UPCOMING EVENTS:

2/25/2020      MAP Math Make-up 

2/26/2020      MAP Reading Make-up

2/26/2020      Club Day Schedule

2/28/2020      MAP Reading & Math Make-up

2/28/2020      Honor Roll celebration

3/4/2020        School Store 

3/11/2020      Locker Clean Out

                      PTA Meeting, 7 PM (Media Center)

Student of the Month - January

6th	7th	8th
Aubrey C.	Angeles E.I.	Ivan A.
Gia S.	Nini E. I.	Hannah S.
Ayomide S.	Katie C. T.	Emily H.
Micah S.	Becca H.	John C.
Amy G.		Hanna C.
Hansika V.		Steven F.
Bill A.		Myon D.
Alex B.		Tania R.A.
Theeksha M.		Alex A.
Olivia K.		Jana E.
		Srinidhi A.

 

HONOR ROLL   Students for Quarter 2

Congratulations!

Principal Honor Roll Q2 19-20.pdf

Gold Honor Roll Q2 19-20.pdf

Silver Honor Roll Q2 19-20.pdf

MAP Make-up Testing

For students absent during administration of MAP on February 5-7, make-up testing has been scheduled for next Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday. It is important that students are present for make-up testing as students’ performance in the areas of reading and math on MAP aid instructional discussions for interventions and advanced level talent spotting. Feel free to email Mrs. Harmon at Andrea_Harmon@hcpss.org if you have any questions.

PTA

Join us for our next PTA General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, March 11th at 7pm in the Media Center.  Find out what we're up to!

HC DrugFree Updates

•  Free Parenting Classes - HC DrugFree and the State's Attorney's Office are offering another series of evidence-based, interactive parenting classes. Provides the parents of children age 9-14 with the skills and knowledge to reduce the risk that their children will use drugs. Classes will be held on Tuesdays, March 10, 17, 24 and 31 from 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Oakland Mills Middle School in Columbia. Parents are expected to attend all 4 classes. For more information, contact HC DrugFree's Executive Director, Joan Webb Scornaienchi at Admin@hcdrugfree.org or 443-325-0040. To register, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/March2020oms 

• Drive-Thru Medication and Sharps (Needles, Syringes & EpiPens) Collection - HC DrugFree's next drive-thru medication and sharps (needles, syringes and EpiPens) collection will be held on Saturday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Wilde Lake Village Center parking lot. Bring all unwanted and expired over-the-counter and prescription medication. Free. Open to the public. No need to get out of your vehicle. Student and adult volunteers welcome. Community service hours available. Medication guarded and transported by the Howard County Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Reload Lunch Accounts

Please remember to reload your student's lunch account through www.myschoolbucks.com.

Update Your Family File

All families need to update/verify their emergency contact information each year. Please check your Emergency Procedure information to ensure the list of individuals authorized to pick up your student during the school day is up to date. It is very important that PMS has the most current information and phone numbers available.

Please visit HCPSS Connect and select the Family File tab to login. It's also a good idea to double check your Emergency Procedure information to ensure the list of individuals authorized to pick up your student during the school day is up to date.

Once logged in, parents/guardians will be asked to provide or update the following information:

• Student information
• Parent/guardian contact
• Emergency contacts
• Medical information
• Arrival/dismissal procedures
• Media release (photo approval)
• Data confidentiality
• PTA/PTSA directory

Changes of address may not be made through Family File. If you have recently moved, please contact Lindsey Miles, Guidance Secretary at 410-313-2850 as soon as possible.

Memory Book 

The Memory Book Team is looking for pictures of 8th graders for a page spread called "Before We Were Knights". Formerly known as the Baby Pictures pages, the BWWK pages would incorporate pictures of any 8th graders who wish to participate from before they were students at Patapsco. It can be a baby picture, a favorite picture from elementary school or a summer trip, etc. It is completely optional, but if any 8th grader would like their picture included, it should be emailed or given to Ms. Salsman to scan by Wednesday 2/26. Email: kalina_salsman@hcpss.org 

Counselor Corner

Reminder- Course Requests for 2020-2021 school year:

As a reminder all families should have received an email notification of their student’s course recommendations for the 2020-2021 school year. Parents and guardians requesting a course placement different from the teacher-recommended course must complete and submit a Course Placement Review form. CPR forms are available in Student Services and are due by March 6th, 2020. Forms received by March 6th will be given priority. Requests received after March 6th will be accommodated if space is available. 

Summer School Information

The HCPSS Comprehensive High School Summer Program is designed to provide diploma-bound students entering Grades 9 through 12 with opportunities to support academic achievement and acceleration. The program offers high school credit-bearing courses in a variety of content areas and levels.

Please visit the Innovative Pathways Summer School website- https://www.hcpss.org/summer-programs/

Summer School Programs – HCPSS Online enrollment requests for Summer Programs will open Monday, March 2nd at 6 PM to March 16th. www.hcpss.org

Information is available on course offerings, enrollment, payment and financial assistance. 

Contact Innovativepathways@hcpss.org with questions.

Over the past couple of weeks Ms Lee and Ms Kempthorn met with 6th grade students to help them create an academic S.M.A.R.T goal for the 3rd quarter. Take a moment to review your student’s goal and consider ways you can support them at home. Ms. Lee and Ms. Kempthorn will meet with students at the end of the 3rd quarter to check their progress!

Ms. Lee and Ms. Kempthorn also met with 7th graders during Social Studies to discuss the importance of diversity in education. Students explored colleges and universities across the country to learn more about student life and diverse communities. 

News from the Health Room

Medical Face Masks

Students should not wear medical face masks to school for the prevention of the flu or other illnesses. If your child has a fever of 100.0 (or greater) or is contagious with any illness, the student may not come to school until the symptoms have cleared and the student has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without fever reducing medications, such as Acetaminophen / Tylenol or Ibuprofen / Advil / Motrin.

Any student that has a documented medical need to wear a medical face mask to school must provide a note from their health care provider stating the medical need for a mask. These notes must be delivered to the health room and our health room staff will inform school staff of the student’s permission to wear the medical face mask during school hours. If the health room has not received a health care provider’s note, the student will need to remove the mask and place it in their backpack.

Cold and Flu season is upon us. 

Students who are ill and have a fever should remain at home until the temperature has been normal for 24 hours, without the use of fever reducing medications such as Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen. Students with symptoms of acute illness such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, and persistent coughs should be observed at home and evaluated by their health care provider. If your child is diagnosed with a contagious illness (such as the flu, strep throat, pink eye, Fifth’s disease, etc…), he / she may not return to school until they have been on antibiotics for 24 hours or until cleared by the health care provider in writing. We also request that you please inform the Health Room staff of these diagnoses, so that we may observe for additional cases. You may either call 410-313-2574 or email Megan_Blouse@hcpss.org

Health Room Needs Your Help!

Cell Phone Policy as it relates to Sick Students

Students who become ill while at school must come to the health room to be evaluated.  Please discuss with your child that he/she should not use his/her cell phone to call/text parents for pick-up during the school day.  Students who feel ill should report directly to the health room and parents will be contacted, as needed, once students are seen by our nurse.  

If your child calls/texts you during the school day, please tell him/her to go to the health room and the staff will contact you directly. Thank you so much for your attention to this matter and for working with us to keep your child healthy and safe.

If you have any questions, please contact Megan Blouse, Health Room Nurse at 410-313-2574.

Attention 6th grade parents:

If you sent medications to Outdoor Ed in October please pick up the medications from the health room. Medications that are not picked by March 15th will be discarded.

Music Boosters

Would you like to sponsor a chair for the music department?  Chair sponsors will be recognized in a plaque housed in the music department.  More information can be found here:  http://patapscomusicboosters.weebly.com/sponsor-a-chair.html

This year's trip to the Music in the Parks Festival to Hersheypark, PA for 7/8 Concert Choir, String Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, and Wind Ensemble, will be on May 15, 2020.  The cost of the trip will be $130 for student performers and $48 for chaperones.  Permission slips and information packets will go home this week.  Please check your child's backpack!  We hope many of you will be able to save the date to chaperone.  Thanks!

Our annual 8th Grade Recital Night:  "A Little Knight Music," will be held on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 7 PM in the PMS cafetorium.  All interested 8th graders are welcome to apply to perform music as a soloist or with a group.  Students may perform with friends, parents, private instructors, teachers, or perform their own solos.  Please pick up an application from your music teacher today!

2020 Yom Hashoah Essay Contest

75 Years Later: Our Stories of Survival, Loss, and Liberation

Who’s Eligible: All Howard County middle school and high school students

Purpose of the Essay Contest:

The Howard County Holocaust Remembrance Committee seeks to remember the Holocaust by learning from the events that took place in Europe from 1933 to 1945. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps. The essay provides students an opportunity for reflection, and to consider how the atrocities of the Holocaust continue to impact us today. The hope is that this will highlight the importance of standing up against hateful actions to prevent terrible events from happening again in the future.

There will be a first and second place prize awarded at the middle school level, and similarly at the high school level. First Prize winners will each receive $100 and Second Prize winners will each receive $50.

Essay Background and Topic:

On April 15, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke these words after he saw the newly liberated camps:

“The things I saw beggar description...the visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty, and bestiality were...overpowering...I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to “propaganda.”

In thinking about this quote, share your responses to the following questions. Your discussion should be written in the form of an essay.

1. How do you think General Eisenhower felt as he spoke these words?
2. Why do you feel it was important to share what he saw with the world?
3. What impact did reading this quote, or learning about the Holocaust in general, have on you?

Students who are interested in learning more about this topic are encouraged to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s online collection of digital resources, at https://collections.ushmm.org/search/.

The Basic Things to Know:

• Essay should be 300-500 words and no more than 2 typed pages.
• Essay should be submitted by email no later than March 15, 2020.
• Winners will be notified by March 31, 2020.
• Essay should be submitted by email to YomHaShoahEssayContest@gmail.com. Please type either Middle School or High School in the subject line. Include a title page with your name, school name, grade, contact phone number and/or email address.

Judging:

Essays will be judged by Howard County Holocaust Remembrance Committee members and Howard County teachers, using a 6-point rubric that will incorporate common core standards.

Community News

For more Community News visit the Community News and Programs page http://www.hcpss.org/community-news-and-programs/ on the HCPSS website for announcements of upcoming events and programs sponsored by non-profit organizations.