Hornet Herald

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. I hope this message finds you and your students well rested after the three day weekend and ready to enjoy Super Bowl Sunday festivities. Whether you plan to cheer on your favorite team, indulge in delicious foods, enjoy the commercials, half time show and hanging with family, or not partake in the game at all, I hope you all enjoy your Sunday evening.

As we prepare to transition back to school, I want to remind you that our students will be taking their STAAR Interim Assessments this week. These assessments will prepare our students for the actual STAAR administration, provide our teachers with valuable data on students' progress, and help us determine if we need make any adjustments logistically for STAAR in April. To ensure a smooth testing experience, please remind your student to bring their Chromebook to school every day, fully charged.

Thank you all for you continued support of Kealing Middle School.

Mr. Estes

• February 12 - 15 - STAAR Interim Assessments
• February 15 - CAC Meeting
• February 15 - Boys' Basketball vs. Murchison
• February 16 - Anderson High School Campus Choice Sheet Completion
• February 17 - Girls' Soccer vs. Lively
• February 19 - NO SCHOOL
• February 20 - NAEP Testing
• February 20 - Tennis Informational Meeting
• February 20 - Ultimate Frisbee Player Meeting
• February 22 - PTA Meeting
• February 22 - Boys' Basketball vs. O'Henry
• February 23 - Spring Pep Assembly
• February 24 - Girls' Soccer vs. O'Henry
• February 28 - McCallum High School Campus Choice Sheet Completion

Each week, we will recognize our fellow Hornets who exemplify our campus-wide values and who have been MEETING and EXCEEDING our campus-wide expectations. We are ALL working hard each day to show each other and our school community kindness, respect, loyalty and safety. Here are this week's salutes.

From Ms. Payan: Eden Poon deserves a shoutout for kindness because she always finds ways to help Ms. Payan and her peers. Eden shows kindness to every student in her words, actions, and presence. Thank you, Eden!

From Ms. Payan: Finley Wittsche and Jeremy Gonzalez-Barahona have been so helpful and kind to Ms. Payan as her TAs. From rearranging her bookshelves to making labels and prepping for her classes, they have done it all with smiles. Thank you! Much love from Ms. Payan

Congratulations to this week's Stinger Salute recipients!!!

Attention current 6th and 7th graders! The time has come for you to select your courses for the 2024-25 school year! Beginning next week, your grade level counselor will meet with you during your Social Studies class to complete a choice sheet. Please begin previewing your 7th/8th grade options now so that you are prepared for their visit. It is important that you read course descriptions carefully before making your selections!

7TH/8TH GRADE COURSE BOOK | 2024-2025

7th Grade Course Planning Sheet | 24-25 School Year (for current 6th graders)

8th Grade Course Planning Sheet | 24-25 School Year (for current 7th graders)

WE'VE GOT SPIRIT, YES WE DO. WE'VE GOT SPIRIT HOW ABOUT YOU?"

Spirit week will take place February 20-23. Dress up days include:

• Tuesday, February 20 - Rhyme without Reason ( Students partner up as two things that rhyme, but don't go together. Ex. Scooby-Doo and Winnie the Poo or referee and bumblebee)
• Wednesday, February 21 - Western Wednesday
• Thursday, February 22 - KMS Spirit Day
• Friday, February 23 - Pajama Day

We will end the week with a Pep Rally, celebrating our basketball and soccer teams.

Kealing basketball split with Lamar Middle School last week with both 7th grade teams winning. Our 8th grade teams fought hard but ended up falling to the Scotties.

This week we take on Murchison Middle School. The 7th grade team is home and games begin at 6:00.

Saturday's match versus Lamar were canceled due to weather. The A team will make up the game against the Scotties this week.

Both teams return to action on Saturday, February 17th at O'Henry Middle School. Games begin at 9:00 AM.

The Kealing gym was transformed into an archery field on Saturday for an archery tournament with Lamar Middle School.

Congratulations to all of our Hornets who participated.

The spring semester of the Kealing bike club will be underway soon! For the returning riders (who attended an orientation in the fall), the first official bike club ride will be on Thursday, March 7th from 3pm-4:45pm. Returning riders do NOT need to attend another orientation this semester.

Do you want to participate in bike club rides this semester but didn't attend an orientation last fall? I will be holding a safe cycling orientation on Thursday, February 29th at 3pm in rm. 516. In order to participate in the spring rides, you MUST attend this orientation. Email Mr. Shoaf at william.shoaf@austinisd.org with any questions. See you there!

Tennis tryout information meeting for 7/8th graders will take place on Tuesday, February 20th from 3:00 - 3:30 PM in Coach Rost's room. Students should fill out an interest form at https://bit.ly/KMS24Tennis. If students are unable to attend, they should fill out the information form to show interest in participating in tryouts. Tryout dates will be announced later but will take place towards the beginning of March, before spring break. Ask Coach Rost if you have any questions.

Kealing Ultimate (the longest running middle school Ultimate program in Texas) is back! All interested 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys and girls interested in playing should plan on attending our player meeting on Tuesday, February 20th in the Library. We'll give details about tryouts and the season. Please send questions to Coach Crouch or Natenberg.

Congratulations to the “Hornet squad” team: Last week our Kealing 7th graders competed in FTC

Robotics competition which was the 4 th and final one in the league before advancing to the next level.

They won 4 out of 5 rounds and were placed in the top 15 in the league. The team designed, built the robot powered by Android studio technology and coded using advanced programming concepts. The team had to compete in alliance format against other teams. As a rookie team, competing with experienced high schoolers was a challenge. But they worked hard for the last couple of months and did a fantastic job in the competition field! Congratulations and a huge shout out to the Hornet squad team: Ayush Radhakrishnan, Samarth Menon, Kush Shah, Josh Koppanalil, Ryan Khanna, Andrew.

If you have not already done so, please consider joining Kealing's PTA today.

Some of the ways the PTA has helped Kealing students, staff, and administration get the year started include:

- Partnered with Kealing administration to support New Student Orientation.

- Purchased “Thrive in the Hive” staff shirts.

- Hosted two Teacher Appreciation luncheons.

- Hosted Welcome Back Sunset Cruise for teachers.

- Partnered with administration to support Back to School Night.

- Kicked off the Secret Pals Program

- Purchased Spanish software subscriptions.

- Purchased classroom supplies for teachers.

- Purchased tools and novels for ELA classrooms

Your membership empowers us to continue these efforts. Join us today and help make a difference in your child's education.

For the Spring, PTA will no longer have on-campus sale in the cafeteria. Instead we will offer (once per month) delivery to Advisory ($0, new), adult pickup ($0), and delivery to door ($5).

March 7: Advisory Delivery, Adult Pickup (12 - 1PM) & Delivery to Door

April 9: Advisory Delivery, Adult Pickup (12 - 1PM) & Delivery to Door

The Spirit Wear website is up to date and taking orders!

The Kealing PTA is setting up a Build Your Own Trail Mix Station for the staff next Thursday, February 15th. We need various food donations for the Trail Mix Station, as well as volunteers for the set-up/ clean-up in the teachers' lounge.

SIGN UP HERE TO BRING DONATIONS OR VOLUNTEER

The Destination…Life Regional Transition Fair and Conference helps Central Texas families prepare and support their student(s) with disabilities for life beyond high school. Families can expect to gather information and gain access to experts on how to help their student(s) with disabilities ranging from early childhood through high school to successfully transition to adulthood.

Multiple vendors, state and local agencies will be present, in addition to various programs that assist students with disabilities and their families. See logistics below:

• When: Saturday, February 24, 2024

• Where: McNeil High School; 5720 McNeil Dr, Austin, TX 78729

• Time: 9:00am-1:30pm

Registration Information: RSVP for this event

Austin ISD is working to streamline communication and simplify the tools staff and families must access to get the information that matters to them most. Help Austin ISD streamline communications with families and staff by completing the Communications Tools Survey.

AISD Technology remains committed to providing students the devices they need to fully participate in blended learning environments. Device distribution, however, can be costly. Our warranties do not cover loss or intentional damage, an increasing issue the district is experiencing.

We have reviewed our internal student device loss and damage incident data and now need feedback from staff and families to inform our next steps. The Everyone:1 Student Device Feedback Survey begins January 11, 2024, and is open to faculty, staff, and AISD families.

Join Austin ISD in celebrating Black History Month throughout February! Every year, to honor our Black students, staff and families Austin ISD celebrates Black History Month, a time to highlight the district's commitment to creating a safe, supportive and inclusive environment.

Save and share the date for the African-American Heritage Celebration at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23 at the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center, 1500 Barbara Jordan Blvd. Austin, TX 78723. This year’s ceremony features student performances and hosts from Crockett Early College High School.

Importance of voting as it relates to the 2024 Texas Primary

• Voting in a primary lets you impact who will be elected in November to national, state and county offices.

• Only 14% of eligible Texans vote in the March primaries, and that’s when most races get decided.

• If more voters cast ballots in the primaries, leaders will be elected who better reflect the spectrum of ideologies and will work across the aisle to make government more functional and representative of the vast majority of Texans.

Polling information

This link takes you to polling locations and times for both early voting and election day for the 2024 Texas Primary.

Voter education programs

Want to vote in the primary but not registered to vote? Click here to fill out an application and to learn more.

Review the Voting Guide for the 2024 Texas Primary.

Future Engineers Day is a daylong event for students in grades 7-11 to learn about engineering through hands-on activities led and taught by students within their own community. Hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers UT Chapter and the Cockrell School of Engineering's Broadening Participation in Engineering Office and held on the UT Austin campus, Future Engineers Day aims to promote engineering where it hasn't been promoted before in a way that allows participants to see others with the same identity, hoping to show students that they have a community.

You can find more information on this event by click here.