As part of an effort to improve the school-to-home relationship, St. Johns Middle School (SJMS) recently established a new organization called the SJMS Community Group. The purpose of this group is to bring together parents, guardians, teachers, staff, students and the community of SJMS for the benefit and gain of students enrolled at the school. The group is similar to a PTO, but hopes to go beyond what a typical PTO would tackle.
Founding members of the group met a few times to outline this purpose and to adopt by-laws, which will soon be available on the website. For now, there is a new SJMS community group page that families can access from the middle school home page. The group is hoping that parents and families will check here often for information about what is going on at SJMS.
The group decided upon the name “St. Johns Middle School Community Group” because one of their main goals is to involve all community stakeholders in supporting SJMS students, not just parents and staff. Some of the possible goals the group has already discussed include aiding families with the elementary to middle school transition, providing communication on any and all events taking place at the middle school, and improving volunteerism.
The group hopes to be a positive source of inspiration and communication at SJMS. In addition to electing officers, the group has already tackled such tasks as appointing parent liaisons to assist staff with various grade level needs, selecting a student representative, and assigning parents to various committees. However, more community members are still needed to complete the entire roster of appointments the group hopes to fill.
Anyone who wants to get on the group’s information contact list should send an email to Tammy Van Norman, SJMS teacher and staff representative for the new group, at vannormant@sjredwings.org.
Those who are also interested in becoming involved with the group, or who just have more questions, are encouraged to attend the next meeting which will be held on Tuesday, January 25 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in room 607 at the middle school. Meetings for the remainder of the school year will be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
-submitted by Lara Boettger, for SJMS Community Group