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Welcome Back! I want to extend my thanks to our students, families, and staff for bringing such incredible energy to the opening weeks of the 2026-2027 school year. Walking the halls and stepping into classrooms, it is clear that our middle school community is energized and ready for a remarkable year ahead.
Our main mission this school year is simple yet powerful: growing every student, every day. Whether academically, socially, or personally, we are committed to meeting each student right where they are and helping them reach their full potential. To support this effort, we have already begun our fall benchmark screenings. This essential data allows us to tailor our instruction and thoughtfully design our WIN (What I Need) and Knight Time groupings, ensuring every student gets the targeted support or enrichment they need to thrive.
Thank you for your ongoing partnership and support as we establish our daily routines and set high expectations. Together, we are going to make this a year of tremendous growth, achievement, and success for every single Knight.
Justin Hoffacker
MS Principal
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Student Agendas:
This school year, we are placing a strong emphasis on student agenda planners as an essential tool for daily success. We are asking every student to write down their homework, upcoming assignments, and test dates in their planner during each class period. Consistently using a planner helps middle schoolers build crucial executive functioning skills, manage their time effectively, and take personal ownership of their learning. It also serves as a fantastic bridge between home and school—giving you a quick window into what work your child needs to do each night. We appreciate your support at home in asking to see their planner regularly and helping them stick to this powerful daily routine!
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WIN & Knight Time:
Starting Tuesday, September 8th, two specialized periods—WIN (What I Need) time and Knight Time—will be officially added to your student’s daily schedule. Beginning-of-the-year testing is complete, and our team has carefully cross-referenced new assessment results with past student data from Acadience, IXL, and PSSAs to place each child into the group that best suits their needs. During WIN time, students work in targeted groups designed to deliver tailored interventions, reinforce core skills, or provide challenging enrichment. Similarly, Knight Time offers these same intervention and enrichment opportunities, while also serving as the designated block for students participating in band and chorus.
Because learning is an ongoing process, our teachers will continuously differentiate instruction within every group to ensure this time is spent filling in learning gaps, solidifying current grade-level concepts, or diving deeper into new content. Furthermore, as we collect and analyze fresh data throughout the school year, student group assignments will fluidly adapt to guarantee everyone receives the exact level of support and opportunity for growth they deserve. We are excited to launch these personalized learning blocks on September 8th and look forward to the momentum they will create for our students this year.
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NO School Labor Day - 9/4/26-9/7/26
No School Teacher Inservice - 9/24/26
No School Act 80 Day Pippinfest - 9/25/26
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✨ Welcome Jessica Allen
Our new 5th Grade Math Teacher! We are thrilled to bring her energy, expertise, and passion for numbers to our 5th-grade classrooms.
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✨ Welcome William Jenkins
Our new 6th Grade Social Studies Teacher! Many of our families already know Mr. Jenkins from his time at our elementary school, and we couldn't be happier to see him guiding our 6th graders through history this year.
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We are off to a fantastic start to this school year. In 8th grade social studies we have been learning about Native American cultures as well as Europe and West Africa before 1500. This allows the students to have a general idea of where we are in History before we get into the European Explorers in our next chapter. In class we did a simulation of the gold-salt trade in West Africa that allowed the students to have an understanding of what life was like in West Africa at this time and how trade was important to the Empires that existed there.-Mr. McCaulley
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We have officially started what looks to be a spectacular school year. In English Language Arts class we have not only organized our materials, but students have also completed an introductory writing activity entitled “Who I Am,” where they introduce themselves through their written word. After taking a “walk-through” of our Into Literature textbook to explore what might pique students’ interests, we have begun to read the novel Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, a novel exploring the impact of a community garden on the diverse residents of a Cleveland neighborhood. This first novel project of the year will be completed as a class and will provide a model for students to utilize for their independent novel projects throughout the year. We will then begin Unit 1: Gadgets & Glitches, which asks the essential question: Does technology improve or control our lives? The readings in this unit will help students explore the impact of technology on the human experience and society as well as enable them to critically analyze its effects on their own lives.
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Welcome everyone to the start of a new school year! In science we are jumping right into Newton’s Laws of Motion. The past two weeks we have focused on Force, Mass, and Acceleration and how they interact with turbines. We have already had three labs, one digital and two hands on. In these labs we tested how force affects waves, built a functioning water turbine, and tested how changing mass and force affects rotational speed. I am really excited for what’s to come!! -Mr. Rodgers
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It's been wonderful welcoming students back and seeing so many smiling faces in the halls. Please note an important announcement: our first test is Thursday, 9/3. We are off to a great start to the year! Students returned ready to learn, many are settling into routines, and they are getting into the swing of things. This week we completed a review of key skills including: order of operations, adding and subtracting integers, absolute value, rounding decimals, the distributive property, simplifying expressions, solving single-step equations, and converting between fractions, decimals, and percents. These reviews set a great foundation for upcoming lessons and help students feel prepared for assessments like Thursday’s test. Thank you for your ongoing support in helping your student feel prepared and confident. We are grateful for the strong school-family partnership that makes a positive learning environment possible, and we look forward to continued progress and collaboration in the weeks ahead.
-Miss Yealy
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We’ve had a fun and exciting start to the year in 7th Grade Math! Students are currently finishing up our first unit on positive and negative integers before moving into review units on fractions and decimals. These skills are important building blocks, and the work students put in now will prepare them for the pre-algebra concepts we’ll explore later this year.
As students get settled into the school year, it’s important to remember that the habits they build now matter! Staying on top of assignments, asking questions when they need help, participating in class, and giving their best effort each day will make a huge difference. We’re off to a great start, so let’s keep working hard and make it a great year! -Mr. Ball
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We have officially survived the first full week back, and the energy in the classroom has been fantastic so far. This year in ELA, we are shaking off the summer fog by diving straight into books and stories that actually get the kids talking. We’re working on getting comfortable sharing our opinions on the page and figuring out how to read between the lines together. I am so excited for everything we have planned for this group, and please feel free to reach out anytime as we get rolling! – Mrs. Dusenberry
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We are off to a great start in 6th grade ELA! In ELA, students will grow as readers, writers, speakers, and critical thinkers while exploring a variety of engaging texts and activities. Each day, students will begin class with Reading Kickoff, our first 10 minutes of independent reading. Students will choose a fiction book they enjoy, read independently, and complete a brief reflection about their reading. Throughout the year, students will also participate in writing assignments, grammar lessons, vocabulary activities, class discussions, projects, and reading conferences. We will also be starting our first novel study, Holes by Louis Sachar! Students will explore the characters, setting, plot, themes, and important messages throughout the novel while strengthening their reading comprehension and analysis skills. We are excited to dive into this engaging story and make connections to many of the skills we will be working on throughout the year!
-Ms. Grinder
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Welcome to 6th-grade math! I am so excited to work with your students and watch them grow and flourish as mathematicians this year. We are kicking off the year with a quick review of foundational math operations before diving straight into powers, exponents, numerical expressions, and beyond.
To support your child's learning journey, please make sure you are logged in and checking ParentSquare regularly. I post weekly updates there detailing what we are working on in class, and key upcoming dates.
-Ms. Gibbons
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We are starting the year strong with learning about how to be a historian! We are building skills in sourcing evidence, using various scales of time & space, making & testing claims, collaborating with peers to make informed conclusions, and essential geographic & mapping skills. These historiographical skills will be invaluable as each student grapples with the upcoming units on Early Humans & the Neolithic Revolution and as they progress into studying early civilizations. These skills provide both context for these time periods and analytic skills to assess claims made about them.
Learners in this class will engage in daily reading, reflection, and writing practice to increase their cognitive resilience & develop skill in content specific academic writing. I am excited to guide each student to build a classroom full of well-versed historians!
-Mr. Jenkins
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We are off and running in Language Arts class. The students are learning and creating rules for our classroom, working on writing a summary, and establishing routines. Please ask your child about the ‘Riddle Me This’ bulletin board and what the expectation is regarding it. The students have had a chance to check out a book for our classroom library, so that they are prepared for the upcoming letter essay and book talks. (There will be much more information coming home about these assignments. For now, please be sure your child is reading a chapter book to prepare.) We will have our first library day on Wednesday, September 2. At that time the children will have a chance to explore the middle school library as well as check out books. We are off to a great start in ELA and I look forward to getting to know your students as the year moves forward. Thank you for all you do at home to support what we are doing in the classroom. - Mrs. Shaffer
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The 2026–2027 school year is off to a great start in 5th grade math! We have been reviewing middle school expectations, routines, and procedures, and the 5th graders are doing an incredible job! In science, we are learning how to work collaboratively in our science table groups. Students have been conducting mini-experiments with their groups by making predictions, gathering evidence, recording and reporting data, drawing conclusions, and reflecting on their findings. Our first science unit will focus on Patterns in the Sky.
I am excited to teach, learn, and grow alongside our new group of 5th graders. I am looking forward to a wonderful school year! -Mrs. Price
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The students in Mrs.Bechtel’s Math and ELA classes are already working hard. We took some time to talk about the Profile of a Graduate and to review each of the parts that will make the students leaders in society in the future. We also talked about our classroom expectations and rules. A few new things are happening in my room this year, agenda and spelling tests. Everyday students will be writing in their agendas. There is no homework given however if they are absent from school they will be expected to take the missed classwork home and complete it at home. I will also be giving weekly Spelling Tests this year. They will be given a Spelling List in the beginning of the week and they will take the test on Friday. We will begin ELA with review of Identifying Story Elements and in Math reviewing Multiplication and Division facts along with place value and decimals and touch upon Fractions. We will be busy and I can already see that all the students are going to work hard and give great effort. I look forward to watching each and everyone of them grow!-Mrs.Bechtel
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Welcome back to school, everyone! I am thrilled to be back in the classroom. I have already caught up with so many students, and found out how amazing everyone’s summer was. Students who I did not know before this school year, I have gotten to know over the past few days. Everyone has been incredible so far! I cannot wait to watch these students grow academically, and flourish in their studies. ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚
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Welcome back friends! The students in our room are already hard at work reviewing their skills and moving on to new subjects! We are studying animals and their skin-coverings, and making hypotheses about why they would have that sort of covering. In math, we are working on fact practice, money math, column addition and subtraction, multi-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping and carrying. For reading, we are working on our comprehension, reading stories and answering questions. In social skills, we practice our friendship building and skills. We are also working on our beginning of the year benchmarks and assessments.
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⚔️ News from the Knight Nurse ⚔️
Welcome back Fairfield friends! A few important health reminders as we begin the school year.
6th Grade: All 6th-grade students are required to have a physical examination and an updated immunization record on file with the school health office. Please be sure your child’s immunizations are up to date, including the required Tdap and MCV (meningococcal) vaccines.
7th Grade: All 7th-grade students are required to have a dental examination completed. Please be documentation of your child’s dental exam is on file in the health office. If your child does not have a dentist, they can be seen by the Smile Mobile Dentist on October 14th or 15th. You can register your child using this link: https://www.myschooldentist.com/FCFAPA_schsrm.
Physical and dental forms are available on the school website under Medical Forms. Completed forms can be returned to the school health office. If you need a blank copy of the physical or dental forms, click here: Physical & Dental Forms.
If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to Nurse Kristi at ebaughk@fairfield.k12.pa.us.
Thank you for helping us keep our Knights healthy and ready to learn!
💚⚔️ Nurse Kristi
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Another year of learning, reading, and creating in the middle and high school library has begun! Students are excited to be back and are loving the new flexible learning spaces and furniture.
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Welcome Back!! Band and Chorus will be started during KnightTime on August 27and 28! Any student that was enrolled in band or chorus last year is automatically enrolled this year. If a student would like to join a new group, they must pick up, fill out, and return an enrollment form by September 4th. Any student that would like to drop from band or chorus should speak to their director to receive a drop form, also due September 4th. Here are the KnightTime calendars for September: 5/6 Band/Chorus Calendar - 7/8 Band/Chorus Calendar
We also handed out homework syllabi to our ensembles. This needs to be signed by the student and guardian with answered Q&A by September 3. This is a graded assignment. All assignments are posted in schoology with other pertinent information regarding band and chorus.
County Chorus & Select Choir Auditions for 7th & 8th Grade Chorus Members:
There will be auditions for Select Choir and County Chorus on September 10 during knight time. County chorus is where several students learn music for the festival in November to work with a guest conductor. Select Chorus is an auditioned choir through 7th & 8th Grade Chorus members who learn advanced music and attend community events.
R&K Subs Fundraiser
We are starting the year with our R&K Subs Fundraiser. Pick up an order form, or use the one attached here. A reminder that all profits that you make go to your student account. Before you turn in your sub order, please enter it digitally through the Google Form on the instructions page. This allows us to double-check your order with the paper order form to make sure you get the subs you want. Forms are due, September 11th.
Music Department T-Shirt
All 7-12th grade students enrolled in band and chorus need to have a music department t-shirt. This is the performance attire for concerts and field trips. It is the same shirt from last year. If you need a new one, or want some of the additional attire, like the new zip-up hoodie, then grab a form. Before you turn in your order, please enter it digitally through the Google Form on the instructions page. This allows us to double-check your order with the paper order form to make sure it is correct. Please fill it out and submit it on the google form, and hand it in to Mr. Cebulski or Mrs. Mills by September 14th. 5th & 6th music students may buy spirit wear but it is optional.
Chimes & Handbells
If you are interested in playing chimes and/or handbells, please talk to Mr. Cebulski for more information. These groups will start up after school during September and will be performing on December 14th at a joint handbell concert with the elementary school and Accelerando, a community handbell group!
Jazz Band, please talk to Mr. Cebulski for more information. Jazz Band will be starting after school during September and will perform at the Winter Band Concert on December 8th.
Back to Band Potluck
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Our PBIS initiative is in full swing with the start of the year, with students earning tickets for positive behavior. At the MS, our PBIS is centered around the 3R’s - Respect, Responsibility, and being Ready to Learn. Our first marking period reward will be a student-teacher inflatable kickball game! It will be amazing!
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Mrs. Mills - 6th Grade music class are working on their very own Cheer or Rap compositions. Mrs. Mills is excited to see their final presentations on these compositions.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mr. Cebulski - 8th Grade music class just wrapped up their Soundtrack of Our Life projects, and are moving on to Music Theory, Pop Songs, and Piano.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mrs. Cline - German
This school year, I am looking forward to working with the 7th Grade WIN group as we further explore the German language and culture. Students will be introduced to basic communication skills in German, learn about traditional and modern German songs, and discover some of Germany’s fascinating cities and famous landmarks.
It is going to be a wonderful year of learning, exploring, and experiencing the German language and culture in the German classroom!
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Family and Consumer Sciences students have become career investigators. They are exploring the many careers related to FCS. The students are collaborating on a career logo project. They have designed their career logos using Canva. Their designs are being laser engraved onto cardboard. Students will evaluate the designs to determine if they need to make adjustments before a final laser engraved logo is submitted.
Mrs. Donaldson
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mr. Hocker - Students are engaging in team sports to start the year. We will be covering traditional invasion games such as Soccer, speedball, flag football and floor hockey.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mr. Schaeffer: 5th grade learned about cognates between Spanish and English. They also had practice with different Spanish greetings.
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Student Council will begin having meetings after school on September 14th. Some of this year’s activities will be Homecoming activities, a Change War, a sub sale, and the establishment of Student Ambassadors. We are looking forward to a great year
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Middle School and High School!
We have exciting news that will make those early morning calls to the school office a thing of the past!
We are thrilled to introduce a convenient new feature in Skyward Family Access that allows you to submit and track your student's absence requests online. No phone call needed! Whether it’s a sudden illness or a pre-planned appointment, you can now quickly and easily inform us of an absence right from your computer or smartphone.
Whether you’re:
The Benefits of Online Submissions:
24/7 Access: Submit a request anytime that is convenient for you. Speed & Accuracy: Directly enter all the necessary details, ensuring the information is accurate and immediately logged in our system. Easy Documentation: Attach doctor’s notes or other supporting documents directly to your request You can even upload photos of your documents! Stay Informed: Easily track the status of your request (e.g., Pending, Approved, etc.). Go Mobile: Whether you're at your kitchen table or on the go, the power to submit a request is in your hands!
Where to Find the Feature:
This feature is available through both the full desktop version of Skyward Family Access and the handy Skyward Mobile Access application on your smartphone.
Desktop: Log in to Skyward Family Access and look for the Attendance tile or menu option. Mobile App: Open the Skyward Mobile Access app, navigate to the menu, and find the Attendance section.
Quick Video Tutorials: How to Submit an Absence Request
To ensure a smooth transition, we've compiled a few brief video tutorials to walk you through the process step-by-step.
🖥️ For Desktop/Web Browser Users:
📱 For Skyward Mobile App Users:
Additionally, once logged into Skyward, you can also view step by step, written instructions through this Skyward Knowledge Hub article.
We believe this enhancement will significantly streamline the attendance process for both you and our school staff, giving you one less thing to worry about on a busy morning!
If you have any questions about using this new feature or for specific questions about a student's attendance record, please contact your school's office.
⏰ A Few Friendly Reminders:
Students are allowed 10 parent notes per school year for absences. Doctor’s notes are best whenever possible — they help ensure absences are excused properly! Be sure to include the reason your student was absent or late.
Thank you for partnering with us to make school communication efficient and effortless!
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Going out of town? A Family Vacation?
You'll need to complete an Educational Journey Form. Students are allowed 5 educational journey days per year. Please submit your Educational Journey Form online or send in with your student. Please try and get it in at least 10 days prior to your trip.
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