Hero Happenings!

We are so excited for our Heroes to join us! Teachers have been busy busy busy preparing for the best start ever to the new school year. Students will report to advisory, on Monday, where they will be all day. They will have plenty of time to practice opening lockers, familiarize themselves with the building, and practice schedules.

Monday morning we will have a table set up out front to help with any parent questions or enrollment questions. We will also have people just inside the front entrance to lead students to advisory classes. If your child does not know exactly where to go - don't worry!

Thank you in advance for your patience as new families learn our systems. The first day of school arrival and dismissal is always a little hectic. Those times will improve quickly. Please know that we do not arbitrarily make rules for our arrival and dismissal. We have close to 900 students at Hellstern and procedures/rules are for the safety of ALL students. Our goal is to get all students off campus within 15 minutes of the 3:30pm dismissal time.

Pictured below is the map showing how our traffic should work. PLEASE be patient the first day of school and be patient the first week. We will get into a good flow and traffic will run smoothly...but it takes a few days.

Things to remember:

1. We open our doors at 7:45am. We do not have staff to supervise students before 7:45am.
2. Never pull into the front of the building unless you are parking and coming inside. The front area is for loading and unloading busses - there should be NO car traffic.
3. Do NOT stop to drop students at his/her door, pull all the way forward to allow as many students as possible to exit cars at the same time.
4. Students that walk East toward HBHS or North across Har-Ber Ave. will be escorted by a crossing guard using the sidewalks. Students are not allowed to cross through parking lots and grass lots all over our campus.
5. Students that walk West, toward Tuscany, will be escorted across the 6th grade car-rider line to enter the gate at the Tuscany perimeter.
6. Please use the car-rider lines. We do not allow parents to park and walk up to get their child.

You can go ahead and complete the Free & Reduced Lunch form.

• Click this link for the 24-25 School Cafe website
• Click these links for the 24-25 printable paper applications (English, Spanish, Marshallese)
• The grace period ends on Monday, September 23

Immunization Information:

• Immunization deadline is Tuesday, October 1 - Students who miss this deadline will not be allowed to return to school until immunizations are scheduled

Complete your child's Acceptable Use Agreement (AUA).

• complete your child's AUA
• purchase insurance for your child's Chromebook

Get Bus Route information:

• Check for bus route info starting August 5th; click on "Register Your Student for BusQuest"

Each team creates a school supply list. When you learn your team, you can click here to get the list for that team. Our goal is to have teams posted by 4:30pm on Friday, August 2nd. We will also be sharing assigned teams at the locker day event on August 4th (1-3pm).

7th grade students may have supplies needed for elective classes.

For the 2024-25 school year, there is a joint effort with other schools across the district to increase learning and engagement during class time by limiting students’ access to cell phones during school hours.

Rationale:

Even though cell phones play an important role in modern society, they can be detrimental to students’ education. Below are some of the drawbacks in an educational setting along with links to additional information.

Poor academic performance: The addiction to their phones leads to poor academic performance. Students fail to pay attention while studying, their memory suffers, and their mind suffers from dullness and lethargy.

Smart Phone, Bad Grades?

Lack of focus: The virtual world that students view on their mobile phones is highly distracting. Students find it fascinating and spend hours lost in it. It can be misleading, confusing, and distracts them from their studies. Students’ academic performance tends to suffer badly.

The Negative Effects of Smartphones on Students

1. Anxiety: The wide array of video games and other applications not only disturb them but also cause anxiety in students. Students suffer from headaches and migraines due to constant phone usage, which further leads to anxiety and depression.

Frequent Cell Phone use Linked to Anxiety

1. Cyberbullying: Students often lack the maturity and the presence of mind to deal with cybercrimes or cyberbullying. They can fall prey to the negative elements present in the virtual world and suffer from anxiety and depression, besides low self-esteem due to the psychological bullying they might suffer at the hands of the cyberbullies.

Cyberbullying and Cell Phone Policy in U.S. Primary and Secondary Schools

1. Isolation and poor social interactions: Students who prefer spending time on their cell phones often lose themselves in the virtual world. Social maturation suffers and can cause serious mental health concerns.

How Smartphones are Contributing to the Loneliness Epidemic

1. Ethical Concerns: There is a lot of inappropriate content on the internet. Students, who are too young to differentiate between fact and fiction, find this mesmerizing and risk getting misled. The pull of the virtual world is so strong, that it increases social disturbance and raises many ethical concerns.

Ethics and Technology: Cell Phones

1. Accidents: The addiction to mobile phones is so strong that kids seldom let go of their phones, even while walking on the street, crossing the road, or worse yet, driving. This increases the possibility of being involved in an accident.

Cell Phones: The Most Dangerous Thing on the Road

1. Loss of sleep: Spending too much time on their phones disturbs students’ sleep. The radiations being emitted by mobile phones tend to disturb the natural sleep pattern and cause sleeplessness and the blue light emitted by the phones keeps the brain awake and alert even at night.

How Teenage Phone Use is Affecting Their Sleep

1. Vision Problems: Constant staring at mobile phones affects eyesight and eye health. Eyes tend to get dry and the vision blurry. The eyesight gets affected, too, and kids have difficulty reading. Using phones day and night ruins eye health and the repercussions last a lifetime. This is one of the worst negative effects of mobile phones.

The Impact of Smartphones on Children's Vision

1. Bad posture: Staring at phone screens for prolonged periods, with heads bent and shoulders drooped leads to bad posture, neck ache, headache, backache, and tendonitis.

Can Too Much Screen Time Affect Your Kid's Posture?

Student Expectations

Students may possess personal electronic devices at school; however, they must be turned off and stored in their locker from arrival to dismissal. Cell phones/personal electronic devices may not be used during the school day. Failure to comply with this policy will result in the item being confiscated. The school is not responsible for lost or stolen electronic devices. Smartwatches or any other devices used for texting or that become a distraction to student learning will be subject to the same consequences.

Consequences

1st offense: The device is confiscated, and the student may pick it up in the front office at the end of the day (Warning).

2nd Offense: The device is confiscated, and the parent will be required to pick it up in the front office during regular school office hours.

3rd Offense: The device is confiscated, and the parent must meet with an administrator to discuss consequences and/or make a plan before it can be taken home.

If your electronic device and/or electronic communication cause a substantial disruption to the learning environment and/or jeopardize student safety, it may result in a complete loss of device access at school, in addition to any disciplinary action for involvement. Inciting, filming, and sharing fights and cyberbullying will not be tolerated.

Parents or guardians who need to get information to their student during the school day may call the office.

A student’s appearance and dress should reflect an acceptable common standard in the interest of decency, cleanliness, safety, health, and learning.

The following guidelines should be followed:

1. All students are required to wear their team-specific (School ISSUED) lanyard and student ID at all times while on the HMS school campus.

2. Hats and hoodies pulled over head shall not be worn in the building.

3. All shirts must have a shoulder strap at least the width of the plastic ID case worn on lanyards (approximately 3 inches).

4. Shorts, skirts, dresses, and holes in jeans must be fingertip length. (No holes above fingertips)

5. Sleepwear is not permitted (pajama bottoms, houseshoes, etc.).

6. Clothing that reveals undergarments, a bare midriff or cleavage will not be permitted.

7. Clothing which by color, design or symbol is deemed suggestive, racist, violent, vulgar, or is interpreted as promoting tobacco, drug, or alcohol use, are not to be worn to school.

8. No student is to wear, carry, or display apparel deemed gang-related (“sagging” pants, head rags, bandanas, chains, spiked or studded jewelry), or exhibit behavior or gestures which symbolize gang membership.

9. A student’s appearance and dress shall not disrupt or contribute to disruption of the educational process or interfere with rights or opportunities of others to learn or teach.

Join the PTO Facebook page to get updates from PTO.

PTO will be hosting two short meetings in the library on Locker Day (August 4th). One parent can choose to attend (limited space). They will be sharing information at 1:30 & 2:15pm.

12 - Students first day back - school starts at 8:05am. We dismiss students at 3:30pm.

14 - Student early release day (every Wednesday) @ 2:10pm

20 - Band EXPRESS Lane (5:30pm) - If you ordered your instrument over the summer and had it delivered to the school, you can skip the parent meeting and go to the express lane to pick up your items. Afterwards, go to the band room to meet with a teacher for assigning your band locker.

20 - Band Rental Meeting (6pm) - If you missed the band parent meeting in May, this is for you.

21 - Deadline to have your band instrument at school or at least ordered. Deadline for band payments paid or payment plan communicated.

28 - Vision/Hearing Screening - 6th graders

28 - HMS Band Social at Lokomotion (6:30pm)

2 - Labor Day - no school

5 - Vision/Hearing Screenings

10 - School Board meeting

16 & 17 - Parent Teacher Student Conferences @ Hellstern

Football

8/29 - 5:30 - Fulbright - Home

9/5 - 5:30 - SMS - Home

9/12 - 5:30 - Ramay - Away

9/19 - 5:30 - Kirksey - Away

9/26 - 5:30 - HTMS - Home

10/3 - 5:30 - Ramsey - Home

10/10 - 5:30 - Chaffin - Home

10/24 - 5:30 - Elmwood - Away

10/31 - 5:30 - Washington - Away

11/7 - 5:30 - KMS - Away

Cross-Country

9/3 - Gravette Night Run

9/7 - Shiloh Invitational

9/14 - Elkins Invitational

9/21 - Sugar Creek Showdown (Bentonville)

9/24 - Alma Invitational (Tuesday)

9/28 - Chile Pepper

10/3 - Greenwood (Thursday)

10/12 - Springdale Invitational

10/22 - 7th-8th Conference

10/29 - Mountie Classic (9th Conference)

Volleyball - All HOME games played at CJHS

8/26 - 4:30 - Elmwood - Home

8/27 - 4:30 - Kirksey - Away

9/4 - 4:30 - Fulbright - Away

9/7 - TBA - Spikefest Tourney - SWJH

9/9 - 4:30 - Chaffin - Home

9/10 - 4:30 - Oakdale - Away

9/16 - 4:30 - KMS - Home

9/17 - 4:30 - Lincoln - Home

9/23 - 4:30 - Darby - Away

9/24 - 4:30 - Woodland - Home

9/30 - 4:30 - HTMS - Home

10/1 - 4:30 - Grimsley - Home

10/7 - 4:30 - Lingle - Home

10/8 - 4:30 - Ramsay - Away

10/14 - 4:30 - SMS - Away

10/15 - 4:30 - Washington - Away

10/21 - 4:30 - Kimmons - Away

10/22 - 4:30 - Ramay - Home

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Website: http://hellstern.sdale.org/
Location: 7771 Har-Ber Avenue, Springdale, AR, USA
Phone: 479-750-8725
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hellstern-Middle-School