Hero Happenings!

Families,

I know so many of you have been incredibly frustrated about the bussing situation in our district. Below you will see a video produced by our district requesting drivers. We are short about 50-60 bus drivers for a district our size.

I do want you to know that we communicate about busses as soon as we know that a bus is not running. Sometimes, as you may have noticed this past week, we find out very late in the morning. I am going to start sending notifications by text to ALL the phone numbers in our data management system. If you do not want these texts, you can always reply with "stop". However, please know, this will stop ALL messages, not just the ones about transportation.

Our district is working on a way to separate out information about transportation based on addresses, but as you can imagine, for 23,000 students, this is a complicated process. They are also developing a ticker-tape system so that you can check for real-time information about busses.

Please forward the video linked below to anyone you know that might be interested in driving a bus, even part-time. We have many amazing drivers that are retired and enjoy having a part-time job in retirement.

Have a great week!

Allison Byford

Principal

Beginning Tuesday, students that do not have a lanyard will sit outside during social time.

Help us make sure your student wears his/her lanyard EVERY day. Make a plan with your student to ensure it is worn. Students can 1)leave it in the locker each afternoon; 2)buy an extra one ($5) for a backup; 3)always put it in the outside pocket of his/her binder; 4)leave it with the advisor or 8th block teacher; 5)let us know if you need help with a plan!

Lanyards help with many things:

1. Lanyards ensure safety in our building. We have close to 800 students, and this let's everyone know each student belongs at Hellstern. All Sprindale employees in our building are expected to wear a lanyard as well.
2. Lanyards communicate where a student should be in the building. Each color represents a team and the color of the text represents the grade level. This helps adults know if students have wandered from where they should be.
3. Lanyards have information about the HERO standards, which helps both parents & teachers!
4. Lanyards give the cafeteria, library, and tech office a way to enter student information into each of their systems using the barcode on the ID.
5. Lanyards also provide a way for students to proudly display their Hellstern flair, which is awarded at our quarterly assemblies.
6. Lastly, we are teaching habits students will need in junior high, high school, and most likely in the workplace!

UPDATE on email with grades:

If you didn't get the email from the principals this week, that likely means we don't have an email address for you. Please share your current email with your students advisor. We will be emailing grades very soon.

We are implementing a new system at Hellstern to help students learn the non-academic skills and dispositions they need to support their learning. Those might include organization, preparedness, respectful dialogue with peers, work integrity, perseverance, etc.

You may have noticed a brightly colored card attached to your students lanyard. If a student has a hole punch on the card, this means the student needed a reminder about a behavior related to that standard. If there is a sticker on a standard, this means the student exemplified that standard. A card with neither shows the student met the HERO standards that week.

Each week, every student will receive 3 points for each standard, resulting in a total of 12 possible points. If your student receives the 12 points then he/she did a great job and met our HERO standards! We are reporting these points in the Advisory or Hero Hour class in the gradebook. If a student receives LESS than 12 points, he/she may have struggled in an area that week. If a student receives MORE than 12 points, then he/she may have gone above and beyond.

You can check how your student is doing at anytime by either looking at the card attached to his/her lanyard OR by getting into the Home Access Center (HAC).

7 & 8 - MAP testing, all grades in Math & ELA

8 - EAST meeting: New parents (5:45), Board meeting (6:30)

14 - School Board meeting (5pm)

20-23 - High School & Junior High student-led conferences

23 - Vision & Hearing Screenings (6th graders)

24 - HBHS Homecoming

25 - Band Car Wash @ Speedy Splash, Elm Springs Exit (8-2pm)

27-30 - Middle School & Elementary student-parent conferences

27-Oct. 1 - Hellstern Book Fair

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIof--urzkqH9JOOfi5ho_f-hQisDaeqHfg

Sept. 7 - VB: Fulbright (HOME) 4:30

Sept. 9 - FB: Rogers Kirksey (AWAY) 5:30

Sept. 11 - XC: @ Elkins

Sept. 14 - VB: Kirksey (HOME) 4:30

Sept. 16 - FB: Fayetteville Woodland (HOME) 5:30

Sept. 18 - XC: @ Siloam Springs

Sept. 18 - VB: Tournament @ Rogers

Sept. 20 - VB: Lincoln (HOME) 4:30

Sept. 23 - FB: Springdale HTMS (AWAY/@HBHS) 4:45

Sept. 28 - VB: Springdale SMS (HOME) 4:30

Sept. 30 - FB: Farmington (AWAY) 4:45

Oct. 2 - XC: Chili Pepper @ UofA

Oct. 5 - VB: Ramay Purple (HOME) 4:30

Oct. 7 - FB: Springdale KMS (HOME) 4:45

Oct. 9 - XC: @ Springdale

Oct. 14 - FB: Springdale SMS (HOME) 4:45

Oct. 19 - XC: Wolf Run Conference

Oct. 19 - VB: HTMS (HOME) 5:00

Oct. 21 - FB: Siloam Springs (HOME) 4:45

Oct. 28 - FB: Rogers Elmwood (AWAY) 5:30

Nov. 4 - FB: TBD - Championship Week

Each week we will highlight teachers/staff in our building. The Hellstern staff are an amazing bunch of people - we hope you enjoy getting to know us a little better!

Instructional Facilitators are teacher leaders that work to support teachers. They coach teachers, coordinate our intervention & enrichment programs, and lead professional development, just to name a few of their duties.

2021-22 Springdale District Student Handbook

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Website: http://hellstern.sdale.org/
Location: 7771 Har-Ber Avenue, Springdale, AR, USA
Phone: 479-750-8725
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hellstern-Middle-School