Hendricks Herald

Hey everyone,

“All growth is a leap in the dark..The coward waits for the stairs that will never come.” ~Ryan Holiday

Part of our vision and mission at HMS is to pursue continuous growth and take risks, responsibly.

Taking risk and growth is a leap in the dark. I grew up on the Indiana Jones movies. In the third film, and arguably the best of the trilogy, Indiana has to cross a great chasm. However, he can’t see the “invisible bridge” crossing it. He has to take a big step into the chasm, into the dark, to move forward.

Before we take a risk and encourage our children to take risks, we need to be planned, thoughtful, and willing, but those things having to be perfect prior to leaping can’t prevent us from moving. These are the stairs that will never come.

Ben Jones

Principal

We’re looking for teachers who bring our NEST mission to life. Parents, we know you value teachers who:

• Build strong connections & keep communication open.
• Create a supportive room where students feel safe to try, fail, and grow.
• Guide students to navigate learning with purpose.

Show your appreciation for our amazing staff! The link to nominate a teacher can be found on our website under "Quick Links"!

Monthly recipients will be eligible to be considered for the 2027-2028 Teacher of the Year at HMS.

September 3: Curriculum Night 6-7:30 PM

September 4: Early Release

September 4: XC Meet Etowah River Rumble

September 7: Labor Day Holiday No school

September 8: Football vs LMS @ FCHS

September 10: 7th Grade Vision Screenings

September 12: JV Football vs LSMS @ HMS

September 12: XC Meet Fleet Feet Warpath

September 15: Football vs VCMS @ WFHS

September 18: Middle School Night @ WFHS Football Game

September 19: JV Football vs NFMS @ HMS

September 19: XC Meet Ranger XC Invitational

September 22: Football vs DMS @ DHS

September 23-25: JA Field Trips

September 24: Fall Chorus Concert at Cumming First United Methodist Church

September 28- October 2: No School for Fall Break

We are excited to host our Curriculum Night from 6-7:30pm on September 3rd. Here's what you need to know:

• Doors open at 5:30pm

• All grade levels will take place at the same time.

  • In years past, we have had separate times for grade levels.

  • We know some of you have multiple children here and in different grade levels. We are hoping you can divide and conquer if possible. In years past, we have not had a lot of parents attend the 6th grade session and then the 7th and 8th grade session.

  • Presentations will be on the teachers' Canvas pages soon after Curriculum Night.

  • Thank you for allowing us to try this and we will certainly look forward to your feedback.

• All parents will follow the directions of our parking attendants.

  • For parking, everyone will enter through the marquee entrance and follow the directions of our parking attendants. The bus lanes will be blocked off.

• When you enter the building, you can either go to the gym or the cafe for the parent presentation starting promptly at 6pm. The presentations will be the same in both locations.

• After the parent presentations, you will follow your child's schedule starting with 1st period.

• Bells will ring every 7 minutes and you will follow your child's schedule.

• Each teacher will have short presentation where you can learn more about the class and the teacher.

• Curriculum night is NOT a time for individual conferences. Your are ALWAYS welcome to set up a conference with your teachers and we will have a set aside time for conferences in October.

September 4, 2026 is an early release day. Students will be dismissed at 1:30 PM. Here is our Early Release Schedule.

All students are expected to bring their school-issued Chromebooks to school each day. Chromebooks should be charged nightly at home. We have a very limited supply of extra Chromebooks to loan to students on a daily basis. Thank you for supporting our Chromebook initiative by reminding your student to charge nightly and pack each day for school.

Three times a year, our students take the iReady Diagnostic as one more piece of data to help us understand where students are excelling and/or where they need support. To better understand you child's results, please check out this i Ready Diagnostic Results Letter that will give you directions on how you can review your child's results. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher or your child's grade level administrator.

Hendricks Middle School has a podcast. Kyle Pullano, one of our outstanding connections teachers, hosts the HMS Podcast. The podcast is updated monthly and features both students and staff members. Click here to listen to the most current or previous episodes.

• Reminder, all 7th grade students must have their vaccines up-to-date by September 8th. This includes both Tdap and MCV4 (meningitis), mandated by the state of Georgia. Please submit a copy of your student's vaccine record to the school nurse no later than September 8th. Any student that is not compliant by this date will be withdrawn.
• Vision screening will be held on 9/10/26 for all 7th graders. If your child wears glasses or contact lenses, please be sure they have them on this day. Please have your student present that day and try to avoid early checkouts.

Please email attendance excuses within 5 days to:

Beth Sadler at f35962@forsyth.k12.ga.us

Excuses need to be received within 5 days of the students absence. If seen by a licensed physician, please ensure the attending physician provides a medical/dental/vision/etc. excuse.

STUDENTS MAY BE EXCUSED FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. Personal illness or attendance in school that endangers a students' health or the health of others.

2. A serious illness or death in a student's immediate family necessitating absence from school.

3. A court order or an order by a governmental agency, including pre-induction physical examinations for service in the armed forces, mandating absence from school.

4. The observance of religious holidays, necessitating absence from school.

5. Conditions rendering attendance impossible or hazardous to student health or safety.

6. A scheduled medical, dental, or eye examination of the student. (Please provide a note from the attending physicians office)

7. Registering to vote or voting.

8. Visiting with a parent or legal guardian who is in the military service in the armed forces and has been called to duty for or is on leave from overseas deployment to a combat zone or combat support post. The student may be excused for a maximum of 5 days per school year.

Non-school related activities and vacations are considered unexcused.

Forsyth County Schools will continue to use MySchoolBucks.com for student breakfast and lunch payments. If you had a MyPaymentsPlus account with funds prior to this school year, the funds will roll over to My School Books for the new school year. Money in accounts will automatically carry forward to the student’s assigned school for the new year. You can add additional funds

FCS utilizes SchoolPay for all other student-related payment items. Parents/guardians need to create an account and attach their student to the account. Visit SchoolPay.com to set up your account.

Thank you for utilizing these two payment methods for your children.

• Consider saving the school's phone number (678) 965-5038 in your Contacts list so you see us on caller ID. How about a dedicated ring tone?
• Update and verify telephone numbers and email addresses in Parent Portal.
• List all adults (18 and older) able to pick up your student and designate Emergency Priority options in Parent Portal.
  • Consider having a responsible adult/friend/neighbor listed in Parent Portal on standby in the event you are unable to get to the school to pick up your ill child in a timely manner.
• Photo ID is required to pick up any student.

There is a lot happening here at Hendricks Middle School! We want to communicate to our

community efficiently and effectively, so our plan for this is the following:

1. Our website is our first line of communication and is updated frequently. Many parents do not have social media and platform use is inconsistent, so the school website is where you can find dependable school information. Each department maintains their own page. For example, parents can find their students’ sports practice and game schedules on the athletic pages. Events such as parent nights, conference days, and picture days can be found on the front page of our website under “School News” and “Upcoming Events”. Student News/Announcements contain things like club meeting days/times, spirit day information and other student interests can be found on the front page of our website under the “Quick Links” and “School News” sections as well as our students’ ClassLink page.

2. As a second method of communication, as much information as possible will be pushed out through social media. Please refer back to our website if you are looking for more information on a social media post. Most social media posts are simply highlighting information that exists on our website. If our website doesn’t answer your questions about a social media post, please email the contact given in the post or our administration. We don’t always see questions asked on social media or in direct messages.

3. Our third line of communication will be regular newsletters. These newsletters will be placed on our website and posted on social media as well.

4. Critical or last minute safety information will also be sent via Parent Portal/IC Messenger.

Communicating with our students is important to us as well. Many times your student will

have information about upcoming events or other items of interest at Hendricks. Here are

the ways we communicate with them:

1. All students are enrolled in our Canvas student course titled “HMS Student

Information Course”. This course contains announcements and links that may need to be accessed throughout the year for surveys, tutorials, or events.

2. Announcements scroll all day on digital signage around our school. These announcements are also posted in our students’ Classlink, Student Information course in Canvas, and our website.

3. Video announcements air every day. These are also made available in Classlink, HMS Student Information Course in Canvas, and our website.

We hope that this plan will help our community stay on top of necessary and important

information from HMS. We deeply appreciate your support!

Forsyth County Schools (FCS) provides a Chromebook to every student in grades 6–12 to support learning both in school and at home. In alignment with the FCS Strategic Plan and Learner Profile, students will interact daily with a variety of online and digital resources. By providing each student with a Chromebook, we aim to intentionally integrate technology into the classroom, promote digital literacy, and ensure that all students have access to educational resources. Just as with textbooks and other assigned materials, this device is an essential instructional tool and must be brought to school daily, fully charged.

Chromebook Responsibility Guide: We believe that with great technology comes great responsibility. Please be sure to review the FCS Chromebook Responsibility Guide which outlines the student use expectations and financial responsibilities of parents/guardians to ensure the proper care and use of the devices. Chromebooks will be distributed free of charge, but families may incur costs for lost or damaged devices. Please review the Accidental Damage Coverage section below for information on how to minimize costs.

Accidental Damage Coverage: To provide peace of mind, we offer an optional Accidental Damage Coverage plan for the Chromebooks for only $25.00. This coverage protects against unexpected incidents such as drops, spills, and other accidental damage. Due to the global fluctuating costs of technology components, the cost to purchase Accidental Damage Coverage and/or the repair costs may increase during the year. Details about the coverage plan, including how to enroll and what is covered, can be found here: Accidental Damage Coverage

Parent/Guardian Device Monitoring with Qustodio: We understand the importance of keeping our students safe online. That's why we partnered with Linewize to provide the Qustodio app for parents and guardians free of charge. Qustodio allows you to monitor your child's device usage, set screen time limits, and filter content to ensure a safe and productive online experience.

Parent/guardians can visit https://www.qustodio.com/my-school and enter their email address on file with the school system to sign-up. Please note that setup and support are managed directly by Qustodio. Contact myschool@qustodio.com if you need assistance. More information about Qustodio can be found at https://www.qustodio.com/en/why-qustodio/.

Online Safety Hub: Our school district is committed to online safety. Our partnership with Linewize provides our district with an Online Safety Hub to provide resources and information to help parents and students navigate the digital world safely. The hub includes tips on cyberbullying prevention, internet safety, digital citizenship, and much more. Visit https://forsyth.onlinesafetyhub.io for more information.

Chromebook Troubleshooting Guide: Users can refer to this Chromebook Troubleshooting Guide to assist with common Chromebook issues.

Repairs: Should a Chromebook experience any hardware or software issues, please submit a support ticket via our Summer Chromebook Repair Form. Our Technology Services team will monitor requests throughout the summer and coordinate a repair or exchange.

Install the Canvas app and become an observer of your student's courses. Teachers will be posting all relevant course information in Canvas. Being an observer will keep you informed and give you additional tools to support your student's progress. Click here for information on using Canvas.

We hope all families and staff members help build the nest by joining and participating in PTO. If you are interested in being a part of this critical support system, please contact us at hendricksms.pto@gmail.com.

Website: https://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/hms
Location: 4950 Hyde Road, Cumming, GA, USA
Phone: (678) 965-5038
Facebook: facebook.com/HendricksHawks/
Twitter: @HendricksMiddle