OLHMS Update (10/7/24)

Did you know that Family Conferences are approaching and conference sign up opened last week?

We look forward to our continued partnership! Additional information is below to support if you have not already signed up! To date, we have about 800 conferences scheduled.

Did you know that we will be collecting, packing and sending candy to the troops overseas in partnership with Jacky's Soldiers?

Once again we will be participating in partnership with Jacky's Soldiers to collect candy for our troops! Please help us collect your left over Halloween candy or the extra candy you may just need to get out of the house by sending it in with your scholar or dropping it off in the office! Last year, we collected over 1,200 pounds! I believe we can tip the scale on 1,500 pounds! Here is a Fox News story from a few years back!

Did you know we hosted a parent meeting about the math grading pilot this year?

OLHMS hosted a parent meeting for our math grading pilot this year. Families should expect to continue receiving standards based grades along with a high school equivalent letter grades in math. Here is the Parent Letter and additional links of support below.

We look forward to your partnership on this new mathematical journey!

OTUS Family Guide: Create a Family Account -

https://help.otus.com/en/articles/894649-family-guide-create-a-family-account

(Screenshots at top, and video at the bottom of the page)

OTUS Family Guide: Link a Student to Your Account -

https://help.otus.com/en/articles/894634-family-guide-link-a-student-to-your-account

(How to find student code)

Mustang Families,

On this 123rd year of D123, we have selected "U Belong" as our theme for the year! We are so proud school community, staff and scholars for engaging in a successful beginning of this year! Please remind students to follow our Mustang Musts of being responsible, safe and respectful. We have noticed our scholars levels of comfort increasing and reminder conversations at home solidify our partnership. We all have the responsibility to support one another feeling and realizing that we have all arrived here at OLHMS for a reason and each belong here! We are a dynamic and supportive environment, believing in the gift we individually and collectively bring to the table. Our Mustang Musts keep our opportunities very simple and we appreciate your partnership to reinforce this. We are also looking forward to Fall Family Conferences and our ability for our scholars to articulate their successes as well! This month we will also be acknowledging and celebrating National Bully Prevention Month and D123 Unity Week! Here is LINKED resource for families with some tips for preventing cyberbullying.

Speaking of support and success, here is the Class of 2025 Graduate Expectation Letter. This letter has been distributed and discussed with our Class of 2025!

Oak Lawn-Hometown School District 123 Family Conferences will be completely scheduled online via Skyward.

• K-5 families will have the opportunity to schedule conferences with their student's grade-level teacher, encore staff, and specialists.
• 6-8 families will have the opportunity to schedule conferences with their student's advisory teacher, encore staff, and specialists.

Beginning on October 1st at 10:00 am and ending on October 14th at 10:00 pm families can log into Skyward Family Access and pick their family conference time and date. Below you will find a series of resources to answer any questions you may have about Skyward Family Access. As always you can contact your school office if you have any additional questions about scheduling or a family conference.

• [VIDEO] How to Schedule Family Conferences as a Parent

• [DIRECTIONS] For Families

• [DIRECTIONS] For Families - Spanish Version

Our school community was made aware of a potential threat a couple weeks ago. Here is the Patch Article. This incident reflects an efficient and effective process. The ramifications of threats in person or on social media are taken very seriously and will result in school consequences and/ or criminal charges.

Drills: We will continue running drills throughout the year! Please talk with our scholars at home about the importance of taking drill serious and the significance for following the process. Here is some additional support!

Family Tips for Supporting Students

Before and After Lockdown Drills

Our lockdown, shelter-in-place and fire drills have been very successful!

Double Buzz: One of the additional security measures this year will be guests entering our school through the main entrance. Please know that guests will have to be buzzed into the building twice, waiting in the vestibule until they are greeted or buzzed into the main office.

We appreciate everyone's understanding and patience! We will also expect that all students, staff and guests wear designated ID's at all times.

We feel your frustrations and have been in constant communication with First Student Bus company about their timing and route efficiency. Thankfully, they are in the training process with a new driver to alleviate the stress on individual routes that have been double back. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Bus Behavior: Please remind bus riders that we must be following our Mustang Musts. We have been hearing about challenging, inappropriate and unsafe behavior on the bus riders to and from school. Students will be given consequences for their behavior which may include a suspension from the bus.

Bus Loading and Unloading: Families should not be passing buses in our parking lot. This is dangerous and almost caused an accident. Do not pass buses with their stop sign extended.

Parents and families dropping off and walkers enter the building in the back of the school on Oak Center Dr. Parents please be patient and courteous, follow guidance from support staff and do not block the driveways of our neighbors on Oak Center Dr. It is very important that families model respectful behaviors for our scholars.

• 6th Grade scholars use Door 4

• 7th Grade scholars use Door 6

• 8th Grade scholars use Door 5

Parking lots are for staff parking only. All parent/student drop off and pick up takes place in the back of the school on Oak Center Dr.

• Main Entrance: Bus entrance only and will be closed from 8:15-8:45am and 3:15-3:45pm to guests! Once buses have left the parking lot will be open to families.

• Oak Center Drive: One-Way moving West to East for morning and afternoon drop off and pick up.

Main Parking Lot, Circle Drive and 99th Street: Family drop off and pick up is done on Oak Center Dr. If family members are helping out, please let them know to use the rear of the building for drop off or pick up. Students should not be dropped off in the morning or picked up during dismissal via the main parking lot while buses are present. The main parking lot will be CLOSED from 8:15-8:45am and 3:15-3:45pm daily.

• Designating a pick up and drop off area/ location for our scholars to meet their ride has been extremely helpful and allows families to avoid the congestion.
• Please do not have students run across 99th street or Oak Center Dr. to be picked up without adult supervision. We want to make sure all of our students and families are kept safe.
• The rear doors (Oak Center Dr./ Circle Drive) will close at 8:35am during morning arrival and the rear doors will be closed at 3:30pm during afternoon dismissal.
  
• School tardies will be assigned after 8:30am.
• Please be patient and courteous!

Teacher Assignments, Schedules and Transportation

Skyward Family Access is a great place to check on student balances, schedules, emergency contacts and all things student information!

Student Portal: Our Mustangs utilize the this site to access their Google Classrooms, Google Drive, Gmail, Skyward and student apps. This is also where daily announcements are posted for students. It is always a perfect conversation starter for our sometimes reluctant middle school communicators!

Ask your scholar to grab their Chromebook and check out the student home page along with their Google Classrooms for each course! Do you see any missing assignments?

Lunch Accounts: Make sure to check your child's lunch account on Skyward. Alcarte items are available for purchase. Scholars with negative balances will NOT be allowed to purchase any alcarte items. Thinking about lunch, if a student receives a lunch detention, they are given a bagged lunch and cannot purchase alarte items.

Lunch Detentions: Students serving lunch detentions will be given a brown bag lunch unless they have brought a home lunch the day of detention.

New State Flag: The contest is open to all ages and backgrounds and the committee is hoping to achieve maximum participation from Illinois residents, from kids to senior citizens. The submission dates are from September 3 to October 18, 2024.

OCTOBER 15TH DEADLINE

Health Examination and Immunization Requirements

There are specific requirements for students entering preschool, kindergarten, second grade and sixth grade, as well as for all new students. Visit our Health Forms & Guidelines page for more information. Please note that these vaccinations and/or health examinations are required by state law.

• All incoming 6th Graders must have a physical and dental report on file.
• All 6th, 7th and 8th Graders interested in sports will need a sports physical to try out for teams.

Student Device Repair Program:

Your student's device is protected against accidental damage, theft, fire, flood, natural disasters, power surge and vandalism. If your child’s device needs repair, below are the costs associated with each incident during a school year:

• 1st incident - No Charge (one-time fee waiver)

• 2nd incident - $25.00

• 3rd incident - $50.00

Free & Reduced Lunch Reminder

The federal program allowing districts across the country to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students regardless of income has expired. At this time, the federal government has not extended the waivers for this school year to allow free meals for all students. As a result, schools across the nation will be reverting back to free and reduced-price meals based on income eligibility guidelines set by theU.S. Department of Agriculture. Families who do not qualify for free or reduced lunch will have to pay for school meals. Students whose families are eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast or lunch will be able to access meals this school year at no cost or a discounted rate. D123 will continue to explore ways we can help families with this adjustment since this may create a financial burden for some of our families. At no point would we ever want any child to go hungry at school. If you would like to apply for free or reduced priced meals, please click here.

• PTSA OPEN GYM: 10/10/24 from 6:00-7:30 PM

• Membership is $6.00 per student and $10.00 per adult

• PTSA Meetings are at 6:00pm monthly

• PTSA Meeting- November 4, 2024 at 6:00pm
  
• PTSA Spirit Gear- Orders have been delivered!
  
• Reach out to Delecta Harris, our PTSA President for more information (olhmsd123ptsa@gmail.com )
  
• PTSA Facebook
  

• All parents/ guardians/ staff & students are highly encouraged to join the PTSA and attend meetings. This is an incredible opportunity, partnership and fun way to support our scholar’s experience at the middle school!

• If you are interested in supporting our school in a different capacity please reach out to our PTSA! Maybe you do not have the time to donate, but your contributions can still be made through your membership!

Dates to Remember:

10/10/24: PTSA Open Gym (6:00-7:30 pm)

10/11/24: Fall Picture Retakes

10/12/24: D123 Lawn Treatment (Letter Linked)

10/14/24: No School (D123 Unity Week)

10/15/24 to 10/18/24: OLHMS Book Fair

10/17 & 10/18: Family Conferences

10/24/24: OLHMS High School Fair

10/26/24: PTSA OLHMS Family Bowling

11/8/24: Veteran's Day Assembly

11/16/24: D123 Leaf Raking

12/14/24: Feed Six

Families can create an eWallet using this website:

https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/olhms

Oak Lawn - Hometown Middle School would like to invite you to join us in honoring our veterans on

Friday, November 8. Please encourage any veteran who is a neighbor, friend, or family member of

District 123 to attend and be honored at our annual assembly. Please take the time to fill out this

RSVP by Friday, October 25th if you plan on inviting a veteran to attend this event. The program will

be held in the main gymnasium at OLHMS from 9:30am - 10:30am. Our student body will be in

attendance, along with our band/chorus, and guest speakers. The event will be broadcasted live for

any member that is unable to attend.

Use this LINK for the invitation!

On Saturday, October 5th, District 123 partnered together with the Tinogona Foundation to host a "6K Walk for Literacy" to raise funds to build a library in Zimbabwe. We had a great turnout of over 150 students and members from the community registered to participate and a number of our staff who volunteered. The effort raised over $3,000 for the Tinogona Foundation! Thank you to Heather McCarthy and Kathy Ogean, along with the many staff members who helped volunteer.

Oak Lawn Community High School

Our Arabic Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, and Organization of Latin American Students would like to invite your 8th graders and their families to our Community Outreach event.

Here is the flyer.

H. L. Richards High School

Brother Rice High School

Be Exceptional Leadership Award Opportunity

Chicago Christian High School

Golf Outing

Shadow Days

Homecoming

De La Salle Institute

IMSA

Marist High School

The Marist High School Grade School Band Night will be held on October 18, 2024.

Mother McAuley High School

Junior High Art Workshop

• Wednesday, October 9 from 3:30-5:30pm

• 6th - 8th Grade Girls

Junior High Performing Arts Workshop

• Thursday, October 10 from 3:30-5:30pm

• 6th - 8th Grade Girls

BIG Shadow Day

• Monday, October 14

• 7th & 8th Grade Girls

Girls Night Out Halloween Party

• Wednesday, October 30 from 5-8pm

• 7th & 8th Grade Girls

Open House

• Monday, November 4 from 6-8pm

Morgan Park Academy

Mt. Carmel High School

Open House Registration

Providence Catholic High School

St. Ignatius High School

St. Laurence High School

St. Rita High School

HFS Chicago Scholars

D123 4WARD: We have begun a new effort to engage our alumni!! From the classroom to the stage, the athletic field to the culinary club, and everywhere in between, we want to know what our graduates have been up to in "tomorrow's world."

Whether these alumni excelled in high school, found opportunities in college, or started a successful career, the stories, adventures, and triumphs shared will inspire us, current students, and future leaders. This program is an opportunity to celebrate these achievements together and keep the D123 community spirit alive long after middle school graduation.

Families of alumni and D123 graduates themselves are invited to fill out this form to submit for possible inclusion in our alumni spotlight E-Newsletter, "D123 4-WARD." The newsletter will be produced and sent semiannually in December and May. Participants will be notified if their story will be included in the publication.

D123 4Ward May Addition: Check out the special edition newsletter focus on our D123 Alumni!