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Parent Bulletin 7
Wednesday, December 10,
2008
- Our students will be
bringing home their report cards tomorrow right on
schedule!
Please check them carefully as we just did another
rewrite of the report card templates with our software
engineers and there are frequently mapping errors that
connect the student to the teacher to the grade fields. If you have any
questions about your child's performance, please contact the
teacher directly.
If this is not helpful, you can also contact your
child's guidance counselor. Report card
envelopes should be signed and returned to your child's
homeroom teacher.
- A reminder that honor roll
is calculated one week after report cards are issued. The roll will be
posted under resources on the MS web page and in our
guidance office by Friday, December 19. The criteria for
High Honors is an "A" average while Honors is a "B +"
average. The
directions for calculating the honor rolls are described on
page 3 and 4 of the student and parent handbooks. Remember that starting
this year, honor roll will only be calculated for students
in grades 6, 7 and 8.
- In the report card envelopes
is a notification of a change in procedure for dismissal for
students.
Please read the directions carefully. With 800 students,
it is getting very difficult for our office staff to keep
track of who is changing buses, who is getting picked up by
their neighbor or who is staying for girl scouts. Many students are
changing plans right up to the time they should be boarding
a bus. So we
are implementing a new permission slip that will help us
keep track of your child at the end of the day. Let Mr. English know
what you think by visiting his blog at www.nenglish.edublogs.org.
- Bad weather is
approaching. So
a quick primer on what happens when our school routines
get changed by
bad weather:
o
You should update your Honeywell Contact
information immediately.
Go tohttps://instantalert.honeywell.comand make sure
your contact information is accurate. This is how the
district will inform you of any scheduling changes due to bad
weather.
o
Our staff does NOT contact parents
personally in the event of an early dismissal. The Honeywell
System will do that for us. You should make plans
ahead of time with your children on what to do if they get out
of school early.
o
In the event of a delayed opening, we
start school two hours
later at 10:05.
We will drop a period and shorten the rest of our
classes for the day.
o
In the event of a snow day, we drop that
day and add on another at the end of the school calendar. If the day we lost
would have been a day 1, we lose it and return to school for
day 2.
- We are pleased to invite you
to our two choral concerts this
month:
o
Seventh and Eighth Grades will perform
with the HS at the HS on Thursday,, December 11 at 7 PM under
the direction of Rebecca Degnan.
o
Grades Five and Six will perform on our
stage next Tuesday, December 16 at 7 PM under the direction of
Joel Spineti.
- This month's PTO movie
afternoon is scheduled for Friday, December 12 weather
permitting. Our
feature this month is Fred Claus. Students can pick up
their tickets and permission slips in the main office. Tickets are $3.00
and that includes admission, a bag of popcorn and a bottle
of water.
- The Student Council has
scheduled their Holiday Dance on Friday, December 19 for
students in grades 7 and 8 from 7 PM to 9 PM. The admission cost
is $3.00.
Many of our students opt to wear their holiday finery
for this event but please make sure that our youngsters are
dressed as young men and women! Prom wear or
revealing gowns are not appropriate for this age group or
for this dance.
- As part of our Sister School
Initiative, our district has agreed to host three Chinese
educators who are visiting Connecticut in early January.
They will arrive on January 6 and depart on the
11th.
They will be staying with two local families. We are in the
beginning stages of planning for their visit - so stay tuned
for a full itinerary.
If you want to get involved or have any ideas for
programming for our honored guests, please drop me an email.
- This is the month for giving
and we are so grateful our students are learning the value
of charitable donations. Thank you for your support of
the:
- Toy Drive: Sponsored by our
National Junior Honor Society runs through Friday of this
week.
- Penny Wars: Healthy
competition between our grades as students contribute
loose change to benefit The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation,
our designated charity for the District 17 Holiday Show:
- A huge thank you to our
wonderful PTO chairs and parent volunteers who worked so
hard on the craft fair. A special shout out to Linda
Kaufman, Chairwoman Extraordinaire. It was a huge success
and a wonderful way to begin the holiday
season.
- Staffing
Updates:
o
Carol Gregg, our General Music Teacher,
has retired. We are currently interviewing candidates for this
immediate vacancy.
We all wish her a healthy retirement.
o
Joe Corso, our physical education
teacher, is currently on military leave and we anticipated his
return in January.
However, his orders have been extended for another
year. While
disappointed that he cannot return home to his young family
and our school, Joe knows that the work he is doing at Fort
Dix, NJ is necessary and worthwhile. We all appreciate his
sacrifice as an active reserve army officer and keep he and
his family in our thoughts during the holiday season.
Sincerely,
Mim
Wagner
Principal,
HKMS
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