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.

The Teen Foster Program offers teens (ages 12-17) service hours when they foster a dog or cat in their home. A parent or guardian oversees the fostering experience. It is both exciting and rewarding for a family to care for an animal in need. Foster opportunities can range from a few day sitter stays to a few weeks or longer. Families complete an application and are appropriately matched with a cat or dog.

You can find more information about fostering and the foster application here: https://www.austinpetsalive.org/foster

• • Theatre Musical-The Addams Family

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

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• Student and Parent/Caregiver Fentanyl Presentation

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

• Library News-- Author Visit--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, 4/10- "A" Day

7:00 Tennis Practice

4:00 Track Practice, Homework Club, Theatre Rehearsals

Tuesday, 4/11 "B" Day

7:00 Tennis Practice

4:00-Track Practice, Theatre Rehearsals

Wednesday, 4/12 "A" Day

4:00 Track Practice, Homework Club, Golf Practice

6:00 Tennis vs. Lively @ AHS

6:00 Jazz Band at Central Market Westgate

Thursday, 4/13 "B" Day

4:00-Homework Club, Golf Practice

6:00 Track vs Gorzycki and Murchison and MMS

6:30 Theatre- The Addams Family

Friday, 4/14 "C" Day

6:30 Theatre- The Addams Family

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 play in 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

Hello 7th grade Parents,

Last week 7th grade students received information (three forms and an information sheet) about our end of year 7th grade field trip.

Please fill out the forms (purple, blue, and yellow), and encourage your student to return them ASAP to their ACES teacher.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Amber Bass Patterson, amber.bass-patterson@austinisd.org.

Here is the information sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17yhpgFVBe1LLtRiLGSU4en7agpooe4LmMEjWW4QMdto/edit?usp=sharing

See the information sheet below.

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!

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.