Phoenix Updates
Summer edition, Updated July 27th, 2026
Principal's Message
Hello, HCHS Community!
I hope everyone stayed safe during the extreme weather we experienced last week. Prior to the rain event, a group of our teacher leaders participated in our Leadership Institute. During this time, we reviewed school achievement data from last year to help inform our campuswide goals for the 2026–27 school year. We saw year-over-year improvement in our overall AP scores, and all of our Algebra I students achieved the meets or masters level, a rare and remarkable accomplishment!
As we head into the new school year, our academic goals will focus on sustaining high levels of college readiness while identifying opportunities for continued growth, including a campuswide emphasis on strengthening reading and writing. We also remain committed to supporting the whole student by providing strong social and emotional supports, with a particular emphasis on belonging and self-efficacy.
Prep Days
Mark your calendars! We want to make sure everyone is as prepared as possible for the first day of school on August 10.
All returning HCHS students will attend Prep Day on July 28, while all ninth-grade students and students new to HCHS will attend on July 29. We strongly encourage everyone to attend. Additional details will be shared as we get closer to these dates.
See a preview of all of the Prep Day stations linked below.
Open House
On both Prep Days, parents and students will have the opportunity to pick up schedules and visit stations. We will not have any all-group presentations for parents. That we will reserve for Open House, which will be August 6th at 6:30 PM.
Schedule Limitations
Due to tighter budget constraints, this year's master schedule has significantly less flexibility than in previous years. I want to prepare our community for the possibility of larger-than-normal class sizes in some courses. Additionally, several elective courses have reached capacity, which means some students may need to be scheduled into an alternate elective rather than their first-choice course.
Within our medical strands, a number of juniors are being scheduled into their second-choice medical course, particularly students who selected Clinical Rotation as their first choice. While it is always our goal to place students in their preferred courses, space, staffing, and scheduling limitations do not always make that possible. Our counselors are working diligently to accommodate student preferences whenever possible while building schedules that best meet the needs of all students.
I am confident that each of our programs provides students with unique learning opportunities and experiences that can only be found at Health Careers. I am also confident that we have an exceptional team of teachers and staff who are dedicated to delivering rigorous academics and meaningful, real-world medical experiences.
Dual Credit Students
All students enrolled in a Dual Credit course are required to have a consent form filled out and returned to our campus by the end of July. Ms. Ollendieck will send an email to all families who still need to submit this form. If you want to get ahead of this, you can find the form below, fill it out, and email it to nereida.ollendieck@nisd.net.
Thank you for your continued support as we prepare for another great year at Health Careers!
Welcome Associate Principal Nita Ollendiek!
