Hornet Herald

Hello fantastic family members,

Thank you all for being the best community of parents and educators in the world. I experienced something this weekend I hadn't experienced in a long time. That experience was community togetherness. We witnessed over 50 volunteers come to help with our school gardens, community gardens, and planting trees. I would also like to say thank you for listening to our recommendation to partake in remote learning. We expected 174 students to enter our school this week, but after our announcement we saw only 13 students by Friday.

Kealing Middle School is still open for on campus learning for any student that needs our services. Having such a small amount of students in the building enables us to create an even safer environment for our learners that need the on campus environment. Thank you again. We look forward to Middle of the Year testing in the coming weeks. This will give us an opportunity to see how well our students have learned the first 18 weeks of standards in core areas. We encourage you all to continue partaking in remote learning this upcoming week. Thank you all for all of your support and have a great week!

Monday - January 18th - no school Martin Luther King Jr Day

Tuesday - January 19th - A Day

Wednesday - January 20th - B Day

Thursday - January 21st - A Day

Friday - January 22nd - B Day

Yesterday the MLK Day of Service organized by the PTA* and Mrs. Bergman was a huge success! See attached pics for more photos of the GREAT times had, the abundance of hard-working helpers, and safety measures (fully masked, personal tools, family units working together). * Special kudos to PTA Chair Angie Bealko, mom to Owen Huels - an amazing worker and community creator!

More information about the pics above:

• community member Clinton Scroggins who helped the Butterfly garden pathway (he's making a documentary about East Austin),
• LASA seniors Romi K & Lena who gave back to Kealing by planting a tree,
• Mr. Wilson, his son Adison and fiancee Lohgan,
• the Vidal family including the fluffiest dog on Earth,
• Claire M and mom shoveling mulch,
• Sadie S & Iris B-T triumphant atop the mulch pile

Hope to see colleagues at the garden tomorrow! Email, call or TEAMS me with questions.

Do you have gently used books at home that you don't want any longer? As a community, we are looking to collect as many books as possible to eventually distribute to our feeder schools, Kealing students and elsewhere. We will collect books starting in mid-January but want you to start creating a book giveaway pile at home NOW! 🙂 Types of books: ALL books, levels Pre-K to 12th grade. Books written in all languages will be accepted.

Collection sites: Kealing will be a collection site but we need more sites! We would like collection sites all over the city. If your family is willing to host a collection site, please contact Ms. Fernandez at kiersten.fernandez@austinisd.org to submit your address as a potential contactless, drop-off location.

Thank you!

Address Part of Town
5310 Musket Ridge 78759 (183/360/MoPac- Great Hills)
2410 Bridle Path, Austin, TX 78703 (Central)
1516 West 29th Street 78703 (Central/Mopac)
1702 Linscomb Ave, 78704 (Central/Zilker)
11617 Georgian Oaks Drive, 78739 (Circle C)
1607 Pennsylvania Ave (EAST)
4518 Sidereal Drive, Austin, TX 78727 (Milwood/Mo Pac and Parmer)
3102 Rexford Dr., 78723 (Mueller/Windsor Park)
5200 Magdelena Dr/78735. (Southwest)
3818 Arrow Dr., Austin TX 78749 (Southwest)
7304 Journeyville Drive, 78735 (Southwest/ Lantana/Oak Hill)

We have a large number of students who are not in TEA compliance when it comes to required immunizations. Prior to Thanksgiving Break, we contacted families with outstanding immunizations requirements. Please submit the required documentation ASAP. You can email the documentation to stephen.mansolo@austinisd.org or drop it off at campus.

Thanks,

Mr. Mansolo

The Kealing Yearbook Staff is committed to documenting the Kealing middle school experience each year through our award winning yearbook. We are also committed to ensuring that every student who might not be able to afford a yearbook has access to one through our scholarship program. This year's yearbook theme is "We're Kealing It", in other words we want to highlight the various way students and staff are persevering and even thriving during this challenging academic year.

Your generosity will be noted in each of the 650 copies that we produce. Further, as a nationally recognized publication, our book is often seen across the country at conventions and as a publisher’s sample, which may further its reach.

Can you help me raise money for Kealing Middle School Yearbook 2021Scholarship Fund? Together we can keep Kealing It!

https://www.snap-raise.com/v2/fundraisers/kealing-middle-school-yearbook-2021?fbclid=IwAR0_JTgWhwm4dsBpxDbkFFAoZcN45Z1_cuqhsh_B_mWIKMEGUDP8xjwWHdo&share_type=clipboard_sharewizard_v2#/

Greetings Kealing Middle School families ,

Please sign up to attend this conference with our parent support specialist Mrs. Perez by January 22nd Here is a link to the conference for more information.

https://ctaafsc.com/

AISD to Continue Free Meals through the 2020-21 School Year

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) recently announced an extension of current school meal programs through the 2020-21 school year. Through the federally-funded program, all Austin ISD students will receive free school meals through June 3, the last day of school.

For students participating in remote, off-campus learning, free 7 day meal packs will be available each Thursday at more than 40 curbside locations throughout Austin. While Austin ISD plans to continue curbside service as long as needed, meal sites are subject to change as more students transition to on-campus learning.

Curbside meal sites and more information can be found here

Austin ISD is committed to putting health and safety protocols in place that will prevent the occurrence and/or spread of COVID-19. However, we must be prepared to quickly and effectively respond to and communicate a lab-confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 at a school or other Austin ISD facility.

The Austin ISD COVID-19 Dashboard will be updated by noon each Tuesday, starting the week of Sept. 21. All lab-confirmed positive cases on campuses will be communicated directly to the campus community. Individuals who may have been exposed will be contacted directly and provided information on the next steps, including a quarantine timeline if needed.

Dear Austin ISD Community,

In order to be proactive and offer additional testing resources to our students and staff, Austin ISD will be offering mass COVID-19 testing once per week while we are in Stage 5 in Austin/Travis County.

We are also excited to announce that rapid tests (for mass testing events only) are now available to ALL Austin ISD students and staff, which includes those who learn and work in-person and remotely.

January Dates and Times

• Thursday, Jan. 21 from 8:30 am-5:30 pm
• Friday, Jan. 29 from 9:00 am-3:00 pm (district asynchronous day)

Locations (for both days)

• North: Northeast Early College High School (Nelson Field) 7105 Berkman Dr. Austin, TX 78752
• South: Austin ISD Central Office 4000 S. IH-35 Austin, TX 78704

Registration

Participants must register to be guaranteed testing. REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/mv9ScYqSTftJiPP76

Items to Bring to Your Testing Appointment

• Austin ISD ID or Badge
• Completed Consent Form
• QR Code from Pre-Registering Online (not required, but strongly encouraged to help decrease wait times): https://register.txrapidtest.org/

Additional information

If you are unable to make either date listed above, or if you have non-AISD family members who wish to access testing, we encourage you to contact your primary care provider or schedule an appointment through Austin Public Health: https://www.austintexas.gov/covid-testinfo

Webpage - www.Kealingmiddleschool.org

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