Hornet Herald

Great evening fantastic families,

Last week we welcomed scholars back into the building and had a very smooth three days. Our scholars took the masking mandate seriously, we restructured our courtyard eating situation to help with contact tracing, we adjusted our dismissal process to assure less students were in the hall at the same time as we transitioned out of the building, and we ensured each teacher had the adequate amount of plexiglass dividers needed in classrooms. Currently we are waiting on a new order of HEPA filters for staff offices. Mr. Estes sent out our positive case community update on Friday. We had 18 cases but only 8 of which had been on campus. The others were positive over the break and made the wise decision to stay home. Thank you all so much for your communal response and supporting our plans & protocols for COVID Safety. We have included the positive case letter later in this newsletter near our COVID Safety Protocols section. We want you to know that safety is our number one priority and creating a GREAT learning experience is number at Kealing Middle School.

This past week we were also able conduct Girls' Soccer Tryouts and Boys' Basketball Tryouts, created a contingency plan for courtyard seating when it is too cold or rainy outside, hosted our monthly PTA meeting, and boasted the highest enrollment & Attendance percentage in all of AISD. This week we look forward to our first Principal's Coffee of the Spring semester (zoom only - click here for link), an opportunity to celebrate our scholars' 1st semester success academically and on Austin ISD's Short Course Assessments.

Next week we will have our first service day of the Spring semester (1/17 @11:30a) & CAC meeting (1/20 @ 4pm) of the new year. Our campus instructional focus this week and next will be student engagement and participation. We look to see teachers engaging students in the lessons and allowing a space to respond at least once every 6-10 minutes. Thank you all for choosing Kealing Middle School and Austin ISD as your child's primary educator.

#BEGREATmentality #ProgressNotPerfection

Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone who attended the PTA membership meeting on Thursday morning. The next meeting will be on February 3rd at 8 am on zoom.

With the additional outdoor seating purchased by the PTA, our kids have more outdoor eating options at lunchtime. This requires extra adults to supervise! If you can spare an hour or two once a week, it would be greatly appreciated. If you'd like to help, you can let us know your availability here: https://forms.gle/KFPkc7UVLU5dbuhe6 Thank you!

At our December PTA meeting, the student council presented a proposal to give the teachers stipends if they host an after school club. The PTA executive board decided to use the extracurricular budget funds to pay each teacher $100/semester to host a club. We know it's not a significant amount of money, but it's available in the budget and it's at least a small token of gratitude for taking on the extra work.

Our fundraising goals are below where we would like them to be in order to do all the projects we were hoping to this year. Keep an eye out for more information about fundraising.

Not a Kealing PTA member, yet? Click the link below to join Kealing PTA.

https://www.kealingpta.org/

Happy Holidays!

The Kealing PTA Executive Board

1.) Daily Formative Assessment

2.) Literacy in Every Classroom

3.) Standards Aligned Instruction

4.) Progress Monitoring

Academic Goal

Utilizing an array of assessments (MAP- Measure of Academic Progress, SCA - AISD Short Course Assessment, and STAAR - State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness), the percentage of each demographic/special group of students performing at the meets level in Math & English will increase by at least 5% - 10% from August 17th, 2021 to May 27th,2022.

Social Goal

- TBA (we are still working on this but planning to look at the types of counseling visits our students are requesting)

All Day

Mask wearing is mandatory

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

- staggered release

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

- Assigned seating

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

- Plexiglass accordian dividers

-Volunteer lunch monitors

- 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.

Monday - January 10th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Tuesday - January 11th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

Principals' Coffee 8am - 9a (virtual meeting only - click here for the link)

Wednesday - January 12th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Thursday - January 13th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

Friday - January 14th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Monday - January 17th -

KMS Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Day, 1p - 3p in the Kealing Garden

1/17 - Martin Luther King Service day at Kealing Middle School, Sign up using this link

• TCiNN Workshop - Intro to Project WET: learn all about the water based curriculum Project WET with their sampler workshop on January 22 at 10:00am CT. This workshop will provide you with activities you can do in your classroom to discuss all aspects of water education. The workshop will feature 2 hours of pre-work online and two hours at your closest Project WET Coordinator site. Texas Children in Nature Network (TCiNN) will let you know individually where you will be doing the second portion of the training.
• Snow Day at the Science Mill: the Science Mill in Johnson City will be rolling out the white carpet on Saturday, January 15 from 10am-2pm, welcoming guests of all ages to enjoy more than 30 TONS OF REAL SNOW. Bring mittens and gloves to try the coolest hands-on science, including the snowball slingshot, ice chimes, DIY snowball launchers and the snowman laboratory. Also on offer, treats from local food trucks and chainsaw ice sculpting demonstrations from master ice carver Griffon Ramsey.
• Arts + Culture on the Butler Trail - The Trail Foundation is currently accepting applications from artists, designers, and creatives who live in Austin or have lived experience in the city, and who identify as traditionally non-white (Black, Chicano, Hispanic, Latino, Asian American, Indigenous). This call is for (but not limited to) visual, literary, spoken word, music, sound design, performance, dance, textile, and environmental arts backgrounds; designers in the fields of environmental, fashion, graphic, industrial, and similar design fields; as well as people who practice creative cultural traditions. Three creatives will be paid to collaborate on the design and installation of floating wetlands on Lady Bird Lake in spring 2022, incorporating artistic components and ecological function to the project. Applications are due February 4, 2022.

Julia Hill (she/her)

Program Coordinator – Cities Connecting Children to Nature

City of Austin | Parks & Recreation Department | Park Planning Division

+1 512-974-9466 | julia.hill@austintexas.gov

http://www.austintexas.gov/CCCN

Kealing prides itself on fostering a supportive & caring community, and one way it does that is through the Parent-Teacher Association. The PTA comprises families, teachers, administrators, students, and community members dedicated to enriching every student learning experience.

Your PTA membership makes Kealing a great community and unique learning environment. While our memberships number is at an impressive 486 members, we are 150 members short of the Texas PTA 3-year-high award. Let's finish this year with the largest PTA that Kealing has ever seen!!

To join the Kealing PTA hive, click the link below:
www.kealingpta.org

If you have Kealing PTA membership questions, please email Shannan Riemer, vpmembership@kealingpta.org.

Why Join PTA? Watch this video to learn more about why you should join the Kealing PTA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzGtGcYdEFs

Please contact Kealing membership VP, Shannan Riemer, vpmembership@kealingpta.org, with any membership questions, comments, or concerns.

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