The Weekly Highlander 2025-2026

Dear Highlander Families:

As our student population has grown, it has brought exciting energy to our campus — along with some new challenges related to supervision during lunch. To help address this, we will be piloting a double lunch schedule that separates 6th grade from 7th and 8th grade. This change will not affect the school’s start or end times; students will continue to attend all their regular classes as scheduled. The only difference will be when students have lunch and the number of students on campus during each lunch period.

Because we are implementing this change mid-year, there are a few important considerations:

• Wednesdays will remain a single lunch day to accommodate assemblies, special schedules, and other school events.
• We will be collecting feedback from students and staff on November 12 to help us evaluate how well the new schedule is working.

We are excited to try this new structure and believe it will help create a safer, more manageable, and enjoyable lunchtime experience for everyone. Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership as we continue to make Hewes a great place to learn and grow. An email will be sent with the schedule we will be using to help you plan for appointments and early student pick up.

Please stay connected to Hewes by checking our website and following us on Instagram @heweshighlanders for the latest information and news.

Sahra Tanikawa, Principal

Highlander for a Day is a recognition program at Hewes Middle School that celebrates students for incredible moments of Winning the Day the Highlander Way. Students are recognized for working hard, including others, never giving up, controlling their responses, choosing to act above the line, and taking extreme ownership of their 20 square feet. These are the habits and mindsets that shape our Highlander culture, and we are so proud to share them with our entire school community.

• Sunday, November 2 - Dino Dash - Meet at Dick's Sporting Goods at 7:45am
• Sunday, November 2 - Dino Dash - Middle School Race is @8:20am
• Monday, November 3 - Dia De Los Muertos celebration at lunch
• Monday, November 3 - School Site Council Meeting #2 @3pm in Room I-8
• Thursday, November 6 - ELAC Meeting #2 @3pm in Room D-2
• Tuesday, November 11 - Veteran's Day - NO SCHOOL
• Wednesday, November 12 - Cross Country City Finals - Irvine Regional Park 9am - 12pm
• Friday, November 14 - PTA Fun Friday at Lunch
• Thursday, November 20 - PTA General Meeting @9am in Room I-8
• Monday, November 24 - Friday, November 28 - Fall Recess - NO SCHOOL
• Thursday, December 4th - Highlander Holiday Bazaar - 5:30pm - 6:30pm
• Thursday, December 4th - Choir & Band Concert @ 7pm

Nondiscrimination/Harrassment

The Board of Education desires to provide a safe school environment that allows all students equal access and opportunities in the District’s academic, extracurricular, and other educational support programs, services, and activities. The Board prohibits, at any District school or school activity, unlawful discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, intimidation, and bullying, targeted at any student by anyone, based on the student's actual race or perceived race, color, ancestry, national origin, nationality, immigration status, ethnicity, ethnic group identification, age, religion, marital status, parental status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or genetic information, or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics

Website: https://hewes.tustin.k12.ca.us/

Location: 13232 Hewes Avenue, Santa Ana, CA, USA

Instagram: @heweshighlanders

FaceBook: Hewes Middle School

Phone: (714) 730-7348