La Plata Middle School
Message from the Principal
Greetings, La Plata Families!
Mid-September is here, and looking at the forecast, it seems like some cooler temperatures may finally be on the way!
Last week was a busy one for our students and staff, even with a short week! Between athletics, our evacuation drill, Dress to the Nines, and everything happening in our classrooms, our Broncos stayed busy!
Students also brought home their Progress Reports on Friday, 09/11/26. Please make sure those are signed and returned tomorrow, Monday, September 14th. Thank you for helping us stay connected and supporting your child’s progress! And now we are heading into...another short week!
As we move through the week, please also keep an eye on ParentSquare for a few additional announcements! We will be sharing information about a special Kindness Challenge happening on our campus, as well as updates on our September Grade-Level Attendance Challenge!
Wishing all of our La Plata families a wonderful week ahead! Thank you for your continued partnership and support of our Broncos. We’ll see you Friday for Parent Conferences!
Go Broncos!
More Information
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La Plata Parent Panel Meeting Recap
Thank you to the parents who joined us for our September Solution-Based Parent Panel Meeting! We continue to appreciate the ideas, conversation, and willingness of our families to work alongside us. One of our goals for this group is not just to talk about ways we can support our school, but to turn those conversations into action!
Stand for the Silent – What’s Next?
We spent some time reflecting on the impact of our recent Stand for the Silent assembly and the message it brought to our students about kindness, bullying prevention, and standing up for others.
Update: La Plata will be starting its own Stand for the Silent Chapter! Working alongside our SEL Team, we will invite students to take leadership roles and help shape what this chapter looks like at LPMS. We would also love to have parents involved!
If you are interested in supporting our Stand for the Silent Chapter, please contact Leslie Cook, LPMS School Counselor, for information about ways to get involved.
September Parent Involvement – Staff Breakfast
Our parents are already putting ideas into action! A group of parents is organizing a Staff Appreciation Breakfast for the morning of September 23rd. Mishka Venegas, one of our 7th-grade parents, is leading this effort. If you would like to contribute, help, or donate, please reach out to her:
Phone: 575-538-1647
Email: mishkavenegas@gmail.com
As we reach the middle of September, that first-nine-weeks fatigue can begin to set in for school staff. This thoughtful gesture will mean so much to our teachers and staff! We appreciate the collaboration and generosity of our families, and we thank everyone who is willing and able to help Mrs. Venegas make this happen!
Dads on Duty!
We also want to give a huge thank you to Mr. Randy Venegas, who has been coming to La Plata each day to help us with lunch duty! Having positive adults present on our campus makes a difference. The extra set of eyes is helpful, but even more importantly, our students benefit from having caring adults interacting with them and being part of their school community.
Interested in volunteering your time at La Plata? Please reach out to Ms. Cruz! We would love to have more parents and family members involved.
Our House System & Parent Involvement
We also spent time talking about our House System and ways families can become more involved.
House caseloads will be added to PowerSchool, which will allow our teacher House Leaders to better connect with families when we have House events, activities, service projects, and opportunities for parent involvement. We also discussed how students earn House Points throughout the school day and the House Leaderboard students see displayed on our TVs throughout campus. Those points recognize students for demonstrating the positive behaviors and character we want to see throughout La Plata.
The Amazing Shake – Preparing Students for the Real World
Parents also learned more about our Amazing Shake Competition and why this is such an important part of our House System.
The Amazing Shake gives students opportunities to practice the soft skills that will serve them well beyond middle school: handshakes, eye contact, communication, confidence, poise, professionalism, and thinking on their feet.
We have an exciting goal this year: the winner of our LPMS Amazing Shake Competition will have the opportunity to represent La Plata at the Global Amazing Shake Competition in Georgia this March!
We are excited to continue preparing our Broncos not only for their next grade level, but for the real world beyond our doors.Thank You, Parent Panel!
- We are incredibly thankful for the parents who take the time to attend these meetings, share ideas, ask questions, and most importantly, help us find solutions. Our Parent Panel is about building stronger partnerships between school, families, and our community, and we appreciate everyone who continues to help us move that work forward.
Our next Solution-Based Parent Panel Meeting will be October 7th. We hope to see you there!
- We are incredibly thankful for the parents who take the time to attend these meetings, share ideas, ask questions, and most importantly, help us find solutions. Our Parent Panel is about building stronger partnerships between school, families, and our community, and we appreciate everyone who continues to help us move that work forward.