PRINCIPAL`S MESSAGE - Milwee Middle School

Parent Newsletter
January 2015
Volume III, Issue 2
Congratulations to our very
own Mr. Brian Furgione –
Seminole County Middle
School’s Teacher of the
Year!
Milwee Middle School
1341 S Ronald Reagan Blvd
Longwood, FL 32750
Congratulations to our Spartan
Super Spellers from the 20142015 Spelling Bee.
First place - Rachel, second
place - Kevin, third place Cristian!
Dear Milwee Middle School Families,
As I welcome you to a new semester at Milwee Middle School, I need to introduce myself.
My name is Jim Kubis, and I am your new principal. I want to first thank Dr. Walsh for
providing me with a smooth transition into my new role. I wish her much success at the
county office. I received my bachelor’s degree in biology in 1981 from the University of
Akron and my master’s degree in educational leadership in 1997 from the University of
Central Florida. This is my thirty-first year in education. I began my career in education at
Barberton High School in Ohio as a science teacher and basketball coach. I moved to Florida
in 1986 and worked for Orange County Public Schools for sixteen years, teaching science
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
and math, serving as assistant athletic director and coaching
basketball at Edgewater High School. In 1992 I led my varsity
team to a district championship. I began my administrative
career at Gotha Middle School as administrative dean. Later, I
was promoted to assistant principal and worked at Hunters
Creek Middle School. An opportunity then took me to the
Diocese of Orlando where I served as an assistant principal for
three years before returning to public education working at
South Seminole Middle School as assistant principal for fiveand-a-half years. I was promoted to principal and worked at
Markham Woods Middle School for four years. I have been
married to my wife, Lori, for twenty-six years, and I have a
son, Zachary, who is a junior in college. I enjoy golf, fishing,
boating, officiating basketball and spending time with my
family. It is truly an honor to be selected principal of Milwee
Middle School. I am looking forward to starting this new
journey with my Spartan family. Together we will continue to
help your child succeed.
Sincerely,
Jim Kubis
Milwee has adopted a 0-4 grading scale that is in
alignment with calculating students’ grade point
REMINDERS
CAR LINE (Drop Off & Pick Up)
 Teachers assist in the car line for your child’s safety and the safety of
others. We ask ALL cars to pull up to the furthest spot in front of building 9
so that students can be safely dropped off and loaded.
 Students are not to walk through traffic without the explicit direction from
our teachers directing traffic.
 Students are to be dropped off and loaded in front of building 9 only so that
we can move traffic off of 427 as quickly and safely as possible. Stopping in
front of the Media Center to drop off or load is prohibited.
 Students are to pay attention and be alert. They are to be watching for their
ride at all times and move down towards the furthest spot in front of
building 9 to load in the afternoons.
 Parents and Visitors are asked to refrain from talking on their phones while
in the car line. Directions cannot be heard and accidents can result.
 Thank you for helping to keep students, teachers and staff safe at
Milwee.
GUIDANCE INFORMATION
 Please contact Ms. Wolfrum in the guidance department if
you have a need for a community resource list or have a need
for your child to participate in our Friday pantry backpack
program. This program assists our students with breakfast
and lunch over the weekend.
 All students at Milwee are provided the opportunity to eat
breakfast at school on a daily basis. Students do not have to
be on the lunch program to participate in our school-wide
breakfast program. Please encourage your child to eat
breakfast daily.
 Contact the grade level counselor if your child has a
need for counseling services. There is a referral process
available for additional support services.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance is monitored on a monthly
basis. Students who miss 5 or more days
within a 30 day period are subject to
truancy measures. Excuse notes should
be turned in to the front office within 2
days of a student’s return to school.
Please contact Mrs. Michaels, attendance
secretary, if you have questions.
PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Conferences may be scheduled by calling
Mrs. Perez in the front office. They are
scheduled before school from 8:40-9:10.
Literacy Night 1/29 – 5:30 – 6:45 pm
All County Band Rehearsals & Concert 1/29 thru 1/31
Beta club open skate 2/1 - 2:00 pm - 3:45 pm - RDV
Pasta for Pennies 2/2 – 2/27
Title 1 Math Night 2/5 – 6:00 – 8:00 pm
American Heart Association Hoops for Hearts 2/12-2/13
SECME Regional competition - 2/14 7:30 am - 4:00 pm UCF
Curriculum Night – 2/19 6:30 – 8:00 pm
Girl's Engineering breakfast - 2/20 8:30 am
Engineering week - 2/23 - 2/27
Engineering family open house night 2/26 6:30 - 8:00 pm Cafeteria
Incoming 6th Articulation 2/26 6:00 – 8:00 pm Media Center
Regional Science Bowl - 2/28 9:00 am. 3:00 pm FSEC, Cocoa
Energy Whiz Olympics - 5/2 8:00 am - 4:00 pm FSEC, Cocoa
MILWEE TRACK SCHEDULE
February 4
Sanford, Rock Lake @ Greenwood Lakes
Markham Woods, Teague @ Millennium
Tuskawilla, South Seminole @ Lawton Chiles (Hosted by Jackson Heights)
Milwee, Lawton Chiles @ Indian Trails
February 11
Millennium, Markham Woods @ Sanford
Greenwood Lakes, Rock Lake @ Teague
Lawton Chiles, Tuskawilla @ Indian Trails
South Seminole, Milwee @ Lawton Chiles (Hosted by Jackson Heights)
February 21 -County Meet at Hagerty High @ 8:00am
ptsa
Milwee PTSA needs volunteers to work the
school store, which is open from 8:45 – 9:40 am
each school day. PTSA needs volunteers who
can sign-up to work one day or several days a
week on a recurring schedule. Volunteers will
be trained by a PTSA Board member and will
work side-by-side with one or two other trained
volunteers each day. This is a great way to get
to know our students!
PTSA uses VolunteerSpot to manage our
volunteer needs which is located on our
website (http://milweeptsa.weebly.com/) or go
to our group page on VolunteerSpot directly at
http://www.volunteerspot.com/group/56388
154060#!/show. Interested volunteers can
also contact us directly by email at
MilweePTSA@gmail.com.
Other volunteer needs will arise so please
continue to check our website and Facebook
for alerts as seen above.
Fundraiser for Hoops For Heart
will begin January 6-Feb 13th.
Feb. 13th will be the day of
activity for it. Online donations
encouraged. Go
to http://www.heart.org to sign
up under Milwee.
Milwee Middle School Science Fair EXPO 2014
AWARDS
Most Creative Board Award
Most Creative Topic Award
Most Inventive Project Idea
Award
Best Use of Food or
Technology Award
Super Scientist Award
6th Grade
7th Grade
8th Grade
Cafeteria
Gym
Media Center
1st
Riley O'Connell
Alek Schoneck
Jessica Goodchild
2nd
Keller Danahy
Julian Martinez
Max Poorman
3rd
Aidan Rubino
Derrick Vanderslice
Andrew Winter
1st
Liam Rosenfeld
Sean King
Anthony Cho
2nd
Isaac Manshi
Coral Rodriguez
Karstan Fose
3rd
Amanda Long
Andrew Georgi
Jay York
1st
Artthur Machado
Dylan Davis
Jacob Slavkin
2nd
Morgan Worthy
Tyler Paura
D'Jon Smalls
3rd
Justin Warren
Erik Soldberg
Jack Scully
1st
Maria Cruz
Eleanor Stettner
Kevin Jarvis
2nd
Annilie Dupervial
Jasmine Douglas
William Cross
3rd
Daniel Principe
Matthew Aelker
Carlie Guiley
1st
Vincent Hardesty
Tyler Wood
Maxwell Tucker
2nd
Chad Petersohn
Harrison Turner
Kyle Koehne
3rd
Mya Coco
Allison Cartmill
Saloanee Labh
Name
Alex Schoneck
Eli Garmon
Mark Bruckert
Category
Engineering
Engineering
Engineering
Aidan Rubino
Environmental
Destry Jinks
Kasey Bartholomew
Vincent Hardestry
Chad Petersohn (Alternate)
Physics
Physics
Physics
Physics
Micheal Scott
Olivia Heintzen
Zoology
Zoology
Milwee's eight FIRST LEGO League robotics teams have been working extremely
hard preparing for this tournament season. The season theme is 'World Class', and
requires the teams to develop a new way of teaching something. Our teams' choices
include a new way to learn music, a new way to learn about D-Day (using Minecraft), a
new way to learn history (using virtual reality) and several other innovative methods.
They designed, built and programmed creative robots to solve the robot challenges. We
have won awards at our practice tournaments and are nervously looking forward to our
next competitions. Our VEX team has attended one competition, and was thrilled to get
into the second round. Two more competitions are ahead, and they are busy with their
preparations.
Robotics students have just started the new semester, and are delving into the
background of the subject. LEGO Robotics classes are using the Engineering Design
Process to solve the problem of the annoying magically tangling charger cords by
designing a Robot Charging Station for the department.
Milwee Celebrates E-WEEK February 23-27
Milwee Middle Celebrates Engineering Week in February, plan to dress up for the following
Spirit Days. Students will also be able to participate in an Invention Contest, this year’s
challenge is to design an item that will incorporate a rubber band. This competition is actually a
National competition and is called Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors. Students can not
only win here but they can submit their invention to the national competition to win the $2000
grand prize. Any student at Milwee can participate! Plan to attend the Engineering Expo
Thursday, February 26 from 6:30 -8:00 to see all of the great inventions, student video games,
robotics, family activities and the wax museum participants.
Monday, February 23
Tuesday, February 24
Wednesday, February 25
Thursday, February 26
Friday, February 27
Engineering Dictionary Day
Engineering college day
Alternate Energy Day
Dress like your favorite engineer/Inventor.
Dress for Success
Dear SCPS Families:
Seminole County Public Schools is pleased to
announce that we are now able to send announcements
via SMS text messaging to your mobile phones.
If you would like to receive these announcements as
text messages, please do the following:
Step 1. Ensure your school has your cell phone
number on file through our Skyward database. If the
school did not have your cell phone number on file
and added it, wait at least 24 hours before proceeding
to the next step.
Step 2. From your cell phone, text the word “Join” to
the number 56360.
If our messaging system finds a match for your
number in its database, you receive a confirmation
message thanking you for joining school alerts. At any
time, you can unsubscribe by texting “Stop” to 56360.
Step 3. Create a contact on your phone with the name
of your school or simply SCPS (if you have children
in multiple schools in the district), or another
meaningful name, and the phone number 56360. Then,
when you receive a text from this number, you know
who is sending it.
Thank you!
2015- 2016 COURSE REGISTRATION
Preparations are underway for the 2015-2016 school year. Please see the
timeline below for course registrations:
Incoming 6th Grade:
End of January – Beginning of February: Course selection information will
be send to our feeder elementary schools at the end of January – beginning
of February. Current 5th grade students will bring this information home at
that time.
February 19 – Curriculum Night; 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. – Teachers and
counselors will be available to answers questions and assist with course
selection.
February 26 – Q&A Session; 7:00-8:00 p.m. – Counselors will be available
to answer questions regarding course selection.
March 2nd – Course Selection Sheets due. They can be turned in to the
elementary counselor or brought to Milwee. They can also be turned in on
February 19th and February 26th.
Current 6th and 7th Grade Students
End of January – Course selection information will be send home with
students through their math teachers. These will be due back to their math
teacher by February 6, 2015.
All current 6th grade students MUST have their 7th grade immunizations
completed and the required form returned to Milwee before their course
registrations will be processed.
For additional information please visit our website at:
http://milweeregistration.weebly.com/.
PARENT/GUARDIAN CLIMATE SURVEY
The Education Accountability Law provides parents, educators and community
leaders’ an opportunity to participate in the development of improvement plans
for schools. In order to gather information that is vital to this process, we are
asking parents to complete a School Climate Survey. The twenty-five questions
on this survey deal with issues that educational research shows to be
characteristic of effective schools. The results will report our parents’ level of
satisfaction and/or concern with these issues.
Parents may access the survey as follows:
Parent Survey in English: www.surveymonkey.com/s/MSParentclimatesurvey2015
Parent Survey in Spanish: www.surveymonkey.com/s/MSParentSpanish2015
To access the survey on the SCPS website: go to the District website at
www.scps.k12.fl.us the District website, click on PARENTS in the top, horizontal
menu, then click on the CLIMATE SURVEY link in the left menu of the Parents
page. A fly-out menu will display for the user to select the English or Spanish
version of the Elementary, Middle, or High Parent survey.
The parent survey window is now open and ends on February 27, 2015. Thank
you for taking time to complete the climate survey. Your feedback is appreciated
and valued by SCPS.
Title I – Family Engagement Activities
As a Title I school, we have developed a Family Engagement Plan
with parent input. Our Title I – Family Engagement website
outlines the activities which we plan to provide for families to
support student learning. You can reach this website in a couple
of ways:
From Milwee website (www.milwee.scps.k12.fl.us), click on
“Title I – Family Engagement”
Go directly to: http://milweetitle1.weebly.com/
Milwee Middle School
In addition, Seminole County Family Engagement resources can
be found at: http://scpsfamily.weebly.com/
Upcoming Title I Events
We have also developed a “School Compact” which outlines the
responsibilities of student, school and parent in our support of
student learning. Please contact April McManus at
april_mcmanus@scps.k12.fl.us for additional information.
The following family engagement
events will take place in February
and March.
Light refreshments and childcare will be provided for these events.
January 29 ELA/Reading Night – Learn about the Florida State Assessment
standards
February 5 Math Night – 6:30 to 8:00 – Learn more about the Florida State
Assessment standards.
February 19 Curriculum Night – 6:30 to 8:00 - For incoming 6th grade families.
This is an opportunity to see what goes on in the classroom and speak with
counselors regarding course selection.
February 26 Incoming 6th Grade Question and Answer Session – 7:00 to 8:00 –
For incoming 6th grade families. This is an opportunity to answer any final
questions before course registration information is due on March 2, 2015.
February 26 EWeek; 6:30 to 8:00- Fun engineering activities for the whole family.
BEFORE
WE
FORGET
8th Grade Information
High School Registration
High school registration will start the first week of February. Students will be receiving
information through history class.
* Information on the open house dates and the registration process will be posted on the Milwee
website.
*Students who have been accepted to magnet programs need to make sure they return the
acceptance letter to the Choices Department by January 20th.
*Registration materials from the high schools will be distributed to students as we receive them.
Grades/Promotion Requirements
* Please monitor your child’s grades and be award of the current grade point average.
* Transcripts in Skyward will be available to high school counselors and may impact the
selection of classes available to students.
* You may schedule a parent teacher conference by contacting Mrs. Perez in the front office.
* Please monitor your child’s grades and assignments on a weekly basis in Skyward if you have
access.
* Weekly progress reports are available in the guidance department if you need assistance with
weekly behavior and/or academic monitoring.
* An overall 2.0 GPA is required for a promotion to grade 9. This is also a requirement for
sports and extracurricular activities the first semester of next year.
6th Grade Information
***IMPORTANT *** IMPORTANT *** IMPORTANT ***IMPORTANT***IMPORTANT***
***Attention all 6th grade students.***
The law requires all students entering the 7th grade to have an updated immunization certificate. No
7th grade schedules will be issued to students without documentation of the TD(Tetanus Diptheria)
booster and the Hepatitis B series immunizations. This needs to be done before April 15, 2015.
Oviedo High School offers the students of
Seminole County a unique opportunity to
participate in a cutting edge Bioscience Technology
Program. In this program, students will participate
in laboratory based courses where they will study
topics such as DNA science, Forensics,
Microbiology, Genetic Engineering, Bioinformatics,
Genomics, and Proteomics. Our classrooms are equipped with state of the art
laboratory technology that will prepare students to work in various laboratories
around the country. Students that finish the program will have an opportunity
to earn an industry certification as a Biotechnician Assistant.
The Bioscience program is recognized by Seminole County Public Schools as a
Program of Emphasis. The Choices Department offers options for students
around the district to attend Oviedo High School and participate in this
program. We will be hosting a special Bioscience presentation in conjunction
with our Curriculum Night on Thursday, January 29 at 5:30 pm. If you have
any questions, please feel free to contact Rob Frasca, Assistant Principal at
robert_frasca@scps.k12.fl.us or at 407-320-4009.