Gotha Update - Week of February 9, 2026

Posted Date: 02/08/26 (06:30 PM)

2025-2026 be the ONE.

Week of February 9, 2026

This Week’s Students of the Week

Congratulations to this week's Cambridge Learner Attributes Students of the Week. Kennedy Chesanek and Aria Rama were nominated for being INNOVATIVE and Maxine Kushner was nominated for being REFLECTIVE.

CONFIDENT

RESPONSIBLE

REFLECTIVE

INNOVATIVE

ENGAGED

8th Grade Announcements

The 8th Grade Dance is February 21st. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at https://gothapto.ptboard.com/home or during 8th grade lunch on Friday this week. We are looking for volunteers that can help set up at the school that morning any time during 8:00 and 12:00. We also need help at the conclusion of the dance to help break things down from 8:00 - 9:30. The more of us who can help, the faster it will go. Please reach out to our 8th Grade Dance Committee @ https://gothapto.ptboard.com.

Do you want to celebrate your 8th Grader? 8th Grade Yard Signs can be purchased at https://gothapto.ptboard.com/home - $20 if you can pick it up at the school or $25 if you need it delivered.

For your planning purposes, 8th Grade Gradventure tickets will be on sale February 22nd - March 23rd for $140 through Schoolcash.

The deadline for purchasing and designing a 2025-26 Yearbook Ad for your 8th grader is February 14th. Go to Buy Your Yearbook NOW school code: 382901.

Rising 9th grade Night at Olympia High School is Tuesday the 10th @ 6:00pm. Olympia will also be on our campus on the 11th to speak with all of our 8th graders.

National Junior Honor Society

NJHS applications for rising 7th and 8th graders are available to pick up in the media center or the main office and are due to Ms. Do or Ms. Hinz by March 12th.

National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) elevates a school’s commitment to the values of scholarship, service, leadership, character, and citizenship and helps middle-level students develop the knowledge and skills to become well-rounded student leaders in their school, community, and beyond.

The NJHS program empowers and equips your students with the knowledge and skills to be transformative leaders in your school, community, and beyond. In addition, it provides a necessary bridge between students and school leaders—helping you to engage and hear what students think, feel, and need.

CURRENT NJHS MEMBERS can earn community service hours Sunday February 15th at the school. We will be holding a campus cleanup from 11:00 - 3:00.

Papa Johns Pizza Fundraiser!

Ready to level up your Papa Johns fundraiser game? Students can sell rewards cards to unlock prizes, and the more they sell, the better it gets. Start small or go all in, every level comes with a reward. The 7th period teacher of the top selling class earns a FREE Nifty Fifty card.

Food Deliveries

We understand that some of you would like to bring your student lunch now again. Please note that we do not accept food deliveries from services such as Door Dash or UberEats. Food deliveries need to be made by an individual on the student’s emergency contact list. In addition, food deliveries must be made in time for your student’s lunch period. Items received after lunch will be held fro students to pick up at the office at the end of the school day.

Literacy News

Through the Let’s Read OCPS Initiative, we are trying to log over 50,000,000 minutes reading on Beanstack by April 30th! Each week, we are recognizing our Gotha readers for meeting a variety of goals such as weekly minutes read, the longest daily streaks logging minutes and other challenges.

Congratulations to Claudia Cantillano who logged 1551 minutes during the first week of our Let’s Read OCPS challenge! #OCPSreads

OCPS Code of Student Conduct Updates

As always, the OCPS Code of Student Conduct can be found HERE.

We are asking that all families talk to their students about sportsmanship. Our boys basketball team won a very competitive game last week at home. While the students were awesome fans during the game, a large crowd of students were not very kind as the opposing team’s bus left campus.

We are bringing back our game entry stipulations for future games. In order to spend, students must be in compliance with the following:

Students must not have any referrals from disrespect.
Students must not have any level 3 or 4 referrals.
Students must leave campus after school and RETURN for the game.
No backpacks are allowed.

Games are usually approximately one hour in length. Students must secure a ride and leave campus within a half an hour from the end of the last game.

This Week at the School

Monday -

Tuesday - Rising 9th Grade Night @ Olympia 6:00pm

Wednesday - Gotha Spirit Day! Olympia HS Visits; Home Basketball vs. Windy Ridge @ 5:00

Thursday -

Friday - College and Kindness Day

Have a GREAT Week!

Follow us on social media, as we post frequently to Facebook and Instagram. Encourage your student to make choices that are confident, responsible, reflective, innovative and engaged, and as always, it’s a GREAT day to be a Grizzly!

Facebook - Gotha Middle School

Instagram - gotha_middle_school

Monica L. Emery, M.Ed.

Gotha Middle School

9155 Gotha Rd.

Windermere, FL 34768

407-521-2360

It’s a GREAT Day to be a Grizzly

2025 30th Anniversary Lipdub