Message from the Principal

We are off to a great start at VandenBerge Middle School! Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to work with your children. We truly believe in educating, inspiring and empowering every student, but I have to say the students educate, inspire and empower us every day. VandenBerge is a great place to be!

I am so impressed with our AWESOME students and staff. The 8^th grade WEB Leaders did an excellent job helping the 6^th grade students’ transition from elementary school by being out in the hallways to assist them. Our amazing staff was available to assist all students as they tried to navigate their schedules and find their busses.

A large part of our success is the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program. PBIS is an organizational approach for improving the social behavioral climate of our school while supporting or enhancing the impact of academic instruction on achievement and increasing proactive (positive/preventive) management. In other words, we watch for students following the rules or procedures and reward their positive behaviors. It is a proactive approach versus a reactive approach. Students will receive PRIDE tickets that they can exchange for a variety of incentives. Our goal this year is to have 80,000 PRIDE tickets turned in and 3000 positive referrals sent home. We want to keep the good news coming your way!

We will be sending out conference information via email soon. Secondary conferences are Monday, October 18 from 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm and Tuesday, October 26 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. We look forward to meeting you in person and discussing how we can work together to assist your child’s growth and development. 

Thanks again for your continued support. We truly appreciate it!

Student Drop Off and Pick Up 

VandenBerge's Main Entrance is now on the north side of the building (the lot off Proctor Avenue.) If you are dropping your student off after 8:15 am or picking them up before 2:55 pm, please use the entrance on Proctor Avenue to utilize the intercom system/secure entry. We do not have an intercom system at the entrance on School Street. 

If you are picking up or dropping off your student BEFORE and/or AFTER school, please click the link below to watch the video of these procedures. Understanding the traffic flow in and out of the parking lots is important so we do not create traffic back-ups on School Street and Proctor Avenue.

Before and After School Drop Off and Pick Up Procedure

Counseling Office

Happy 2021-22 School Year! It has been such a great start to the school year. Thank you to students and families for welcoming me to my first year at VMS!

It is my goal as the School Counselor to help students navigate through their middle school years by promoting academic, career and social/emotional development and to also serve as an advocate for students, families and staff.

Students can sign up for an appointment to visit with me by clicking on this link and filling out the Google form. Students can also send me an email to make an appointment.

I look forward to being a part of the VMS community!

Sincerely,

Katie Svihel 

Health Office - September 2021 COVID-19 Update

Thank you for your engagement and partnership as we work together to keep all of our students and staff safe. Below you will find some of the most recent frequently asked questions along with answers. You can find more COVID-19 Information on our District Website.

What symptoms should I look for to determine if my child may have COVID-19?

Please closely monitor your child for symptoms, and keep them home if they’re sick or symptomatic. Some of the common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever of 100.4 degrees or higher, chills, new or worsening cough, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, fatigue, headache, muscle or body aches, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. 

If my child has symptoms, what should I do and when can they return to school?

Keep your child at home, inform the school, allow your child to rest and recover, and contact your child’s healthcare provider. 

Your child can return to school when:

• 24 hours have passed since recovery of fever (100.4 degrees or higher) without the use of fever reducing medication
• Your child no longer has symptoms
• Your child received a negative COVID-19 test if you chose to test (testing is not required); and/or 
• Your child received an alternate diagnosis from their health care provider. 

My child has a pending COVID-19 test, can they return to school?

Students that have a pending COVID-19 test should remain at home until they have received their test results and they are symptom free. If their test is negative, they can return to school 24 hours after their symptom/s have improved. 

My student tested positive, when can they return to school?

Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 can return to school when:

• it has been 10 days since symptoms first began or when they tested positive; and 
• their symptoms have improved; and
• they have had no fever for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medication. 

Note: All three must happen in order for your child to return to school.

How long does an individual need to isolate if they test positive?

If your child is tested and the results are positive, please report the positive test result to your child’s school. The school’s health office staff will confirm the date that your child will be able to return. A 10-day isolation period is required for any individual that tests positive for COVID-19 regardless of vaccination status.

Do family members need to quarantine when there is a positive case in the household?

No. Although quarantine is not required; CDC, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and ISD 728 highly recommend the following: 

• Return to school after seven days, with a negative COVID-19 test administered 5 days after exposure and no symptoms;
• Return to school after 10 days with no symptoms; or
• Return to school after 14 days with no symptoms.

 If you choose to keep your student at home to quarantine, please contact your student’s health office. Student absences due to quarantine are considered excused. It is the family’s responsibility to communicate with their child’s teacher to determine how school work will be assigned for days missed, which may range from picking up materials at the school to delivery of materials electronically.

If your student does not quarantine and returns to school following exposure to a positive case, MDH recommends monitoring for symptoms and keeping your student home if they are sick or symptomatic. Some of the common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever of 100.4 degrees or higher, chills, new or worsening cough, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, fatigue, headache, muscle or body aches, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea.

What should I do if my student was notified of exposure to a positive non-household contact? 

Although quarantine is not required; CDC, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and ISD 728 highly recommend the following:

• Return to school after seven days, with a negative COVID-19 test administered 5 days after exposure and no symptoms
• Return to school after 10 days with no symptoms; or
• Return to school after 14 days with no symptoms.

If you choose to keep your student at home to quarantine, please contact your student’s health office. Student absences due to quarantine are considered excused. It is the family’s responsibility to communicate with their child’s teacher to determine how school work will be assigned for days missed, which may range from picking up materials at the school to delivery of materials electronically.

If your student does not quarantine and returns to school following exposure, MDH recommends that they wear a face covering indoors for 14 days following exposure or until they receive a negative test (recommended, not required). 

MDH Recommendations for Testing

• Test 3-5 days after exposure to a positive individual. 
• If symptomatic, keep your student home; test immediately and again 3-5 days after exposure if the first test was negative. 

Daily Screening  

Part of ISD 728’s preparedness plan is to ensure staff and students are staying home when they are feeling ill. In accordance with MDH & CDC guidelines, ISD728 requests that all parents/caregivers perform a daily health screening for their children prior to sending them to school. Please review the daily health screening below: 

Does your child have one or more of these symptoms?

• Fever of 100.4 degrees or higher
• Difficulty or trouble breathing
• New cough or a cough that gets worse
• New loss of taste or smell

If you answer “yes” to at least one of the above symptoms: 

• Keep your child home when sick; do NOT send them to school
• Allow your student to rest and recover
• Consider contacting your healthcare provider for further information and/or if symptoms worsen

Does your child have two or more of these symptoms?

• Sore throat
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Chills
• Muscle Pain
• Excessive Fatigue (extreme tiredness)
• New or severe headache
• Nasal Congestion or runny nose

If you answered “yes” to at least two of the above symptoms:

• Keep your child home when sick. Do NOT send them to school
• Allow your student to rest and recover
• Consider contacting your healthcare provider for further information and/or if symptoms worsen

When can my student return to school:

Your child can return to school when:

• 24 hours have passed since recovery of fever without the use of fever reducing medication
• Your child has no symptoms
• Your child received a negative COVID - 19 test if you chose to test (Testing is not required) and/or 
• Your child received an alternate diagnosis from their health care provider.  

Questions?

If you have questions, comments or concerns relating to the information in this communication, please submit them using this link.

Art

First quarter Art students are moving along well thus far! We have been focused on completing a variety of projects and meeting the goals within the visual arts standards framework. Here's a short introduction to what we have been working on.

Art 6: Students have focused on clay the past 2 weeks and are creating some functional objects that have a “monster” theme. The idea was to make an object that has a use, add features and have fun working with the material.  Students made anything from a coffee mug to a basic pencil holder, bowls, and other useful items. Up next is working with expressive identity portraits and studying the work of MN American Indian Artist, Frank “Big Bear”.   

Art 7: Students have also focused on using clay and have been exploring the art of Henry Moore. They studied how to create a figurative form and added in stylized abstraction of the figure to show action and movement.  The clay work was supposed to show the figure in a way that created an old, weathered appearance. Some very interesting results!  

Art 8: Students worked on expressive clay portraits after looking at the work of Artist Robert Arneson.  The goal was to show a mood/emotion and make a statement with the artwork. Students were given the opportunity to create something with an expressive quality in clay. The work was completed with an artist statement discussing the goals for the works and how the student successfully showed the expression.  

AVID

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. We want all students to have a drive to succeed and a focus on their future. This program helps students stay organized, reinforce the best study skills, and build skills in note taking and self-confidence through WICOR strategies.

Currently, we have an 8th grade AVID course and a 7th grade AVID course, with a 6th grade course expected to start later this year. 6th grade parents, please watch for announcements coming out later in October and November about how your child can apply to be in the AVID program at VMS. 

Our 7th and 8th grade students are working on building their AVID family and learning great collaboration and communication skills. We have been busy building our social contracts and connecting with each other through activities to show the building of our community. 

Please contact Sarah Weinhold at 763-241-3450 ext. 2698 or sarah.weinhold@isd728.org if you have any questions about the AVID program at VMS.

Band

It has been an awesome first month of school! We’ve been making some great music so far. 

Please visit the Schmitt Music Website if you need to order reeds, valve oil, books, or other supplies. Our Schmitt Music rep visits our school once a week and shipping is free if our rep delivers the items to your student at VMS.

Reminder: Instruments should be coming home with your student so they can practice! We have lots of music to be working on.

Concerts

6th Grade Band and Choir is December 2nd at 7:00 pm at VMS

7th and 8th Grade Band Concert is December 9th at 7:00 pm at ERHS Zabee Theater

Jazz Band

The VMS Jazz Band is open to 7th and 8th grade students and will be starting in October. Watch for more info to come!

Choir

What a great first month of school! It is great to have all the students back together in the choir room. We have been singing a lot in preparation for our upcoming concerts!

Grade 6: Students have been working hard on 3 pieces, Shake the Papaya Down, O Colored Earth, and How Can I Keep From Singing. Their first concert is December 2nd at 7:00 pm at VMS.

Grade 7: Students have been working hard on their 3 pieces, Send Down the Rain, Promised Land, and Play For Me A Simple Melody. Their first concert is December 16th at 7:00 pm at ERHS Zabee Theater.

Grade 8: Students have been working hard to prepare for their first concert, the Elk River Choral Festival on October 14th at 7pm in the ERHS Zabee Theater. This concert will feature the 8th graders from VandenBerge, 8th graders from Salk, and both high school choirs at ERHS. Each choir is preparing one piece each and a mass choir piece to end the concert with all singers on stage. I hope you can make it! 

Please email me with any questions at kelly.heinonen@isd728.org.

Kelly Heinonen, VMS Choir Director

English

Grade 6: To start our year, we have written a letter to the class, discussed what it takes to be successful in English, started our first lessons on English language arts skills, completed our first FAST test, and checked out books from the media center. In English class this year, students will need to read a minimum of 2 books per quarter. Each student will need to self-select a reading level appropriate book to read during designated reading time. Students will also complete different novel responses throughout the year. Please continue to encourage reading at home. Excellent work all around so far! 

Grade 7: It has been a pleasure meeting our students and getting to know them in these first three weeks of the school year. We have worked on some writing review and wrote our first paragraph. Students should be bringing a novel to class with them each day and should also be doing some reading at home. The 1st quarter novel project is due on October 29th.

Grade 8: We are off to an exciting start! We spent the last couple weeks going over classroom protocols, expectations and classroom specific routines. This year in ELA, we will be using our curriculum titled StudySync. Your child received a workbook that they are expected to have with them each day. In addition to the workbook, there is an online component as well. We will use online access simultaneously with the workbook. We will be practicing Annotation Skills with the workbook, which will benefit students as they move into high school. Students can access StudySync Online through Rapid Identity, and we have walked all students through logging into StudySync.

If you are looking for updates on missing assignments, please check Parent Portal. If you want to know what is being assigned each day and what is coming up in your child's English class, please look at Schoology Updates as we post on Schoology daily. Daily instructions are posted on Schoology to let students know what to complete in StudySync for the day. If your child is home sick, please have them check Schoology for the daily assignments and instructions.

General Music

We’ve had a great first month of music! 

We have been doing listening examples where students have to identify different elements of music and what made that stand out to them. We have also been studying the fundamentals of music, so we are prepared to begin our keyboard, recorder, boomwhacker, and bucket drumming units that will all use the fundamentals. 

If your student has a recorder at home they will be encouraged to bring their own to music for the recorder unit. (Note: Your student does not need to buy one if they don’t have one at home. I will provide recorders to students who do not have a personal recorder.) I want to be as sanitary as possible and while students will be assigned a numbered school recorder, it eliminates someone else playing your student’s recorder if a student has their own personal recorder. 

Ask your student about our listening journals!

I’m excited to watch your student grow as a musician and learn with them about all of the wonderful things music has to offer. 

Please email me with any questions at kelly.heinonen@isd728.org.

Kelly Heinonen, 6th Grade General Music Teacher

Math

Greetings from the Math Team!

It has been wonderful getting to know all of the students in these first few weeks and we can already tell this year will be absolutely fabulous!

The VMS math teachers would like to take this opportunity to give you all a couple of reminders so that every student has the chance to succeed in math this year!

First, ALL students are required to follow through with all class expectations, which are also posted each day in Schoology.  This includes listening intently, following directions, and completing every activity to the best of their ability.  Because of the spiral & building nature of math, it will be extremely important for them NOT to "skip" or simply "breeze over" any of the material and/or lessons that are provided in order for them to grow and be successful. All students should be spending a minimum of 50 - 70 minutes each day (which includes class time) doing math in order to work toward mastering every new skill. 

Second, we will be providing Math Help four mornings a week before school from 7:45 - 8:10.  This is done on a rotating teacher schedule, so please click HERE to view the teachers/locations that are available each day.  Each math teacher also provides additional opportunities for students to work one-on-one with them either during RALLY, SOAR, or after school (by appointment).  Please contact your child’s teacher if your student needs additional help with their math teacher.

As always, if you have any questions about daily practice or class expectations, feel free to contact your child’s math teacher by phone or by email. We can't tell you enough how thrilled we are to have the privilege to teach your child the importance of mathematics in their world and are so excited to dive into the world of math with you all!

~ The VMS Math Team

Media Center

It has been a busy start to the school year in the media center. Students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade have completed orientation and have started checking out books. Below is a reminder of check out policies in our library.

Check Out Policies

• Up to 4 books may be checked out at a time.
• Books should be returned or renewed within 3 weeks.
• Return books to the media center drop box at the circulation desk.

Book Club

The VMS Bookish Sprouts will be starting up in October. If students are interested in joining they must fill out an application by September 30th. The application can be found by clicking here. The book club will meet once or twice a month during lunch time. Questions can be directed to Ms. Kohler (kasey.kohler@isd728.org).

Chrome Depot

• The Chrome Depot is open for business for most of your Chromebook needs. 
• If your Chromebook needs a charge, please visit the charging station. It is accessible all throughout the day.
• Please limit your visits to the Chrome Depot to before school or in between classes.

Please refer to the Media Center Orientation on our Schoology group if you have more specific questions. 

We look forward to a fabulous year in the media center!

Phy Ed

The students are starting out the year with team building games and have now moved on to Tennis and Speedball. 

This year, students do have PE lockers and should be changing/wearing athletic clothing and shoes. Please remind your student to bring/wear appropriate PE clothing.

We will try to stay outside for PE during the month of October, weather permitting.

Social Studies

Grade 6: Students are off to a fast start to the year and are currently learning about mapping.  Students are building an understanding of all the parts of a map, known as TODALSS (title, orientation, date, author, legend/key, scale, source) and will be applying their new knowledge through a variety of mapping activities.  They will be examining various different maps of Minnesota, using an actual MN Road Map to find distances between two Points of Interest, and designing their own map to end the unit.  6th grade students will then begin to learn about the earliest human beings to live in Minnesota, the Dakota and Ojibwe American Indians.  

Grade 7: Students started off learning the map of the United States and some basic mapping skills -TODALSS (title, orientation, date, author, legend/key, scale, source). We have begun our first unit of Forming a Government--the US has declared independence from Great Britain and decided what our new nation's government should look like. Students will be investigating the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution along with the Bill of Rights and the branches of government. 

Grade 8: Students started the year working on learning about what Geography is and how we use it, as well as mapping skills. Students are using TODALSS (title, orientation, date, author, legend/key, scale, source) to identify key features on a map. 8th graders recently brainstormed a "map of the mind" by creating what they thought the world looked like on a poster. Going forward, we will be continuing with maps and introducing longitude/latitude, as well as the 5 themes. 

Yearbooks

Have you ordered your yearbook? Yearbooks will be $25 until October 31st. On November 1st, the price will increase to $30.

Visit jostensyearbooks.com, click ‘Order My Yearbook’ to view products and add them to your cart.  Check out online and be sure to enter your email address so you get a receipt for your purchase.  Yearbooks will be delivered to school in the spring. 

Please contact Morgen Butts at morgen.butts@isd728.org if you have any questions about yearbooks. 

Elk River Boys Swim and Dive Team

Calling all 7th and 8th grade boys who are interested in being part of the Elk River High School Swim and Dive Team.  See info below!