2025-09-19 -- Principal's Email
Good evening, Middlesex Families,
Thank you for joining us for our Open Houses this week! It is a special opportunity to give you a peek into the daily experiences of your child(ren) and to get to know all of us. The partnership between families and MMS is critical to our ability to support our students individually and as a community.
In Flex on Thursday this week MMS students had the opportunity to participate in our Virtual Club Fair. We encourage you to check out the many offerings we have. We do not have a formal sign up process like you may be accustomed to at an elementary level for after school enrichment; students are welcome to try out clubs and to join throughout the year. After school activities and the late bus will begin on Monday next week. Late bus routes can be found on the district website under the Transportation tab.
Our regular review of procedures and practice through safety drills helps us be prepared to calmly respond should we be faced with an emergency. The drills we have this month were scheduled by our team prior to the social media post that led the District to close DHS on Tuesday out of an abundance of caution. Today we had our second fire drill of the school year, this time during a passing period. Our students did a great job exiting the building in a quiet and orderly manner, and practicing organizing by Flex. We will also have a lockdown drill before the end of September. You may wonder what communication you would receive and what to do in the event that a lockdown was implemented at MMS. You would receive a communication from Central Services in partnership with the Darien Police Department. It is important that the community not come to your child’s school unless directed to by district leadership, and to keep phone lines clear. We would send additional communications to you as soon as possible with updated information, including plans for dismissal or reunification if appropriate. While it is my hope that we never need to use any of those plans, I do want you to know - both as your principal and as a mom - that we take that practice and preparation seriously. Our school team has been, and will continue to be, in frequent communication with Central Services administration; District Director of Safety and Security, Leon Krolikowski; as well as School Resource Officer Taggart to ensure school safety.
A few other announcements:
No School on Tuesday, 9/23 for Rosh Hashanah. L’Shanah Tovah to our families observing the upcoming holiday!
School Picture Day is next week!
- Thursday: 6th and 7th grade
- Friday: 8th grade
- Students will have their picture taken during Social Studies
- You can order pictures online and pre-pay until October 9 at www.roberttaylorphotography.com/underclass-fall Password: mms25
Orders are live for MMS Yearbooks. You can purchase a yearbook by following this link. For our Eighth Grade families, please see these Tribute Ad Instructions to design and submit a tribute for your child(ren) by October 22 if you are interested in doing so.
Finally, The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) is transitioning to electronic distribution for the Individual Student Score Reports for the State Standardized Assessments, Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and Next Generation Science Standards Assessment (NGSS). The annual District assessment letter is linked here. The letter includes directions for families to access the score reports from the Aspen portal. The assessment letter and Individual Score Reports for SBA and NGSS will be posted on the Aspen Portal on Friday, September 19th (see directions for accessing score reports in Aspen here). If you require a paper copy of your child’s Individual Score Report, please contact your child’s school counselor.
It looks like we have lovely fall weather in the forecast for much of the weekend - I hope you and your family enjoy it!
Sincerely,
Kate
Kate Dimoulas (she/her/hers)
Middlesex Middle School Principal
203-655-2518 ext. 3226