The students, parents, and staff at Kennedy Middle School will strive for a responsible, respectable, and rigorous learning environment that provides opportunities for a successful community.
General School Information
GoGuardian Parent is an app that allows parents and guardians to control what their students do on the internet. Parents can monitor, filter, and even block the internet access for their students.
Click on the links for more information:
The School Policy can be found in your student's agenda.
Attendance Number
(505) 298-6701 ext. 2
Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to student success. Reducing truancy in school will improve a childʼs academic and personal success. You will continue to receive messages regarding your childʼs attendance through School Messenger for daily attendance issues, two-day truancy, five-day truancy, and ten-day truancy. When a child reaches ten unexcused absences he/she is considered a habitual truant:
NMSA 22.12.9 (A) state that (1) “habitual truant: Means a student who has accumulated the equivalent of ten or more unexcused absences within a school year: and (2) “Student in need of early intervention” means a student who has accumulated five unexcused absence within a school year.
As a parent your assistance with attendance compliance is critical. Remember that Compulsory School Attendance Law (NMSA section 22-12-1) and City Ordinance (11-10-1 et. Seq.) require that a student must attend school every day with no unexcused absences.
Unexcused absences include the following:
- Non-school sponsored activities or trips; and,
- Family vacations outside of the normally scheduled school breaks.
The Following are reasons for an excused absence with the appropriate documentation:
- Illness
- Limited family emergencies
- Medical, health or legal appointments
- Suspensions
- Religious commitment
- Deployment of a military parent
Administration may request additional documentation for excessive excused absences. Also, state law requires schools to withdraw a student after ten consecutive days of absence, but only after the school has exhausted its efforts to keep a student in school using a variety of interventions. We need your help to keep your child in school. We want your child to have academic success.
If your child begins to show a pattern of absences, then you may be contacted by the school and/or a District Attendance Office liaison. They are your resources to help.
Welcome help. When a child is absent he/she loses instructional time, which impairs his/her opportunities to learn, grow, and achieve.
Review the complete APS Attendance Policy
Extended Medical Absences
**If your student has an extended absence related to an illness or injury, please contact the school nurse to develop a health and attendance plan.**
KENNEDY ATTENDANCE POLICY
Teachers will take attendance by the class period for each instructional day. Students who miss more than 1/2 of a class period are considered absent for the entire period.
A parent/guardian must notify the school in writing that the student will be/is absent. The required for can be uploaded from here or you can get a form from the office. The form must accompany your student when he/she returns to school. This documentation can be e-mailed to the attendance secretary on the day the student returns to school. At the latest, a written note can be delivered to the secretary on the day the student returns to school, Phone calls are not accepted but appreciated in the sense of letting that student’s teacher know the student may be out due to illness. The school needs written documentation. If the documentation is not received within 3 days of the absence cannot and will not be excused.
Absences may be excused for the reasons listed above.
If a student is absent the day of a game or performance they will not be able to participate in that game or performance or attend that school activity.
Dress Code
For the 2022-2023 year, all APS schools will be undergoing a process to implement written individual school dress codes that comply with the requirements of the Board of Education’s procedural directive. Individual school communities shall adopt their school dress codes to address the needs and standards of their communities and neighborhoods through use of a process that ensures input from students, families, faculty and staff of the school and community input.
As the school receives more information concerning the process, all stakeholders will be informed in a timely manner. We encourage everyone’s participation. Until the process is complete, last year’s dress code policy from the 2021-2022 agenda will remain in place with the exception of regulations that violate current Board of Education policy.
Kennedy Middle School is a place of learning and business. It is the belief of this school that appropriate dress contributes to a productive learning environment.
Since we believe both students and families share the responsibility for the student’s attire, it becomes necessary to remind students and families that attire worn outside of school is not necessarily appropriate for school. We respectfully ask that families and guests keep this in mind when visiting our school.
If the staff or administration determines the clothing or accessory is in violation of district policy, students will not be able to appear with that item on campus. Accommodations will be made in order to allow students to remain in class while abiding by district policy.
Expectations for Dress Code include, but are not limited to:
· Students are expected to be neat, clean and appropriately dressed for learning
· Shoes must be worn at all times.
· Shoulder Straps must be minimum of (2) inches wide.
· Cleavage must be completely covered
· Sagging pants below waist line
· Underwear should not be visible.
· No slippers, pajamas or blankets
· No Muscles shirts
Dress Code Policy prohibits clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, or accessories that display:
· Obscene or violent language or images*
· Depictions of alcohol or drugs or other illegal item or activity*
· Racist content, hate speech, profanity or pornography*
· Accessories that could be considered dangerous or used as a weapon*
· Gang affiliation
· “In Memory of” shirts
· Clothing in “uniform colors”
· Sexual innuendo
*Board of Education JI1 Student Dress Code
Prohibited accessories include, but are not limited to, belt loop or wallet chains and any other long chains, spiked jewelry, and extended belts
Electronic Devices
From the APS district policy on cell phones:
Albuquerque Public Schools shall permit student possession of personal electronic devices on all district property and all district sponsored activities while the student is under the supervision of district staff. These devices shall be kept out of sight and silenced or powered off during the instructional day unless otherwise permitted by district or school procedures. Use of personal electronic devices that disrupt the “instructional day” means the period of time between the first scheduled bell and the last scheduled bell of the school day and any other time in which instruction occurs.
Albuquerque Public School shall not be responsible for restricting, monitoring or controlling the electronic communications of students; however, it reserves the right to do so.
For purposes of this policy, “personal electronic device” means any device that a student is in possession of which electronically communicates, sends, receives, stores, reproduces or displays voice and/or text communication or data. These include, but are not limited to cellular phones, pagers, smart phones, music and media players, gaming devices, tablets, laptop computers and personal digital assistants.
As instructed in the procedural directive, KMS further defines this policy as follows. The instructional day is defined as 8:10 AM (first Bell) to 3:05 PM. Teachers may grant use of electronic devices during the instructional day for instructional purposes only. Students must have a specific task to accomplish and specific time frame for use.
Teachers are required to confiscate any student cell phone; (and any other electronic device) they see or hear that violates this policy. Headphones and earbuds that are visible constitute use and therefore will be cause for confiscation and whatever it is connected to, that will also be confiscated.
Upon confiscation, the staff member will place the personal electronic device in secure location until the staff member can take the personal electronic device to the administration office. The consequences are as follows:
1st offense: Your phone stays in the office until the end of the day
o YOU can pick it up to take it home after the last period of the day.
2nd offense: Your phone stays in the office until the end of the day
o YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN can pick it up to take it home after school that day.
3rd offense: Your phone stays in the office for 1 week
o YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN must come pick it up after that week.
4th offense: Your phone stays in the office for the rest of the semester
o YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN must come pick it up at the end of the semester.
Device confiscated under this policy can only be picked up by a parent or guardian who is on Synergy. If a student refuses to surrender an electronic device they will receive additional consequences for defiance of school personnel.
If you need to contact your child, please call the office and we will relay the message. This eliminates the interruption of instruction and keeps your child from having to violate this policy. Every classroom and office space at Kennedy has a telephone that will be made available to students needing to contact a family member.
