The Eagle Express: Back to School 2024-25 Edition

Happy August, Eagles! As our families and staff members are preparing for another great school year, we wanted to share a quick roundup of reminders, tips, and important dates to keep in mind. Below, you'll find a Back-to-School guide, complete with discussions about open house, school supply list links, instructions for completing your student's Annual Information Update, and more.

School doesn't start until Aug. 20, but our buildings are open NOW, so please feel welcome to reach out to your school secretary or other staff if you have questions.

We look forward to seeing our students very soon! In the meantime, we hope you're wrapping up a relaxing, peaceful summer with family and friends in anticipation of the fall semester.

Warm regards,

Dr. Kerry Sachetta

Joplin Schools Superintendent

Many of these Open House events occur on the same day: Thursday, Aug. 15. We encourage families whose students will attend multiple buildings to attend their buildings in this order: middle school first, elementary school second, Early Childhood last. Please know you are welcome to attend in whatever order works best for your family. Parents are welcome to bring Early Childhood and elementary school supplies to Open Houses but this is not a requirement.

The JHS Open House date is Aug. 28th - that's not a typo! For many years, JHS hosted open house after school had already started, and only in more recent years have held open house prior to the start of school. In an attempt to encourage stronger attendance, JHS has chosen to try a later date once again. We also hope this will be beneficial to parents due to the high volume of schedule changes that take place that first week of school, so parents can meet the correct teachers. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Families are asked to complete Annual Student Information Updates for each of their students prior to the start of school. These digital forms take the place of most paper forms in schools, boosting efficiency and accuracy.

To complete this year's forms:

New in PowerSchool forms this year are MSHSAA forms for students in grades 7-12. Parents will complete these forms as directed; students must also complete MSHSAA forms in their own PowerSchool accounts. Coaches or activity sponsors can help students as needed.

For help logging in or with PowerSchool Forms, please contact your school secretary.

To keep up with the many local organizations and businesses who want to share flyers and opportunities with Joplin Schools families, we will now be using a Community Bulletin Board at JoplinSchools.org/flyers.

Organizations can submit a flyer that will be shared on the website. We will send periodic reminders to families through ParentSquare and/or Social Media to check for new flyers so they can stay informed. We hope this helps streamline the way our community gains access to our Eagle families!

Summer is one of the busiest times of year for our District Building & Grounds crews, who work hard to complete as many facility upgrades and solutions as possible without interruption to the academic year. Here's a glimpse into just a few projects they've completed so far:

For questions about open house, student enrollment, schedules, calendars, school supplies, meal accounts, or anything else that will help your family feel ready for the new school year, please contact your building secretary. See you soon!