September 2019

The construction of Valley View Middle School is progressing nicely. Mr. Knudsen reports that the building is over 50% finished and easily on schedule to finish in time. 

Girls intramural tennis had a great tournament today here at home. In the picture above you see Constance Dayley & Olivia Jackson playing in a doubles team against Payson Jr.

Intramural tennis is after school every Tues. Wed. and Thurs. for the next few weeks.

Congratulations to our awesome students of the month for October. These students exemplify Spartan Spirit of Body, Heart, and Mind. Way to go Alex Patron (9th), Max Tripp (9th), Izzy Brown (9th), Andrew Henderson (9th), Olivia McDermott (8th), Elexa Roundy (8th), Ashlynn Prestwich (7th), Sienna Matys (7th), Mia Johnson (7th), Braxton Houtz (8th). Keep up the good work, Spartans!

Earlier this month, all the students here at SaJHS took a reading test in their English class. The reading test, called the HMH Reading Inventory, is an adaptive test that determines students' reading level and assigns a Lexile score. Each grade has a Lexile goal where they should be at the end of the year to be considered on grade level. As you can see with the attached image, the kids at our school scored really well on this test with the majority of students in each grade at or above grade-level benchmarks.

Wednesday, September 25 will be for picture retakes. Any student who needs retakes done should bring the original pictures with them and be ready to look their best. Also, students who weren't at school for pictures need to have a picture taken, even if they aren't planning on purchasing the pictures. These pictures are used in our grading system as well as the yearbook at the end of the year. 

Salem Junior High will be competing this year in the Battle of the Books. Basically, students will form teams and read books from a pre-selected list and then compete by answering questions about the different books. Teammates will depend on each other as they will all be reading different books from the list. It is a fun, friendly competition and a great challenge for students who love reading. 

Many students have already picked up applications to join a team that need to be signed by parents and turned in by tomorrow if they want to compete in the Battle of the Books.

It's hard to believe we are almost to the middle of term 1! With mid-term comes our Parent Teacher Conferences, which will be held on Thursday, September 26, 3:00-6:30 p.m. (please note the change in time from previous years). This is a great time for parents, students, and teachers to meet together and discuss the student's progress in school and/or challenges in school so that the "team" for your student is all on the same page.

A group of students surprised their P.E. teacher Mr. Moldenhauer, known affectionately as Moldy around the school, with a gift to show their appreciation for all that they have learned from him. Moldy is a huge Michael Jordan fan and his students know that. So, they found out that his favorite Air Jordan shoe is the Air Jordan 14 and pooled their money together to buy him a pair of his own.

Moldy loves the students he works with and makes sure to let them know that. This was a way that they found to show what he means to them. 

Salem Hills High will be hosting Joe Hendershott for a parent education night on September 16 at 7:00 p.m.  He will be talking about the effects that trauma has on learning and behavior and how to reach and help kids who are struggling. See the attached flyer for more information.