BHS Monthly Newsletter

Welcome Back! We are excited to be back in session with your students for the 2023-2024 school year!

Just a few items to note: Our school bell schedule will be the same as last year with school starting at 8:15am, and ending at 4:15pm. If you have any questions our Blackfoot High School website is a great resource of information that may be able to help answer your questions. You can even see the morning announcements the students receive daily by clicking on the "Announcements" tab on the front page. Below is a link to our website, it is a great way to keep yourself informed. Down at the bottom of this newsletter is also a link to the BHS Athletics schedule, and another link for the Cross Country schedule.

Welcome back again, we believe it is going to be a great year!

- Tuesday, September 12th & 26th are Club Tuesday for this month.

- Thursday, September 21st Homecoming Royalty Assembly

- September, 25th-29th is Homecoming Week, dress up days

- Friday September 29th the Homecoming Football Game

- Saturday, September 30th Homecoming Dance at BHS Legacy Gym, 8-11pm

- Tuesday, October 3rd Picture retake day

- Monday, October 16th Parent Teacher Conferences, 5-7pm

- December 12th, Blackfoot High School will be hosting the Bingham County Career Fair on Dec. 12 from 8:30-12:30, in the new gym. Parents are welcome to join their students that day to learn more about college and career opportunities.

Below are maps of this year's student and staff parking areas.

• Student Reserved Parking Lots

• Senior Parking- $30/Trimester*

• Bronco Student- $20/Trimester*

• Rec Center (Swim Pool) Student Parking- $10/Trimester*

• Students that are not selected to park in a reserved student parking lot will be required to park in the “free parking” areas on Walker Street or in the baseball/softball parking lot. Students are not allowed to park on Fisher Street (reserved faculty and visitor parking).

• All parking funds support student council activities.

* 1st Trimester 23-24 (Senior- $20, Bronco- $15, Rec Center- $5)

• Parking permits must be placed and visible on the rear window in the lower corner on the driver’s side of the vehicle. Parking spaces will be numbered and students must park in their assigned spot.

• Do not mark parking spaces i.e., graffiti, drawings, or names.

• Must follow all parking regulations at BHS, if violations occur, you will lose your parking privileges.

• First Offense-Warning

• Second Offense-Loss of parking privileges for trimester.

• Third offense-Loss of parking privileges for the school year.

TRIMESTER FINAL EXEMPTION

BLACKFOOT HIGH SCHOOL

A student with two (2) or fewer absences, two (2) or fewer tardies, no truancies, or truant absences in Advisory/Student Collaboration, no suspensions and nothing less than a B- in a class will be exempt from taking the Trimester Final. Being exempt from the Final is the reward for attendance, promptness, and a strong work ethic. The idea is to raise attendance in classes by giving the student the incentive to be in class. Finals play an integral part of preparing a college-bound student for what he/she expects in college. It is not the intention of this policy to eliminate or depreciate the importance of Finals. Assessment is an all important part of the instructional model.

Absences:

All absences except for school-related activities, administrative and counselor initiated visits will count towards Finals. MEDICALS, FUNERALS AND SUSPENSIONS DO COUNT TOWARDS FINALS.

Dual Credit, AP, CTE Classes: Teachers with Dual Credit, AP, CTE classes are left to their own discretion in giving Final Exams.

Assessment:

In order to form unity and congruity, a specific block of time will be created for giving assessments each trimester. All classes will be required to give an assessment. Also, those students who qualify to not take the Final would still have the option to take the Final, if desired.

School Wide Incentives

If a grade level has a 96% or higher attendance at mid-term, every student in that grade level will be allowed to have 3 absences and still qualify for the Trimester Final Exemption.

If a grade level has a 96% or higher attendance the week before finals, every student in that grade level will be allowed to have 4 absences and still qualify for the Trimester Final Exemption.

Conclusion:

The idea is to raise attendance and accountability in classes by giving the student the incentive to be in class. Being exempt from the Final is the reward for attendance, promptness, and a strong work ethic. We realize that there are times when a student will have to miss because of illness, a death in the family or an unexpected event. Unfortunately, these absences will count towards Finals. Please remember, you are not being punished if you have to take the Final.

…A committee of students and teachers developed this policy.

As part of the Gear-Up program for the 11th & 12th graders, a student survey is required by the state of Idaho. If you would like more information about this survey follow this link. To opt out email Candice Kniffen, knifc@d55.k12.id.us.

We have a new app to purchase tickets for our games! It is called IDAFAN! In fact, all of the High Country Conference Schools are using IDAFAN. So if you go to the away games you can purchase tickets on the app as well. After you purchase the tickets it will show up on your phone, and when you get to the game, we just scan your phone to redeem the tickets. We are hoping this will help speed up the process to get you into the games faster. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask at the gates. Thank you to ICCU for helping us get this running!

QR code below will take you to the app download link.

PSAT sign-ups will be on a google form in your students graduating classroom (Graduating class of 2026) and need to be done by September 14th.

If they would like to take the PSAT this year, they need to fill this form out. The PSAT is a formal practice test for the SAT. It will offer a sense of the SAT test style, structure, and general focus of that exam. PSAT will also give a projection of how they will do on the SAT even though it is shorter and easier. We offer it here at Blackfoot High School in October free of charge to you.

For Seniors at Blackfoot High School:

We will apply for Idaho colleges during our advisory class on Oct 17. If you want to apply for BYU-I or colleges out of Idaho, you can do that by finding their application online. Please ask the counseling office any question that you have.

If your seniors are interested in scholarships, they will have access to a live google doc in the senior google classroom, (2024 Google Classroom) called 2023-2024 Scholarships. This page has deadlines and criteria as well as a link for each scholarship.

Please make sure your student is following the dress code policy. If your student is not within dress code they will be asked to have a parent/guardian bring them clothes to change into, or we have options for them to wear.

Stop by the BHS library some time this month to take the "one paragraph challenge". A basket of selected books are wrapped to hide the covers. The only information available about the books are the first paragraphs. Will any of them interest you? Come check them out!

Also, watch for information about this year's Idaho Teen Reading Challenge to be sent out in next month's newsletter. This challenge will run from October to April and is open to all BHS students. See Mrs. Nelson in the library for more information.