades 6-8 are encouraged to contact Mrs. Rankin (rankinr@nfschools.org) to reserve a spot as seats are limited.  To read more about this opportunity, please click HERE. We still have a few spots left!

We are also seeing a lot of success so far with our partnership with Youth Intensive Services, an in-house behavioral health agency that has joined our district this school year. If you have not received a phone call yet and are interested in having your child participate in services offered by Youth Intensive Services, please email Principal Rankin (rankinr@nfschools.org) to request a referral. 

We are very excited to announce that Dr. Haxhiu, JH/HS Intervention Specialist, has agreed to sponsor and resurrect our Key Club! We have had a large student interest and already have begun working with the Newton Falls Kiwanis Club to plan various service projects. They recently held their elections and congratulations are in order to President Sidney Orlandi, Vice President Kennedy Howard, Treasurer Mia DeCesare, and Secretary Peyton Murphy. Key Club students are currently focusing on revamping our former Library into a Student Union where kids can check out books, work on collaborative projects, and much more! 

We are also happy to welcome Huntington Learning Center to the Junior High soon who will be providing high dosage tutoring to students in grades 6-8 who need additional support in Reading or Math. This is a coordinated effort to help address learning gaps and increase test scores while also promoting student achievement. Students will work in small groups during the school day on targeted skills in Reading or Math. 

We want to remind parents of our revised cell phone policy. Students in grades 6-8 cannot be on their phones or have phones visible at any time throughout the school day. Students in grades 9-12 are permitted cell phone usage/access at lunch time only. Cell phones that are confiscated must be picked up by the end of the day by a parent/guardian--the phone is NOT returned to the student. We appreciate your cooperation with this and continue to see positive results in student engagement, behavior, and socialization from this policy change! 

This is also a reminder that there will be no school for students on Friday, October 13th and Monday, October 16th. 

Lastly, we want to emphasize to all of our Tiger families that if you find yourself lacking resources and are in need of help, especially as the cold months come upon us, please do not hesitate to reach out. If your children need winter coats, warmer clothes, better shoes, or you need help with groceries and food, we are here to help. There's zero judgment--it takes a village to raise a child and we at Newton Falls Junior High and High School are part of your village. Please email rankinr@nfschools.org if you ever need additonal support and we will utilize all our resources to take care of our Tiger families!

We are committed to creating a partnership between our school and our Tiger families so that every child can be successful and achieve their highest potential. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you need anything or have questions/concerns. Thank you!

Sincerely, 

Mrs. Rankin, Principal & Mr. Bauman, Assistant Principal 

Have a question? Please email Mrs. Rankin at rankinr@nfschools.org or Mr. Bauman at baumanr@nfschools.org!