Dear Heritage CUSD #8 Proud Hawk Community:

🎉 A few highlights to celebrate:

We've had an unbelievable start filled with clear expectations and our students are rising to the challenge. Our character trait is kindness and our students have been welcoming to our kindergarten students, new students, and our eighth graders as they began electives this week.

Communication and collaboration is key to our students' success. Please check our website and social media links at the bottom of this newsletter. If you haven't provided feedback on the strategic planning survey, we welcome your feedback.

The Board and I participated in a goal setting workshop on Saturday, August 10th. This was valuable as priorities are given consideration and aligned with the feedback we are receiving from our community during the strategic planning process. More information will be shared at the next Board meeting on Monday, September 16th at 7:00 p.m.

Families, thank you for all you are doing to make sure students are in school and ready to learn!

- Dr. Norton

We have 377 students in grades K-12. Attendance Matters and we want to work together to make every day count! 👏

Special thanks to the Philo Exchange Bank for their back to school donation of $1000 that will be used for student incentives for attendance and social-emotional learning.

We appreciate the PTC for their generosity of $2500 that was used for a portion of the Character Strong Curriculum for grades K-8.

Thank you to the ROE 9 and their support through the SEL Hub grant. They will reimburse us to to $10,000 for the remaining cost of the Character Strong Social Emotional Learning Curriculum and training and support as we focus on supporting our students in their academic and social emotional learning!

We had enjoyed our back to school kick-off filled with a full day of learning on August 14th. We are focusing on being a collaborative community and we spent the afternoon with Hamish Brewer, as he shared relentless principles to life, work, and leadership.

Heritage PTC would like to share some ways that families can stay connected and support Heritage CUSD #8! Even though we are a small community, together we can make BIG things happen for kids! PTC would like to welcome parents/guardians to our next meeting September 11th at 7:00 p.m. at the Homer Village Hall.

If you haven't already please connect your Walmart and Box Tops accounts so you can earn cash for your school when you purchase Box Tops products in-store or online using your saved Walmart payment method — without scanning or submitting your receipts!

Heritage PTC will be sponsoring a family dance for grades K-8. on August 30th from 6-8 p.m. Parents must attend with their children. Come join us and dance the night away!

We have had a FANTASTIC start to the 2024/25 school year! Registration went very well, both online and in person! Thank you to everyone that helped and completed that process. Dr. Norton treated our staff to some fun with their families and some very good eats before the start of school on Aug. 13th at Homer Lake. It was a beautiful evening and gave everyone the opportunity to relax and become reacquainted before the first day of school.

The BEST night of all, was our School Year’s Eve open house! It was so much fun and so many of you attended and were so excited to start the school year. As this year begins, we are implementing a new SEL program lead by Mrs. Desmond. It’s called Character Strong and I know you will be hearing your kids talk about it throughout the year. Jenna Mahoney, our new school social worker, will be working with Mrs. Desmond to help meet our students social and emotional needs. For a school of our small size this is truly a great gift. In addition to the introduction of Character Strong, we are doing something different with our morning assembly. Every morning we will get excited out our new day and remind ourselves that we are loved and we are kind. As the year progresses, we will be building on these concepts with our students. I hope they share this with you and are able to remind themselves often that they are loved and they are kind and they matter in our COMMUNITY!

Coming up soon will be the PTC Family Dance. Mark your calendars for Aug. 30 th and plan to come to the Homer building from 6-8 p.m. to show off your Hawk Pride! There will be games, prizes and best of all, DANCING!

Finally, thank you for all you do to support our children, staff and community!

Mrs. Sanders

The month of August started off with Marching Band Camp. On the Friday night of camp, the band performed songs from their show "Dreams and Nightmares" for a decent sized crowd. Teachers returned on August 14th and went to the IHotel that afternoon to listen to a great speaker, Hamish Brewer. The night of the 14th, we hosted our Opening Night, which was well attended by our Freshmen and new students. A big adjustment for the High School this year is the addition of breakfast. Our fall sports are starting to get started with Golf having their first match on Monday the 19th, Volleyball playing their first match on Monday the 26th and Cross Country running their first meet on Saturday the 31st.

-Mr. White

Our sophomores AP students have begun our journey into the world of AP Seminar. AP Seminar is a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexities of academic and real-world topics and issues by analyzing divergent perspectives. Over the course of the year, these students will learn to synthesize information from multiple sources, develop their own perspectives in research-based written essays, and design and deliver oral and visual presentations, both individually and as part of a team. Ultimately, the course will equip these students with the power to analyze and evaluate information with accuracy and precision in order to engage evidence-based arguments. It is going to be a lot of work, but they are ready for it!

Hello Hawk Families! We are excited to share with you our new Social and Emotional Learning curriculum for all of our Kindergarten-8th grade students, called Character Strong.

We believe that students should have safe, predictable places to learn where they feel included, and have healthy and helpful connections with teachers, staff, and classmates. Our Character Strong curriculum is more important than a set of lessons- it is a partnership between schools and families to create a place where students feel like they belong and learn skills that will help them be the best they can be!

We began with our Kindness Kickoff with learning about the importance of kindness, and practical ways to show kindness to others. We will hear a lot about kindness throughout the year because if is also 1 of our 3 major outcomes. The outcome "Be Kind" will be taught alongside character traits of Empathy, Respect, and Cooperation, along with social skills like listening, friendship, solving conflicts, and leadership. "Be Strong" will be taught alongside character traits of Responsibility, Courage, and Perseverance. We'll work on skills such as focus, organization, and goal setting. "Be Well" will be taught using traits of Gratitude, Honesty, and Creativity. Students will learn skills to handle their emotions and deal with stress.

We are so fortunate to have Mrs. Mahoney, our school social worker, in the K-8 building on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Mrs. Mahoney will be involved in whole group and small group lessons, and will be a wonderful resource for our students and staff.

I encourage you to check out the Character Strong Family link below for more information about the Character Strong program, and how you can connect what we're doing here at school with life at home.

Be Well!

Mrs. Desmond & Mrs. Mahoney

Reminder!

State of Illinois requires K, 6th, 9th grade students to have a current physical on file along with a dental exam. All incoming kindergarteners are required to have an eye exam. If those documents have not been turned in - please do so as soon as possible.