Heartland MS Family Newsletter

Heartland Happenings - February 9, 2025

Greetings Heartland Families!

We had a wonderful time celebrating National School Counseling Week and our fantastic counselors! We appreciate Mrs. Treece, Ms. Jackson, and Mrs. Bowerman so much for the work they do with our community of Thunderhawks! They are often doing work behind the scenes that never gets seen and a week was not long enough to say thank you for everything our counselors do. We celebrated them with flowers, gifts, goodies, thank you notes, dress up days and much more! We hope that they continue to feel the love for all the weeks to come!

As Winter sports come to an end, I want to take a moment to recognize our Thunderhawk Winter sports: basketball, wrestling, and swim teams. I can't begin to tell you how proud of I am to these wonderful student athletes. Learning to balance academics and sports is a life skill that will take our students far in life. Not only are they developing and nurturing their athletic skills, but our students are held accountable academically, they are taught teamwork and problem solving skills, they are developing healthy habits, gaining confidence, learning time management, and feeling a sense of belonging. Our basketball teams have represented our school with PRIDE and I can't help but be overwhelmed with joy when I think back to all that was accomplished this season. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to talk with your student about joining a Spring sport.

Looking ahead, we are excited to host our Edmond Honor Society Induction taking place tomorrow February 10th at Santa Fe High School Auditorium. The induction will start at 6:30pm and we will be recognizing all of the students that maintained either a 3.75 - 3.99 GPA (principal's honor roll) OR 4.0 GPA and above (superintendent's honor roll) for the 2024 calendar year! We will recognize their contributions in the areas of leadership, scholarship, character, and service. Students and their parents/guardians have been notified of this extraordinary honor and we look forward to celebrating those students that continuously excel academically! Additionally, we have started selling our Valentine's grams to be delivered during 1st hour on Valentine's Day. Students can purchase a $3 gram that will have a short note and a full size candy bar and can to be sent to anyone in the building. Proceeds will benefit our Double PUP Dare Week common thread, No Boundaries International.

I look forward to another phenomenal week here at the Heart! As always, should you have any questions, suggestions or ideas please feel free to reach out to our office!

WE ARE...HEARTLAND!

Respectfully,

Veronica Johnson

Principal, Heartland Middle School

405-340-2972

Grade Level Newsletters

6th Grade

Click HERE to view the 6th Grade Team Newsletter!

7th Grade

Click HERE to view the 7th Grade Team Newsletter!

8th Grade

Click HERE to view the 8th Grade Team Newsletter!

Electives

Click HERE to view the Electives Team Newsletter!

Spring 2025 Bell Schedule Change

As you already know, the district sent out communication regarding the need to add additional minutes to the school day due to unforeseen inclement weather days. In order to stay in compliance with State regulations for required seat time, EPS middle schools are required to add 5 minutes to the school day making the day last from 7:40am - 2:25pm. I have dispersed the 5 minutes amongst classes adding 1 minute to all class periods (taking one minute away from advisory and one minute from 7th hour) to make all instructional class periods the same exact amount of time, 43 minutes. I have created a graphic for you to reference below. Please note that this schedule does not start until next Tuesday, February 18th. Should you have any questions regarding the new bell schedule, please feel free to reach out to our office. Thank You!

Valentine Gram's On Sale This Week! Proceeds Benefit Double Pup Dare Week!

Congrats To Our January 2025 Thunderhawk RISE Recipients! We Are Proud Of You!

Heartland Middle School Facebook Page

Join/Like our page for the latest on all things Heartland Middle School!

We LOVE Our HMS Counselors! Thank You For All That You Do For Our Community!

Congratulations, Cheryl Thatcher, EPS Support Employee of the Year Finalist!

Heartland High Five - RISE Above Donut Party!

As we all know, at Heartland.... WE RISE! Thunderhawks show Respect, Integrity, Self-Control, and Effort in all that they do! Students have the opportunity to earn "High-Fives" from their teachers. If a teacher sees a student going above and beyond the RISE expectations, they can earn a high-five from their teachers. Every morning, on the morning announcements, administrators pick high-fives from a bucket and recognize those students exceeding the RISE expectations. Starting new this Spring, we will be celebrating all students that receive a high-five from a teacher at the end of each month with a donut party. We want to ensure that each student that receives a high-five gets the recognition that they deserve and not just those that are randomly selected to be featured on the announcements. Hopefully this will continually encourage students to make good choices, ones that help to positively shape their character.

Heartland Backpack Program

The Heartland Backpack Program provides a monthly delivery or pick up
of nutritious food for Heartland students and their families in need of
extra support.

Heartland Athletics Update

Click the link to find out more about Spring sports: Baseball, Track, Tennis & Golf.

ATHLETIC ELIGIBILITY

Now that we are in the process of running eligibility for OSSAA activities - there always tends to be some confusion as to when a student can and can not participate. Here are some bullet points to help define when a student can and can not participate.

Eligibility is run mid-week. For example - we run eligibility on Thursday morning based on grades posted on Wednesday evening. If a student is listed as "ineligible" - that means they can not participate in any OSSAA games scheduled for the next calendar week of Sunday - Sunday. By OSSAA rules - students can still practice during that time. However, individual coaches may have other team rules regarding practice.
Probation vs. Ineligible. The first week a student has a grade that qualifies them for the eligibility report - they are listed as "on Probation"... At that point in time - they can still participate and play in games. (Again - team rules may be more strict) If the student raises the grade by the next eligibility report run - their name comes off the list and they are good to go. If there is still a grade in question - the student becomes ineligible.
If a student is listed as ineligible - AND - raises their grade (yay!!) the next time there is a grade in question -- they move back to the probation category. Therefore, there is always a week of grace after a student has worked to get their name off of the list.

Please feel free to contact Heartland Athletic Director Laura Brown with questions as I know it can be confusing.