We had an excellent first two days of school at HPMS! Thank you all for having your students here and ready to go the past two days! I also want to thank those of you with car riders for doing a great job with our arrival and dismissal procedures! Thank you to those of you who followed directions to the letter and helped this run smoothly.

I've also been very proud of how our students have conducted themselves and worked to meet expectations so far, and we are excited about the great year that we have ahead.

The Days Ahead

We will have the fall math diagnostic test on Tuesday, 8/8 and the fall reading diagnostic on Thursday, 8/10 of this week. Please encourage your students to do their absolute best on these critical tests. These tests impact everything from interventions that we provide to goal setting for all students to honors placements. Even day-to-day classroom instruction is impacted by these tests. It is highly important that students do their best so that we have an accurate measurement of where students are now and what they need to do to improve.

If you want your student to be a part of our After School Program, please note that it begins on August 21st. Applications were handed out during Meet the Teacher, but we have more in the office. Please send these applications back with your students ASAP if you would like for them to participate as space is limited.

Grade Level Newsletters/Agendas

Grade level newsletter information will be posted here starting next Friday, August 14th.

General Procedural Notes

If you are unclear about the dismissal procedures, I have them listed along with a map below. We do ask that you follow them as they are listed to help us keep things running smoothly and safely. We were right at 10 minutes of time between the first and final cars leaving both days, and I would say that is highly successful for the the start of school!

Please be aware of the following expectations have been shared with students regarding Chromebooks:

1. These Chromebooks are for school use. If you transfer out of the school the Chromebook and charger must be returned to the school.

2. The hard plastic cases must remain on the Chromebook at all times.

3. Please do not put any stickers anywhere on the Chromebook, charger or case.

4. Do not write on the Chromebook, case or charger.

5. Make sure there are not ANY objects between the screen and keyboard when closing the lid.

6. Please do not eat or drink over your Chromebook.

7. Charge your Chromebook at home every night and leave your charger at home.

8. Keep all of your usernames and passwords secure. DO NOT share them with others.

9. The first accidental damage is covered by the technology fee. Any additional damages or intentional damage will result in a bill being sent home.

10. Report any problems to your teacher who will send you to Mrs. Totman and Mr. Hufham as needed.

We want you to be aware of these as well so that you can reinforce these expectations with your students to avoid fines or other complications with these devices.

I wanted to also highlight some common procedural questions that come up as we get into the school year here:

• On page 3 of our handbook, we have asked that family members refrain from dropping off food, money, clothing, or other random items for students. Food and gifts in particular often create a disruption and more students requesting this from their parents. We appreciate your help in keeping our students focused.
• We also ask that parents help us to remind students that they are to utilize the proper procedures for contacting home if needed. Student phones are to be turned off and put away throughout the day. Once students have gotten permission from teachers or staff, we have phones available throughout the school for students to contact home in case of emergency, and our front office staff allows students to use personal devices if needed to contact home as long as they have gotten permission from office staff.
• We appreciate your help in making sure students wear clothing that meets our dress code. The most common issues we typically see are shorts that are too short, tops that are too short and do not cover the buttocks when leggings are worn as pants, and tops that expose the midriff. The dress code can be found on page 8 of the handbook. I have linked the handbook here!

Many more things have been covered with your students over the past two days regarding the handbooks, and we highly recommend you review these with your students as well as the school year begins!

As always, I am happy to go into further detail if more is needed regarding the policies above. We are very blessed to have such supportive and understanding families who appreciate our efforts to provide a safe and focused learning environment for your children.

State Department Tutoring Resource

This is a great resource from the state for students and parents. The link below is a quick Screencastify video that shows how to go to the Tutor.com program through discus. (No audio)

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/xXFJ54tuo7maIx8GiJDr

Thank you,

John Michael Hall, Principal of Honea Path Middle School

Arrival and General Procedures

Please continue to assist us in the mornings with drop offs. It is very helpful to us and the other parents in line if you will pull forward, at least until the end of the brick flowerbed wall out front to let your child out if you are in the front of the line. We ask that other cars behind the lead car to pull forward as well. This adds only a few extra steps for your student, but it goes much faster for everyone and helps everyone get to class on time if we can unload 4 or more students at a time out front. Students must be in their 1st period classroom by 8AM in order to not be counted tardy.

Dress Code Information

We appreciate in advance your help with our updated dress code for this year. I ask you to please review these for yourself and with your students. They have been covered in school with the teachers, but we greatly appreciate your help at home. The most common issues we typically see are holes in pants that are far too large or too high, shorts that are too short, shirts that are too short or cut too low, exposed undergarments, and shirts/tops that aren't long enough over leggings. Please also note that we also don't allow blankets/pillows to be carried or hats/hoodies worn in the building.

PTO

If you’re interested in volunteering to help with the PTO, or if you're just interested in finding out ways to help support our students and teachers, please contact the PTO at hpmspto@gmail.com for more information! We would love to have you involved!

HPMS Parent/Student Handbook

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE 23-24 STUDENT HANDBOOK ONLINE

All HPMS students have been given a physical copy of the handbook, and they've all been asked to share this with you and have you sign the student behavioral contract/celebration contract.

Dress code can be found on pages 8-9.

Discipline information, including cell phone policies, can be found on pages 14-22.

The flyers above explain how students can utilize Tutor.com for free through scdiscus.org. Also, the link below is to a video tutorial that explains how it works and what features it offers. This is an excellent resource and we want to make sure all of our students have the information needed to access it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vseB8vIXI

If you have more than one student attending HPMS, we ask that you follow the procedure for the eldest student. If you are carpooling, we ask that you follow the procedure for 8th graders.

6th Grade - 6th grade students will be dismissed to the front car line, and we will continue to have parents pull forward until you reach your child. 6th graders will be waiting down at the end of the sidewalk in front of the 4K building (except in cases of severe weather). We ask 6th grade parents to approach the school from the Main Street side of Central Avenue. This will keep us from backing up on to 252 from Brock, and it should require very little driving out of the way to get in line. We ask that you do not attempt to turn left from Brock into the front of the school as this is against the traffic laws on that road during school hours.

7th Grade - 7th grade students will cross the road to get in cars which will be on Park Ave. on the right side of the road. Please do not block the entrance/exit to the parking lot in front of the school when you are in line. Park Ave. is wide enough that if you will pull to the right, it will still allow traffic through on Park as needed. Once you pick up your student, please turn left onto Brock Ave. to help us keep that crosswalk cleared. We also prefer that you would get in line from the part of Central Ave. that runs behind the football field to avoid backing up traffic on Park. We realize this may not be practical for all.

8th Grade and Carpooling Students - 8th grade students will go to the parking lot across the street for dismissal. To make leaving easier for you, please park in the center column of spaces in the lot. We are also asking that you turn left out of the parking lot when you leave. We realize that this is less convenient for those of you who normally turn right, but it will keep from having two sets of traffic turning onto Brock Ave. at the same time and creating a bottleneck. If you are picking up two or more students, you are welcomed to use this lot as well, regardless of grade level.

We ask that you drive carefully around the school because there will be several different valves of traffic going to and from the school.

• 8/8 - Fall Math Diagnostic Test
  
• 8/10 - Fall Reading Diagnostic Test
  
• 8/14 - ASD2 Board Meeting - 5:00PM @ DO
• 8/21 - After School Program Begins
• 8/23 - 8th Grade Field Trip Meeting - 5:30PM
• 8/28 - Volleyball v Riverside - HOME - 5:30PM
• 8/30 - Volleyball @ Walhalla - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 8/31 - Fall Picture Day
• 9/4 - Labor Day - School Holiday
• 9/5 - Q1 Progress Reports
• 9/5 - Volleyball v West Oak - HOME - 5:30PM
• 9/6 - Volleyball @ Palmetto - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 9/7 - Football @ West Oak - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 9/11 - ASD2 Board Meeting - 5:00PM @ DO
• 9/11 - Volleyball v Liberty - HOME - 5:30PM
• 9/13 - Volleyball @ Belton - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 9/14 - Football @ Riverside - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 9/18 - Volleyball v Dacusville - HOME - 5:30PM
• 9/20 - Volleyball v Walhalla - HOME - 5:30PM
• 9/21 - Football v Palmetto - HOME - 5:30PM
• 9/25 - Volleyball v Starr-Iva - HOME - 5:30PM
• 9/27 - Volleyball @ Liberty - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 10/2 - Volleyball v Belton - HOME - 5:30PM
• 10/5 - End of Quarter 1
• 10/5 - Football v McCants - HOME - 5:30PM
• 10/6 - PD Day - No School for Students
• 10/9 - ASD2 Board Meeting - 5:00PM @ DO
• 10/9 - Volleyball @ Dacusville - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 10/11 - Volleyball @ Starr-Iva - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 10/12 - Football v Starr-Iva - HOME - 5:30PM
• 10/18 - Fall Picture Retakes
• 10/19 - Earthquake Drill - 10:19AM
• 10/19 - Football @ Belton - AWAY - 5:30PM
• 10/26 - Football v Liberty - HOME - 5:30PM
• 10/30-10/31 - Fall Break - School Closed