The NEST News

At Elko Middle School, we are committed to soaring from good to great by cultivating a culture of educational excellence, innovation, and community engagement. Our vision is to empower ever

student to reach their full potential—academically, socially, and personally.

We will measure our success by:

• Sustaining full accreditation through rigorous academic achievement and continuous improvement.
• Expanding extracurricular opportunities that foster creativity, leadership, and collaboration.
• Building strong partnerships with local businesses, community organizations, staff and student learning and real-world

Dear Elko Students, Parents, and Community Members,

I want to extend a sincere thank you for a fantastic start to the school year! Our staggered start for 6th grade was a huge success—our 6th graders had dedicated time to meet all of their teachers and navigate the building before the rest of the school joined.

As we transition into our second week of school, please help us maintain this positive momentum by ensuring your student complies with all school rules and regulations. You can review building expectations below, as well as in the attached Code of Student Conduct.

Additionally, teachers will begin administering diagnostic assessments this week. These assessments help us evaluate student skills and knowledge in each content area so we can tailor instruction and provide the exact support your student needs.

Moving forward this year, one of my main goals is to provide you with regular academic updates, insights, and resources so you can best support your student at home.

Thank you for all that you do for our school. Let's have another great week at the Nest!

Dr. Lyles

Please use the language in this document when communicating with families about the VALLSS assessment. You may want to communicate all of the information below or a portion of the information.

As part of the requirements set forth in the Virginia Literacy Act, students in grades 6-8 that did not pass their Reading SOL at the end of the 2025-26 school year will participate in the Virginia Language & Literacy Screening System (VALLSS). VALLSS is designed to provide teachers and families with a better understanding of why students may be experiencing reading difficulties. The VALLSS assessment will help to identify relative strengths and weaknesses with code-based and language comprehension skills. The data from this assessment will be used to guide instruction for improved reading outcomes.

VALLSS consists of six required components.

1. Students will engage in an oral reading fluency task. They will read a short fiction text and a short nonfiction text out loud with their teacher. This will assess the student’s words read correctly per minute.

2. Students will complete a spelling test which contains 20 words.

3. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of word reading by reading words in isolation on a word list.

4. Students will demonstrate their ability to apply phonics skills by reading a list of nonsense words.

5. Students will demonstrate their understanding of prefixes, suffixes, and base words by completing the 12 item morphology component.

6. Students will demonstrate their comprehension at the sentence level by completing the 16 item sentence comprehension component.

As part of the Literacy Act, students that take VALLSS will have a Student Reading Plan for the 2026-27 school year. VALLSS data will be shared with families and used to set reading goals for each student’s Reading Plan. We look forward to partnering with you to increase reading outcomes for your child.

Contacts/Pick-up Lists:

Please make sure your student’s pick-up list is up to date by updating the Contacts listed in PowerSchool. You can do this by logging in to your Parent Portal account. Anyone coming to pick up a student for early dismissal MUST be listed in PowerSchool. If someone is not listed in PowerSchool, we will not be able to call the student down.

EARLY DISMISSAL: The cut off time for early dismissals is 2:30 pm.

Anyone picking up a student must present their driver’s license for identification.

Photos of your license or Virginia Mobile ID cannot be accepted per Henrico County policy.

Update any food allergies your student may have via the button below.

*Transportation information is forthcoming.

Parent Portal Bus App HCPS families can access The Edulog Parent Portal bus tracking app. This app will empower families, improve communication and foster efficiency. Parents, guardians, and caregivers can follow their student’s bus, receive notifications when a bus enters a user-defined zone, and receive notifications that their student has boarded/disembarked the bus. Download on App Store or Google Play.

As a district, HCPS is excited to share that we now offer families access to Securly Home, a free app and web portal that gives you real-time visibility and control over your child's online activity on school-issued devices outside of school hours.

With Securly Home, you can easily:

• Monitor activity: View a visual summary of your child’s daily online activities (Stories), access a 30-day history (Activity Feed), and receive real-time alerts for flagged behavior related to self-harm, bullying, or violence.
• Set boundaries: Control online activity at home by allowing or blocking specific websites, search terms, and content categories using Rules.
• Manage screen time: Set Internet time limits with Offline Schedules, or temporarily pause and resume internet access for each child using the in-app Pause button.

How to get started: Parents who are listed as Contacts 1 & 2 in PowerSchool with a registered email will receive a welcome email from Securly containing your official login credentials. From there, you can download the mobile app or visit https://securly.com to log into the Parent Portal. For troubleshooting and helpful video guides, please visit https://homesupport.securly.com or reach out to Ms. Cappell at jdchyman@henrico.k12.va.us.

Secondary Schools

To ensure a learning environment free from unnecessary disruptions, cell phones and unauthorized electronic devices are required to be out of visible sight, and silenced, or in airplane mode during the school day, and during instruction-related after-school activities (tutoring, homework help, make-up work, etc.), unless being used for instructional purposes with the teacher’s permission. Unauthorized electronic devices include, but are not limited to, cell phones, and smart devices with cellular service or Wi-Fi connectivity.

To further reduce distractions in the classroom, students are required to put their cell phones and smart devices in division-issued storage devices during scheduled class time. This will provide even more consistency throughout and between schools. If a student needs to leave class to visit the restroom, clinic, school counseling office, etc., their cell phone and/or smart device must remain in the classroom. Students will keep their phones and smart devices away in their personal belongings during class changes and at lunch.

Recommended Consequences

First Offense

Second Offense

Third Offense

Fourth Offense

Dress Code The HCPS dress code policy permits any student to wear any religiously, ethnically, or culturally specific or significant head covering or hairstyle, including hijabs, yarmulkes, headwraps, braids, locs, and cornrows. All students will be subjected to the same set of expectations regardless of gender, gender identity, or gender expression. These expectations should also carry to clubs, and extra-curricular activities. Staff are prohibited from applying the dress code by direct physical contact with a student or a student’s attire and from requiring a student to undress in front of any other individual. This policy complies with the Code of Virginia.

The administration of every school has the authority to notify students and parents/guardians of modifications to the dress code for spirit days and other school celebrations, as particular items pose a disruption, or as other circumstances warrant. Students may not wear the following items unless otherwise stated:

Students may not wear the following items unless otherwise stated:

• Hoods (on heads), hats, or face masks (that covers more than the mouth and nose) inside school buildings, during regular school hours, unless required for religious or medical reasons. • Sunglasses (worn indoors), unless prescribed by a physician.
• Clothing must reach the tip of the thumb when hands placed at the sides (arms straight with palms flat).
• Messages on clothing, chains, jewelry, and personal belongings that pertain to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, gangs, vulgarity, or messages that negatively represent a religion, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, transgender status, or people, or that could cause a substantial disruption to the learning environment.
• Spiked jewelry, chains, and items which could cause student injury. • Beachwear (which includes bathing suits and trunks) and sleepwear.
• Clothing that reveals undergarments.
• Clothing that is see-through, revealing the midriff (while sitting or standing), or resembles undergarments.
• Bedroom slippers or shoes with wheels.

The administrative team in each school shall have discretion regarding dress code decisions. Parents/Guardians of students who violate the dress code may be contacted to provide appropriate clothing for their child(ren), if necessary.

Schedule change requests will not be accepted until September 9th - 23rd. More information to come about how to send requests.

Tamika Stacy Registrar

Phone ext. 20007

tcstacy@henrico.k12.va.us

Sarah Fish 7th Grade

stfish@henrico.k12.va.us

Gracyn Rawls 8th Grade

glrawls@henrico.k12.va.us

Corey Hancock 6th Grade

clhancock1@henrico.k12.va.us

Jorli Swingen

Director for School Counseling/ EL & last name A- B

Jkswingen@henrico.k12.va.us

Back to School Night is an opportunity for parents to meet our teachers and tour the building if they were unable to attend Open House. Please note that Back to School Night is designed for introductions and school walkthroughs, not individual parent-teacher conferences.

If you would like to become a volunteer, please complete the online volunteer/mentor application via the link below.

September 4th- Teacher Student Holiday-Schools Closed

September 7th- Labor Day-Schools Closed

September 28th- Student Holiday-Teacher PD Day

October 28th- 1/2 Day-Staff Clerical Day

Tyrus T. Lyles, Ed.D.-Principal-ttlyles@henrico.k12.va.us

Quantina Jackson- Associate Principal- qtjackson@henrico.k12.va.us

Sharne' Francis- Associate Principal- sjfrancis@henrico.k12.va.us

Akeela Tyson-Assistant Principal- altyson@henrico.k12.va.us

Blake Carrey-Assistant Principal- abcarrey@henrico.k12.va.us

Jorli Swingen- Director of School Counseling-jkswingen@henrico.k12.va.us

Kendra Amis-Athletic Director- kdamis@henrico.k12.va.us

Jennifer Jenkins-Administrative Aide- jrjenkin@henrico.k12.va.us

Torre Siler-Administrative Aide- tsiler@hennco.k12.va.us

Abby Thomas- Administrative Aide- elreed@henrico.k12.va.us

Jocelyn Woodson- Administrative Aide- jrwoodson1@henrico.k12.va.us

Kristina Harris-Administrative Aide-kvharris@henrico.k12.va.us