Calendar

Check out the combined calendar  here .
Please send comments/suggestions and April Calendar Items to  calendar@rmsptsa.org
School
State testing starts soon
Students in LWSD will begin testing at the end of March. Each school has a different testing schedule: students at Redmond Middle School will be tested on the following dates:
  • Practice Tests
Math - 4/25/19
ELA - 5/2/19
  • ELA Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) - 5/7/19
  • ELA Performance Task (PT) - 5/9/19
  • Math CAT - 5/14/19
  • Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) - 5/15/19
8th Grade Only
  • Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test (IAAT) - 5/15/19
6th and 7th graders not currently in Algebra
  • Math PT - 5/16/19 
Learn more  about the state assessments on the district website.
We have scheduled our testing intentionally first thing in the morning so students can be their most alert and with their highest energy. Students without a 1 st  period should plan on arriving at 8:10 AM for testing. 
RMS Music Department Gratitude
The RMS Music Department would like to express deep gratitude to the RMS community members that donated both time and food items to the LWSD Solo & Ensemble Contest that was hosted at RMS on Saturday April 20 th . Middle School musicians from around the district came to our school to showcase their hard work and received helpful feedback from professional musicians that will allow them to continue to grow in their own musicianship. The event was a huge success and it would not have been possible without the help of many volunteers!
Host family opportunity
Open your hearts and homes to students from Japan! The RMS Japanese program is looking for several more home stay families to host two 8 th  grade students from Shukutoku Junior High School in Tokyo Japan. No Japanese language ability is required by the student or home stay family. All that is required is a desire to experience another culture. Students will arrive at RMS on Friday, May 17 and return on Monday, May 20 th . This is a great opportunity for any RMS student who is interested in Japanese culture. Please contact Kuyper Sensei at  skuyper@lwsd.org  for details. Arigatou! 
Save the Date - Griz Biz 2019
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, August 20, 2019, this will be the date of Griz Biz where families can pick up and complete paperwork, sign up for sports, open lunch accounts, tour the school, etc.
PTSA
WSPTA Convention Report
Our PTA sent five people to the state convention this weekend. Attendees learned many things that will help them help all families at our school. Delegates voted on state bylaws updates and for the incoming executive committee. The most exciting part of convention was being awarded a 100% Staff Membership Award as well as a Platinum Level Standards of Excellence Award. Redmond Middle School PTSA is pleased to be recognized for excellent work in the service of our school community. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible!
Green Week Comes to a Close
Green Week ended at RMS ended last week, but that doesn't mean you should stop caring about the environment. Here are some small changes you can make to make a big impact! 
  • Use reusable water bottles
  • Turn off the faucet while you are brushing
  • Don't idle - turn off your cars while picking up your kids at school.
  • Turn off lights and small electronics that you are not using at school and at home
  • Take only what you need for meals and donate unused, non-perishable items
  • Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle!
VIEW GREEN TEAM VIDEO : The Green Team has made a useful video to help you be more environmentally friendly. Share this video with your students, friends, families and everyone else!
SchoolPool Will Begin This Wednesday, May 1!
Tell your students to keep a look out for the SchoolPool tracker given to them by their 6th Period teacher. Encourage your student(s) to "WALK AND ROLL" to school! Then, just like in October, they jot down every time they walk, bike, bus, or carpool on their SchoolPool tracker. At the end of the month, students fill out the contact information on the back and drop it in the SchoolPool collection box at the front office. Each returned tracker earns RMS $5. Let's see if we can encourage the students to turn in at least 500 this season to earn their individual prizes and help the environment! Everybody, WALK AND ROLL!
Staff Appreciation Week - May 6-10
May 6-10 is Staff Appreciation Week. Let’s show our wonderful RMS staff how much we value and appreciate all the hard work they put in to enrich the lives of our kids. Please sign up to support them with donations of time, food, and/or money. The following is the week’s schedule and links to sign up.
 Monday, May 6 th  –  Coffee Cart  – sponsor a coffee for your favorite staff member(s)
Tuesday, May 7 th  –  Taco Bar  – sign up to donate food and volunteer to help setup/serve/clean up
Wednesday, May 8 th  –  Dessert Buffet  - sign up to donate food and volunteer to help setup/serve/clean up
Thursday, May 9 th  –  Snack Attack  - sign up to donate snacks
Friday, May 10 th  – small individual appreciation gift – no volunteer help needed
RMS PTSA appointed Board members for 2019-2020
Here's the newly elected RMS PTSA 2019-2020 school year executive board :

  • Co-President – Ashley Epstein
  • Co-President – Suruchi Malatpure
  • VP FACE – Swarnima Aswinkumar
  • VP Communications – Sujatha Patra
  • VP Volunteers – Stacy Hatch
  • Treasurer – Steve Hitch
  • Secretary – James Todd

If you have a student at RMS in the fall - consider giving couple hours a month to support, engage and advocate for our students, staff and community. Not a member but interested in making good things happen at RMS?  Join the PTSA  and become eligible.
Math Club News
More than 200 middle school students from Lake Washington School District competed in LWSD Math Olympiad 2019 at Kirkland Middle School on Tuesday, April 23.
Redmond Middle School Math Team won  the first place . Congratulations!
The following 24 students represented Redmond MS at the competition:
Aakash Banerji
Aarna Chowdhary
Alan Duan
Alon Ragoler
Angad Arora
Anish Deshpande
Annabella Li
Arnav Jain
Chris Ma
Di Mao
Divij Aswinkumar
Eva Jain
Evan Kim
Jacob Qian
Joseph Kaim
Juwang Lee
Kabir Hotani
Leo Miao
Max Qu
Michael Sheng
Mohith Ram Narendra Babu
Tonoya Biswas
Vanesha Hari
Yue Ding

Well Done!!!
Science cub news
Results from STATE Science Olympiad at Highline College, WA.
Two RMS Science teams participated at state level Science Olympiad on April 13th, 2019. Both teams performed very well, Please click below to see the Team rank and top medalists.
Member Savings. Powered by PTA
Take advantage of these benefit offers:
  • Great Wolf Lodge - save up to 30% on your next stay
  • LEGOBags.com - 50% off at LEGObags.com plus kids go free to LEGOLAND Parks or Discovery Centers.
  • Tickets at Work - formerly TicketMonster - 20-70% off on movies, hotels, shows, concerts, sporting events and more.
  • Office Depot - savings on school supplies, office products, technology, furniture, and print.
Members were sent their benefits access code along with their electronic membership card at the time of sign up. Can't find your? Contact  membership@rmsptsa.org  for assistance.
ASB
A reminder that purchases made on Amazon using this link help RMS ASB.
Help RMS ASB by donating used clothing and shoes. The bin is located in the parking lot by the portables.
Fund the Grizzlies  –  Please donate to the Redmond Middle School Associated Student Body (ASB) to help fund student activities.
Community
Vote for Redmond Middle School
Mathnasium wants to provide a treat to the teachers at Redmond Middle and we need your help. We want to bring in snacks and the desired items to fully stock the fridge in the teachers’/staff lounge of 5 schools in the area. To select the 5 schools, we are doing a Facebook contest. We will work with the PTSA at the top 5 schools with the most votes in this contest to make this a reality.
We would love Redmond Middle to be one of these schools. You can see the contest at  https://www.facebook.com/MathnasiumRedmond/posts . Please go cast a vote for Redmond Middle  to be one of the 5 schools and  share the contest info with the parents , wherever appropriate to get additional votes for your school’s teachers!
Kudos to a young entrepreneur!
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA), a program run by the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce selected  Nir Pechuk , a 6th grade RMS student and CEO of Extentek — a company aiming to offer a contactless material level indication device to help people who are blind or visually impaired pour any substance into a container without over-pouring — to represent Bellevue and advance to the 11th annual YEA! Saunders Scholars National Sem-Finals College Scholarship competition May 3 in Rochester, New York. Watch the live-stream here:   https://www.facebook.com/events/2204560646271792/
Flyers
Bear Tracks weekly is produced by RMS PTSA as a benefit to the Redmond Middle School Community. Articles are due on Thursdays for publication the following Monday. Bear Tracks is edited by Ekta Vadlamudi and [YOUR NAME HERE - please email Sujatha Patra: communications.vp@rmsptsa.org if interested in co-editing ]. Please review our communication priorities and submit articles to weekly@rmsptsa.org .