Bengal Happenings

Bell Schedules

Start Your Day the Bengal Way - 3/27 - 8:00 a.m. start

End of 3rd Quarter - 3/28

Spring Break - 3/31-4/4

Attendance - hhsattendance@helenaschools.org; (406) 324-2211

Main Office - (406) 324-2200

Website - hhs.helenaschools.org

Believe it or not, next Friday marks the end to the third quarter of the 24-25 school year! As we head into Spring Break next Friday, we all recognize how quick the end of the school year will be upon us. The last quarter brings many concerts, the Vigilante Parade, sporting events, induction ceremonies, and countless other opportunities to show off the amazing things happening in our school. We encourage you to stay updated through the Bengal Happenings, the various team and club social media pages, and the school calendar to try and catch as much as you can!

This week we also check in on our Fine Arts, Career and Technical Education, World Language, and Special Education/Student Services classes. Enjoy the transition into spring this weekend and hold on, summer will be here before we know it!

Fine Arts (English, Spanish, Swahili)

Special Education/Student Services (English, Spanish, Swahili)

Career and Technical Education (English, Spanish, Swahili)

World Languages (English, Spanish, Swahili)

It has been awesome having parents and community members here on the last Thursday of the month to help welcome students and start everyone's day off on a great note! If you are interested in handing out breakfast items and greeting our students, stop by on Thursday, March 27 to join in on the fun! We will start serving between 7:45-8:00 a.m. at the main entrances to the building.

A couple of weeks ago, four Bengals ventured down to Billings with Mrs. Ladd to compete in the annual Science Bowl competition. This competition pits teams against other schools in a round-robin and tournament format. Teams are asked questions that span the various disciplines within the science curriculum to test their knowledge. Our team won 4 out of their 5 round robin matches, most by a large margin, and were the 2-seed going into bracket play. They then faced a tough Billings Central team in the first round and called it a day. The two losses came to the eventual champion and runners-up, so not much to hang their heads about! Congratulations to our team - we look forward to a deeper run toward the championship next year!

Congratulations to Lorenzo Phoenix for his 3rd place finish in the Java Programming competition at the recent BPA State Competition! Lorenzo earned a chance to compete at the National BPA Competition this coming spring! Other BPA students had great showings as well, with many of them on a path to attend the National Competition to learn more about leadership and how to be quality leaders in the school!

Registration for the summer Driver's Education session will be open April 7-16. The link will go live on April 7 or you may pick up a paper copy of the registration form at 815 Front Street (PAL Building). To be eligible for the summer session, you must have turned 14 on or before February 22, 2025.

https://helenaschools.org/departments/drivers-education-program/

Next week, our current Freshmen will help finalize the registration process for the 2025-2026 school year. Freshmen registration sheets are due on Friday, March 28. They will sit with their counselor that day and enter the requests, making sure they have what they need to stay on track for graduation and the future career paths they may be thinking through. The registration handbook and materials can be found on our website - hhs.helenaschools.org - on the counseling page.

If your child is a Sophomore, Junior, or current 8th Grader and has not turned in their completed registration paperwork yet, please encourage them to get those in as soon as possible. These registration requests help with the creation of the master schedule, the more accurate the numbers, the better off we are in building a schedule to fit the needs of our students.

If you have any questions about registration, do not hesitate to reach out to your child's counselor.

We recognize the Vigilante Parade, and the route it will take this year, has been in the news quite a bit lately. As you have hopefully seen, we are sticking with the normal route for this year, but there are a few changes to the overall operations that groups will need to be aware of:

• Trailers deck length is limited to 25 feet (front of deck to the back of the deck).
• Trucks larger than 1-ton pickups will not be allowed (no semis, etc.)
• There will be further guidance and control as floats start down the walking mall. Please pay attention to the individuals at the intersection of Last Chance and 6th Avenue as they help with the proper spacing.
• All drivers will need to be prepared to show proof of insurance and a valid driver's license prior to the start of the parade on Friday, May 2. Please make sure you have those ready to be produced if asked.

We appreciate the continued community support with the longest running parade this side of the Mississippi! We look forward to another great year! Information on when teams can start signing up for floats will be released after Spring Break.

Thank you to those who were able to attend our first attempt at a Parent Learning Night last night. The information presented by our staff and outside agencies was very beneficial and we hope it was insightful for all here. A brief snapshot to what was learned is included below.

Free or Fairly Cheap Ways to Keep Kids Off Screens

HHS Resources

Thanks in large part to the work and vision of our district Wellness Committee and our food service director, Mr. Robert Worthy, a new vending machine option will be available for students to start utilizing hopefully next week. This vending machine will offer students a chance to purchase meals utilizing their meal account and have access to breakfast and lunch items each day. More info will continued to be shared, but we are excited to have this option available to our students and appreciate the work of Mr. Worthy and his staff to make this happen!

Sophomore and Junior parents - an email was sent out earlier this week regarding the times and processes for the upcoming ACT and PreACT testing at HHS. Please make sure you review this and reach out with any questions you may have prior to April 8 - testing day.

Freshmen and Senior parents - please note that there will be no school on April 8 for students in those grade levels. The school will be set up solely for testing that day.

Prom 2025 is fast approaching! Prom will be held on Friday, April 18 from 9-11:30 p.m. at Kleffner Ranch. Tickets will be sold starting the week we return from Spring Break. We recognize there have been a few conflicts arise after we had solidified the date with sports, but unfortunately it is virtually impossible in the Spring to find a time where there are no conflicts for all the different things going on. We have pushed back the start time to try and help with students coming back from competitions the best we can.

• Reminder to visit the Scholarship pages as we are getting close to submission deadlines for many of them.
• FAFSA completion is still rolling. If you need assistance, please visit Ms. Navarrete in the counseling office.
• Doering Memorial Scholarship is now open! Please visit with Ms. Navarrete for that scholarship application.

3/25 - Board Work Session @ HHS - 3:30 tour, 4:00 meeting start

3/27 - SB @ Hellgate

3/29 - TN vs Glacier/Flathead 12:00 p.m.; TR vs Senior 12:00 p.m.; SB vs Sentinel 12:00 p.m.

4/1 - SB @ Belgrade 3:00/5:00 p.m.

4/4 - TN vs Great Falls High/CMR 10:30 a.m.; JV TN @ GFH/CMR 12:00 p.m.; SB @ Glacier/Flathead 12:00/2:00 p.m.

4/5 - TR @ Sentinel/Belgrade 10:30 a.m.

Yearly Updated Document

March

24-28 – Freshmen Registration Period

28 – End of 3rd Quarter

31-April 4 – No School, Spring Break

April

1-4 – No School, Spring Break

8 – ACT Testing – All Juniors; PreACT Testing – All Sophomores

10 – Vigilante Day Assembly

18 – Prom 9-11:30 pm

Rolling Into March!

As we hit the road running into March, schedules start to get busier, the weather starts to turn to Spring, and planning for the end of the 2024-2025 school year and the start of the 2025-2026 school year are in full swing. There are plenty of exciting things on the horizon and we are excited to see how the remainder of the year goes at HHS! Congratulations to our girls' basketball team on punching their ticket to the state tournament next weekend and thank you to Helena Orthodontics for donating tickets for an amazing student crowd on Thursday night! I also would like to thank Ahman Doubek Real Estate and Clearwater Granite for their support all season in donating pizzas. We have an amazing community supporting our students - thank you for always supporting our Bengals!

As we move into this week, we check in on the March units and assignments in Social Studies, Science, Physical Education/Health, English, and Math.

Social Studies (English, Spanish, Swahili)

Science (English, Spanish, Swahili)

Physical Education/Health (English, Spanish, Swahili)

English (English, Spanish, Swahili)

Math (English, Spanish, Swahili)

Community Night Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the first Community Night on Tuesday. If you missed the meeting, the video has been uploaded to the Helena Public Schools Facebook page and can be viewed there. We will have more of these meetings and tours over the next few months - we look forward to having you join us for those!

Congratulations Student Council District 3 Officers!

In a recent District 3 Student Council meeting, two of our students were elected by their peers to serve on the District Board! Congratulations to Taylor Larsen for being elected as the District 3 Historian, and Ella Carlson for being elected as the District 3 Secretary! Way to represent HHS, ladies!

Science Olympiad Has Great Showing!

This week, Mr. Hollow, Mr. Driggers, and Mr. Pepper took a team of 14 students to compete in the State Science Olympiad Competition held at MSU in Bozeman. Our team had a great showing, with students earning the following placings:

2nd Place Bungee Drop - James Tran and Saturn Delaney

3rd Place Codebusters - Paul Harmon and James Tran

3rd Place Experimental Design - Lily Oplinger, Gavin Payne, and Edward Woolf

6th Place Chem Lab - Mickey Nelson and Grey Gildroy

6th Place Optics - Paul Harmon and Lily Oplinger

Great work everyone!

More National Speech and Debate Qualifiers

Congratulations to Ethan Taylor - Impromptu Speaking, and Maverick Franklin - Expository Speaking, for being selected as coach selections to compete at the National Speech and Debate Tournament this coming June. This brings the total to seven local students competing in the National Tournament! Great job Bengals!

Health Reminders from Nurse Rodway

College Vaccinations

For students being away from home and living in the dorms for the first time, college life can be fun and exciting. However, high stress and lack of sleep can also decrease your student's ability to fight off infection. There are several vaccines that are recommended for young adults entering college, vo-tech, and the workforce.

Meningitis

The Meningitis infection causes the membrane around the brain and spinal cord to become inflamed. While rare, this infection is very dangerous. There are two Meningitis vaccinations your health care provider may offer, meningococcal conjugate vaccine and serogroup B meningococcal vaccine. Please visit with your doctor about which one is appropriate.

Human Papillomavirus

The HPV vaccine is important because it protects students from cancers caused by the HPV virus. Most people with this infection will have no symptoms or health problems. In some people, it can cause cancer. It is recommended for both males and females.

Vaccination Records

Some colleges will accept the immunizations listed on the student's transcript, others will not. Now is the time to start that "adult" file for your kids to take with them. This should contain copies of all their important documents like birth certificates and immunizations. If you would like a copy of the certified immunization record your student has on file with the school, please ask your student to stop in the health room.

Registration Reminders

Starting March 10, counselors will be visiting classrooms to start our registration process for the 2025-2026 school year. Students will be reminded of their current credit status, graduation requirements, and review course options that they can request for next year. For the next three weeks, counselors will visit classrooms on Mondays to present the information, students will then bring home the registration sheet to review with parents, and then enter requests on Friday of that week. The registration guide is online this year on the Counseling Page under registration.

The timeline for each class is as follows:

March 10 - Junior Presentation, March 14 - registrations due

March 17 - Sophomore Presentation, March 21 - registrations due

March 24 - Freshmen Presentation, March 28 - registrations due

Please reach out if you have any questions.