Greetings Kent Middle School Families,

All School Read – We started our 2022 All School Read this morning after recess, when advisory groups came together to begin our reading of Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Sparked A Revolution. Over the next eight school days we will meet together daily to share in the reading of Rolling Warrior, leading up to our visit with author and ability rights activist Judy Heumann on Friday, October 28. For students and families who have an interest to further investigate events, places, people, and philosophies around the ability rights movement, please feel free to access our Kent 2022 All School Read Extension and Read-Alike activities, with over 70 additional titles, videos, and podcasts to further yours and your child’s education on this important topic.

Thank you to the students and families who were able to attend our Crip Camp movie screening last Friday. Thanks to your generous donations, we were able to raise a portion of the funds needed to support our author visit with Judy Heumann on October 28!

Halloween – On Monday, October 31 we will hold a Halloween Parade at Kent, for students and staff who participate in this fall tradition. Our parade this year will return to the gym during an extended Monday recess on October 31, and students are invited to participate by parading with peers in their grade level. For children who prefer to not dress up, we have a large spectator section for our parade, and for students who do not celebrate Halloween, the library will be open for games, reading, and videos. If your child is planning to come to school in costume, please make sure your student understands the following expectations for Halloween costumes at Kent.

• Costumes must not interfere with school participation, including PE and typical classroom activities.
• Costumes may not feature any type of weapon (gun, sword, spear, etc.), silly string, or references to drugs/alcohol.
• Costumes shall be culturally sensitive and not negatively represent any race, religion, or gender.

If your child chooses to participate this year, thank you in advance for helping your student to prepare for a fun, joyful, and respectful Halloween, 2022!

Aeries Student and Family Portal – We continue to endure a glitch in the Aeries Student Information System grading platform, which may incorrectly indicate that a student assignment is "missing," when the teacher has marked that assignment as complete. We continue to work closely with Aeries to address this frustrating issue, and have been informed that Aeries programers are in the testing phase for a fix to this glitch. In the interim, we have asked that teachers hold on entering current assignments into the system in order to avoid additional confusion. We are hopeful to be back online with entering assignments into Aeries as soon as possible this week, and will alert families when this issue has been resolved. I sincerely apologize for this interruption in feedback regarding progress with your child’s work at school, and expect to resolve this issue this week.

Let’s have a great week ahead!