April 12th Update

Posted on 04/12/2024

Last Day of Homework Club

Wednesday, April 17th is the last day of Homework Club for the 2023-24 school year.

Special thanks go to our many Homework Club teachers who contributed their time and expertise to assisting our students with their homework!

Free Mental Health Webinar Series for Parents and Caregivers

This webinar series will provide information on the most common mental health challenges faced by youth today and will provide tips and tools to parents and caregivers to help them support the youth in their lives. It is offered through a partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education and medical and mental health experts with the Transforming Mental Health Initiative at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego. Spanish interpretation will be provided.

April 24 - Cultivating School-Life Balance to Support Academic Success

May 15 - When Anxiety Attacks: How You Can Help

All webinars are 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Followed by an optional, 15-minute question and answer session with the presenter

See Flyer for more information

Friendship Fridays Counseling Group

A counseling group for Dana students aimed to improve friendships, connections, empathy and communication.

Every Friday, Ms. Cox, our 5th Grade Counselor, is hosting counseling groups for students during 1st and 2nd recess.

Any student interested would eat in the lunch court and head to Ms. Cox's office when they are finished eating.

The Friendship Fridays group has an open door policy; all students are welcome, students may join one time or every week. They can just show up! Please reach out to Ms. Cox if you would like her to personally invite your student to the group - [email protected].

Every session the group will:

Learn the importance of confidentiality and agree to keeping all discussions within the group (but can share with an adult).
Agree to leave other students' names out of all discussions to respect privacy
Answer a check-in prompt that gages how everyone is feeling
Respond to a reflective question that captures common social/friendship topics experienced by middle school aged students. Some examples include...
- How would you describe yourself as a friend?
- What qualities are important to you in a friendship?
- Share a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone to make a new friend.
- Share a time when it was hard for you to talk to a friend.
- Why is it hard to let go of some friendships?
Engage in a kind and supportive group discussion that fosters empathy, active listening, and learning from peers.

For questions, please contact Sabrina Cox at [email protected].

Repeat News

State Testing begins April 29th

English Language Arts - 4/29 - 5/3

Math - 5/6 - 5/10

5th grade Science - 5/13 - 5/24

Headphones: We will supply wired headphones to any student who does not have them. If your student has wired headphones they can bring in for state testing, we would encourage that option to help us save on our supply of wired headphones.

School Cash Online

Parents! Please register with School Cash Online using this link SchoolCashOnline.com: Welcome

SchoolCash Online is an easy to use and safe way to pay for your children’s school fees. Now, with a few clicks, you can pay for your child’s yearbook, class trips and so much more from your own home. All you have to do is register an account, attach your children’s names and in no time you will be able to make payments online.

Prime Time Applications for 2024/25

Greetings Dana Middle School Families,

The 2024-25 PrimeTime Online Application will be available beginning Monday, March 4, 2024, at 8:00 a.m. The application can be found on the San Diego Unified School District website, link below.
https://www.sandiegounified.org

You may contact Dana's PrimeTime program leader at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Dana MS Lunch Services for SY 24/25: Parents/Guardians

The school administration of Dana MS seeks your input regarding our school lunch.

As part of the Principal Council, students presented the school administration with the idea to transition the school from two lunches to one. The student perspective was that this would allow them to have more opportunities to engage with their friends, and would allow them to have opportunities to gather for clubs and other more organized sports.

Past practice of the school was to have two lunches in order to serve the high number of students at the site. Given the projected enrollment below 650 students for next school year, the school administration is looking into transitioning the school lunch service to one lunch.

The food services department of the district will be testing out a new lunch menu in the month of May, which will allow for faster food delivery service, as well as more options for students to choose from. This transition in food service delivery will allow us to serve more students in a faster manner. Additionally, we are looking into opening a second courtyard for eating food, in order to allow more students to have space to eat.

Please provide your input on this change in the form below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11ET3ZiFKMneeCenxiU-afMzvhKYKODQ_1p0WaehxOFQ/viewform?edit_requested=true

From our Friends at FODAC

https://fodacms.org/



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