EARLY PICK-UP REMINDERS. Please communicate with the Meyer office about any afternoon pick-up changes that are different from your child's usual routine. Please do as follows when the dismissal plan will be different from their daily routine:

• Notify the Meyer office by 12:00 p.m. of that day by calling 847-673-1223, option 1, or by sending an email to [email protected].
• Due to the nature of the teachers' role, they may not always be available during the day to receive or reply to messages. The safest and surest way to notify us is by contacting the Meyer office.
• Children will be released ONLY to an adult listed in PowerSchool as a contact with School Pickup permission. Staff may ask to see identification.

EMERGENCY CLOTHING REMINDER. At the beginning of the school year, we asked every student to bring a complete set of spare clothing to keep at school in case of an emergency. With cooler weather, the extra clothing in your child's locker may no longer be warm enough for our current temperatures. Please send extra fall clothing as needed, including a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, socks, and underwear, clearly marked with your child's name. Thank you!

Join us for Socktoberfest on Thursday, October 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Meyer School to help us celebrate the end of Socktober. Fun activities will include:

• Dance party
• Arts and crafts
• Games
• Face painting
• Food

Please enter through Doors #6 and #7 by the parking lot. Bring a refillable water bottle, and have cash or Zelle on hand to purchase tickets for games and food! See the FLYER for details. 

We also need your help as parent volunteers during Socktoberfest to help make the event a success! Please sign up for a shift and visit the PTO website for more information.

Thank you to the Meyer Parent Leaders committee of the PTO for hosting this event!

During the third week of October each year, educational environments around the nation focus on helping students understand the value in being good digital citizens. DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP WEEK was celebrated at Middleton from October 16th-20th. Throughout this week, students explored the topics of digital respect, resilience, responsibility, and reasoning through classroom discussions.

Skokie73.5 teachers worked as a committee during the 2021-2022 school year to streamline a guiding curriculum for Digital Citizenship using the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework in conjunction with Common Sense Media. This was a focus to support our students as they practice applying social-emotional learning to the diverse digital landscapes they interact with regularly. Topics may have included media balance, online privacy, digital footprint, communication, cyberbullying, and news+media literacy.

As you discuss Digital Citizenship at home, one option to encourage safe online practices is to use the "Internet Traffic Light" poem shown here from Common Sense Media!

Congratulations to McCRACKEN GRANT RECIPIENTS Sally Alvarado, English Language teacher, and Tori Gammeri, school librarian. Alvarado and Gammeri were recently awarded a generous grant from The Skokie Community Foundation to better meet the needs of our multilingual students at McCracken Middle School and the surrounding community. The Education Foundation Supporting the Students of Niles Township matched the grant, enabling this project to have even more impact. With these funds, Alvarado and Gammeri will establish a multilingual team to purchase a diverse set of books in languages other than English and develop library programming that encourages connections across the community. We applaud their effort and time spent on the application process and coordination for this grant in order to have a direct positive impact focused on the literacy of our multilingual students at McCracken!

8th GRADE PSAT ASSESSMENT INFORMATION ► UPDATED OCTOBER 18, 2023! The PSAT 8 assessment for our 8th grade students will be administered at Niles North High School on Saturday, October 28th (specific times were communicated by Niles North in October).

• Students with IEP/504 testing accommodations will start at 8:00 a.m. (end times will vary and will be communicated by Niles North)
• Students without accommodations will start at 12:00 p.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.
• ► Niles North will email families with specific testing session times by October 23rd.
• ► THIS template email from Niles North includes additional testing information. Your email will include your child’s name and testing time.

All 8th graders planning to enroll at Niles North High School are expected to take the PSAT 8, the first high school-level exam in the SAT Suite of Assessments.

The PSAT 8 establishes a baseline measurement for college and career readiness as a student enters high school. The exams in the SAT Suite of Assessments measure a student's strength in reading, writing/language, and mathematics. Assessing these same skills at different grade levels allows students, parents, and educators to monitor a student's progress.

This assessment is free of charge and given to junior high (middle school) students in the fall of the year prior to high school registration. Results from this test, along with other metrics, will be used for proper 9th grade course placement.

The College Board website has several resources about the PSAT 8. Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please do not hesitate to reach out to Christine Gonzales, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction, at [email protected] or 847-626-3870.

More information will follow in the near future! Please check email and mailings from NNHS.

OUTDOOR RECESS WEATHER REMINDERS. Students participate in outdoor recess throughout the school year unless there is a significant weather-related or other external factor that necessitates an indoor program. Here at McCracken, we use the Child Care Weather Watch system to determine students' participation in outdoor recess. This guide uses a combination of temperature and wind speed to calculate year-round weather safety for our students. Thank you, in advance, for helping to ensure that your child is prepared with appropriate outerwear for recess so that they are comfortable during our outdoor programming! Families in need of outerwear for their child should contact administration for additional resources.

McCRACKEN PJAMMIN FUNDRAISER NEWS. Students and staff were encouraged to rock their pajamas on October 13th to support childhood cancer in memory of former graduate, Griffin Maks. Ms. Bethany Fagan organized this fundraiser with the help of McCracken students. The fundraiser donations from students, staff, and families exceeded our goal with a total of $1,098 raised for the American Childhood Cancer Organization!

Rehearsals continue for this year’s musical, INTO THE WOODS, JR. Special thanks to all of our students and our Musical Director, Amy Keipert, for her planning and organization. We would also like to recognize Kate Magnuson as the Musical Producer and Sally Alvarado as the Musical Manager. Tech Crew applications were due this week. We are looking forward to final performances scheduled to take place on Friday, November 10th and Saturday, November 11th! Ticket sales will go live on Monday, October 30th online via a link/QR code. More info to come!

OCTOBER IS RECOGNIZED AS BULLYING PREVENTION MONTH. Monday, October 2nd was also the World Day of Bullying Prevention. We encouraged students and staff to wear blue that day to help us to "Stomp out bullying" at McCracken. In addition, we provided students with an opportunity to create and submit bullying prevention posters during all of our recess periods. Families can also access bullying resources online through our district website. Bullying behavior is aggressive and includes an imbalance of power and is repeated. According to stopbullying.gov, bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. Some students at this age experience peer conflict that does not rise to the level of bullying, but does require adult intervention and restorative measures to support positive interactions.

Bullying and harassment can happen in person and online. Many of our middle school students are using technology in multiple ways to communicate with peers outside of school. They may be using smartphones and social media apps to communicate with friends. Social media applications have parental controls for monitoring and safety. At times, students at this age may experience peer conflict that may turn into negative interactions online with friends or acquaintances. Negative interactions or cyberbullying that impacts the school environment may result in school issued consequences. Please monitor your child’s online presence and help to reinforce online safety and kindness in communication. We look forward to partnering with you to keep our students safe at school!

ATTENDANCE REMINDERS. Did you know that missing two days of school a month, over the course of a school year, can affect a student's academic success? Please help us make school attendance a priority! If you know that your child will be absent for the day, please call our school nurse, Ms. Warda, at 847-676-8235 by 8:00 a.m. on the day of the absence. Please review the McCracken Attendance Reminders for more information about the importance of consistent school attendance and keeping your child engaged in school.