O’Rourke Middle School Communication with Parents
O’Rourke Middle School parents are urged to pay attention to all communications that come from our school and our school district. Here are some key information sources for parents:
Calendar
A printed district calendar is mailed to each BH-BL household in late August. Along with the school calendar, you will find information about building contacts, the Board of Education, daily schedules, bus routes and much, much more.
Website
Please check the district website at www.bhbl.org often, especially the O’Rourke Middle School homepage. The website is a great information source for everything from bus routes to the Middle School Daily Announcements. Also, please note that the website can be your BEST information source in an emergency or unexpected situation because we can post updated announcements there as often as necessary. Many of our teachers have classroom websites which can be accessed through the staff listing page on the Middle School website.
ESchool Parent Portal
The ESchool Parent Portal gives parents and students access to real-time information including attendance, grades and assignment descriptions. Students can use this tool to stay on top of assignments and parents are able to participate more fully in their student’s progress. Different courses will have different items to post; some classes have daily assignments while other classes are more project-based and will post grades less frequently. Also, not all grading is done the same; different types of assignments can be weighted differently and count “more” or “less” toward a final average.
If something doesn’t look right, start with asking your child. They can usually explain. Students and parents have their own usernames and passwords. For an initial access name and password, please contact your child’s guidance counselor or the middle school main office.
School Closings
When circumstances require that classes be canceled or delayed due to bad weather or an emergency, announcements are posted on our website at www.bhbl.org and on local TV stations. Announcements will normally first be given between 6:00 and 6:45 a.m. Unless otherwise noted, all scheduled use of the schools is canceled on a day when schools are closed for emergency or weather-related reasons. Parents may find that our website provides more information than the TV stations since there is no space limitation on the website. Also, although we rarely need to do this, all parents should instruct their children where to go if schools are dismissed unexpectedly during the day.
BH-BL School News Notifier (SNN)
Please consider signing up for our “School News Notifier” email service through the website. SNN emails are currently the only means that the district is using to notify parents when the police inform us that a level 2 or level 3 sex offender has moved into our district. You can also sign up to receive automatic SNN emails to whatever email address(es) you provide when school is closed unexpectedly. Please visit our SNN webpage. (Note: parents without email are welcome to view sex offender notices received to date in a notebook in the principal’s office.)