November 2023 Newsletter

A Message from EMS Administration

Hello, Oak Creek East Middle School Families,

It’s hard to believe that next week we transition from the first quarter to the second quarter!

During the final weeks of October we wrapped up our Cross Country season with 75 runners competing & improving after each meet and our Girls Basketball teams gave it their all on the court each week!

Next week, our students and staff will recognize Veterans Day on November 9. We will honor over twenty veterans during our EMS veterans walk. All the veterans honored are family members of our students and staff. This school-wide activity will be led by our Student Council and IMPACT club. We will post pictures of this event on our OCF East Middle School Facebook.

This month we look forward to recognizing our students who demonstrated high academic achievement on honor roll and/or our students who earned Middle School Outstanding Knights for their positive behavior, attendance and academic accomplishments. Click here to view recognition criteria.

At East, we continue to work as a school in helping our students build strong academic routines and habits by being: Critical Thinkers, Positive Community Members, Taking Responsibility and Making Appropriate Choices. As we transition to the second quarter, our PBIS focus will be getting to class on time and reducing our amount of tardies. We are teaching and enforcing being self-aware and managing our time in order to be high school and career ready. Our current data has 123 students with at least 1 unexcused tardy. As a part of our ongoing efforts, we will be conducting random hallway sweeps throughout the remainder of the school year. During these sweeps, any student who is in the hallway and late to class will receive a lunch detention for that day or the following day, and it will be logged in Infinite Campus with a behavior referral. As a reminder, once the warning bell rings, students should be walking with purpose to their classes. Students should make sure they are using their passing time to get materials, use the bathroom, etc. so that they make it to their classes on time!

We want to thank our EMS families for working collaboratively with our teachers and staff members during our fall Parent Teacher Conferences and keeping up-to-date through our weekly house communications. We value the support we receive from you, our parents/guardians, so please don't hesitate to contact your student's teachers, or counselor, to continue to work together to make this a successful school year.

As we enter the holiday season, it is a perfect time to reflect and be thankful for all our gifts. We, the Oak Creek East Middle School administration and staff, would like to take this opportunity to thank you for helping make our school an engaging, challenging and inspiring place to learn for all of our students. Thank you for the gift of time with your child(ren) and the opportunity to educate them.

Sincerely,

Sue Thompson, Principal

Sarah Leatherman, Associate Principal (A-L)

Casey Milroy, Associate Principal (M-Z)

Paul Bastian, Dean of Students/Athletics Director

Changing of the Principals!

Thank you Mr. Wegner for being our Asst. Administrator for the first 2 months of school while Ms. Milroy was on maternity leave. We are so thankful you could be here!

AND

Welcome Back Ms. Milroy! We missed you & are so happy to have you back!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Click HERE to see a full list of upcoming events!

NOVEMBER

Nov. 2 - Festival of Choirs @ OCPAEC 7pm

Nov. 7 - Blood Drive 11am - 4pm

Nov. 9 - Veteran's Day Celebration

Nov. 10 - No School

Nov. 16 - 7th & 8th Grade & Jazz Fall Band Concert 7pm

Nov. 22-24 - No School - Thanksgiving Break

DECEMBER

Dec. 1 - No School

Dec. 8 - Student Council Activity Night

Dec. 19 - Choir - Winter Concert @ OCPAEC

Dec. 25 - Jan. 1 - Winter Break

For those donating blood, please park and enter through Door #7 at East Middle School.

District Festival of Choirs

The 14th annual District of Festival of Choirs Concert will take place on Thursday, November 2 @ 7pm at the OCPAEC. The concert features singers in grades 8 - 12 from EMS, WMS, and OCHS.

Here are some photos from rehearsal on November 1.

Library News

In October, we finished up the last of our Hispanic Heritage Month lessons, had the Scholastic Book Fair, and had 6th grade in for book checkouts and Makerspace time. Throughout the month, we had just over 950 book checkouts from 6th-8th grade students.

November will be a busy month for us with Breakout Activities for 6th and 7th grade. These are mini "escape room" type activities focused on a particular topic. It is a way for students to be engaged in their learning and have fun while reviewing for their classes.

Our display for the month is Thankfulness. Each day students can come in and write on a leaf what they are thankful for. By the end of the month, there will be thankfulness leaves on the display table for November!

GUIDANCE CORNER

Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District is committed to the health, safety, and well-being of our students, staff, and families. We are proud to announce our partnership with Care Solace to support our ongoing commitment to better connect students, staff, and families to mental health and substance use treatment options in our community. When you or your child needs help, it's hard to know where to turn. In an effort to ease the burden of finding the mental health and substance use services you need, we've partnered with Care Solace, your central hub of care.

With a network of over 350,000 providers and services, Care Solace will help you find the right help at the right time, 24/7/365, at no cost to you. They will connect you with providers accepting all medical insurances, including Medicaid, Medicare, and sliding scale options for those without insurance.

You can access Care Solace services in three ways:

Call (888)515-0595 at any time. Multilingual support is available 24/7/365. A dedicated Care Companion will help you every step of the way to research options, secure appointments, and follow up to make sure it is a good fit.
Search anonymously to get matched with an extensive list of care providers at caresolace.com/ocfsd.
Contact your child's school counselor, and they will submit a referral on your behalf.

No matter what you're experiencing, there is hope and help. We are confident that our new partnership with Care Solace will help us build a healthier, more vibrant school community.

If you have a life-threatening emergency, please call 9-1-1 or The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8. Care Solace is not an emergency response services or mental health services provider.

October Leaders of the Cougar Way

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

The October Leaders of the Cougar Way enjoyed lunch from Texas Roadhouse on Thursday, October 26!

They also received an encouraging note from their teachers.

Artist: Jali Rodriguez

Grade: 7

Project Description: This project is part of Grade 7 Concepts where the theme of the course is Fantasy. Students had to complete a clay vessel using coils along with fantasy characters that match their vessel. The characters are made out of Polymer Clay, which is different from the clay used for the vessel. Jali completed a unique vessel using donut coils. Jali's characters matches her vessel with the colors that she chose to use, making her overall piece enjoyable to look at visually. Jali is a talented artist who works very hard to complete her projects.

ATHLETICS

8th Grade Gold Basketball Team

The 8th Grade Girls had a great year! Here the team is circled around the coach strategizing the next play!

7th Grade Gold

VS. 7th Grade Royal

Teams competed against each other. Both teams had a great year and did an amazing job!

7th Grade Royal Basketball Team

The team finished 4th in the conference regular season standings and took 3rd place in the conference tournament!

EMS cross country ended the season with an outstanding performance from the whole team at the SEC Conference Meet!

The girls team placed a surprising 3rd place in both races!

The B team was led by Leah Bergmann placing 6th, followed by Sophie Gutknecht placing 21st and Isabella Rodriguez placing 24th.

The girls A team was led by Lily Niznanski also placing 6th, followed by Danielle West placing 15th and Jillian Christal rounded out the top three with an 18th place.

Both boys teams were Conference Champions in their races!

The B team had 7 runners placing in the top 20. Paul Bui led the team with a 1st place finish, followed by Chase Clapier who was 4th, Austin Serocki placed 7th, with Kellen Fuhrmann placing right behind him in 8th. Aaron Singh placed 10th followed by Easton Bloodworth placing 17th and Emmanuel Bellamy placed 18th.

The A team had 7 runners placing in the top 20 with Ethan Ross also placing 1st, followed by Brody Sommerville placing 4th, Konrad Hasiuk placed 7th, with Matt Heigel on his heels in 8th. Joe Kujawa placed 14th and Levi Hanel was 16th. Anthony Buska rounded out the top 20 with a 19th place.

The coaches were extremely happy with how the whole team stepped up and ended their season with their best performance. Congrats to everyone on the team!!

FORENSICS CLUB

Join the Forensics Club!

Do you struggle or enjoy class presentations?

Do you want to meet new people and get creative?

If you answered yes to either of these questions then you should consider joining Forensics, a club that is fun, creative, and humorous! Forensics welcomes anyone and everyone to join. If you’re interested in storytelling, giving a heartfelt speech, or making people laugh, then Forensics might just be the club for you!

Our first meeting will be on Thursday, November 13th in the back 6th grade LGI, from 3:45-4:30 pm. You will need a gold slip to attend.

We hope to see you there!

PARENT REMINDERS

GOLD SLIPS are required for all after school activities. Tutorials, athletic events, clubs & all school sponsored after school events. Please send this with your student the morning of the event as students will not be allowed to call home for a gold slip.

Thank you.

Gold Slip Link

NO CELL PHONES IN 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.

Picking up your Child Early?

Please send a note with your child and have them bring it to the main office by 8:30am OR email the main office at office.eastmiddle@ocfsd.org

We will write a pass for your student to leave class and be in the office, ready for you to pick them up.

Student Medications at School

If you child needs to take medication at school, we must have a completed medication form on file. Forms must be completed yearly.

Forms are available in the main office.

Thank you.

District & Community News

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 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.