We had another great week at HPMS! We had an outstanding Field Day on Friday! Thank you to our PTO for providing sno cones to all of our students and staff!

This will be the final Weekly Update of the 23-24 school year! Thank you all for reading along throughout the year, and I wish all of our rising 9th grade students and families the best as you transition to BHP. For all returning HPMS students and families, we look forward to seeing you again next year!

• Awards Day is on Monday, 5/20. We limit attendance to those who are receiving an award, and we hold three ceremonies (one for each grade level).
• Physical award invitations were sent out last week along with a text and email to invitees.
• 6th Grade Awards - 8:10AM
• 7th Grade Awards - 9:10AM
• 8th Grade Awards - 10:10AM
• Awards Day attendees, please park in the rear of the school while space allows. We also ask that you do not attempt to park or enter the gym until 10 minutes prior to the event as we will have other events taking place.
• Monday, 5/20 and Tuesday, 5/21 are both half days, and students will be dismissed at 11:30AM.
• Please make sure you have transportation arranged for students who are car riders to arrive no later than 12PM. We do not have supervision available for students after that time.
• Lunch will not be served either day, but breakfast will be served in the morning as usual.
• There are no more yearbooks available for purchase at this time. If you purchased a yearbook but your child did not pick it up on Friday, please stop by the school ASAP to pick it up.
• If you are interested in having your child attend the ASD2 Summer Success program for middle schoolers, please contact Mr. Allen Taylor ASAP. Email him at ataylor@asd2.org.

HPMS Early Schedule Pick-up

• We will host an early schedule pick-up for returning ASD2/HPMS students on Wednesday, July 17 at HPMS from 8AM-11:30AM.
• This will not be an opportunity to tour the school or meet teachers. That will take place on July 30th from 2PM-6PM.
• Students who are not registered or who still owe fees will not be allowed to get schedules, so we encourage you to register and pay online in advance.

BHP SOFTBALL CAMP

Please see the post above regarding BHP Softball Camp which will take place this summer, June 10-12, 9AM-12PM at the high school for all rising 1st through 8th graders.

BHP GIRLS SUMMER BASKETBALL

Coach Jeremy Heinold, the new head girl's basketball coach at BHP, has asked me to share the summer basketball meeting information with any girls interested in basketball from rising 7th-9th grade. The meeting is Thursday night May 23rd at 6:30 pm in the BHP gym. The flyer is posted above.

Anderson Library Summer Reading Program

Please see the posted flyer above for more information.

MySchoolBucks Accounts

Visit our online MySchoolBucks School Store! Create your free account today to easily pay for your student’s fees online or on-the-go with the mobile app.

With MySchoolBucks you’ll be able to quickly pay registration fees, browse school items, be notified when fees are due, and make payments from anywhere!

Get Started Today:

1. Go to myschoolbucks.com or download the mobile app
2. Create your free account and add your students using their school name
3. Add school items or invoices to your cart
4. Check out using your credit / debit card or electronic check

Also, this is a reminder that new year registration does not open until 5/1. At this time, we are encouraging you to create an account in MySchoolBucks.

Additionally, if you would like to order a yearbook, please use this link: https://jostens.com/ybk and follow the prompts to order the HPMS yearbook. Please contact Mr. Allen Taylor if you have any questions or concerns at ataylor@asd2.org.

Booster Club

If you are interested in volunteering for the BHP Booster Club, please see this linked slide show (it launches from Google Slides). CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE PRESENTATION.

You can also contact Kelli Satterfield at boosterclubbhp@gmail.com for more information. This is a great opportunity if your student will be or is already participating in athletics at BHP!

The Days Ahead

• We ask that all parents and guardians take time to review the dress code policies. It is best to make sure these items work within the dress code before students wear them to school. The most common issues we see this time of year are tops that are too short over leggings or holes that are too high on the leg or too large to be appropriate for school. Please see the dress code on pages 8-9 of our handbook for more information: CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE 23-24 STUDENT HANDBOOK ONLINE
  
• We sometimes have students wanting to bring items like blankets or pillows to school. Please note that these items are prohibited at HPMS (p. 9 of handbook). We want to be proactive in our communication before students attempt to bring these items, and we appreciate your support from home as we maintain an excellent environment focused on learning.
• We recommend all parents use the Anderson 2 App and the Parent Portal link within that app and avoid the PowerSchool app itself due to it being outside of our troubleshooting abilities at the district level.
  
• If your student is in need of some academic assistance, please see the information regarding the twice weekly study sessions that we offer on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. This is a great, focused time to get on track each week!
• Please see this important message from ASD2 by clicking this link. We will send home a paper copy of this information as well next week. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Grade Level Newsletters/Agendas

• CLICK HERE to access the 6th grade agenda/newsletter!

• CLICK HERE to access the 7th grade agenda/newsletter!
  
  
• CLICK HERE to access the 8th grade agenda/newsletter!

General Procedural Notes

If you are unclear about the dismissal procedures, I have them listed along with a map below. We do ask that you follow them as they are listed to help us keep things running smoothly and safely.

I wanted to also highlight some common procedural questions that come up as we get into the school year here:

• On page 3 of our handbook, we have asked that family members refrain from dropping off food, money, clothing, or other random items for students. Food and gifts in particular often create a disruption and more students requesting this from their parents. We appreciate your help in keeping our students focused.
• We also ask that parents help us to remind students that they are to utilize the proper procedures for contacting home if needed. Student phones are to be turned off and put away throughout the day. Once students have gotten permission from teachers or staff, we have phones available throughout the school for students to contact home in case of emergency, and our front office staff allows students to use personal devices if needed to contact home as long as they have gotten permission from office staff.
• We appreciate your help in making sure students wear clothing that meets our dress code. The most common issues we typically see are shorts that are too short, tops that are too short and do not cover the buttocks when leggings are worn as pants, and tops that expose the midriff. The dress code can be found on page 8 of the handbook. I have linked the handbook here!

Many more things have been covered with your students over the past two days regarding the handbooks, and we highly recommend you review these with your students as well as the school year begins!

As always, I am happy to go into further detail if more is needed regarding the policies above. We are very blessed to have such supportive and understanding families who appreciate our efforts to provide a safe and focused learning environment for your children.

State Department Tutoring Resource

This is a great resource from the state for students and parents. The link below is a quick Screencastify video that shows how to go to the Tutor.com program through discus. (No audio)

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/xXFJ54tuo7maIx8GiJDr

Thank you,

John Michael Hall, Principal of Honea Path Middle School

Arrival and General Procedures

Please continue to assist us in the mornings with drop offs. It is very helpful to us and the other parents in line if you will pull forward, at least until the end of the brick flowerbed wall out front to let your child out if you are in the front of the line. We ask that other cars behind the lead car to pull forward as well. This adds only a few extra steps for your student, but it goes much faster for everyone and helps everyone get to class on time if we can unload 4 or more students at a time out front. Students must be in their 1st period classroom by 8AM in order to not be counted tardy.

Dress Code Information

We appreciate in advance your help with our updated dress code for this year. I ask you to please review these for yourself and with your students. They have been covered in school with the teachers, but we greatly appreciate your help at home. The most common issues we typically see are holes in pants that are far too large or too high, shorts that are too short, shirts that are too short or cut too low, exposed undergarments, and shirts/tops that aren't long enough over leggings. Please also note that we also don't allow blankets/pillows to be carried or hats/hoodies worn in the building.

PTO

If you’re interested in volunteering to help with the PTO, or if you're just interested in finding out ways to help support our students and teachers, please contact the PTO at hpmspto@gmail.com for more information! We would love to have you involved!

HPMS Parent/Student Handbook

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE 23-24 STUDENT HANDBOOK ONLINE

All HPMS students have been given a physical copy of the handbook, and they've all been asked to share this with you and have you sign the student behavioral contract/celebration contract.

Dress code can be found on pages 8-9.

Discipline information, including cell phone policies, can be found on pages 14-22.

The flyers above explain how students can utilize Tutor.com for free through scdiscus.org. Also, the link below is to a video tutorial that explains how it works and what features it offers. This is an excellent resource and we want to make sure all of our students have the information needed to access it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vseB8vIXI

If you have more than one student attending HPMS, we ask that you follow the procedure for the eldest student. If you are carpooling, we ask that you follow the procedure for 8th graders.

6th Grade - 6th grade students will be dismissed to the front car line, and we will continue to have parents pull forward until you reach your child. 6th graders will be waiting down at the end of the sidewalk in front of the 4K building (except in cases of severe weather). We ask 6th grade parents to approach the school from the Main Street side of Central Avenue. This will keep us from backing up on to 252 from Brock, and it should require very little driving out of the way to get in line. We ask that you do not attempt to turn left from Brock into the front of the school as this is against the traffic laws on that road during school hours.

7th Grade - 7th grade students will cross the road to get in cars which will be on Park Ave. on the right side of the road. Please do not block the entrance/exit to the parking lot in front of the school when you are in line. Park Ave. is wide enough that if you will pull to the right, it will still allow traffic through on Park as needed. Once you pick up your student, please turn left onto Brock Ave. to help us keep that crosswalk cleared. We also prefer that you would get in line from the part of Central Ave. that runs behind the football field to avoid backing up traffic on Park. We realize this may not be practical for all.

8th Grade and Carpooling Students - 8th grade students will go to the parking lot across the street for dismissal. To make leaving easier for you, please park in the center column of spaces in the lot. We are also asking that you turn left out of the parking lot when you leave. We realize that this is less convenient for those of you who normally turn right, but it will keep from having two sets of traffic turning onto Brock Ave. at the same time and creating a bottleneck. If you are picking up two or more students, you are welcomed to use this lot as well, regardless of grade level.

We ask that you drive carefully around the school because there will be several different valves of traffic going to and from the school.

• 5/20 - Awards Day (Half Day for Students) - Students Dismiss at 11:30AM
  
• 5/21 - Final Day/Half Day for Students - Students Dismiss at 11:30AM
• 5/21 - End Q4
• 5/27 - Memorial Day
• 5/28 - Summer Success Academy Begins at BHP
• 5/28 - HPMS Summer Office Hours Begin (7:30-4:30; Mon-Thurs)
• 7/17 - HPMS Early Schedule Pick-up for Returning Students - 8AM-11:30AM