Brief Message From the Principal

October is here, and we have a lot to look forward to at Hansen Jr./Sr. High School! Homecoming Week begins Monday, October 5, with this year’s theme, “The Happiest Place on Earth.” We have a full week of dress-up days, activities, athletics, our parade, Powderpuff, Hansen Fest, Friday night football, and the Homecoming Dance. I encourage everyone to join in, have fun, and show your Husky Pride!

As we enjoy the excitement, remember that first quarter ends October 15th. Now is a great time to check PowerSchool, address missing work, and make sure students are taking advantage of available support.

Parent-Teacher Conferences are Tuesday, October 20th , from 4:30–8:30 PM in the gym. We are changing things up a little this year to make it easier for families to connect directly with their student’s teachers. More information will be coming soon!

There are so many great things happening at Hansen, and I’m excited to share some of them in this month’s newsletter. Here’s to a great October and an awesome Homecoming Week!

Features in this month's newsletter:

✅ News
📅 Upcoming Dates
💚 Booster Club Meeting
🖤 Husky Gear
🏈🏐 Fall Sport Schedules
🐾Hansen Jr/Sr High Beliefs

Thank you,

Mrs. Carter

Homecoming Week: “The Happiest Place on Earth!”

Homecoming is next week, and Hansen High School is heading to The Happiest Place on Earth! This is always such a fun week for our students, and I’m excited to see the creativity, school spirit, and Husky Pride throughout the building. Encourage students to participate, join in on the dress-up days yourselves, and help us make Homecoming Week something our students will remember!

🎬 Class Movie Themes
7th Grade – The Little Mermaid
8th Grade – Toy Story
9th Grade – Cars
10th Grade – Frozen
11th Grade – Bambi
12th Grade – Up

Monday, October 5 – Crazy Hair Day! 🤪
• Pep Assembly – Assembly Schedule
• Volleyball @ Carey

Tuesday, October 6 – Twin Day! 👯
• Dress like twins!
• JH Volleyball @ Dietrich

Wednesday, October 7 – Anything But a Backpack Day! 🎒🚫
• Get creative with what you use to carry your school supplies!
• Volleyball vs. Richfield – PINK OUT! 💗

Thursday, October 8 – Dress as Your Movie! 🎥
• Each class dresses to match its Homecoming movie theme
• Homecoming Parade – 2:00–2:30 PM
• Powderpuff – 6:30 PM

Friday, October 9 – Game Day! 🏈💚
• Hansen Fest – 5:00–7:00 PM
• Football vs. Dietrich 7:00
• Royalty and class winners will be announced at halftime.

Saturday, October 10 – Homecoming Dance 💃🕺
• 8:00–10:00 PM in the High School Gym
• Open to students in grades 9–12

Homecoming is one of those weeks where we get to showcase what makes Hansen special. Let’s embrace the fun, encourage participation, and bring the HYPE and Husky Pride all week long!

PBIS Update

💚 PBIS: Recognizing the Positive! 🖤

At Hansen Jr./Sr. High School, PBIS is about more than rewards. It’s about intentionally recognizing and reinforcing the behaviors that help make our school a positive place for everyone. Each day, we encourage our Huskies to be Respectful, Responsible, and Ready to Learn! When staff see students demonstrating these expectations, they have a couple of ways to recognize them. Students may earn Husky Bucks, which can be redeemed for items such as college swag, snacks, stickers, and other fun rewards. Staff can also complete a Husky Howl recognizing a student for going above and beyond. Those Howls are mailed home so families can celebrate right along with us!

🏆 Our Monthly PBIS Assembly

Once a month, we bring the entire student body together for a PBIS assembly that includes a short behavior lesson, student involvement, and, of course some fun! This month’s focus was gym behavior and good sportsmanship. A huge thank you goes to our freshmen for doing a great job teaching the expectations to their peers! Students then had the opportunity to put those behaviors into action during a schoolwide dodgeball activity. It was a fun way to reinforce what positive sportsmanship looks and sounds like while building some school spirit along the way.

💵 Husky Howls = Chances to WIN!

Our PBIS assemblies also give us an opportunity to celebrate students who have been recognized with Husky Howls throughout the month. All students who received a Husky Howl were entered into our prize drawings. One junior high student and one high school student were selected for the PBIS Cash Grab! Each student got to grab two bills from the bin, with the chance to walk away with anywhere from $2 to $150! We also drew from all of our Husky Howl recipients for an additional prize. This month’s winner chose a pair of JBL Vibe Earbuds!

We love seeing our students recognized for doing the right things. PBIS gives us a chance to notice the positive, celebrate our students, explicitly teach expectations, and continue building a school culture where everyone feels welcome and supported.

Keep it up, Huskies! Respectful. Responsible. Ready to Learn.

On September 21, we had the opportunity to welcome Coach Vera Jo “VJ” Bustos to Hansen Jr./Sr. High School for a schoolwide assembly. Coach VJ shared a powerful message with our students about confidence, mindset, preparation, and courage and challenged each of us to think about the things that may be holding us back from reaching our potential. I loved seeing how engaged our students were and how Coach VJ’s message connected with students in so many different ways. Whether in athletics, academics, activities, relationships, or simply navigating the challenges of growing up, her message about believing in yourself and having the courage to step outside of what is comfortable was something we can all carry with us. A huge thank you to Mrs. Torrero for making this opportunity possible and bringing Coach VJ to Hansen!

Rather than hearing only my perspective on the assembly, I wanted to share the perspective of one of our students. Abigail Piercy took the time to reflect on Coach VJ’s visit and what she hoped our students would take away from the experience. Her article was edited by Phebe Moreno, and I’m excited to share their work with our families and community below.

A Student’s Perspective

Written by Abigail Piercy | Edited by Phebe Moreno

We had an incredible guest speaker on September 21st here at Hansen Jr/Sr Highschool. Vera Jo Bustos, or better known as Coach VJ! Coach VJ has a quite impressive background in athletics, specifically in basketball. She is a college basketball Hall of Fame inductee, former professional basketball player, and even helped to carry her team to the NCAA Sweet 16. She decided to follow her childhood dream of travelling overseas to play professionally in Greece.

What makes Coach VJ even more incredible is that she now works with different organizations and groups, including professional athletes and colleges, throughout the country; with her main focuses being confidence, mental toughness, and leadership. Mrs. Torrero invited her to our school to give us (students) a motivational speech about our inner sources of strength which includes: preparation, mindset, and courage.

Coach VJ taught our school that our “dead zones” (or more commonly known as our “comfort zones”) have us waiting for the opportunities that sometimes never come, which keeps us from being successful in life and the things we want to be good at. She even gave us an example of not leaving our “dead zone”. During the assembly, she was giving away $10. However, nobody went down and students were just yelling for the money. Finally, two students had the courage to get out of their “dead zone” and grab the money.

Another inner strength is preparation. Preparation represents how we should prepare ourselves for future scenarios instead of procrastinating every little or big thing. ‘Mindset’ represents how we think about ourselves, how we talk to ourselves, and how our brains process certain situations. For example, if you find yourself failing at something you’re normally good at, you might think to yourself “I’m not good at this anymore” or even “I’m a failure.” Courage connects to our dead zone in that if we wait for opportunities to come to us, we will never grow. But if we have the courage to leave our dead zone and put ourselves out there, that’s when true growth happens.

At the end of the lecture, VJ left us to think about ways we could improve our mindset and boost our confidence. She wanted us to realize that we have more power than the negative voice in our head that dictates what we can or cannot do. She reminded us that we are more than that if we use our confidence. With that message, we were left with the thought of something we could do better.

We can be better.

I think Abigail’s final words capture Coach VJ’s message, and what we continue to work toward at Hansen perfectly: “We can be better.” 💚🖤🤍

🎃 October

10/1 – JH VB at home v. Valley – 4pm
10/1 - JH Cross Country at Kimberly HS - TBD
10/2 – FB at Carey – 7pm
10/5-9 - HOMECOMING WEEK!!! Watch for more details!
10/5 – VB at home v. Carey – 6pm
10/7 – FFA State Soils
10/7 - VB at home V. Richfield (Homecoming game)
10/8 - Cross Country at Boot Check Sports Ranch
10/9 – Hansen Fest – 5pm
10/9 – FB at home v. Dietrich – 7pm (Homecoming game)
10/12 – JH FB/VB at Castleford – 4pm
10/12 – VB at home v. Castleford – 6pm (Senior Night)
10/13 – JH/JV VB Districts
10/14 – District VB @ High Seed
10/15 – End of 1st Quarter
10/16 – Student Success Day 8:00-11:00
10/16 - FB at Lighthouse - 7pm
10/17 – District VB
10/19 – District VB
10/21 – Parent Teacher Conferences 4:30-8:30 in the Gym
10/22 – No School
10/23 – FB at home v. Camas – 7pm (Senior Night)
10/28 – FFA BASIC/Greenhand/District event

Looking to show off your Hansen Husky pride? We have two great ways to gear up this year!

🐾 SHOP LOCAL — RAE RAE’S CLOSET
Additional Husky gear is available locally through Rae Rae’s Closet! Support local while grabbing some great Hansen gear for students, families, and fans.

To order, contact Rae Rae through her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057304455922

Or email: raeraescloset@outlook.com

🐾 SHOP ONLINE — BSN SIDELINE STORE
Our Hansen Huskies BSN Sideline Store is also open with a variety of apparel and gear featuring Husky logos, sports, and activities!

Shop here:
https://sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/idaho/hansen/hansen-school

Even better, purchases through our BSN store give 10% back to Hansen Athletics!

Whether you shop local or shop online, there are plenty of ways to represent the green and black this year!

Collective Commitments

At Hansen Junior and Senior High School, we are committed to fostering a positive, inclusive, and supportive learning environment where every student is empowered to achieve their full potential. Through the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), we promote respectful, responsible, and ready-to-learn behaviors that contribute to academic excellence and personal growth. By collaborating with all stakeholders, we strive to cultivate lifelong learners and compassionate citizens prepared to succeed in an ever-changing world.