Principal's Message
Dear Parent(s) and Guardian(s),
Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year at Simons Middle School, “Home of the Spartans.” Simons Middle School is a National AVID Demonstration School and has been recognized as an AVID School-Wide Site of Distinction for the 3rd year in a row. This means that AVID recognizes our consistent implementation of AVID strategies and skills to help prepare all students for future college and career-readiness. Last year, we were visited by educators from Texas, Minnesota, Washington, Florida, and California, who came to collaborate with us on our implementation of AVID and AVID Excel. Our students, teachers, and staff are very proud of being the ones to lead change.
Simons Spartans will remain focused on AVID school-wide. Students will be using AVID strategies, such as, focused-notetaking, marking the text, and engaging in academic discourse to support them in becoming critical thinkers, creative collaborators, and effective communicators. All students at Simons are required to have an AVID Binder and a Simons’ Agenda. Students will receive details during their Spartan Period in the first week of school.
Simons Middle School is a 1:1 Promise School. All students at Simons will receive an electronic device that they will take to and from school. This year the math curriculum is digital and will be downloaded on their device. All teachers at Simons use Google Classroom and other digital tools to support learning and mastery of the standards.
Our community is very proud of our award-winning music program and our first-ever drumline. Also, we have amazing computer science classes, where students learn 3 different coding languages upon completion. This year we are expanding by adding advanced classes to our schedule and a 7th period for students who are in another elective during the school day.
We will continue our work and focus on literacy. All students will use Achieve 3000 to engage students in reading more expository text at their independent-reading levels. Students will be assessed in the first month of school and we will be receiving a Lexile score. During our Spartan period they will learn about the importance of their Lexile and the relationship to college and career-readiness. Also, students will have access to this program at home.
Simons uses A Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS) framework to promote a positive and safe culture. We are proud to announce that we earned the PBIS Gold Award for the 2017-2018 school year! At Simons, students are to BE SAFE, BE RESPONSIBLE, and BE RESPECTFUL. Students earn points for positive behavior and will be able to use them in a variety of ways throughout the year. Also, we have student-centered, teacher-organized events, such as SASEE, and our Mentor Breakfast that promote positive self-concept and a positive school culture.
To be a true collaborative community we will need your support. We will need you to join our committees, come to the Coffee with the Principal meetings, volunteer on campus, and learn about the 21st century skills to help us support your student’s learning. We will continue with our parent workshops and we will work to increase school-home communication. Also, you can access the school website for information.
Attendance counts! Attendance is the greatest predictor of grade point average. Please make sure that your student is in school every day on time. We want to make every moment of their middle school years memorable.
Spartans are family. As always, teachers, parents, community members, students and administration will collaborate to promote a positive and safe environment, focus on continuous learning, and to support and assure that all students are obtaining the skills needed for college and careers in the future. The Simons’ motto is “One person can make a positive difference!” We want all stakeholders to be the one, to make a positive difference in our school and our community!
Please remember to be respectful, to be responsible and to be safe!
We are looking forward to a positive year of learning!
Cristine Goens
Simons Middle School, Principal
"One person can make a positive difference!"