Mountain Shadows Middle School

If you have additional questions, call the school office
at 707.792.4800

Bell Schedule
Students must be at school by 7:55 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It would be best if students were here by 7:50 a.m. When your child is tardy, it disrupts your child's learning and the classmates of your child. It is imperative that all students arrive at school on time and prepared. When students arrive late, they must report to the school office. Tuesday is early release day.  Students are released at 1:30.  All periods are shortened to make sure all classes are attended.
Dress Code
As most of you may be taking advantage of the Back-To-School sales offered by local stores, I feel it is important to remind you about the Mountain Shadows dress code. While today's fashions reflect the MTV culture and other popular media, many of these fashions are not suitable for a learning environment. School is a place of learning and work, students must dress accordingly.

Remember, a Mountain Shadows student's appearance cannot be disruptive to the learning process. This applies to the ratio of skin to clothing. There must be more clothing than skin. Skimpy, see through, revealing clothing items must be left at home. Additionally, clothing cannot display inappropriate or offensive language (watch out for "cutesy" statements that are sarcastic or mean-spirited), depict violence or vulgar subject matter, not mention controlled substances (drugs, tobacco, or alcohol) or gang-related items (South Park, Nor Cal). All pants or shorts need to be the appropriate size; pants or shorts that are too large or too small are not allowed.

The school dress code is important and helps maintains the physical and emotional safety of our school environment. I know one parent concern about their child's school is, "Is it safe?" By helping us monitor what your child wears to school, all children will benefit. We know it is difficult to keep the larger world with all of its problems away from your child. So, help us keep our learning environment safe and focused on learning by following our dress code. There will be more information about the dress code in your child's student handbook that is handed out the first week of school. It lists the consequences of not following the dress code. Be sure to read it with your child. Our Dress code helps keep the focus on learning. We ask for your assistance in helping make MSMS a great place to learn

                                                           First Bell                             Last Bell
    
        Monday                                       7:55 a.m.                            2:20 p.m.
       Wednesday                                 7:55 a.m.                            2:20 p.m.
       Thursday                                     7:55 a.m.                            2:20 p.m.
       Friday                                          7:55 a.m.                            2:20 p.m.

        **Tuesday (early release)           7:55p.m.                          1:30p.m.**
                                                    note time change



P.E. Clothes and Lock
    •    Purchase your P.E. clothes from InnovativeB2B. Their website is      
          http://www.crpclothes.com/. Click on Mountain Shadows and place your order. You can also call (707) 585-8511. The shirts are $18, shorts are $21, sweatshirts are $32 and sweatpants are $25. A clothes carry bag is $16.00 plus tax. Cloths must be ordered
          by Sunday, August 10th in order to be ready for pickup at the MSMS August 27th
          Jump Start. For a nominal fee, you can have the clothes shipped to your house.
    •    If students wish to wear last year's uniform, they may do so.
    •    Sweatpants and sweatshirt for PE must be gray. However, sweat clothes that have a  MSMS or academy logo are allowed.
    •    Students' P.E. locker is only to store their clothing and belongings during their  
          physical education class. Each student must supply her or his own combination lock.
          Keyed locks are not acceptable.


Planners—a well-organized student is a successful student
Our School Site Council provides a school planner to every student. The planners are given out the first day of school.  Our school planners provide students with a variety of reference information, weekly and monthly calendars, assignment sections and a very important feature that facilitates communication between home and school. Replacements for lost planners are $3.00.

School Supplies
In addition to a planner, you can help your child be prepared for school by making sure that she or he has the following supplies:
      •    4 spiral notebooks with different covers (one for each core subject)-get the ones that tear evenly out of the notebook and does not leave a ragged edge
      •    a pouch with pencils and pens (black and blue),
      •    colored pencils (no permanent markers or Sharpies)
      •    a sturdy backpack to carry their school items
We do not provide lockers for storing books. While we have made every attempt to purchase enough textbooks so that students can have a set of schoolbooks at home, there may be occasions where they will need to carry books back and forth to school. Textbooks are available for use in the library before and after school as well as during lunchtime. Remember, a prepared student is a successful student. Please help us have every Mountain Shadows student be well prepared for the start of school and throughout the school year. As you shop for your school supplies and clothes, you can help support Mountain Shadows by shopping at local store such as, Office Depot (use the following number 70013164 to credit MSMS) and Target (identify MSMS on your Target credit card). Your contributions do add up and help support MSMS. Our school community thanks you in advance.

Small Learning Communities
Each MSMS student will belong to grade level Small Learning Community or SLC. Students are randomly assigned to a SLC. The SLC is comprised of a team of core (English, History, Math and Science) teachers. This structure provides students and parents a smaller community within the school. Each SLC will work to integrate curriculum, provide school-home communication and coordinate tests and projects. Students also have an elective and a PE class. In addition, we have GATE clusters in all SLC. We also provide additional support with ELD classes and math or reading intervention support classes. If your child needs additional support, they will be placed into a support/intervention class instead of an elective. This system needs a great deal of planning, so in order to provide teachers with important common planning time, MSMS implemented Early Release Tuesday.


Student Privacy
Camera phones, cameras, or any recording device are not allowed at school. Non-camera cell phones may be brought to school but must be TURNED OFF until the end of school. Unfortunately, schools nationwide experienced pictures of their students posted on the Internet, especially MySpace, FaceBook, and YouTube. In an attempt to protect the privacy of MSMS students, any recording device will not be allowed at school. Students who wish to use a recording device for a school project must get a written permission from signed by a school administrator.

Mountains Shadows Middle School
7165 Burton Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707.792.4800
707.792.4516 fax
http://msms.schoolengine.com/