Heron Update

Hollywood Families,

We are only 13 days into the school year and AMAZING things are already happening in all of our HES classrooms!

We held our first fire drill on Friday, September 6th. Our teachers had prepared and practiced with their students prior to the drill. All students did a great job during the drill.

Be sure to review this entire newsletter each week as it will provide you with valuable resources and information.

Take Care,

Mrs. DiRenzo

September 10: Back to School PTO Meeting (5 pm - HES Media Center)

September 17: Chick Fil A Spirit Night (5 pm - 7pm)

September 19: 2 Hour Early Dismissal

September 20: Professional Day - No School for Students

September 24: Last day to order HES Spirit Wear

September 25: School Picture Day - More Info to come

Kick off the school year with some new Hollywood Elementary spirit wear! Support HES while showing your school spirit. We even have CUSTOM Hollywood Elementary School Croc shoe charms/jibbitz!!!

All orders ship for FREE right to HES

Online Store is open until September 24th

As we embark on a new school year, we want to highlight a key area of focus this year at Hollywood Elementary School: attendance. This year, we will be placing greater emphasis on ensuring that every student attends school regularly and on time.

Good attendance is crucial to your child’s success. Consistent presence in the classroom not only helps students stay engaged with their lessons but also builds habits of responsibility and discipline. It enables them to fully participate in educational activities, benefit from continuous instruction, and achieve their academic goals.

We have class and grade level attendance incentives in place to motivate and celebrate our students.

We understand that there may be circumstances that affect your child’s ability to attend school, and we are here to support you in any way we can. However, we encourage you to prioritize school attendance and to work with us to address any barriers that might arise.

Together, we can help our students thrive and reach their full potential. Thank you for your support and cooperation in this important matter.

Hollywood Families, To encourage our students to attend school daily we are introducing a new attendance incentive. We are happy to introduce our "Hollywood Heron Attendance All-Stars." Each homeroom has a strip that spells the word "ATTENDANCE." If a homeroom has all students on time and present they get to color in one of these letters. The goal is to complete strips in a timely manner. Each grade level will be working together. The grade level with the most strips turned in each month will receive a celebration and a special badge of recognition for them to display in their house area.

Click here to check your child's breakfast/lunch balance and add money to their account

We are excited to kick off the month of September with our first character trait - Respect!

Students have been doing a great job returning their books in great condition! Please continue to make sure those water bottles are closed or in an outside pocket of the backpack.

So far almost 2,000 books have made it home with students. We are continuing to have happy readers leave the Library Media Center with old favorites and some new books that they have discovered.

Just as an FYI, there was a computer glitch that mistakenly set a fine for 2nd grade students and some 1st grade students for their school laptops. I'm not sure if it has happened in any other grades. This fine would appear when you logged into your student's account on My School Bucks. Please ignore this fine. The county is working on fixing this issue.

MUSIC: Hello, Intermediate Families! The window to register your student to learn an instrument is very short, closing on September 6th. Use THIS LINK to go to my registration website. If you'd like more information about the String Orchestra program, check out FIRST NIGHT FOR STRINGS and more information about the Band program at FIRST NIGHT FOR BAND. Any student in third, fourth, or fifth grade may choose to play a stringed instrument (violin, viola, cello) and any student in fourth or fifth grade may choose to play a band instrument (flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, percussion). If you played last year, you must REREGISTER for this year! Lastly, fourth and fifth graders' music specials will be either band, orchestra, or general music. Email Mrs. Cancino with any questions: mkcancino@smcps.org

HES Band and Orchestra - 3rd, 4th. 5th Grades

4th & 5th Grade Updates to Instrumental Music Letter

ART: The HES Art education program is looking for donations of the following:
- clean paper towel or wrapping paper tubes.
-clean empty paper/cardboard egg cartons
- “scrapbooking” paper scraps.

Another week in!

I have a couple areas to touch base on this week. First, if you need to update your child's allergies or medical conditions please reach out to me. It is important that we keep an accurate medical record for the safety of our little herons.

Second, if your child comes down with an illness such as strep, pink eye, or any other contagious illnesses please let me know. This information is not shared. I simply use this information in order to have a solid count of the illnesses in the building. Based on these numbers families are notified of symptoms to look out for. This helps to keep everyone as healthy as possible.

As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns!

-Nurse Briggs

School Based Health Clinics

The school based health clinics has updated their website with a new link to register students. The link can be found at https://smchd.org/sbhc/ and then you would click the blue button that says "Click Here to Enroll now for Faster Service". The school based health centers are a great way to see a provider without the long wait times at urgent care! See their website for more information.

Free Back-to-School Vaccine Clinics

The St. Mary’s County Health Department (SMCHD) is hosting free back-to-school vaccination clinics for children ages birth to 18 years living in St. Mary’s County. Appointments are recommended. The following vaccines will be available:

• Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough)
• Meningococcal (meningitis)
• MenB (Serogroup B Meningococcal)
• HPV (human papillomavirus)
• Varicella (chicken pox)

Please select this link for more information.

• If you are interested in being involved with the HES PTO, please email heronpto@gmail.com
• HES PTO has a new Spirit Wear company. On top of the company getting amazing reviews for their customer service and quality, our HES PTO earns 10% in commissions for all our sales!! Woohoo!! Items will ship directly to your house as well. https://1stplacespiritwear.com/schools/MD/Hollywood/Hollywood+Elementary+School

Birthday treats present the potential for allergic reactions for many of our students. They also interrupt instruction. However, we understand that some students enjoy celebrating their birthday with their friends at school. Because of all of these factors, birthday treats may NOT be edible. Gift bags with stickers, pencils, crayons, erasers, and/or other small toys are acceptable. They can also be shared at recess or the end of the day which doesn’t compromise instructional time. Parents who wish to provide birthday treats to a class are asked to notify the homeroom teacher in advance and to drop them off in the front office as early as possible.

Both new and previously registered volunteers must complete a new volunteer application. The application process will end on May 1 of each school year. There is no application fee for school volunteers. Parental involvement is a key component to student success. Thank you for your support.

2024-2025 SMCPS Calendar Link

If you have any questions about your HAC account, please contact the HES office for assistance.

https://www.smcps.org/hac

Please note that HAC opens at 5:00 pm on August 16, 2024.

Schoology is a very helpful tool and resource for teachers, students, and families. Please ensure that you are able to access Schoology for updates and information from the school and your child's teacher. If you need support in obtaining your Schoology log in information please email schoology@smcps.org for support. Please click Parent Notifications for directions to ensure your notifications are set to receive important information about your student.

Do you have the Schoology App?

Log Into the Schoology Mobile App

If you already have a Schoology account, download the Schoology app from Apple App Store, Google Play or the Amazon App Store. Tap the app icon to open it on your device.

You can use an email address or username to log into the application, depending on how your account was set up:

Log in through your School

1. Use the keyboard to enter SMCPS. As you type, matching choices populate in the list. The name, ID number, city, state, and zip code for the school should appear below.

2. Tap the name of your school or organization when it displays.

3. Use the email address or username to log in to the application, that was sent to you via email from Schoology with an app password. If you are an SMCPS student or teacher this is NOT your SMCPS password.

4. Tap LOG IN to complete.

If you are able to sign in with Google, and you are an SMCPS student or staff, please use that login process and follow the provided instructions in the prompts.

Want to enable notifications? Please check this document

Student Handbook - A Guide for Students & Families

Code of Conduct - A Guide for Students & Families

SMCPS Updated Cell Phones Implementation VIDEO

Please review the following documents in regard to student accident insurance.

Informative Letter to Parents

Fact Sheet

Enrollment Information

Spanish versions available:

Informative Letter to Parents - Span.

Fact Sheet - Span.

Enrollment Information -- Span.

Please review laptop expectations by sharing this presentation with your child. Classroom teachers will be reviewing laptop expectations with students at school as well. Thank you!

HES Laptop Expectations

Need to purchase a laptop charger?

You can do one of two things:

1. Email your child's teacher or the Library Media Specialist Miss Hazuda (sjhazuda@smcps.org) that you wish to pay for the missing laptop charger. A fine then can be assessed so that you can pay using My School Bucks, sending in cash, or a check (made out to SMCPS).

OR

2. Go directly to the DELL store. You can purchase directly from their website and have it shipped to your home.

Ensure one of these links is being used:

www.dell.com/mpp/smcps (click Shop Recommended Solutions to get to the discounted power cords)

www.dell.com/mpp/smcps-chargers (leads directly to the purchasing portal)

If you purchase from Dell, please make sure that you label the charger with the student's first and last name before sending it to school. If you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher or the Library Media Specialist Miss Hazuda (sjhazuda@smcps.org).

School Messenger Text Messaging FAQ's

...provides a rich educational experience that focuses on preparing well rounded students that are ready to succeed in their future college and career endeavors. Hollywood educates and inspires our diverse population in a safe and respectful environment. Students are engaged in authentic learning experiences that foster work habits and skills necessary to become collaborative, dedicated, and productive citizens.

Ms. Erin DiRenzo, Principal

Email: eedirenzo@smcps.org

Mr. Chris Rodkey, Assistant Principal

Email: cnrodkey@smcps.org

Website: https://schools.smcps.org/hes/
Location: 44345 Joy Chapel Road, Hollywood, MD, USA
Phone: (301) 373-4350
Twitter: @hes_smcps