April 2022 Newsletter

Principal Message from Ms. Thompson

Dear EMS Parent/Guardian(s):

We hope everyone had a relaxing and rejuvenating spring break with family and friends. Our students and staff are eagerly back and engaged in exciting learning opportunities and challenges throughout the building.

East Middle School teachers at each grade level have been and will continue to prepare our students for the Forward Exam (teaching to our district learning requirements). The Forward Exam in the state of Wisconsin assesses students in the areas of Reading, Writing, Listening, and Math for 6th, 7th and 8th grade. In addition, students in 8th grade will be assessed in the areas of Science and Social Studies. With all tests, we encourage you to speak with your student(s) to try their best, get a good night's sleep prior to the test, and be sure to fuel themselves with a good breakfast.

Below is our our testing schedule:

6th Grade:

April 11: Text Dependent Analysis Writing (60 minutes)
April 12: Math 2 (60 minutes) and Math 1 (40 minutes)
April 13: Reading 4 (50 minutes)Writing/Language 2 (20 minutes), Listening 3 (20 minutes)

7th Grade:

April 11: Text Dependent Analysis Writing (60 minutes)
April 12: Math 2 (75 minutes) and Math 1 (30 minutes)
April 13: Reading 4 (50 minutes)Writing/Language 2 (20 minutes), Listening 3 (20 minutes)

8th Grade:

April 11: Text Dependent Analysis Writing (60 minutes), Social Studies 1 (35 minutes), Social Studies 1 (35 minutes)
April 12: Math 2 (80 minutes) and Math 1 (35 minutes)
April 13: Reading 4 (50 minutes)Writing/Language 2 (20 minutes), Listening 3 (20 minutes)
April 14: Science 1 (35 minutes), Science 2 (35 minutes) and Science 3 (35 minutes)

The exam is taken on their school chromebook which must be fully charged and students will need wired headphones for a portion of the test. Please remind your students to bring their own wired headphones from home. Headphones must have a wired jack to plug into the Chromebook, they cannot be wireless. We recommend having students bring headphones early and store them in the classroom. We have additional sets available for those that need a set. Cell phones, smart watches and wireless headphones/earbuds may not be brought into the testing environment.

As always, we appreciate your support throughout this school year. Please do not hesitate to contact us, your student's teacher, or counselors, to continue to work together to finish the 2021-2022 school year OC Strong. The success of our students is directly linked to the unwavering support they receive from all of us working together to engage, challenge and inspire them each day.

Sincerely,

Sue Thompson, Principal

Jodi Newell Associate Principal (A-L)

Casey Milroy, Associate Principal (M-Z)

Upcoming Events

Click HERE to see a full list of upcoming events!

April

April 5 (Tuesday) - 4th Quarter Begins

April 8 - Spring Fling Dance

April 15 through 18 - No School

April 19 - Coffee with the Principal

April 29 (Friday) - No School

May

May 17 - 19 Band & Choir concerts (See below)

May 26 - Talent Show

May 30 - No School

Tuesday, April 19

Save the date and join Ms. Thompson for Coffee with the Principal from 8:45 - 9:45 in the office conference room.

National Associate Principals Week April 4-8

Happy Associate Principals week to Ms. Newell &

Ms. Milroy!

Your leadership brightens our school and we are extremely thankful for all you do!

National Librarian Day - April 16

Happy National

Librarian Day

to Ms. Koenig!

Professional librarians work with complex cataloging systems to organize books, make purchasing decisions for their library, organize events and programming, teach classes & more.

Celebrate National Librarian Day with us and say Thank You to Ms. Koenig.

Music

Festival of Choirs

Over 240 eighth through twelfth graders from East Middle School, West Middle School, and Oak Creek High School performed at the annual Festival of Choirs. The concert was held for the first time in the new Oak Creek Performing Arts & Education Center.

7th & 8th Grade Choir

May 17 @ 7 p.m.

7th & 8th Grade Band/Jazz

May 18 @ 7 p.m.

6th Grade Choir & Band

May 19 @ 7 p.m.

Sports

East Middle School TRACK & FIELD season will begin on Monday, April 4.

Track is available to 7th & 8th grade students only.

The Oak Creek Invite will be on May 4 at the High School.

DANCE TEAM Pre-Tryout Clinics will be available for students to prepare for tryout day! Clinic will be in the EMS cafeteria - enter through door 7.

April 7 - Jumps and Turns - 5:30 - 7 p.m.

April 28 - Technique & Combo - 5:30 - 7 p.m.

Please contact ocemspoms@gmail.com for more information.

Flyers will also be available in the main office.

Guidance News

Social - Emotional Learning Lessons

In the month of April, students will continue

working through Unit 4 which is Managing Relationships & Social Conflict.

In Unit 4 your student(s) are learning strategies for developing and maintaining healthy relationships, perspective-taking, and dealing with conflict.

The content is set to help students learn to honor and understand differences based on varied personal, familial, and cultural backgrounds.

The goals of this unit include students being able to:

Choose healthy relationships.
Treat others with respect despite differing values and opinions.
Use conflict-management strategies to manage conflict (including those within close relationships) when values and perspectives differ.

PBIS Update (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports)

This month at East our PBIS committee started Mission Statement Bingo. The purpose is to encourage positive choices in the classroom and enhance positive learning environments! Students who are demonstrating success, expected behaviors and growth within their classrooms have been asked to add their name to BINGO boards. During the last week of each month, the office will call a bingo square each morning during announcements. Students who win will come to the office to choose a prize! Ask your learner if they had an opportunity to write their name on any of their classroom Mission Statement Bingo Boards. We will continue this through the remainder of the school year!

Artist: Justin Pokorny

Grade: 7

Artist of the month Justin Pokorny continues to absolutely impress me with his hard work, willingness to continue to improve, and overall talent. Justin has made leaps and bounds in the art world in such a short time frame. This portrait is powerful and captures the viewers gaze strongly. Justin completed this work with colored pencil and white gel pen. Something I admire about Justin’s process is that he will challenge himself to recreate art pieces that he did a year ago. The growth is so obvious! I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you, Justin! Amazing job. - Ms. MacLeod

District News

Tornado and Severe Weather Awareness Week

April 4-8, 2022

Click HERE for more information.

OC Olympics - Save the Date

SAVE THE DATE - Our next OC Olympics will be on Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 9am.

Our guest this year will be former Green Bay Packer, LeRoy Butler!!

Registration opens May 15, 2022 , watch for more details to come.

If you would like to join our planning committee, please contact e.moon@ocfsd.org.

We would love to have you. We are also in need of donations of water, soda, snacks and more. If you or someone you know would like to donate, please let us know! Stay tuned!

Aurora Student & Family Assistance Program

The Aurora Student and Family Assistance Program offers a variety of free supportive resources for the families of students in our district. SFAP provides up to 6 sessions of short-term counseling at no charge along with legal, financial, child care and elder care consultation and resources. Services are available to individual adults, couples, and families.

To learn more about these services, visit www.aurora.org/eap or call 1-800-236-3231.

Please mention that you are a parent of a student that attends Oak Creek East Middle School to gain access to the free services.

Cell Phone Free School

Click HERE to view our cell phone and headphones procedure

If you allow your student to bring a phone to school, it will need to be locked in the locker from 8:30 am until 3:45 pm.

As in the “olden days,” you can contact the office if you need to speak to or get a message to your child.

Absence Reporting

Please call the attendance line at (414) 768-6260 option “1” to report student absences and tardies. When leaving a message, please include the date, first and last name of your student, the spelling and grade.

Additionally you may email attendance information to our general office email address at office.eastmiddle@ocfsd.org.

Virtual Backpack

Don’t forget to check your student’s Virtual Backpack! The Virtual Backpack is our "eco-friendly" approach to distributing information supporting our district's educational goals and mission.

Virtual Backpack Link: ocfsd.org/parents/virtual-backpack

Background Checks

The District Volunteer Background Check Application is now online! We will no longer be accepting paper applications. Every volunteer must complete an online volunteer application form even if you were previously approved and are on the Volunteer Database. You will still need to submit an online volunteer application every five years after the initial online application. This new process will have results within 1-2 days!

The link can be found under the Parents tab on the district website.