Principal's Message
Dear Frelinghuysen Middle School Community,
Frelinghuysen Middle School is a vibrant and diverse community consisting of over 1150 students and over 100 staff members committed to becoming a school community in which everyone belongs, achieves their highest potential, discovers their passions and talents, and uses them to improve their lives and the lives of others. The driving mission of Frelinghuysen Middle School is to serve and prepare all students for academic, social, and emotional success in a safe, equitable, and inclusive environment, empowering them to achieve their goals and dreams.
In order to fulfill this purpose, the staff at FMS is committed to building positive and supportive relationships with our students and their families; to engaging students in rigorous and meaningful curricula that prepares them with the essential skills and understanding our world demands; to focusing intensely as an organization on the learning of our students and the ongoing professional learning of our staff; to providing three tiers of academic, social, and emotional supports for struggling students; and to offering a broad range of athletic and co-curricular opportunities for our students to discover and develop their passions. Our diverse student population, our dedicated teachers and staff, and our supportive family and community partners make Frelinghusyen Middle School an exciting, active, and inspiring environment for all who participate in it.
A unique feature of Frelinghuysen Middle School is our House System. All of our students are placed in one of our three Houses as sixth graders and remain in that House in seventh and eighth grades. At each grade level, they receive instruction from an interdisciplinary team of math, science, social studies, science, and world language teachers that share the same students and daily collaborative planning time. In addition, they benefit from the support of a House School Counselor who stays with them from sixth through eighth grades.
The academic program for all students at Frelinghuysen consists of a daily English Language Arts class, and Math, Social Studies, Science, World Language, and Physical Education classes that meet on an alternating day rotation. All of our core academic classes meet for an eighty minute block which provides an optimal amount of uninterrupted instructional time to our teachers and students. These curricula for these core classes are aligned with the state and national standards, and reflect a school-wide focus on developing literacy and numeracy across every classroom.
At Frelinghuysen, we are especially proud of the breadth and relevance of our Related Arts program. Students in sixth grade go through a cycle of four marking period classes that includes Navigating Digital Systems, Industrial Arts, Art 2-D, and Art-3D. In 7th grade, students move to a semester cycle of classes focused either on Art and Design/Engineering or Art and Industrial Arts. Our eighth grade program is fully elective with students having the opportunity to select two full-year electives out of a list of nine courses that includes Sculpture and Ceramics, Graphic Design, Integrated Robotics, and Musical Theater. Students in all three grades are able to participate in our year-long Chorus, Orchestra, and Band programs, and almost sixty percent of them choose to do so.
The Morris School District values the pursuit of excellence. Approximately ten percent of the student population qualified for Quest, the middle school’s gifted and talented program, by meeting or exceeding the rigorous district standards. In addition, we offer accelerated course offerings including Algebra I in grade 7 and Geometry in grade 8.
We know that the middle schools years are a time for young adolescents to discover and develop what they are most passionate about. Therefore, we provide a comprehensive co-curricular program that includes after-school Fall, Winter, and Spring sports and a broad range of enrichment clubs and music ensembles. Our students who are most interested in music and performance can participate in our awarding-winning Select Choir, Jazz Band, Wind Symphony, Chamber Orchestra, or Performance Dance Company. Our annual school musical performed each winter attracts over a hundred performers, musicians, and artists from every grade level. We offer a Fall and Winter Art club, yearbook, Student Council, Chess, and Biology Club. We provide all students with the opportunity to participate on our Model United Nations and Technology Student Association teams, each which culminates in competitions against students from around the state and around the world. Our Interscholastic sports program includes boys and girls soccer, cross-country, field hockey, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, boy’s and girl’s lacrosse, cheerleading, baseball, softball, and track and field. Also, our after school homework tutorial and Rising Scholars programs provide assistance for students who are struggling to meet the academic standards maintained in each curricular area.
Student academic, social, and emotional growth is our primary goal at Frelinghuysen and, to that end, our middle school works collaboratively with all the stakeholders – students, teachers, administrators, board of education members, central office personnel and community members – in a common vision that guides the continuous improvement of our middle school . This shared vision is the foundation of our success.
In partnership,
Mr. Uglialoro