Community Middle School

Community Middle School
Location
55 Grovers Mill Road Plainsboro, NJ 08536
Information
Type	Public Middle School
School district	West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District
Principal	Gerard Dalton
Asst. Principal	Shauna Carter Barbara Soares
Faculty	117.1 (on FTE basis)[1]
Grades	6th to 8th Grade
Enrollment	1,121 (as of 2005-06)[1]
Student to teacher ratio	9.6[1]
Color(s)	Black, red and white
Nickname	CMS
Information	609-716-5300
Website	School website

Community Middle School is a middle school located in Princeton Junction or West Windsor Twp, New Jersey in Middlesex County, New Jersey serving students in grades 6 through 8. The school is part of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, a school district serving students from West Windsor Township (in Mercer County) and Plainsboro Township (in Middlesex County).

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,121 students and 117.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 9.6.^[1]

The mascot of Community Middle School is the panther. The school colors are black, red, and white.

Location

Community Middle School is part of a three-school campus that also includes Millstone River Elementary School, which serves fourth and fifth graders, and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, which serves students from ninth to twelfth grade. The district has two additional schools in Plainsboro Township and five other schools in West Windsor Township.

Subjects

There are four academic classes in Community Middle School (math, science, social studies, and integrated reading and language arts) each lasting approximately one hour. Lengths of periods can vary from 40 minutes to 57 minutes. The academic classes are taught by groups of 4 teachers. These teachers and about ninety students make up a team. In each team, there are four (sometimes five) teachers who teach the subjects of IRLA (Integrated Reading and Language Arts), mathematics, science, social studies, and sometimes special services for children. There are also team field trips and team days (often in which students get to watch movies or play games during most of their school day), most of which are not required by the school but are planned and taken by individual teams. In addition to the four basic classes instructed at CMS, there are also three daily classes that last 40 minutes long. These classes are World language classes, A-B day classes (also called electives), and cycle classes.

Seventh graders get to pick one elective, and eighth graders get to pick two electives. In sixth and seventh grade, students have their electives every other day and have physical education in place of the days that do not have electives. Eighth grade students have electives opposite each other in somewhat complicated 2-day schedules.

Cycles are extra curricular classes that each student is assigned to every year. Each cycle is a fraction of the year, and each cycle is a different subject. For example, in the 7th grade each cycle is a marking period, on alternating days, and are either Technology, Health, Music, Computers, Art, or Life Skills. 6th graders have life skills, study hall, health,art, music, and computers. 8th graders have 60 day cycles which consist of Art, Music and Health.

World languages

There are four languages taught at CMS: Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, and French. If students wish to learn German or French, sixth grade is the first grade in which those languages are available to students. Spanish is the sole language available to students beginning at the grades of two and three. In fourth and fifth grade, students are asked to choose between Mandarin Chinese or to continue Spanish.

A-B Day Classes

A and B Day classes are electives (chosen by the student, starting from 7th grade) and physical education. There are separate classes for these time slots each day, which alternate every day from the first day of school, an A-day. For example, a student may have physical education during one time slot on an A day, but have their chosen elective during the same time slot on a B day.

Cycle classes

Cycles are broken into 6 sections, each panning over 30 school days. Each student goes through all of the cycles but with their assigned cycle group (which they keep throughout the year, in exception to transfers or students entering in the middle of the year). They switch cycle in a rotating pattern. These cycle classes are required, unlike electives, which are chosen by the students.

• Sixth Grade Cycles: Music, Art, Computer Literacy, Life Skills, Health, Study Hall
• Seventh Grade Cycles: Music, Art, Industrial Technology, Life Skills, Health, Computer Literacy
• Eighth Grade Cycles: Music, Art, Health

PRISM

PRISM is a program offered to students. Within PRISM, students may choose one of several different programs, including Cognetics, FPS (Future Problem Solving), NHD (National History Day), Rogate, CMPS (Community Middle School Problem Solvers) and Scenario Writing. Most of these programs are available to all grades. Unlike other classes, PRISM is not a required course, even if a student is invited to join. A student may be eligible to attend PRISM classes (which are usually taken during lunch period or during a half-hour period called Flex) but may choose to not attend.

A&E

A&E (Accelerated and Enriched) is a math program available in the WWP district for grades 4 to 8 for students who show talent and interest in mathematics. A test is taken either during the school year or over the summer, and if a student passes, he/she is accepted into A&E and takes these advanced math classes instead of regular curriculum math classes. A&E students, for the most part, learn math two grades above the normal math level. Depending on the teacher's style of teaching, students may also learn additional math lessons and skills in addition to the regular A&E curriculum. Currently, 6th and 8th grade A&E is taught by Mr. Craig Frame, while 7th grade A&E is taught by Mr. Bill Maloney.

Advanced Science

There is also an advanced science class for 8th graders in CMS for students with an interest in science called ES. Like A&E, a test is taken for eligibility into the classes. This program was first launched in 2009 (testing began at the end of the 08- 09 school year) and advanced science classes began in the 2009- 2010 school year.

Honor roll

To be eligible for the Honor Roll, students must attain grades in the "B" range or above. To be eligible for Principal's Honor Roll, which is a slightly greater honor, students may only receive one grade in the " B" range; the other grades must be in the A range.

Competitions

CMS is an active participator in the nationwide Science Olympiad, First Lego League, MathCounts, and Science Bowl competitions. The school is more well-known for its academic achievements than its athletic achievements, having lost to its crosstown rival, Thomas Grover Middle School, in sports competitions for many consecutive years.

Science Olympiad

Multiple teachers, including the prior principal himself, coach the Science Olympiad team. It is a competition with more than 200 students trying out for the 15 person team. All students of all grades are allowed to take the test for the SO team. Testing consists of a first round, which tests for basic scientific knowledge in four or five basic subjects. The second round is more difficult and those who have passed the first round must select three tests from the list of tests. The second round testing is much more difficult and more refined in specific subjects than the first round of testing, and after the second round, the 15 main team members are chosen, along with some backup members, making a total of about 35 students who eventually make up the school's Science Olympiad team. In 2005 and 2007, Community Middle School came first in the nation. In 2009, the school finished in 3rd place with many medals. Daniel Liu received 2nd in Dynamic Planet, winning the highest medal on the team that year. A maximum of five 9th graders are also allowed into the team. CMS has achieved a rank within the top 10 schools in the nation multiple times in the SO competition, having come in first twice and winning in the states competition for the past nine years.

Science Bowl

Science Bowl is a less widely-known but more exclusive science competition which, unlike Science Olympiad, consists of a small team of between 4 and 6 students who excel in all areas of science. Science Bowl is the only government-sponsored science tournament in the United States.

During the Science Bowl competitions, teams of students from different schools are paired up in front of an audience and are asked questions by a moderator pertaining to all areas of science and higher mathematics. The students respond by pressing buzzers. The tournaments are run in a double-elimination style.

Science Bowl is much broader than Science Olympiad and requires that students have more scientific knowledge in more areas. However, the most notable difference between the two is that Science Bowl competitions also require the construction of a fuel-efficient hydrogen fuel cell car.

There is one main coach for the SB team, and one or two additional teachers help with coaching.

Accomplishments

• The Community Middle School Science Olympiad Team was the National Champion at the National Science Olympiad Tournament held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005.^[2][3] The team included some of the best and most talented students of the school, most of whom have won medals at the Regional, State, and National level. They beat out the reigning champion, Booth Middle School, who had won the National Award for nine of ten years. The Community Middle School team has also won the state title the past nine years; their most recent being in March 2009, where they set an all-time New Jersey record of 36 points. They also won the 2007 Nationals tournament held at Wichita State University. On January 8, 2008, the Community Middle School Science Olympiad Team won the Regional Finals with a total of 42 points. On March 11, 2008, the Community Middle School Science Olympiad Team also won the 2008 New Jersey State Finals and will be proceeding onto the National Science Olympiad Competition held at George Washington University on May 30-31.

• Karen Galley won teacher of the year award honors. She also was nominated for ACS Chemistry teacher of the year.

• Daesun Yim, the 2006 National MathCounts champion, attended Community Middle School and won the MathCounts competition in eighth grade.^[4]

• During the year of 2006-2007, a Future Problem Solving team from Community Middle School became the first team in CMS to attend the Future Problem Solving International Conference at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Every year since, a team from Community has attended the international conference, going as far as placing 5th in the middle division during the 2008-2009 school year, and most recently 8th in the middle division during the 2009-2010 school year internationally.

• During the 2007-2008 school year, the school's Middle School Science Bowl (MSSB) team came in 2nd place in the regional competition. Thomas Grover Middle School, CMS's "rival" and the other WWP middle school, came in first and Witherspoon (from Princeton) came third. During the 08-09 school year, the Science Bowl team came in 3rd place in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Grover Middle School came in fifth and Witherspoon came in 1st.

• During the 07-08 school year, a sixth grade violinist became concertmistress for multiple youth orchestras, including the Regional Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Administration

The former administration with Dr. Arthur C. Downs as Principal and Donna Gibbs-Nini and Stephanie Leroux as Assistant Principals came to an end with the Community Middle School Class of 2009-2010 after which Dr. Downs announced his retirement. His replacement as principal is Gerard Dalton.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Community Middle School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 14, 2008.
2. ^ State Board Recognizes Winning National Science Olympiad Team, New Jersey Department of Education press release dated September 7, 2005.
3. ^ "National Science Olympiad - May 21, 2005 - Division B". Archived from the original on September 28, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060928125414/http://www.soinc.org/tournaments/2005/B_Div.pdf. Retrieved October 14, 2006. 
4. ^ 2006 MATHCOUNTS National Champion, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Accessed August 2, 2008.

External links

• Community Middle School
• Community Middle School's 2009–10 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• Data for Community Middle School, National Center for Education Statistics

Coordinates: 40°19′20″N 74°35′23″W / 40.322121°N 74.589681°W / 40.322121; -74.589681