Dear parents/guardians,
Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day! His “I Have a Dream Speech” never gets old. I am so tired of this frigid weather in the sunshine state. We have another week of no formations due to the freezing weather. Any time the temperature is below 50 degrees, we bring the “formation” indoors to the classroom. Our second round of state testing is almost done. Tomorrow our 8th graders will take the prealgebra state test (Not Alg I or Geometry). You can look in your parent portal and see your child’s score on Reading and Math and see if there has been a jump from the first test in September. Our goal is to get every cadet to a level 3, 4, or 5 by May of this year.
Cell Phones – Even though I tell cadets every day about the cell phone policy, that message is not getting to all my parents/guardians. This year the state of Florida and Duval County Public Schools banned cell phone use in schools. Cadets can bring them to school, however, once they arrive on campus they must be powered off and stored in a backpack, off their body. They cannot be in their pockets or jackets. If you have concerns about the safety of your child’s cell phone being stored in their backpack, I suggest you not send them to school with one. Should a cadet have a phone out, it will be confiscated and secured in a locked box in the main office until you can come pick it up.
8th GRADERS - School Choice Deadline: Do not forget that the school choice application deadline is Friday, Jan. 31. That means families have a couple more weeks to apply to magnet or Special Transfer Option (STO) schools for the 2025-26 school year. These applications can be found in FOCUS, which is located in the Family Portal. For assistance, families can contact the school choice office by email at school_choice@duvalschools.org or schedule an appointment to meet with a school choice representative.
Town meetings with Dr. Bernier - Do you have thoughts about what works well in our school district? Ideas for improvement or concerns? You are invited to attend and engage with Superintendent Dr. Bernier in a discussion about the current state and future of Duval County Public Schools. All events begin at 6 p.m. and will conclude at 7:30 p.m. I had the pleasure of going to the one at JWJ last Thursday and it was excellent. Dr. Bernier is truly listening to parents, and he gives a great state of the district review of how we are doing and his priorities. He listened intently to each parent and had a slew of staff to jot those down and get back to each parent.
Jan. 21 - Chaffee Trail Middle School
11770 Sam Caruso Way, 32221
Jan. 23 – Alfred DuPont Middle School
2710 Dupont Ave., 32217
Jan. 28 - Arlington Middle School
8141 Lone Star Rd., 32211
Please plan to join Dr. Bernier and share your views on our school and the future of our district! This would be a wonderful time to tell him why JSMAL needs to stay right here on Burma Road and not be considered for consolidation into any other school. I plan to attend the one at Chaffee Trail Middle School on Jan 21st.
The JSMAL library is ready for cadet use! – Ms. Kampfer, our test coordinator, has been spending all her free time in the library (media center) reorganizing, sorting, cataloging, and getting it ready for our cadets to use. This Monday and Tuesday, your cadets will come during their ELA class to the library so she can introduce them to the library and teach them how to find and check out books.
Literacy Week – The last week in January will be Literacy Week for Duval County Public Schools. We will be hosting the Scholastic Book Fair in our Library/Media Center all that week. On Wednesday, January 29, we will open the Book Fair to parents and families from 5-6:30 pm. We will have different activities all week. Stay tuned.
Calendar Events this week:
Monday, Jan 20 – MLK Day No School.
Tuesday, Jan 21 – (B Day) Girl’s soccer vs Westview at home at 5pm. Boys Soccer at Westview.
Wednesday, Jan 22 – (A Day) Girls and Boys Bball at home vs Westview.
Thursday, Jan 23 – (B Day) Girls and Boys Bball at home vs Chaffee Trail Middle. Boys Soccer at home vs Chaffee Trail Middle. Girls’ soccer at Chaffee Trail Middle.
Friday, Jan 24 – (A Day)
Coming soon:
Wednesday, Jan 29 – Family Bookfair
Monday, Feb 10 – Vision Screening for 6th graders.
Thursday, Feb 13 – Mid Year Stakeholders Meeting with SAC in Media Center at 5:30pm.
Tamara Roper
Proud Principal
JSMAL Vision: We exist to ensure that all cadets value and demonstrate leadership, character, citizenship, physical development, and academic excellence.