September 12th, 2014
Waggoner’s Word
Dear Parents,
I cannot tell you all how very happy and honored I am to be at Hopewell Middle School as building principal. My career has taken me to wonderful schools and districts and Hopewell is among the best I've ever worked in. The students are exceptional, very polite, follow the expectations, and are actively engaged in learning. The teachers are so dedicated, hard-working, innovative, and creative. The parents I've met are extremely loyal to Hopewell, are supportive and engaged in their children’s education. Hopewell really is one of the best kept secrets in Central Texas. The potential is absolutely unlimited here and with some time, energy, hard work on our part, together we will make Hopewell one of the best middle schools in the state. The administrative support from Dr. Flores, Dr. Rebecca Donald, Annette Vierra, and many others has been absolutely incredible. THEY ALL support the building administration, trust that the present leadership is built around the best interests of the students, and are dedicated to helping our efforts as they can. VERY refreshing to land in such a terrific situation and your children will reap the benefits as they journey through middle school, high school, and beyond. The parents, teaching staff, and administration are an incredible team working hard every day to ensure that your children are growing up both academically and emotionally healthy.
Thank you to those parents that could take time and attend Back to School Night Tuesday night. We had a great turn out and hopefully you got to meet your child’s teacher, get a feel and sense of how that teacher operates, their demeanor, and attributes of their curriculum. I will tell you, I have never seen a more organized group of teachers or who work as hard for your children as they do. Whenever you get some time, take time out and shoot them an email thanking them for their service and for helping your child learn. That will really help their morale and confirm their hard work and efforts.
A special thank you goes out to Amy Hinds and her PTA board for all they do for Hopewell Middle School. The number of volunteer hours they do is absolutely staggering and are always willing to take on more if that is what is asked of them. They just cannot do enough for our school and if you all can, please sign up and volunteer your time for various events throughout our school year. ALL these efforts are so your children can have a great middle school experience and one that they will look back on fondly. Thanks again Amy and your board for all you do for our kids at Hopewell. We truly cannot have the great school we have without you all.
This year, I will be working with the staff on three main points that will serve as our compass as we navigate through the instructional process: RIGOR, RELEVANCE, and RELATIONSHIPS. You will be seeing those three words throughout your child’s experience at Hopewell. In my next few Waggoner’s Word email newsletters, I will define each main point comprehensively and how that will benefit your child. That is the absolute bottom line with me-how will these initiatives benefit your child, give them a deeper understanding of a topic, and prepare them for the next level.
We will be getting out to you through Waggoner’s Word a more detailed definition of our expectations for our student dress code. The vast majority of our students are following our dress code expectations but it doesn't hurt to remind everyone just what they are. Next week, the Hopewell administration will be meeting with all the students via grade level assemblies to review the overall behavior expectations so everyone is on the same page. It’s important that we maintain transparency and consistency when delivering those expectations and also when enforcing them.
A very special welcome is extended to Sarah Sharp and Jessica Listi to the Hopewell staff family. Both these talented teachers were hired to alleviate and relieve the large class sizes in 6th and 7th grade Science and Social Studies. We had classes numbers in the upper 30’s which is unacceptable and again, Central Administration listened to our needs and without hesitation came through with this support. Our goal is to maintain an appropriate class size so teachers can spend more time with each student to ensure that their learning is efficient and engagement is maximized. Ms. Sharp will be our new 6th & 7th grade Science teacher and Ms. Listi will be our new 6th & 7th grade Social Studies teacher. Our counselors will be randomly moving students laterally to the new teacher from those larger classes by the end of this week. This move will not be major surgery to any child’s schedule if they are chosen to move to the new teacher’s class. Those students that will be getting a new teacher will be bringing home a letter on Friday (today) informing you of that lateral teacher change. I know that some students will not want to move however, it’s necessary so that all students can more effectively learn in a more appropriate class size. Your help, explanations to your children, and support is crucial to the success of this effort. I assure you, your child would be extremely lucky to be moved into either of these two talented teachers’ classrooms. Thanks in advance for that support.
Our 7th and 8th grade Hopewell Volleyball teams both played Cedar Valley MS tough in their matches last night but came up short. I told the coaches and some of the girls that the fact they hung tough against that very good team is a great sign for a very good season. Good luck to our 7th and 8th grade Hopewell Football teams as they begin their season next week. 7th grade boys are at Walsh beginning at 5:30 and the 8th grade boys are at Dragon Stadium Tuesday vs. Walsh beginning at 5:30.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Looks like cooler weather is on the way!
Karl
