Great evening fantastic families,

We are finally at the finish line for what has been a steeple chase of year. We have faced many obstacles and barriers this year but our Hornet spirit persevered and our scholars enjoyed a somewhat normal school year. I am excited that at this point we are mask optional, competed in athletics, unassigned seating in the cafeteria and classrooms, taken field trips and had a successful school dance among other victories through the pandemic. It has been a long year but I am sure we are all more resilient because of it.

This final week, students will not be able to bring backpacks Thursday & Friday of this week. We have celebrations planned for our 6th & 7th grade scholars and an 8th grade ceremony (another event we were not able to host last year. Special thanks to Keri Jaworski for her work to make this possible) and celebration. 8th grade students will be given their 3 tickets by counselors Tuesday May 24th. We have also released our compiled summer schedule (located below in a red button) and are looking forward to our 6th grade orientation August 4th from 8a - 12p. Our buses will run so transportation will be provided. Thank you for choosing Kealing Middle School and Austin ISD, feel free to reach out to me directly for any reason at all and if you have not done so already, please re-enroll your scholar by using the link above. jerald.wilson@austinisd.org

Monday -May 23rd - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Tuesday - May 24th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

8th Grade Celebration

Wednesday - May 25th- B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Last day students can bring backpacks to school

7th Grade Celebration during B8

8th Grade Ceremony @6p , Eastside Early College High School

Thursday - May 26th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

No Backpacks Allowed

Principal's Coffee @ 8a - 9a, Hornet Library

KMS CAC Meeting @ 4p, Zoom (Click here to join meeting)

Friday - May 27th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

No Backpacks Allowed

Last Day of School

Thank you to everyone who came to the Parent Swarm this week. It was a great event with good food, excellent music and fun company. Thank you to Chris Tice who organized the event and everyone who brought coolers or drinks. Thanks to Scott Strickland and his band and The Flaming Pit for the venue and BBQ sandwiches.

This past week we had our last PTA membership meeting of the year and approved a budget for next year as well as elected next year’s executive board. Unfortunately, we are still needing someone to serve as PTA president next year. If you’re interested, please send me an email at president@kealingpta.org. Another role we will need to fill soon is a webmaster to keep the PTA website updated. If you would like to help with that, send me an email.

Complete

Before School

All staff, students, and visitors are encouraged to self screen for COVID 19 symptoms before entering into a campus or other Austin ISD Facilities each day

Arrival

- We will maintain outdoor markers to social distance

Transition

- we will encourage moving halls where students are encourage to not stop while transitioning to classes

- Hornet Passes are available for students with anxiety about being in large groups

Classrooms

- We are seating/desks at least 3 feet apart when feasible

- Each classroom has a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filtration unit

- Personal Protective Equipment will be available in each room

- Plexiglass dividers available

- Additional outdoor seating (2 outdoor classrooms & the courtyard if teachers plan to use)

Breakfast & Lunch

- Students are allowed to eat lunch both inside the cafeteria and outside in the courtyard

- Dividers are available if a student prefers to use at lunch (we are taking down the plexiglass dividers)

- The courtyard comfortably seats 4 classes, which is from 25% - 100% of the lunch capacity for each lunch period.

Dismissal

- we will have staggered dismissal where scholars will be dismissed by areas of the building to reduce traffic.

Changes

- Masks are optional

- assigned seating for lunches is a discontinued practice

- We are no longer using the staggered transitions

- no more assigned seating during lunches

- we no longer use the accordian plexiglass dividers (student may use a divider if the student prefers)

New intervention to address Hallway safety at KMS

• We decided to extend the divider at the 200 to 500 entrance and it has been effective.
• We have dividers at each of the hall doorways on the second floor, we will add to the 1st floor this week
• Austin ISD MTSS (Multi Tiered System of Support) Team will come by to observe our transitions Monday (5/9/22) and help develop a plan to improve hallway safety at KMS
• We have 20 dividers ordered to help divide halls, they will provide physical barriers to help enforce the walk to the right expectation & help provide structure to the small hallway corridors
• Researching systems to implement for the 2022-2023 school year

Previous Adjustments to improve hallway safety during transitions

• Frequent announcements & reminders prior to transitions

• Strategic placement of Security Guards

• Teachers at their doors

• One minute warning before tardy bell

• Dividers in tight door quarters( This was not discussed on this day but has been implemented to decrease bottlenecks on campus where pushing occurs)

• reduction of hall passes, more structured sign out routines in classrooms (to monitor who went in restrooms to decrease threats)

• Counselors and front office workers strategically placed in halls to help with supervision

• Floating administrators and other campus leaders to provide more supervision in halls

This camp is for students who are interested in learning and mastering fundamental volleyball skills. Campers will participate in volleyball drills that focus on passing, setting, hitting, strategy and game play.
We hope you join us this summer for an exciting week of volleyball.

Date- July 25th-July 28th 2022 (Mon-Thurs)
Location- Kealing MS Gym 1607 Pennsylvania Ave Austin, TX 78702
Time- 8:30am -12:30 pm each day. Registration begins @ 8:00 am. on 1st day of camp
Cost- $ 75.00 per camper. (Scholarships are available if needed upon request)
Athletes will need to come dressed in athletic attire, and bring a water bottle
Campers will receive a camp T-shirt!!
**7th and 8th grade campers will need to bring an athletic physical that has been completed on the AISD athletic physical form.

Announcing Summer Reading Projects! We want all our Hornets to enjoy some reading over the summer! Please visit this site for all the details. Current 6th and 7th graders will also go over this information in their ELA classes soon. https://sites.google.com/austinisd.org/kealingacadsummerprojects

Time - 6p

Location - Eastside Memorial Early College High School

If you would like to assist contact Keri Jaworski (keri.jaworski@austinisd.org)

Hornet Herald - https://kealing.austinschools.org/parents/archive

Twitter - @KTXHornets

Webpage - https://kealing.austinschools.org/