Happy Sunday, Dolphins!  This is Kristen Faircloth, proud principal at Durant Road Middle School, with your August 20, 2023 Family Message.  

 

We hope you have enjoyed a wonderful weekend and had the opportunity to spend some time outside in the sunshine while staying cool.  We want to congratulate Mr. Ralph Chew, 7th grade assistant principal for being appointed as the principal of Creech Road Elementary effective Monday, August 21.  We are excited for Mr. Chew and wish him much success.  We welcome Ms. Detrice Alexander as the interim 7th grade assistant principal starting Monday, August 21.  Ms. Alexander will serve as the interim assistant principal during our search for a qualified candidate to join our DRMS family.   

 

Please take a moment to read through the Family Message below, as well as the grade level newsletters, and do not hesitate to contact us if there is any way we can support you.   

 

Staffing Updates

We have a few staffing updates to share with our DRMS community:

• Please help us welcome Ms. Samara Cuccurullo to DRMS!  Ms. Cuccurullo will be teaching a few 8th grade classes as well as serving our AIG students.

• A recommendation has been made for a 6th grade math and science teacher.  More information will be shared as soon as possible.

• We are excited to welcome Ms. Sarah Armstrong to our student services team.  Ms. Armstrong will be completing her internship with our counselors during the first semester.

 

DRMS Athletic News

We are excited to announce when fall athletic tryouts will be held at Durant Road Middle. The tryout process and days will vary from sport to sport. Please pay attention to the following schedule below of when tryouts will begin:

 

Football: Tuesday, September 5th

Girls Soccer: Wednesday, September 6th

Cheerleading: Tuesday, September 5th

Volleyball: Tuesday, September 5th

 

As a reminder, all student athletes will be responsible for a ride home. We do not provide transportation home from tryouts. If you are wanting to learn more information on the specific sports, please visit our athletics website https://wakecountyathleticzone.com/durant-road/. 

 

DragonFly information & Deadline:

In order to play on any athletic team at Durant Road Middle School, a student athlete must create and fill out a dragonfly form. If help is needed, please see Mr. Esposito or contact him (pesposito@wcpss.net). Dragonfly hard copy forms may also be distributed to students who need help creating accounts. These forms can be picked up from the school. Dragonfly accounts must be submitted, with all proper paperwork, by Friday, September 1st in order to be eligible for the fall season. Once paperwork has been submitted to 100% completion, on September 1 and September 5, student athletes will receive a wristband that will deem them eligible for fall tryouts.

 

Football Workout (Optional):

On Monday (August 21st) & Wednesday (August 23rd) we will be hosting football workouts. The workouts will take place from 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm after school and will give students the opportunity to participate in skill development. Our head coach and assistant coach, Baine Martin and Logan Bennett, will be attending and running the workout together. This is not mandatory for all student athletes wanting to play football this season, but it is a good opportunity to practice some skills before tryouts begin. Please sign up by putting your name on the posted sheet outside of the gymnasium doors this week. Also, in order to attend, students must have 100% complete dragonfly accounts. 

 

Volleyball Workout Dates (Optional):

DRMS has two set dates for volleyball workouts before volleyball season begins - Tuesday, August 22nd & Tuesday, August 29th. The workouts will take place from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm after school and will give students the opportunity to participate in skill development. Our head coach, Aurora Davis, will be present and running the workouts. This is not mandatory for all student athletes wanting to play volleyball this season, but it is a good opportunity to practice some skills before tryouts begin. Please sign up by putting your name on the posted sheet outside of the gymnasium doors this week. Also, in order to attend, students must have 100% complete dragonfly accounts. 

 

Fall Sports Athletic Parent Meeting:

Our fall sports athletic parent meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 30 from 5:00 PM - 5:45 PM. The meeting will take place inside of the school auditorium. This will give parents and/or student athletes an opportunity to learn what the expectations are for student athletes, logistics for each sport during the fall season, a chance to ask questions about the athletic season, and an opportunity to see where the Durant Road Middle School athletic program is heading. 

 

2023-24 Yearbook

The 2023-2024 DRMS Yearbook is on sale now! From now until the end of September, the yearbook will be on sale for the lowest price all year! Along with the lowest price, students can get four free icons to personalize their yearbook! Use this link to purchase: https://jostensyearbooks.com/?REF=A01095208 Please reach out to Mrs. Robertson, the yearbook advisor, with any questions at sdrobertson@wcpss.net 

 

School Garden Grant

We are excited to share that DRMS has been selected to receive a school garden grant through the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation!  The vision is for the garden to provide opportunities for accessible, hands-on, FUN learning for all students at DRMS.

 

On Saturday, September 23, Sprouts will be hosting a garden workday from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm to help get our garden started.  Some key projects we hope to tackle are:

• Assembling 8 raised garden beds

• Putting together 4 picnic tables

• Setting up 1 storage shed

If you are free on Saturday, September 23, we would love to have you join us!

Canvas

Families can view their student's course content and progress by creating a Canvas Observer Account. If you have multiple students, you can link all your students under a single Observer account.  Parents can click on the following link to connect in Canvas.

https://www.wcpss.net/Page/51339

 

Meal Benefits

All families must complete an application for the 2023-2024 school year in order to receive benefits. Please allow 10 business days for processing.

 

For every student that turns in the free and reduced meals application and qualifies, the school also receives federal funds that benefit the students and teachers at the school.

 

We need you to complete a 2023-2024 meal benefits application so our school can be eligible for extra funding next year. If you have not completed a free or reduced-price meal application and think your child may be eligible, pick up an application at your child’s school or apply online. 

 

A student’s status from the 2022-2023 school year will roll over to this current year; however, it only carries them forward for the first 30 operational days or until a new application for the 2023-2024 school year has been processed.

 

7th Grade - Important! Immunizations Required

NC State Law mandates that all 7th-grade students have their TDAP and Meningococcal (MCV) vaccines by the start of their 7^th grade year, July 31, 2023.  7th grade students who have not submitted their immunizations will be suspended based on policy.  Please return immunization records showing TDAP and Meningococcal (MCV) vaccines anytime between now and July 31, 2023. Immunization records may be dropped off at the front office or emailed to kbograd@wcpss.net.  We appreciate your attention to this mandate.  

 

DRMS PTA

JOIN THE Durant Road Middle School PTA

 

Your school PTA is working hard as the school year begins and we need your help.  Why should I join the PTA?  Membership dues help support your child by helping us with funding for essential education and curriculum needs.   Our board is small but made up of parents and community leaders who want to help our school support our children to the best of our abilities.

 

Right now, we are focused on membership and looking to raise our membership in our school.  Our goal is 100 parents and 100% faculty membership.

 

If you have not joined, please join now.

 

We have a raffle for all members who join now at the beginning of the year.   A Yeti Cup raffle for parents and for faculty.  Your name will be entered and one parent/community member and one faculty member will each be selected. We will draw winners the last week of September, before track out.

 

Our first meeting will be August 22, 2023 at 6:00 PM. We will be voting on our new officers.  If you are a member, you can vote.  We welcome all members to attend (virtual).  Sign in is noted in Givebacks (drms.memberhub.com/dashboard)

 

We look forward to working hard this year for our DRMS families and welcome all to DRMS.

 

PARENT/GUARDIAN QR Code and Link to join PTA for 2023-2024

 

https://drms.memberhub.com/store/items/12672

 

Thank you for supporting DRMS,

Kristen J Faircloth

Principal