September 25th, 2015
Dear Parents
Calendar of Events for the Week of September 28th-
October 2nd:
Monday, September 28th: 7th Grade
Fball vs. Chisholm Trail 5:30 PM @ Dragon Stadium
Tuesday, September 29th: 8th Grade
Fball @ Chisholm Trail MS 5:30 PM
Thursday, October 1st: 7th & 8th
Vball: 7th @ Deerpark MS/8th vs. Deerpark MS Hopewell gym
5:30 PM
Friday, October 2nd: School Pictures
TECH LINK
Parents, please copy and paste the link below to you
browser and check out the cool tech stuff on it posted by our incredible
Instructional Technology Specialist Vickie Bradford!
Girls Volleyball
Info
Our volleyball season is off to a great start! The 7th
and 8th grade B team tournament was held last weekend where our
Hopewell girls made it into the silver pool. The 7th grade B team
placed 3rd out of a strong field of teams. Please come and join us while we host the
first portion of the A team tournament this Friday at Hopewell MS gym. Hopewell plays Wiley MS at 5:30 PM and will
play Cedar Valley at 7:30. Good luck
Lady Hornets!
Excused Absences
in public schools per State of Texas
This is a FYI only>The State of Texas defines excused
absences as those that involve a student being sick/Doctor’s appointments,
death of a family member and funeral, and for those absences due to school
related activities and events. ALL other
absences including trips are considered unexcused. Under the state compulsory attendance laws,
students must be in school 90% of the school year. Student absences that accrue over 18 absences
for the year will result in a referral to a school attendance committee. The attendance
committee will review the absences and determine how and when that lost
instructional time will be made up. At
Hopewell, we are looking at several options for those few students that have
excessive absences such as Saturday School, Friday after school time, and
community service. Please make sure that
each absence is covered by a note from parents/guardians, or by a doctor. Have your child bring the note to the main office
to Linda Zamarripa our Hopewell attendance secretary.
7th & 8th
Grade Accelerated Math Policy
Students that were placed
in an accelerated math course in 5th and 6th grades will
automatically be placed in accelerated math the next school year if they have a
minimum of an 80% grade average. However, those students that request to up
level from an on level math curriculum to an accelerated curriculum must meet
certain prerequisite criteria as listed below. Concepts in accelerated math are taught at a
much faster pace and provide greater opportunities for more in depth critical
thinking and problem solving learning targets than in on-level math. Some students are not developmentally ready
for the rigors of accelerated math and will not experience the successes or the
depth of knowledge if inappropriately placed in accelerated math. Many students,
as they grow through the middle school years,
develop the necessary fundamentals and skills required for an accelerated math
curriculum as they enter high school. It
is our responsibility as their teachers to ensure that their placement in math
is appropriate for their individual math developmental and instructional
level. ALL students will have the
opportunity to apply for accelerated math next school year and will be accepted
if they meet the requirements outlined in the rubric below. Additionally, students must maintain a
certain level of mastery and achievement in order to remain in an accelerated
math course.
Maintaining
ELIGIBILITY in 6th & 7th grade accelerated math for
all students:
1. Students must maintain a minimum of an 80% average to
remain in 6th or 7th grade
accelerated math.
2. If students fall below
80% for one 6 weeks grading period
then they will be placed on a probationary status for the following six week
grading period. Parents will be notified
via a letter regarding their child’s probationary status for the next six weeks
grading period. Students must regain at least an 80% average the next six weeks
or will be placed in on-level math for the remainder of the school year. Students may drop below 80% for only one six
week grading period to remain in accelerated math.
FREE LITTLE LIBRARIES
We now have three Free Little Libraries mounted
across our campus! A free little library is a cool way of encouraging students
to read often, while also providing students, who may not have access to books
for whatever reason, a place to obtain a book with no questions asked. A
student (or teacher) simply browses the books within the little library,
chooses one of interest to read, and either returns the same book at a later
date, or replaces it with a book that they feel worthy of sharing with others.
The Free Little Libraries are located in the upper commons we now have three
Free Little Libraries mounted across our campus! A free little library is cool
way of encouraging students (and people in general) to read often, while also
providing students, who may not have access to books for whatever reason, a
place to obtain a book with no questions asked. A student (or teacher) simply
browses the books within the little library, chooses one of interest to read,
and either returns the same book at a later date, or replaces it with a book
that they feel worthy of sharing with others. The Free Little Libraries are
located in the upper commons (next to the art display case) , in the 7th
grade Hall (between Mr. Crellin's room and the mechanical room), and in the 8th
grade hall (between the science room and mechanical room). If you would like to
donate books to the Free Little Libraries, either insert them into any of the
little libraries yourself, or drop them off in the book donation box, situated
outside Mrs. Hargrove's room (542). Thanks in advance! (next to the art display
case) , in the 7th grade Hall (between Mr. Crellin's room and the mechanical
room), and in the 8th grade hall (between the science room and mechanical
room). If you would like to donate books to the Free Little Libraries, make
sure that the books are appropriate for middle school students, and have your
child bring them to school and they will either insert them into any of the
little libraries, or drop them off in the book donation box, situated outside
Mrs. Hargrove's room (#542).
This new Hopewell program will help support our
school wide reading initiative where students will be required to read during
advisory on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Thanks again for your support of our Hopewell programs.
PTA Membership Drive
PTA is proud to
announce that we have been awarded the Head Start award for Membership for
the 2015-2016 school year. This means that we
achieved 75% of our 2014-15 membership total before August 31st,
2015. We are one of only 14 schools in our district to achieve this award
so you should be very proud of yourself if you have joined and become a
registered member!
Thank you to all who
joined and are supporting PTA at Hopewell Middle School.
This however, is only
the beginning of our year and we would like to continue to growing our
membership and continue to achieve awards while we are doing that.
It is RRISD's goal as
a district to continue to increase membership until we reach the point where
every child in our district (45,000 of them) has at least one member to
advocate for them - last year our district had just over 22,000 PTA members so
we have a ways to go.
BUT we can do this!
We at Hopewell can do
our part in this! We have lots of targets to achieve that will make this
goal possible.
Mr Waggoner has agreed
that 100% of teachers will be members by Monday next week. We
have 8 to go!
We want 14
more Dad's or Grandpa's by September 30th so we achieve
50 men on our membership database. This is awarded as the MARS (Men are
Really Super) award so let's do it!
We need 11
more students to join to grow our Student Membership to the first
marked milestone. If you have joined yourself, have you joined your
student?
We need 23
more members to meet and match last year's membership numbers of 271.
RRISD has set us a
personal goal of honoring 40 years of PTA by recruiting 40 new
members who have not joined before.
We have Students on
our Board this year in the position of Reflections Chair and Co-Chair, this is
a recognition that RRISD acknowledge as students on a school PTA board is not a
common situation - Go Hopewell!
Which category will
you help out? Please download the attached membership form and send it to
school with the membership fee of $8.00. Do it now, do it this
week. Your child can hand it into their Advisory Teacher who
will get it to PTA!
The time to take
action is NOW!
Shop, Take a Picture, Earn $$$ for Hopewell
with Shoparoo!
DO YOU SHOPAROO? WANT to
help raise money for HOPEWELL the EASY way with nothing extra to sell or buy?
Just down the app and take pictures of your receipts when you shop for
your household. Any receipt of any amount will earn points. Points are
turned into MONEY for HOPEWELL !!!!
Download the FREE phone app and start
SNAPPING today!
We currently have 58 supporters &
we are at 31,500 Roo points = $60.00 It's the
easiest way for you to support HMS!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Karl
Karl
Twitter@KarlWaggoner
