Pony Express

NEW featureed items will be in BOLD

• Quick News-Save the Dates
• School Calendar for the week
• Counseling Center Corner- Course Verification Forms
• Athletics-Track Schedule, Cap10K
  
• Grade Level News-This Week in ACES, 8th Grade End of the Year Field Trip, Gifted and Talented Showcase
• Fine Arts News-Theatre Performance-Addams Family April 13&14, Art in Action-Highlighting Student Art each Week
• Library News- Author Visit April 19th- Newberry Award Winner Donna Barba Higuera
• Elective Course News-Native Plants and Animals Plant Request List
• Campus Advisory Counsel-Budget Meeting this Tuesday, April 25
• PTA News-NEW-PTA Audit, Calling for PTA Board, SAVE THE DATE- Cornhole Tournament
  
• Registration for 2023-2024 school year

• From AISD--AISD Family Survey- Window to complete from March 20-April 14, Events and News--All in for AHS Future Global Studies Parent Social, Model UN, Summer Camp with Verizon now open-- FREE Summer STEM Camp, Girls Empowerment Network Event.

• No school: Friday, Aprirl 7

• Student and Parent/Caregiver Fentanyl Presentation

Monday, April 17th, 6:00 PM-- See flyer below

• Theatre Musical-The Addams Family

Thursday and Friday, April 13th and 14th- see flyer in Fine Arts Section

• Library News-- Author Visti--Newberry Award Book- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera-Wednesday, April 19th- see flyer below.

• STAAR TESTING DATES

Thursday, April 20-- 6th-8th grade Reading

Friday, April 21- Make Up Reading Day

Wednesday, April 26th- 8th grade Science

Thursday, April 27th-8th grade Social Studies

Friday, April 28th- Make-up Testing Days

Monday, May 8th-6-8th Math and EOC Algebra

Tuesday, May 9th- Make Up Math Testing

• PTA Cornhole Tournament and Social

Friday, May 5th, 4:30-7:30

See Flyer Below

Monday, 4/3- "A" Day

7:00 Tennis Practice

4:00 Track Practice, Homework Club

Tuesday, 4/4- "B" Day

7:00 Tennis Practice

4:00-Track Practice, Theatre Rehearsals

Wednesday, 4/5 "A" Day

4:00 Track Practice, Homework Club, Golf Practice

6:00 Tennis vs. Lamar @ AHS

Thursday, 4/6-"B" Day

4:00-Homework Club, Golf Practice, Theatre

6:00 Track vs Lamar and Gorzycki at AHS

Friday, 4/7- School Holiday

Please be on the lookout this week for an email containing a 23-24 course verification form from the counselors. This is NOT your child’s schedule for next year. It is a list of the courses we will try to turn into a schedule over the summer months. This is your opportunity to check for errors, make changes, or see if applications were accepted for special courses.

Track & Field Practices this week will be on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 4:00-5:15 PM.

See you there! If you would like to be added to our track families email list, please send Coach Cohen an email (macie.cohen@austinisd.org).

Attention Students!

Please join the O. Henry team and run the Cap10K with us on April 16, 2023! If you are interested in running or walking the 6.2-mile race, register on the following link. To be on the O. Henry team be sure to choose "School Team Member" and "O. Henry Middle School" when you register.

Our team will be comprised of current staff and students. Email jenny.parker@austinisd.org if you have any questions.

https://www.cap10k.com/

Students in ACES this week will

• Lesson from Mustang Student Council
• Have Outside Time with their ACES grade
• Have a Study Hall and Do a Backpack Cleanout
• Participate in a Student Technology Inventory Check (chargers and Chromebooks)
• Review the Tardy Report
• ACES Teams with Bolts, Cook, Shellhorn, Mann, Aguilar, Hibbard will play intramural kickball

"We are going to Typhoon Texas this year for our EOY 8th grade field trip.

Permission forms have been handed out through science and should be returned to science teachers. They are due by March 31st. Please click on the link below for information about the field trip and payment. If you have questions, please email Crystal Gaffney or Megan Aguilar."

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b2bqlWjkK1aWR4VUfM1a-QU-PWFB-gVC386Chsk5pTA/edit

AISD Gifted and Talented Showcase

AISD is hosting the 2nd annual Austin ISD GT Student Showcase. Project submissions will be accepted from March 1-31 and will showcase exemplary GT student work in May on our main AISD website.

The 2023 GT Student Showcase Theme is "Find the Good" which comes from a Jesse Owens quote:

"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it."

You will find all the details on the links below:

Austin ISD GT Student Showcase Website

Austin ISD GT Student Showcase Flyers

Note: AISD will only accept ONE link for each project submission. If students have multiple links, they need to find a way to organize/collect them into one link... for example they can create a Google Slide Deck or website and include all their links.

Hello Parents and Students! We are asking for donations of pollinator plants.

We are trying to build up our pollinator/butterfly garden at OHMS. As many of you know, the Monarch Butterfly was put on the endangered species list summer of 2022. Monarch Butterflies specifically lay their eggs on milkweed plants because the caterpillars/larvae feed on it as they are growing. Milkweed is very hard to find these days. We are also looking for donations of native Texas flowering plants so that we can beautify our garden and provide a place for pollinators to feed and visit. The following are some suggestions, and you can also check out the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plant list. https://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?start=40&collection=TX_central&pagecount=10Links to an external site.

Thank you so much

Dawn Davis & Dan Moise

Milkweed (any native Texas variety)

Turk's Cap

Winecup

Gregg's Mistflower

Coreopsis

Larkspur

Coneflowers

Verbena

Lantana

Rock Rose

Any central Texas Salvias/Sages

Blackfoot Daisy (and any other Central Texas Daisies)

Primroses and Buttercups

Penstemon

Phlox

On Wednesday, April 19th, O. Henry will host Newbery Award winning author Donna Barba Higuera to discuss her book, The Last Cuentista, and role of storytelling in society. School Library Journal called it "a keep-you-up-all-night, compulsively readable science fiction novel that offers much food for thought." Books will be available for purchase at the event or you can preorder through the BookPeople event page: https://www.bookpeople.com/school-events/spring23/event/var/donna-barba-higuera Books can be signed at the event.

Speaking at a CAC Meeting

Our next CAC meeting will be TUESDAY, APRIL 25 from 4:00-5:15.

If you are interested in speaking to our CAC using our citizen communication time, please email our CAC Co-chairs Paula Cook (paula.cook@austinisd.org) or Suzzane Perez (suzannep@gmail.com)

Meeting Agendas and Meeting Minutes can be found on our campus web page.

Citizen Communications is the first item on the agenda and is time set aside for non-members to make comments to the CAC. The co-chairs may limit the time given to individual speakers and will ensure that the districts "Citizens Communication and Visitor Guidelines" are applied. Under these guidelines, except for requests for clarification, dialogue shall not occur between the speaker and the members. If the CAC is interested in hearing more from a speaker, the speaker may be invited to a future meeting and be placed on the agenda. The CAC may also call a special meeting specifically for the purpose of open-dialogue with non-members but it must be posted for discussion on specific topics.

The PTA is looking for volunteers to help audit our accounting and finances from this past school year. With most of the work in summer, we are looking for about 3 people who have interest or experience with accounting, bookkeeping and finance. Please reach out to Rachel Elder @ rachelreit@gmail.com if you have any questions or might be interested in supporting OHMS in this way. Thank you!

The PTA nominating committee is looking to fill the following positions for the 2023-2024 school year. If you are looking to get more involved at O. Henry or know someone that you think would be great for a position on the PTA please contact Melanie Dow at mdow722@gmail.com by April 7th with your nominations.

President Elect
Treasurer Elect
Secretary
VP Communications
VP Ways and Means
VP Support

Hello, Mustang Parents!

I hope this message finds you and your family well.

This is a reminder to register your student to O. Henry for the upcoming school year, 2023-24. If your student plans to attend O. Henry next year, you must register him/her online as soon as possible.

Your student registration is also critical to helping us determine how many students we will have in each class, and how many teachers we will need.

Please keep in mind that student registration must be repeated each year, even if yours is a returning student. Filling out the class choice sheet does not mean your student has already registered.

Follow the link according to what applies to you (new or returning). If there are any documents that you're unable to upload, you are welcome to email them to me

(lizbeth.rodriguez-loza@austinisd.org). Please be sure to include your student's name in any emailed communications.

Also, if you run into any technical problems with the website or your login, please call our Parent Support Line at 512.414.9187.

https://www.austinisd.org/enroll

Parents of Future Maroons are invited to get a jump start on impacting your student’s high school education by attending ALL IN for AUSTIN HIGH, the only school-wide fundraising event supporting academic and experiential programming at Austin High, including:

• Our innovative four-academy structure

• Travel and field trip opportunities for all students

• Challenging and diverse academic experiences for all students

• A wide variety of electives and extracurricular opportunities

Join us for a sneak peek at ALL the great things happening at Austin High, connect with current parents, teachers, staff and alumni and help ensure ALL Austin High students have excellent academic opportunities. It will be a fun night of friends and fundraising where 100% of the proceeds will go to academic and extracurricular programming at Austin High School that benefits ALL students in ALL academies.

ALL IN for AUSTIN HIGH

Saturday, April 15, 2023

6-9pm

Lions Municipal Golf Course

2901 Enfield Road

Ticket and sponsorship information is available at www.austinexcellence.com. Any and every level of participation by our parents and community makes a difference and we can’t do this without ALL of you! Questions? Contact Shannon Grethel at shannon_mullen@yahoo.com We hope to see you there!

For more information on what Model UN is, please visit our website:

https://sites.google.com/d/1TNOqJrdDfZ4d_LNaS-mgivDX46iBfrhA/p/1KvzEB06hmm2G0rkhL-pBlxMp5kVJG2pH/edit

MiddleMUN

First of all, we will be hosting a half-day Model UN conference for middle school students called MiddleMUN. This is a great opportunity for kids interested in Model UN; it is beginner level and very fun! It is on April 8th from 9:00AM-2:30PM at Austin High School.

If your school does not have a Model UN program or club, that is all the more reason to get kids interested! We offer individual registration if a student would like to register. I also have attached a flyer for MiddleMUN- would it be possible for you to hang that up at school? Let me know if that is something you can do or if there is anything I can do to help.

For more information, please visit our website. You can find our MiddleMUN page under the “More” tab.

https://sites.google.com/stu.austinisd.org/freshmun2023/more/middlemun

Or email us questions at austinhighschool.modelun@gmail.com

Junior AUSMUN

We also will be hosting a summer camp at Austin High for middle school students called Junior AUSMUN! Registration for this event will be done by individual families instead of through a school, but the program wants to spread the word. Would you be able to have flyers or a summary advertising it around O. Henry or in your school's newsletter? I have attached them below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Please visit our website for more information or email us questions at austinhighschool.modelun@gmail.com

Junior AUSMUN website: https://sites.google.com/stu.austinisd.org/juniorausmun2023/home

You are more than welcome to email my personal email (avmare6@gmail.com) for questions regarding flyers and advertisement, but please email our program’s official email (austinhighschool.modelun@gmail.com) if you would like to register for MiddleMUN or ask about our Model UN program. We hope to see you and your students at our middle school events!

Austin Community College is partnering with Verizon and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) to offer a free STEM learning summer opportunity. The VIL STEM Achievers program is a FREE four-week STEM camp for middle school students. The Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers program will empower students to discover new skills and learn about careers in different technology fields through hands-on activities, mentorship, and technology. The camp will occur from June 6 - June 30 (Mon - Fri) and be held in person at our ACC Rio Grande Campus.

We will host several informational sessions via zoom. Please use the link below to sign up for an info session to learn more about the VIL STEM Achievers program.

RSVP here for an information session

Join Zoom Meeting
https://austincc.zoom.us/j/91933915628?pwd=UEZ5UTZJWDNaSzlTY0JYdFFlWnhYdz09
Meeting ID: 919 3391 5628
Passcode: 004147

Registration is now open for the camp; all middle school youths are welcome. Here is the link to register https://naccemeets.nacce.nacce.com/vil/home.