Welcome back! We are glad you are here!
School begins Tuesday, September 7, at 7:43 A.M. The first day is a ½ day for the students.

CMS Welcomes New Assistant Principal

It is with great pride and anticipation that CMS welcomes Mr. Chuck Haskin to our building as the new assistant principal. Mr. Haskin is taking over for Ms Bonnie Neal who retired at the end of the school year last spring. Mr. Haskin brings a wealth of school experience to this position and we are very excited to have him join us at Central Middle School.

Central Middle School Wins Statewide Bridge-Building Contest

The three teams from Central Middle School won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the statewide 2010 Michigan Bridge-Building Challenge sponsored by the Michigan Department of Transportation. The event was held in Lansing on April 12. Central Middle School had 15 students involved in this state level bridge building competition. Seventh grade science teachers Mike Champion and Amy Franks coached the middle school participants. Technology Integration Teacher, Chuck Haskins also helped the students throughout the contest.

All of the competing middle school students had to design and build a drawbridge. Given specific parameters and the same amount of balsawood, each team had to design and construct a working drawbridge. Creativity, teamwork, problem solving, science, math, language arts, and social studies skills were used by all of the team members. Each group generated lengthy proposals. MDOT personnel informed us that for the entire competition, 280 applications were submitted. 110 finished proposals were turned in. Out of that group of 110 proposals, 52 teams qualified and were invited to come to Lansing to compete in the state finals.

The finalist teams built a final model bridge and the students prepared a Power Point presentation. The top engineers from the Michigan Department of Transportation judged the presentations and the bridges. The CMS students did an excellent job explaining the bridge building process and the many lessons that they learned. After each presentation the students took their finished bridges to a testing room where machines were used to test the weight and strength of each bridge. Mr. Champion and Mrs. Franks are happy to report that 3 teams from Portage Central Middle School came away with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards for their bridges in this state competition. Brittany Leach, Shelby Mannes, and Stephanie Raifsnider won first place and $200 each for their winning drawbridge project. Team members John Blanchard, Ben Alburtus and Bob Cocoran won second place and $125 each. Third place and $75 each went to team members, Cam Brandt, Mikey O'Strander, Ryan Schiller

All of the students worked hard and we are extremely proud of this excellent showing of the talented students we have enrolled in Portage Public Schools. Thank you to all of the students who participated. State qualifying team members: John Blanchard, Ben Alburtus, Bob Corcoran, Cam Brandt, Mikey O'Strander, Ryan Schiller, Brittany Leach, Stephanie Raifsnider, Shelby Mannes, Rachel Bates, Isabelle Kelemen, Katelyn Kring, Anna Kayser, Lindsay Styrlund, Lisa Balanda, and Caitlin Matthews. Click here for pictures.

District-wide Jeopardy Competition Winners

The final district-wide Jeopardy competition was held Wed. April 28th at the Portage District Library. All three teams did a remarkable job of fielding questions presented by Portage District Library’s Historian and Youth librarian, Steve Rossio, but the winners of the top prize, a $50 gift certificate for books for their school library, were CMS seventh-graders Ben Palmer, Sean Harrow and Johnathan Mullins. The competition is sponsored by the Portage District library, but the middle schools with the help of the Library Media Specialists. Click here for pictures.

Yearbooks Will Be Here Before You Know It!

Students who pre-ordered yearbooks last fall will receive them the last week of school. Immediately after getting their yearbooks, students will be asked to write their names in ink inside the front cover of their books. When signing others’ books, students are encouraged to write appropriate comments only, being reminded that these are important memory books that will be viewed for many years to come.

For those students who did not order a yearbook in the fall, a limited number of extra copies will be available through a “raffle.” On Wednesday, May 26 and Thursday, May 27, those students wishing to be part of the raffle may bring in an envelope with $30 cash in it (checks will not be accepted). The envelope must be sealed and have the following information clearly printed on the outside:

Student’s first and last name
Homeroom teacher’s name
Grade level
YEARBOOK RAFFLE

Students should hand the envelope in to the office by 3 p.m. on May 27. Mrs. Alburtus, the yearbook adviser, will collect the envelopes, place them in a box, and draw out one for each remaining yearbook. Those students whose envelopes are drawn will receive a yearbook during the last week of school. Those envelopes not drawn in the raffle will be returned to their owners.

Oh, The Place To Go To Read and Research
The Library Media Center at Central Middle has been overflowing with researchers in every grade. Seventh grade language arts classes with Mrs. Roach and Mrs. Chapman investigated countries all over the world focusing on culture, geography, economics and practiced using the online tool Citation Machine to create a “Works Cited” page. Mrs. Roach’s classes also researched travel sites and were challenged to contrast the “old and new” in their country.

Sixth graders spent nearly a week doing extra research on invertebrates and vertebrates. Mrs. Sims introduced them to four different databases, Nettrekker and the eboards. Both Mr. Hamilton’s and Ms. Sinclair’s students were preparing for oral presentations. After hearing some biography book talks and choosing a subject, Mrs. Albutus’ language arts classes were ready and eager to research using what they had learned in science and learn about reliable internet domains and how to use Google advanced search. All the classes worked on recording sources.

The eighth graders have been working on social issues research project and a civil rights mini project. Mrs. Carlsen’s Language Arts Plus students explored possible topics in online sources and Mrs. Sims took them on a “rapid review” NetOp tour of all the CMS subscription databases and research materials. They are preparing for a short oral presentation also.

Reminder to all that all the reference sources are available to students at home through Mrs. Sims eboard or Remote Web Access. The 7th grade book group recently visited Barnes & Noble and Coldstone Creamery and purchased books for the library. CMS will hold Jeopardy competitions on March 16,17, and 18. More info and sign up sheets will be available soon in the library and on the eboard.

Our recent “Best in Show Contest” offered prizes for both photographers and writers. Gift certificates for cat and dog treats were awarded. Winners were Justin Thiede, Liliane Awad, Cari Carson and Allison Knight.

Click here for pictures.

RACE Exhibit

Visit www.raceexhibit.org for information about the Kalamazoo RACE Exhibit. Click here for a calendar of events for this year.

STUDENT DIRECTORIES
Our generous PTO group has once again paid for the publication of the Directory. We will distribute one free to each household; this will be done during P/T Conferences in the main office.

“GOING GREEN” ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB
Congratulations to Sandy Yonker as she spearheads a brand new recycling initiative for the District. With the generous help of Craig Ross and Tom Vance, CMS will be recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans each day. The new collection containers arrive Nov. 13th. Students will be hearing morning announcements regarding student participation in this very worthwhile pilot.

Assistant Principal Bonnie Neal accepts National Promising Practice awards on behalf of Central Middle School at the National Character Education Conference in Washington, D.C.

Safe Routes to School Initiative

Walking & Biking Safely to School
Safe Routes to Central Middle School

Portage Central Middle School recognized at State and National levels for Character Education Program

CMS has completed its fourth year of a focused, comprehensive, continually developing Character Education effort. During the 2008-09 school year, Central Middle has been awarded an Honorable Mention from the Michigan State Schools of Character competition and two Promising Practices Awards from the national Character Education Partnership organization. Central Middle will be offering an exhibit to share its character education practices at the 1st Annual "Embedding Character Education into the 21st Century School" conference in Beverly Hills, Mi. in June and also at the National Forum for Education in Washington D.C. in October. Central Middle's winning practices will also be featured in the CEP's National Schools of Character publication and on the CEP website.

Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force

Click here for the flyer.

Cell Phone Alert!

Students may be in possession of a cell phone at school; however, according to our Portage Public Schools policy # 5390 in the Student Handbook, “use of the phone is limited to the period before classes begin in the morning and after the student’s last class in the afternoon.” Cell phones are not to be used during classes, during passing periods or during lunch. Cell phones should be turned off and out of sight for the duration of the school day. Failure to follow these guidelines may result in the phone being confiscated by a staff member. A parent will then have to contact the office to retrieve the phone.

Parent Newsletter Changes

As a cost saving measure, we will only be mailing our first and last newsletter of the year. The remaining newsletters will be available on-line the first of each month. Parents must sign up here and will be notified via e-mail when the newsletter is posted. If you do not have internet access, copies will be available in the front office.

Our PTO

We have a very active Parent-Teacher Organization in our building and strongly encourage your involvement. We meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month in the Media Center at 6:30 pm.

The 2009-2010 officers include: President Susan Fulling (sfulling@charter.net); Vice President Barb Poliak (barborjeffpoliak@att.net); Secretary Dana Pope (mipopes@tds.net); Treasurer Kimberly Cornue (kccomue@chartermi.net).

Want your photos considered for publication in the CMS Yearbook?

So do we! Students, parents and teachers can contribute content to the yearbook staff by uploading digital photos directly to our eShare website for potential use in our yearbook. You can eShare photos of field trips, sporting events, school and community activities, and your friends that might otherwise be missed by our staff photographers.

Please eShare your pictures quickly as we are constantly selecting images to meet page deadlines. Provide as much detail as possible (including names and grades) for each photo, so we have all the information needed for accurate identification.

The more you eShare, the better our coverage can be. It’s easy! Start eSharing today by going to www.hjeshare.com where you can enter our CMS School Code: 7004795 and get going. Last date to submit photos is February 28, 2010.

Character Counts 2009-2010

All three grade levels are well underway toward studying their CC curriculum for this year. The sixth graders are engaged in individual lessons on each pillar (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship); the seventh graders will be studying the Seven Step Path to Better Decision Making, using the pillar values to assist in making important choices in life; and the eighth graders will be involved with the Honor Above All program, which focuses on academic honesty and developing personal integrity.

CMS C.I.A - Citizenship in Action

Citizenship in Action (CIA) is a new club that was started last year to give CMS students an opportunity to participate in community service projects.  There are no requirements to participate and no set number of hours or projects that have to be volunteered for.  Nearly 100 students volunteered for at least one of the 22 projects, for a total of 300 hours of service.  All of the CIA activities took place after school or on the weekend.  Students who volunteered received a purple CIA T-shirt provided by the PTO and snacks.  But the motivation for most students came from their desire to be good citizens and to help someone else and have fun.   Some of the activities were serving lemonade at Celery Flats, planting flowers and cleaning the school grounds at CMS in the fall and spring, raking leaves for senior citizens through Portage Senior Center, ringing bells and collecting money for Salvation Army, donating grains of rice through Freerice.com, writing letters to our troops overseas through Operation Gratitude, creating posters for School Spirit Week and Earth  Day, and walking and collecting money for the CROP walk.
If you have ideas for a project or need the help of energetic students please contact Kris Winkle at 323-5614 or kwinkle@portageps.org.