Principal’s Message January 20, 2023

Second Semester:
This week was the start of third quarter and second semester. Students have had class changes as they have moved into new electives. Students should be getting settled in their new classes and routines now that we are nearing the end of the week. Ms. Cannon will be putting class fees for new second semester classes on student accounts in the next week or two. We will send out a text reminder when those fees are posted.
We do have one faculty change to let you know about for the new semester. Mrs. Suarez, our new FACS/CCA teacher is leaving us as of today. We appreciate Mrs. Suarez and the work she did for the students during first semester, and we wish her luck in her future pursuits. Our new teacher will be Ms. Jenny Rasmussen. Ms. Rasmussen is a recent graduate from Utah State, and we are excited to have her join our faculty. She will start on Monday, January 23.
2023-2024 Course Selection:
The counselors will be visiting 6th and 7th grade classes next week to go over course selection for next year. Students will be given their course selection cards at that time. Please go over the card and options with your student as they select/rank their elective classes. Counselors will let students know when the cards need to be turned back in, but it will be a short turn around so we can start working on building next year’s schedule.
Granite District’s philosophy toward scheduling is to make sure it is student-centered. This means we offer classes the students sign-up for. This is important because we will offer the elective classes students sign-up for and will not offer classes students don’t sign-up for. Hopefully students take time to consider the courses they select as they go through the course selection process.
CTE Open House:
The Granite Technical Institute (GTI) is having an Open House on January 26 from 4-7pm. This is a great opportunity for students to tour the facility and find out about the many classes and programs offered to students. The Open House is for all students, but 8th graders may be especially interested as they can begin taking classes at GTI in 9th grade. The flier with additional information is posted to the Facebook page.
PTA Stomp:
PTA is sponsoring a Valentine’s Day stomp for the kids on February 9. The stomp will go from 2:50-3:50 in the gym. All Olympus Jr. High students are invited to attend.
Parent-Teacher Conferences:
Second Semester Conferences will be February 7 and 8 from 4-7pm. We will not be doing on-line conferences this time around. Conferences will be in person with the teachers being available in the cafeteria/commons area.
7th Grade Hearing Screening:
The district nurses will be here on February 15 to do hearing screening with the 7th graders. The screening is quick, and students will be called out of class to go to Room 315 to be screened. It should be not overly intrusive to the day, but we do want our 7th grade parents to know it’s happening.
Open Enrollment:
Open Enrollment is currently open and will remain open until February 3. Open Enrollment needs to be turned in each time a student transitions between schools. So, if you have an 8th grader who is out of bounds for Olympus High, they will need to fill out a form for Olympus High. If you have a fifth grader that would like to come to Olympus Jr., they will need to fill one out.
We have put a link to the on-line Open Enrollment form on our school’s website so you can easily find and access it.
Art Club:
Mr. Whiting is starting an after-school Art Club for any students interested in exploring art more thoroughly than what they can during the school day. Art Club will meet in Mr. Whiting’s room from 3-4pm on Mondays.
Debate:
Mrs. Shuman advises our Debate Club/Team. The team does meet as an after-school club and does participate in debate tournaments. Debate is open to all students from all grades. It is a great activity to get involved in and will help students develop speaking, researching, writing, and academic argument skills that will help students in all their classes. Debate Club meets in Mrs. Shuman’s class on Tuesdays from 2:45-3:25.
Lost and Found:
The lost and found will be cleaned out and items donated on January 25. I posted photos of the items in the lost and found to Facebook, so please take a look there and see if you recognize anything.
Yearbooks:
Remember to order yearbooks. We had to place our order with the yearbook company already, so we have done that. We ordered above the number that we have presold to this date, but once we sell what we ordered we will not be able to order more. So, if you haven’t ordered one yet, you will want to get that taken care of sooner rather than later.
Facebook Page:
I have mentioned this many times, but I like to make sure I keep advertising it: I update and maintain the school’s Facebook page. It is the best place for up to the minute information, and it allows me to include pictures of things going on at school. Often, information is posted there before it makes its way into one of these messages.
I have also pinned the link to the daily video announcements to the top of the Facebook page, so you can go in and see the same announcements the students see during the school day. Our SBOs do a good job with these, so they are also a good source of information about what’s up at school.
School Calendar:
I keep the School Calendar very up to date on our website. You can check there for information regarding current and upcoming events. It is filled out through the end of the school year, and new items are added as they get scheduled. I want it to be a useful tool for parents, so please utilize it. I have included club meetings on the calendar this year as well, so if your student is interested
Upcoming Dates:
Clubs:
Art Club Mondays, 3-4
Debate Tuesdays, 2:45-3:25
Lego League Tuesdays, 3-4
FCCLA Wednesdays, 3-4
Creative Writing Every other Wednesday, 3-4 (school calendar has exact dates)
MESA Thursdays, 3-4
Jan. 26 GTI Open House, 4-7pm
Jan. 30 Volleyball vs. Churchill
Feb. 1 Volleyball vs. Wasatch
Feb. 7, 8 Parent-Teacher Conferences, 4-7pm (in-person only)
Feb. 9 PTA Valentine Stomp
Feb. 10 No School
Feb. 13 Volleyball vs. Eisenhower
Feb. 15 Hearing Screening for 7th Grade
Feb. 15 Volleyball vs. Bonneville
Feb. 17 SNAD (No school for students)
Feb. 20 No School- Presidents’ Day
Feb. 21 Wrestling Start Day
Feb. 22 Volleyball vs. Granite Park
Feb. 27 Volleyball vs. Evergreen
March 1 Volleyball vs. Bennion
March 6 Volleyball Championships- TBD
Sincerely,
Josh LeRoy
Principal