Van Buren Middle School
eNews - December 2020
Wednesday 12/16/19 is a Mental Health Day across the district - no online assignments
Our staff and students have gone above and beyond this fall. To provide a day of respite, the district will observe a Mental Health Day on December 16. Staff will not report this day and students will not have online assignments.
Winter Break
Classes will not be in session Wednesday, December 23, 2020 through Friday, January 1, 2021. Students will return to school on Monday, January 4, 2021. Wishes to all families for a safe and enjoyable holiday season!
NJHS Food Drive
The Friends of Rachel Pantry was depleted last spring as we helped a number of Van Buren families - help us replenish this important resource!
The National Junior Honor Society is organizing a food drive to benefit our VBMS Friends of Rachel pantry here at school. Individually packaged, non perishable, easy-to-prepare food items will be collected in home bases December 14-18 and the homebase contributing the highest number of items will win hot cocoa on Tuesday, December 22. Examples include Easy Mac, Ramen, and granola bars.
VLA students may contribute by bringing food items to the MS/HS office (marked with the student’s name) and your hot cocoa will be delivered Tuesday morning.
VLA Option - Spring Semester
Parents of students in the VLA option this fall semester will receive information on options for the spring semester (starts January 25, 2021) in early January.
Schoology
The adoption of Schoology has allowed us to align to one platform for online components to our classes at Van Buren in grades K-12. Parents should have received an email providing information on how to create parent accounts in Schoology. Below are links to video tutorials and help guides:
- Video Tutorial – How To Create Parent Account & Link Accounts In Schoology
- Video Tutorial – Parent Tour of Schoology
- A Parent’s Guide To Schoology - Written Guides From Schoology
- Elementary Student Tour of Schoology
- MS/HS Student Tour of Schoology
Pandemic School Lunch Waiver
All Van Buren students are eligible to receive free school lunches (a regular lunch) as a result of the federal school lunch program waiver made possible through the CARES act. Additionally, any students purchasing a regular school lunch since the start of the school year will have that lunch cost refunded to their lunch account in the coming weeks.
On-Campus Student Attendance
On-Campus Days: Attendance works the same as always - if a student will not be at school, we require parent contact by 8:30am the day of the absence with the student’s name and reason for absence.
Online Days: During online days, students are expected to log in to Schoology at least once each online day as we have to track student “attendance” per state mandate. There is no required time - teachers will be available for Zoom sessions and to reply to email messages. As students fail to login, we will address those “absences” on an individual basis.
VLA: Students should log in to the VLA platform regularly. As students fail to login, we will address those “absences” on an individual basis.
Using PaySchools for Lunches and School Fees
Van Buren Schools is now using PaySchools to accommodate online payments for our school lunches and fees. If you used PayForIt in the past for lunches, you can login here to migrate your account to PaySchools. If you never used PayForIt in the past, create a PaySchools account here. Note: Lunches and fees can still be paid for by bringing in a check or cash.
Important Links
Schoology
PaySchools
VBMS Daily Announcements