La Plata Middle School
Message from the Principal
Greetings La Plata Families!
Fall is in the air, and we are getting ready to wrap up Quarter 1! It feels like we spend so much time anticipating the beginning of a new school year, and then BAM! We are already nearing the end of the first quarter!
We have two weeks until Fall Break, which means our students have 10 school days to finish strong! We encourage students to turn in any missing or late work and take advantage of opportunities to bring up any failing grades. We have also been running Lunch Bunch each week, pulling in students who are struggling academically to provide additional time and support to complete missing work. Please continue checking in with your child about their grades and assignments as we head toward the end of the quarter.
Thank You to Our Parent Group!
We want to give a HUGE thank you to our amazing parent group who provided a staff breakfast this past Wednesday, September 23rd! Our staff was surprised and incredibly grateful. These acts of kindness mean so much to our team, and we truly appreciate the continued support of our La Plata families!
Broncos Representing La Plata!
Congratulations to all of our students who competed in the County Fair and those who participated in NDI this past week! We are proud of the many ways our Broncos represent La Plata outside of the classroom. Way to represent and shine!
Attendance Challenge Winner…. 6th Grade!
Our September Grade Level Attendance Competition has a winner!
Congratulations to our 6th Grade Broncos with 95% attendance for September!
We will celebrate our 6th graders during 7th period on Monday, September 28th. Great job showing up and making every day count!
Milestone Testing Begins This Week
Our Milestone Testing Window opens this week through October 9th for ELA, Math, Science, and History.
What is Milestone Testing? Milestones are short-cycle assessments that help us determine how well students have learned the standards taught in their classes. The results provide our teachers with valuable information about what students understand, where additional support may be needed, and what adjustments teachers may need to make in their upcoming instruction.
Attendance is especially important during testing. We want students to test with their teachers, in their regular classrooms, and in the environments where they are most comfortable. Please help us by having students at school and on time each day.
Friday, October 2nd — National Custodian Appreciation Day!
We are incredibly thankful for Mando, Rob, and Rueben and everything they do each day to take care of our campus. Their work often happens behind the scenes, but it makes a tremendous difference for our students and staff. We appreciate them!
Proud of Our Broncos
As we continue through the school year, we want our families to know how proud we are of our students. They continue to earn positive referral after positive referral, showing kindness, making good choices, and looking out for one another.
We are also proud that our students are learning to speak up when something doesn't seem right or when they feel like a situation may be brewing. Our students are often our eyes and ears on campus, and when they communicate with trusted adults, it helps us address concerns early and keep our school safe.
Thank you, La Plata families, for your continued partnership, communication, and support. We appreciate you!
Let's make these final two weeks of Quarter 1 great!
Go Broncos!
Ms. Cruz
More Information
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La Plata Parent Panel Meeting Recap
Thank you to the parents who joined us for our September Solution-Based Parent Panel Meeting! We continue to appreciate the ideas, conversation, and willingness of our families to work alongside us. One of our goals for this group is not just to talk about ways we can support our school, but to turn those conversations into action!
Stand for the Silent – What’s Next?
We spent some time reflecting on the impact of our recent Stand for the Silent assembly and the message it brought to our students about kindness, bullying prevention, and standing up for others.
Update: La Plata will be starting its own Stand for the Silent Chapter! Working alongside our SEL Team, we will invite students to take leadership roles and help shape what this chapter looks like at LPMS. We would also love to have parents involved!
If you are interested in supporting our Stand for the Silent Chapter, please contact Leslie Cook, LPMS School Counselor, for information about ways to get involved.
September Parent Involvement – Staff Breakfast
Our parents are already putting ideas into action! A group of parents is organizing a Staff Appreciation Breakfast for the morning of September 23rd. Mishka Venegas, one of our 7th-grade parents, is leading this effort. If you would like to contribute, help, or donate, please reach out to her:
Phone: 575-538-1647
Email: mishkavenegas@gmail.com
As we reach the middle of September, that first-nine-weeks fatigue can begin to set in for school staff. This thoughtful gesture will mean so much to our teachers and staff! We appreciate the collaboration and generosity of our families, and we thank everyone who is willing and able to help Mrs. Venegas make this happen!
Dads on Duty!
We also want to give a huge thank you to Mr. Randy Venegas, who has been coming to La Plata each day to help us with lunch duty! Having positive adults present on our campus makes a difference. The extra set of eyes is helpful, but even more importantly, our students benefit from having caring adults interacting with them and being part of their school community.
Interested in volunteering your time at La Plata? Please reach out to Ms. Cruz! We would love to have more parents and family members involved.
Our House System & Parent Involvement
We also spent time talking about our House System and ways families can become more involved.
House caseloads will be added to PowerSchool, which will allow our teacher House Leaders to better connect with families when we have House events, activities, service projects, and opportunities for parent involvement. We also discussed how students earn House Points throughout the school day and the House Leaderboard students see displayed on our TVs throughout campus. Those points recognize students for demonstrating the positive behaviors and character we want to see throughout La Plata.
The Amazing Shake – Preparing Students for the Real World
Parents also learned more about our Amazing Shake Competition and why this is such an important part of our House System.
The Amazing Shake gives students opportunities to practice the soft skills that will serve them well beyond middle school: handshakes, eye contact, communication, confidence, poise, professionalism, and thinking on their feet.
We have an exciting goal this year: the winner of our LPMS Amazing Shake Competition will have the opportunity to represent La Plata at the Global Amazing Shake Competition in Georgia this March!
We are excited to continue preparing our Broncos not only for their next grade level, but for the real world beyond our doors.Thank You, Parent Panel!
- We are incredibly thankful for the parents who take the time to attend these meetings, share ideas, ask questions, and most importantly, help us find solutions. Our Parent Panel is about building stronger partnerships between school, families, and our community, and we appreciate everyone who continues to help us move that work forward.
Our next Solution-Based Parent Panel Meeting will be October 7th. We hope to see you there!
- We are incredibly thankful for the parents who take the time to attend these meetings, share ideas, ask questions, and most importantly, help us find solutions. Our Parent Panel is about building stronger partnerships between school, families, and our community, and we appreciate everyone who continues to help us move that work forward.