Dear Spanish Fort Middle Families,

The end of the 1st quarter is next Thursday, October 5th!Finish strong! Late assignments, unless absent recently, will not be accepted past this point. Students have Fall Break beginning Friday, October 7th.

• Thursday, Oct. 5- Last day of quarter & students receive eLearning assignments for Oct. 10
• Friday, Oct. 6- Fall Break- No school for students; professional development day for teachers
• Monday, Oct. 9- Fall Break- No school for students and teachers
• Tuesday, Oct. 10- eLearning Day for students; professional development day for teachers
  • Students will complete assignments FROM HOME if not completed early:) Teachers will not be available on Tues. to answer questions, because they will be in trainings. All assignments will be self explanatory and available on their learning platforms, Google Classroom and Schoology, prior to the start of Fall Break and can be completed as early as Thursday, Oct. 5, but submitted no later than 7:45 am on Wed., Oct. 11.

Basketball Tryouts are near!

Girls Tryouts: BOTH 7th & 8th Grade: Oct 11-12 in SFMS Gym 3:15-4:15. Contact aaguilar@bcbe.org (8th) or afendley@bcbe.org(7th) with questions.

Boys Tryouts: 8th Grade- Oct. 11, 4:30-6:30 pm in SFMS Gym. Contact GGersonde@bcbe.org if needed.

7th Grade- Oct. 12, 4:30-6:30 pm in SFMS Gym. Contact CHixon@bcbe.org if needed.

Joining Project Outreach? Once you've submitted your application & dues, be sure to join our Remind! Text #81010, Join Code: d246e2

Click here to see our Counselor's October Newsletter:)

Flu Vaccines are coming to school! Click here to access consent form, required to receive the flu vaccine. Forms are due Monday, Oct. 16. Flu vaccines will be administered on Friday, Oct. 20 for those students who have returned completed consent forms.

Spanish Fort High's Haunted Homecoming Shirt Order is open to all of SF students this year! Orders must be placed by tomorrow, Sept. 30th. In an effort to bring back the Homecoming spirit in a community-wide type of way, we are beginning with a community Homecoming t-shirt. The flyer with ordering details can be found below or click here. They will deliver t-shirts and also have a day in which orders can be picked up on The Hill. T-shirts will be available in time for the community to wear to the parade and/or game!

October Canteen volunteers are needed! If you are interested in volunteering and getting connected, click here to sign up to help with October canteen. The graphic below has some additional info as well. We appreciate all of our Toro family volunteers!

Yearbooks- Purchase your yearbook for 23-24 on MySchoolBucks by Oct. 15th.

8th Grade Yearbook Shout Outs- Here is the link to purchase, which gives all the directions you need for submission. The deadline is Sunday, October 15th. Don't miss your chance to recognize your 8th grader in this year's yearbook! Questions about yearbook shout outs can be directed to Mrs. Calloway at JCalloway@bcbe.org

Save the Date: our Veteran's Day program will be Nov. 9th at 9 am. More details to come pertaining to sending in addresses for invitations.

After School Tutoring - Click here to learn more and find out how to sign up. We ask that if you have to cancel, please let us know ASAP by contacting the teacher/tutor you signed up with. Check your email for the confirmation to access contact info from sign-up form. ***Please note we have limited Math tutoring spots because we have one tutor for each grade. Once we hit a max number of Math students for the day, it will say "FULL- no more spots today." Thank you for your understanding.

Have a great weekend & GO TOROS,

Erica Cruthirds

SFMS Curriculum Leader

Monday- Volleyball County Tournament- CBMS

Tuesday-*Peer Helpers AM; Volleyball County Tournament- CBMS; Cross Country Meet at Graham Creek

Wednesday- Volleyball County Tournament- CBMS; *NJHS meeting AM; *Math Club PM

Thursday- Volleyball County Tournament- CBMS; End of 1st quarter; Football v Foley @Foley

Friday- No school for students- Fall Break (see above for more FALL BREAK DETAILS); Teachers have Professional Development Day

*Click here for club/organizational meeting locations and times

Click here for the lunch and breakfast menu!

Mark your calendars for upcoming events!

Click here to access the 23-24 BCBE Calendar

Click here for all Reporting Dates for 23-24

(report cards, end of quarter, progress reports)

Sept 29- Deadline for Project Outreach payments ($40 on MySchoolBucks) & applications--to Mrs. Kuhn in Rm 35. Click here as well to access the application.

Sept 30- Deadline to place Spanish Fort Haunted Homecoming Shirt Order (see graphic above for ordering details) or click here.

Oct 5- End of the 1st Quarter

Oct 6- Teacher PD Day- NO SCHOOL for Students (Fall Break)

Oct 9- NO SCHOOL for Students & Teachers (Fall Break)

Oct 10- eLearning Day for Students (students complete assignments at home, online-- more info above)/ Teacher PD Day

Oct 11- Basketball Tryouts- 7th & 8th Girls 3:15-4:15 pm- SFMS Gym (aaguilar@bcbe.org & afendley@bcbe.org); 8th Boys 4:30-6:00 pm in SFMS Gym (GGersonde@bcbe.org)

Oct. 12- Basketball Tryouts- 7th & 8th Girls 3:15-4:15 pm- SFMS Gym (AAguilar@bcbe.org & AFendley@bcbe.org); 7th Boys 4:30-6:00 pm in SFMS Gym (CHixon@bcbe.org)

Oct 15- Last Day to Order your yearbooks AND last day to order 8th Grade Yearbook Shoutouts- Click here to get started!

Oct 16- Last day to turn in flu vaccine consent forms

Oct 20- Flu Vaccine administered to students (those with completed consent forms) at school today

Nov. 1- Club Pictures

Nov. 9- Veteran's Day Program at 9:00 am

Nov 10- NO SCHOOL- Veteran's Day Holiday

Nov 20-24- Thanksgiving Break

Dec 11-13- Midterm Exams

Dec 14- Last Day of 2nd Quarter & Make-Up Exams

Dec 15- NO SCHOOL for students (beginning of Winter Break)/ Teacher Work Day

Dec 16- Jan 1- Winter Break- NO SCHOOL for students and teachers

Jan 2- NO SCHOOL for students (Winter Break)/ Teacher PD Day

Jan 3- 1st Day of 3rd Quarter

Jan 10- Math Star Test(Winter)- taken in Math class

Jan 11- Reading Star Test (Winter)- taken in English class

Jan 15- MLK Holiday- NO School for students and teachers

Feb 12-14- Mardi Gras Break- NO SCHOOL for students and teachers

Feb 15-16- eLearning Day for Students (students complete assignments at home, online-- more info to come in newsletter closer to time)/ Teacher PD Day

Mar 7- Last Day of 3rd Quarter

Mar 8- NO SCHOOL for students (end of quarter break)/ Teacher Work Day

Mar 25-29- Spring Break

April 1- NO SCHOOL for students/ Teacher Work Day

May 17-21- Final Exams

May 22- Last Day of 4th Quarter & Make-Up Exams--Last day for students

May 23- Teacher Work Day

May 24- Teacher PD Day

• Click here for our ROLLING BELL SCHEDULES for the year

• Click here for the BCBE 23-24 Student Handbook

• Click here for all reporting dates for 23-24 (report cards, end of quarter, progress reports)

• Click here for the Lunch and Breakfast menu. (drop down at the top of the site to toggle between the two)

• Click for our AM Carline and PM Carline maps.

• PowerSchool is up for parents & students to see 23-24! Please remind students to stay on top of make-up assignments when they miss school. Teachers will place zeros in the grade book if a student is absent during collection of a grading assignment, quiz, or test until it is made up. It is the students' responsibility to make arrangements with their teachers to make up tests, quizzes, and assignments. They have 3 days PER day absent upon returning to take care of missed tests, quizzes, and assignments. Note- students only out 1 day may need to makeup a missed test the day they return. See details below regarding students coming to the library at 7:10 am to make-up tests/quizzes.

  • • Here is a link to our PowerSchool grades website. Get the PowerSchool app to help keep up with your student’s grades. Here are some directions for getting PowerSchool app access. Contact your student's grade level counselor for help.
    • New students should have brought home a PowerSchool letter the week of Aug 14-18 with access codes to link your student to your parent account. Let us know if you need this PowerSchool access letter with code.

    • PowerSchool app not syncing or not up to date?

      iPhone users:

      You will go to “…” icon in the lower right > Account > click Sign Out in top right > sign back in

      This should fix it😊 Then, be sure, from the Dashboard (bottom left icon), you see "23-24." From there, each course has the option, while clicked in the course, to choose which grading period across the top.

• Attendance- Pushing for better attendance is a goal for us this year.

  • Days missed is instruction missed, so we encourage students to attend school every day possible and not exhaust your full amount of absences you can have.
  • Students who meet all exemption requirements do not have to attend the last days of school in May, during final exams. A NEW DISTRICT REQUIREMENT: Students must have no more than 12 total absences in order to exempt (including excused absences). This is in addition to the previous requirement of no more than 3 unexcused absences.
  • Students get 9 parent excuses (PE) per year. Any PE absences past 9 will be considered unexcused (UE). You can see how many absences and how they were coded by clicking the blue linked number under YTD in the Absences section at the bottom of the PowerSchool grades screen.
  • Absence excuses MUST be turned in within 3 days of the absence. We will no longer be taking absence excuses past due.
  • We get rated lower on our school report card for any student with 18 or more TOTAL absences (considered Chronic Absenteeism), including excused absences by parents and doctors. School-related.
  • Reminder: Unexcused Tardies for LATE ARRIVALS to school are handled the same as SFHS. See our Tardy Policy above in our "Be on Time to The Fort" flyer in this newsletter. These tardies are totaled separate from tardies to class during the day.
• Student planners were issued to all students on the first day of school. If your student is new and did not receive one, let us know and we'll get them one.
• Counselors- Click here to get to know our Counselors, Ms. Sarah Siddiqi (8th) & Mrs. Shamika Bramble (7th).

• Our Media Center will be open from 7:10-7:40 AM daily for both scheduled test make ups and book checkouts. Students MUST arrange their makeup test the day prior with their teacher prior to showing up to the library for making up a test and arrive CLOSE to 7:10 AM in order to have enough time. Students who arrive later than 7:20, without enough time to complete their assessments, may be turned away. We will have math and Spanish support in here at this time as well. Students wishing to check out books should enter the building and come straight to the library, prior to going to the cafe. Students will not be released once they are in the cafe to go to the library.
• ALL students should have headphones or earbuds available in their backpacks daily for instructional purposes. Dollar Tree is a great, cheap place to get these.
• We serve breakfast in the mornings. All students meet in the café in the mornings until 7:40, so it’s a convenient way to squeeze in your morning meal if needed! Click here for lunch and breakfast prices. Click here for a la carte items If you need to access our Free and Reduced Meals Form, click here. Breakfast & lunch is part of the FREE and REDUCED lunch program. If you qualify for Free or Reduced meals, that includes breakfast and lunch! Click here for our Café website for all things cafeteria-related.
• Dress Code Reminder: no pajamas (unless specified as a PJ day), no sweatshirts with text not appropriate for school, no biker shorts, shirts must cover stomach and have sleeves, no rips in pants or shorts exposing skin above mid-thigh. No shorts or skirts with slits up the side, which make them revealing above dress code lengths. (See pgs 34-36 of 23-24 BCBE Student Handbook)

• Our office (clinic) is in need of any pants/bottoms you may have that your teenagers (or you) have grown out of, from leggings to sweats and joggers. Thank you in advance Toros!

• Need to join PTA? We thank you in advance for your support everyone! We would not be the school we are without our fabulous Spanish Fort families' support. Click this link to join: https://sfms.memberhub.com/store?​​​​​​​
• Go to our PTA Facebook for more ways to SHOP FOR SPIRIT WEAR, get involved, and stay up to date: https://www.facebook.com/sfmspta1/posts/3003429053311376
• ***For club/organizational meeting locations and times, visit https://bit.ly/sfmsclubs. ***Club info highlighted has not been updated from last year and still under construction--stay tuned!
• See our Facebook, Instagram, and Website links at the bottom of this newsletter (icons).

• Familiar with Taylor's Law? Each student over the age of twelve (12) enrolled in a public or private secondary school is subject to a disciplinary point system for an infraction (discipline referral) committed on school property to determine the age the student can apply for a learner's permit or driver's license. The points accumulate on a yearly basis, beginning with the school year, including summer school, the student turns thirteen (13). Click here to learn more about how in-school suspensions, off-campus suspensions, and expulsions will delay students getting a learner's permit or driver's license (graphic above as well).

Stay in Touch

33899 Jimmy Faulkner Dr. ~ Spanish Fort, AL. 36527

(251)- 625-3271