Principal's Message
It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome you to Bluffton Middle School webpage, home of the PIRATES! My name is Josh Kauffman and this is year four proudly serving the students, staff, and community at BMS! At Bluffton Middle School, our middle school CREW is committed to offering the most exceptional learning experiences possible for the 280 students that we have the opportunity and privilege to serve each day! We strive every day to meet the academic needs of our students at the highest level, and also place utmost value on building authentic, positive relationships with our students by acknowledging their social and emotional needs during the middle years. Our seven core values focus on the “Pirate Pact” which spells out the word P-I-R-A-T-E-S and stands for: PRIDE, INITIATIVE, READINESS, ATTITUDE, TOLERANCE, EXCELLENCE, and STRENGTH. These core values serve as the foundation for what we do.
Part of what makes our middle school experience unique is our House System that drives our day-to-day culture of our building! Each student and staff member have been selected to become members of one of our four distinguished houses: Coraggio, Respe, Excelencia, and Wajibu. These four houses make up the word C.R.E.W and symbolize all of us working together collectively on board our Pirate Ship to make our middle school a place where kids love to learn and teachers love to teach! Our schedule offers every student an advisory class each day where they are able to work through our core values and learn what it means to take initiative, have pride in their work, in their community, do all things with great energy and a great attitude, be accepting of others, and always be ready to engage with people. Ultimately, our goal is to grow each student into being the best versions of themselves every day. Our schedule also affords most of our students the opportunity to have a period called W.I.N. which stands for “What Individuals Need” and offers students academic support, enrichment opportunities, and individual intervention time. New in 2022-2023, we will begin offering Career Tech clusters for all grades and begin piloting middle school E-Sports this fall! We will also welcome our new House P.I.T. Crew or (House Parent Involvement Team) that allows parents to sign up and become active members in our house community at BMS!
At BMS, students have all four core classes, while also offering students the opportunity to participate in band, choir, art, strings, health, physical education, consumer science, and our makerspace classes throughout the year! We offer students the option to engage in extracurricular activities after school as well including interscholastic sports, quiz bowl, House Council, E-Sports, and more! I am so grateful to be a part of the community here at Bluffton that not only places tremendous value in education, but also understands that it takes all of us working together to provide the Bluffton experience that students will remember for the rest of their lives. On behalf of the middle school CREW, we sincerely thank you for all of your support in helping us ensure that every student at Bluffton receives a first-class education grounded in the traditions of excellence that Bluffton is known for. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Go Pirates!
