SCHOOL NEWS

Monday, October 15 - B day - 1/2 day, 11:35 dismissal
Tuesday, October 16 - A day
Wednesday, October 17 - B day
Thursday, October 18 - A day
Friday, October 19 - B day

Friday, October 26 - PICTURE DAY (see article)
Wednesday, October 31 - 1/2 day, 11:35 dismissal (See article about costumes)
Tuesday, November 6 - NO SCHOOL; Election Day

PARENTS OF STUDENTS IN BHMS CLUBS: Not sure what day, date or time your student's club meeting is? You can find out by using the BHMS Club Calendar that is now available on the BHMS website. On rare occasions a club meeting date may change, so always check the most recent week on the calendar for club information.

For more BHMS specific dates, check out the A/B  DAY &  EVENTS CALENDAR and the BHMS DAILY BELL SCHEDULE (includes lunch periods) on the BHMS Website.

First quarter Progress Reports for students in grades 6, 7 and 8 are now available for viewing. To access those reports go to Parent Portal, log in, select your student's name and click on the "Marks" tab on the left.

Registration for the annual 8th grade field trip to Washington, DC will be ending soon. The trip runs from Wednesday, April 10, through the morning of Saturday, April 13. BHMS has partnered with Student Adventures to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to learn more about the history of our incredible nation. Participating students will walk the fields of Gettysburg, as well as track ghosts after dark, pay homage to our nations heroes in Arlington, explore the Smithsonian museums, along with visiting all of our greatest monuments, landmarks, and government institutions. If you missed out on information from the parent meeting, please review this DC TRIP PRESENTATION for details about the trip. Itinerary and Registration information are available here. Seating is limited, so please register your child as soon as possible to avoid missing out on this amazing experience! Questions about this trip should be e-mailed to Mr. Neuwirth  or Mr. Weisenberger, the BHMS Building Coordinators for the trip. 

BHMS Picture Day is on Friday, October 26. Students will be called down throughout the day, so it is not possible to give an exact schedule of when each grade will have pictures taken. SO, students in all grades should arrive at school ready for pictures. All students will have their picture taken for the yearbook. If you wish to order a school photo package, you may do so in one of two ways. Take advantage of Option 1 now and avoid scrambling for your form and money on picture day.

Payment/Ordering options:

1. Pre-order and pre-pay directly online through Lifetouch (mylifetouch.com). You must enter Picture Day ID number LM728098Y0 to get to the Bloomfield Hills Middle School page.
    
2. ON PICTURE DAY, have your child bring in the completed hard copy order form that is being sent home with students, along with the payment for your order. Payment must be the exact amount. Change is not available. Make checks payable to Lifetouch. Checks payable to BHMS can not be accepted.

Make a Difference Day 2018: This year's BHS District Make a Difference Day efforts will help FOCUS Detroit address child hunger. On Saturday, October 27, Bloomfield Hills students are invited to meet at BH High School from 9:00 until 11:30 a.m. to assemble food donations into weekend provisions for students who would otherwise go hungry. FOCUS Detroit will deliver bags of food to students living in poverty in Detroit. BHMS families are asked to donate individual bowls, boxes, or packets of nut-free cereal or microwaveable oatmeal - for which there is currently a great need - and plastic grocery bags. Collection bins are located in the BHMS gateway space. Want to make a monetary gift? Please click here to donate. To learn more about FOCUS Detroit, watch this video.

The Michigan Attorney General's office will be conducting presentations on student safety featuring the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative (CSI) and the student safety hotline, OK2SAY. The presentation will be given for Bloomfield Hills Middle School students in grades 5 through 8 on Monday, October 29. Please open this letter for more details on the content of the presentation for the grade levels. At the bottom of the letter is an opt-out form. If you DO NOT want your child to attend the presentation, return the opt-out form to your child's classroom teacher by Friday, October 26.

BHMS students may wear costumes to school on Wednesday, October 31. As a reminder, this is a half day of school and all students will be dismissed at 11:35 a.m. Costume guidelines are as follows:

• No masks, hoods, sports helmets or other concealing head wear. We need to see the faces of everyone in the building.
• No gory, bloody costumes or other costumes that depict violence.
• No props, including but not limited to light sabers, replica swords, guns or knives, etc. 
• No clothing depicting or promoting drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, profanity or double meanings.
• To avoid the perception of ridicule, costumes should not impersonate adults or students in the building, or religious or cultural figures.

Regular dress code rules apply:

• Tops must extend to the shoulder and cover the entire midriff.
• Bottoms, as a general rule, must be at least at fingertip level or longer when arms and hands are straight down to the side, and must sit high enough on the hips or waist to cover undergarments.

If there is a question about a costume, please have your child see Mr. Fitzgerald, Associate Principal, in advance. The School Administration will be the final authority regarding the appropriateness of costumes.

Please read this MYP Newsletter from BHMS MYP Coordinator / IB Teacher Leader, Kathy Janelle. This week's newsletter includes an article written by 8th grade WEB Ambassador, Charlotte Gibson. Charlotte highlights the significance of the WEB (Where Everybody Belongs) program, which pairs 8th grade WEB ambassadors with new 5th graders to ease their transition to BHMS.

Each year 8th graders are encouraged to set a goal for themselves of induction into the National Junior Honor Society. On a recent school day, Mrs. Jaster met with all 8th graders to review the requirements and show them three links on the school website that contain information about NJHS. Once you are on the BHMS website, scroll down just a bit until you see NJHS in colorful print. Below that are the three links. Look at each, print the Student Pledge sheet, and have your 8th grader complete it and place it in Mrs. Jaster's mailbox in the main office.

The BHMS Club Calendar is on middle right side of the BHMS website's main page. Please bookmark that calendar to look up your student's club meeting dates and meeting start and end times. 

A reminder about dropping off and picking up your students for clubs. Out of safety for your student and consideration to club sponsors, students may enter the building no earlier than five minutes before a morning club meeting time, and must be picked up immediately at the end of an afternoon meeting. If your schedule does not accommodate this, we recommend signing your student up for the District's Kidz Zone before and after school care program. The program runs from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. Pre-registration for Kidz Zone is required, and fees apply.

As in past years, BHMS yearbooks must be purchased in advance and online directly through Josten's. Currently they are $35 plus tax. Price will increase at a later date. Click HERE to place your order with Josten's.

If each BHMS student brought in only 10 box tops a month during the school year, BHMS would earn over $6,600 annually to use toward programs like extra clubs and purchases not covered under the budget. The next redemption date is coming up, so please turn in any Box Tops you've been collecting to the collection box in the main office by October 18. THEN, continue to collect and place your Box Tops in the collection box anytime during the remainder of the school year. A little change can go a long way.

An informed PTO is a strong PTO. There are six candidates running for four open seats on the Bloomfield Hills Schools Board of Education. They are incumbents Howard Baron, Paul Kolin, and Jason Paulateer, and new candidates Jennifer Cook, Lisa Efros, and Anjali Prasad. Voting takes place on November 6. Please consider reviewing this list of the candidates and their websites and Facebook pages. You can also watch the candidate forum that took place on October 9.

MUSIC BOOSTERS MEETINGS (2018-2019): Help support the wonderful BHMS music program and teachers by attending monthly Music Boosters meetings. All meetings take place in the orchestra room from 11:45 am - 12:30 pm (unless otherwise indicated below). Please note that two evening meetings have been added to accommodate working parents.
November 27 (evening meeting — 6:30 pm)
December 11
January 15 (evening meeting — 6:30 pm)
February 12
March 12
April 16
May 7

SUPPORT BHMS MUSIC BOOSTERS: Please return all Music Boosters membership forms to the office or to music class. Music Boosters funds extra enrichment activities and purchases items that are not included in the curriculum. Examples include accompanists for concert and festival performances, clinicians and workshops, 5th grade instrument tags, 6th grade domination tour buses, 7th grade music field trips, and the choreographer for the 8th grade musical. These "extras" help students continue to explore music and maximize interest and excitement about band, orchestra, and vocal music performance. Click here to print the form (located on the left-hand side, under "Forms"): http://www.bhmspto.my-pta.org/content.asp?PageID=12. 

BAKERS AND SELLERS NEEDED: Music Boosters needs volunteers for the weekly Wednesday fundraising bake sales, which take place immediately after school in the Gateway Space. Volunteers are needed to donate baked goods and/or run sales. PLEASE REMEMBER that products must not contain or be cooked with nuts or nut products. Baked items can be dropped off in the main office anytime before 2:45 p.m. Sign up to donate baked goods and/or work at a sale by clicking HERE. Thank you for supporting the BHMS Music Boosters!

SEE DISTRICT NEWS BELOW

Families are automatically signed up to receive communication from their child's school, teachers, and Bloomfield Hills Schools (Wednesday Web News & Important Notices - including school cancellations). In order to receive emails, telephone calls, and even text messages, all you have to do is maintain your contact information and manage your personal preferences. If you wish not to receive these newsletters, simply "opt-out" when you receive the first newsletter (an option at the bottom of every email we send).

Instructions for updating this information are now available at www.bloomfield.org/notifications. Here you can manage your contact preferences as they pertains to emergency and district notifications. 

Join in on the fun! Bowers School Farm Fall Festival (in partnership with Preservation Bloomfield) is Saturday & Sunday, October 13 & 14, 2018, from 12 - 6 p.m. with a Magic & Mystery Kids Show from 2-3 p.m. each day! Tons of activities for everyone! Wagon rides, animals, food trucks, cider, face painting, pumpkin picking and decorating, bounce house, strawland, bungee run, inflatable archery, historical activities, live music, and more! $10 per person; 3 and under free. For more information visit www.bloomfield.org/FallFestival or call 248.341.6481. 

Join us at the BHS Ski Swap in the Bloomfield Hills Middle School Field House on Saturday, November 10, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. A huge savings on hundreds of new and slightly used skis, boots, snowboards, apparel and accessories will be available for all ages. For additional information please email bloomfieldskiswap@gmail.com.

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