Back To School 2025–26

Every day, Kennedy Middle School strives to create a welcoming learning environment where all students are safe and successful. If at any time there are issues you feel are impacting your child’s education, please reach out to either Principal Jessica Gieryn, 262-253-3452 or jgieryn@gsdwi.org, or Assistant Principal Brandon Kohl, 262-502-7440 or bkohl@gsdwi.org. We are here to help! Please use this page as your source of information for all things back to school; additional information may be added to this page as we get closer to the start of the school year.

Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KennedyGSDWI to see what's happening in and around our classrooms at KMS!

Crusader Families - Mark Your Calendars!

Transportation Survey, open now through August 1, 2025.
Skyward School Year Verification, open now through August 11, 2025.
Kennedy Middle School Student Orientation Night - August 21, 2025
- Orientation Night is an opportunity to meet your teachers,
  pick up your schedules, and drop off your school supplies in your lockers.
- 6th grade: 3:30pm-5pm (more information coming out in August)
- 7th & 8th Grade: 5:00pm-6:30pm (more information coming out in August)
School Pictures - September 16, 2025. Retake picture day, October 20, 2025.

Transportation Survey and School Year Verification - Open Now

Transportation Survey
If your child(ren) needs bus transportation for the upcoming school year, you must fill out the Transportation Survey in Skyward. To access the survey, please log into your Skyward Family Access account and select Online Forms. Select Fill Out Form, and complete all required fields/steps. If you have any questions about transportation, please contact your child’s school secretary. The deadline to complete this survey is Thursday, August 1st.

School Year Verification (All Families) Previously called Online Verification
All families must complete the School Year verification steps before the 2025-26 school year starts. To complete the verification steps, please log into your Skyward Family Access account and select Online Verification. Complete all required steps. You must click SUBMIT to finalize the verification process. If you have any questions about School Year verification, please contact your child’s school secretary. The deadline to complete online verification is Monday, August 11, 2025.

NEW: Address Reverification - Starting this year, ALL families will need to submit proof of residency to complete school-year verification. Please upload approved documents or contact your building secretary to schedule a time to bring in hard copies. A list of required documents can be found on the school district website, here. Please note that revisions have been made to the Proof of Residency categories.

Activities and Athletics Registration
Activities and athletics registration is now open for Kennedy Middle School students and Germantown High School students. Parents and students will need to log into Skyward to complete the required steps for registration. To access the activities and athletics registration, please select Online Forms. Then, select Fill Out Form and complete all required fields/steps.

Cross Country (6-8) and Girls Basketball (7-8) begins Thursday, September 4, 2025. In order to make it a great start to the new school year, please have ALL items taken care of by Tuesday, August 26, 2025!

As we prepare for the upcoming fall sport season, we would like to update you on general registration and sport/activity specific sign up. All students are able to participate regardless of club or private affiliation.

Please see the KMS website for the CC and Girls Basketball quick links for more sport specific information. The slideshow that is currently on the website is for the 24-25 school year – we are in the process of changing it out.

Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball and Girls Volleyball are all a tryout sport - please do not pay the athletic fees for these sports, until your child makes the team roster.

REGISTRATION
KMS Athletic and Activity Online Registration for Cross Country and Girls Basketball will open in July, families will be notified when registration is opened up by the District. All student athletes must have the following information submitted via Skyward, PRIOR to the start of the first practice:

1.) WIAA Physical Form must be uploaded: physicals after 4/1/25

OR Alternate Year form: for physicals from 4/1/24 – 3/31/25

Click for access to the WIAA physical form - get this signed and dated by your physician and upload page 4 as an attachment in skyward online forms.

Alternate Year - please fill out in Skyward (You must have a physical uploaded as well.)

2.) Student Activities Registration Information – make sure to register for the sport(s) you would like to participate in so that your name appears on the roster! 6th grade can participate in Cross Country!

3.) Concussion Information and Consent

4.) Payment – Athletic/Activity payments ($85 per sport / $425 family cap) can be done via Skyward as families complete the athletic registration for CC. Basketball is a tryout sport, please pay your fee after the roster is announced.

Again, all athletic registration, which includes the previous steps, MUST be done online through Skyward to include uploading the physical form if needed for this school year.

Student-athletes must also complete their portion of the online registration in skyward as well.

Please note: In addition to the parent/guardian completing the online registration, the student will also have to log in to his/her Skyward account to review and sign off on the Co-Curricular Handbook and Concussion Management Plan (sports only). The code of conduct (found in the handbook) applies to all students participating in athletics or activities/clubs.

Reminder: Online registration needs to be completed by the first day of practice - Thursday, September 4th.

OTHER INFORMATION: ~ CROSS COUNTRY Google Classroom Code is omyoynu - please join before the season! Please see the KMS Website – Athletics for MORE information such as coaches, time commitment, schedules

KMS Fees
The school registration fee is $75 for the 2025-26 school year. Please continue to check your child’s fee account, as course fees can be added into the first week of school. All registration, Chromebook maintenance fees, and course/co-curricular fees can be paid online; there is a small charge for this service. You can also pay these fees in person at the Student Services office during the summer or school year, on August 21, 2025 at KMS Orientation Night (please look for a table set-up near the main office/cafeteria), or send payment with your student, during the first week of school. All checks should be made payable to Germantown School District. Any questions on fees, please contact Stacie Karrels at 262-502-7326 or skarrels@gsdwi.org.

Co-Curricular Fees
There is an $85 Co-Curricular Activity Fee for students who participate in the following activities:

Boys and Girls Basketball - both of these are a tryout sport, please wait to pay until your child makes the roster (open to 7-8 grade)
Girls Volleyball - this is a tryout sport, please wait to pay until your child makes the roster (open to 7-8 grade)
Co-ed Track (open to 7-8 grade)
Co-ed Wrestling (open to 6-8 grade)
Co-ed Cross Country (open to 6-8 grade)
Forensics
Destination Imagination
FBLA

*There is a fee cap of $425 per family.

Attendance and Tardiness Update

If your student will be absent or tardy, email will be the preferred method of notification to KMS office staff.

Please email or call the KMS Attendance Office at kmsoffice@gsdwi.org (preferred) or 262-253-3453 before 8:00 a.m. and provide the following:

Student's full name (please spell last name)
Grade
Reason for the absence or tardiness
Your relationship to the student

KMS ID Policy

The student ID has a barcode on it that can be used for library checkouts and lunch purchases. Student IDs may also be required to enter various after school activities (e.g. PTA events, school dances).

Google Classroom and Skyward

Google Classroom is Germantown School District's Learning Management System and is primarily used by teachers for sharing resources and assignments with students. Google Classroom is also where students will be able to electronically submit assignments. Teachers will be able to review assignments, assign grades and return work all within Google Classroom.

Skyward is Germantown School District's student information system, which is the central hub for contact information, health information, grades, discipline records, and any other pertinent information specific to individual students.

Cell Phone Policy

Students’ cell phones should be turned off and placed either in their backpack or locker during the school day. If a student needs to use their cell phone, it can be done with the permission and supervision of a staff member. If a student needs to call or text their parent from their phone, they may come to the Main Office or Student Services to do so. If a student is found using their phone in violation of KMS’s policy, each offense will be documented and addressed.

1st Offense: Student will have device confiscated and may pick their device up in the main office at the end of the hour.
2nd Offense: Student will have device confiscated, teacher will take device to main office, parents will be contacted, and student may pick device up in main office at the end of the day.
3rd Offense: Student will have device confiscated, teacher will take device to main office, parents will be contacted, and parents will come to pick up device in the main office.
4th Offense: Student will have device confiscated, teacher will bring device to main office, parents will be contacted, parents will come to pick up device in the main office, and the student will now be responsible for dropping off and picking up their device in the main office at the beginning and end of each day.

Message from the KMS PTA 2025-26

“Welcome back for another exciting year! The PTA has a lot of events scheduled this year to help our wonderful staff and teachers give each of our students a Best in Class education. One of our first events occurs before school starts! We have a restaurant fundraiser at Robert's on Monday, August 11th from 4-8PM. Stop by for some awesome burgers and delicious frozen custard and mention you are there for the Kennedy Middle School PTA fundraiser. We will see you there!

As most of you are aware, orientation night is Thursday, August 21st. The teachers will be there bright and early to ensure the night will be a huge success for you. The PTA always wants to take the time to ensure our teachers are appreciated. One of the ways we like to do that is to make sure they get tasty treats. You can donate money to help show our appreciation for the teachers by providing food to fuel them up all day. These donations can be made here.

In addition to staff appreciation, the PTA will host events during the year like our All School dances to bring about a sense of community for our staff and students. If you would like to be a part of deciding what events to provide, how we raise money or how to use that money to help the school, teachers and students, please consider joining the PTA. We have two membership options. The first is as a voting member where you can actually vote at the meetings on the decisions above and the second is as a non-voting member if you want to stay informed but do not want to take part in the running of events or decision making. You can join either way here.

Finally, if you want to stay informed of what is happening at the school but do not have the time to come to the meetings, you can get information from our Facebook group and can incorporate our Google calendar into yours. We look forward to working with you all year to make this a successful, fun and transformative year for all of our kids.”

From KMS PTA 2025-2026