Heartland MS Family Newsletter

Hopefully, you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving break and are rested, rejuvenated, and ready to face the Holiday season head-on. We each have so much to be grateful for and I hope that you were able to spend some time off with those that you love most! In the school world - the time between Thanksgiving break and the semester break feels very fast. The end of the semester will be here before you know it. Every quarter, there is a hard cut-off date for missing work to be turned in. For this 2nd quarter, that hard cut-off date is December 13th. This allows teachers get the assignments graded and into infinite campus before the end of the semester, if time allows. As a point of information, by the time a student gets to the cut-off date for missing work - they have typically had weeks - if not months - of extra time to work on these assignments past the original due date. The hard cut-off date truly is that. Be sure to check with your student to make sure they are completing their assignments and getting any missing work completed and turned in sooner rather than later. Also, listed below is also a graphic for our semester finals schedule. This generally occurs the last few days of school. Be sure to check it out so that you can stay in the know!

Speaking of the end of the semester, we would like to take this opportunity to have a little fun! Starting in the month of December, we will be "Decking the Heartland Halls!" To help us get in the Holiday spirit, we will have dress up days each day in December and would love for our students to join in on the fun! Please see the calendar listed below for our order of events. Over the course of the next 2.5 weeks, we will be hosting grade level competitions and cap things off with an all-school assembly celebration on our last day of the semester, December 19th! Students will receive more information regarding all of the dress up days, events, and ways to get involved in their advisory classes this upcoming week!

Lastly, this last few weeks of the semester will be jammed packed with ways to celebrate our Thunderhawks! Our Winter sports are in full swing and our performing arts organizations are gearing up for their Holiday concerts! Please join me in supporting our Thunderhawks as they continue to hone their craft and show off what they've learned this semester! If you need me, you'll find me in the stands/seats enjoying our kiddos as they showcase their amazing talents! Here's to a fantastic end to a wonderful first semester! As always, should you have any questions, ideas or suggestions please feel free to reach out to our office!

WE ARE...HEARTLAND!

Respectfully,

Veronica Johnson

Principal, Heartland Middle School

405-340-2972

It's tradition at the Heart for us the celebrate the Winter season big!! The first of each December, we start our "Deck the Heartland Halls" celebration and continue until we release for Winter break! Door decorating competitions, dress up days, Winter assembly, and much more! Feel free to view the link below to plan and prepare for what is sure to be the best celebration yet!

Deck The Heartland Halls 2024

I realize everyone is in a rush to drop off and pick up. I get it - believe me! However, there are some practices happening that are not safe & we need to address those.

1) Picking Up/Dropping Off on Penn Itself. We have a few parents who are stopping on Penn Ave to have students get in and out of the car. Not only does this stop traffic for the other cars that are traveling down the street - but - it's simply not safe. I've even noticed cars make an immediate illegal u-turn after pick-up/drop-off. Please help us out by trying a safer method for pick up/drop off.

2) Dropping Off at the North Entrance We have SEVERAL parents who are now skipping the line, driving around to the North side of the school and dropping their students off in the bus loop after the buses leave in the morning. We are currently not staffed for supervision of these students as they come in. We ask that you utilize the car rider line and not drop off in the North bus loop. I promise you, the line goes pretty quickly.

3) Picking Up and Dropping Off in the East Parking Lot. The East parking lot by the tennis courts is used for staff parking. Many parents are driving around the North side of the building and into the East parking lot to drop off and pick up their student. Again, this area is not properly supervised. The more students that gather over on the East side, the more likely something dangerous/inappropriate can happen.

4) Students Dropped Off Early or Picked Up Late. We have supervision of students scheduled from 7:10 am to 2:40 pm. We've consistently had students waiting out front until deep in the 3:30pm time. These students are not supervised. AND - they're bored. Bored and not supervised turns into many things at the middle school level. We ask that you please make arrangements to have your student picked up at the normal time - OR - ride the bus home. Additionally - we're having many students dropped off on campus and waiting for doors to open for a long time. Some as early as 6:00am. An hour and ten minutes is a long time to wait once it gets really cold outside..

In short - I ask that we all follow the normal procedure for pick up and drop off for the safety of our students. Please help us in enforcing the rules with our students by following them as parents.

If your student tested last Spring at Heartland and you are interested in picking up a paper copy of your current 7th, 8th, or 9th-grade student OSTP scores from last year - we will have those available at the school - until the end of this first semester. Current 6th-grade students would need to visit the elementary school in which they tested to receive the paper copy of their scores.

Now that we are in the process of running eligibility for OSSAA activities - there always tends to be some confusion as to when a student can and can not participate. Here are some bullet points to help define when a student can and can not participate.

• Eligibility is run mid-week. For example - we run eligibility on Thursday morning based on grades posted on Wednesday evening. If a student is listed as "ineligible" - that means they can not participate in any OSSAA games scheduled for the next calendar week of Sunday - Sunday. By OSSAA rules - students can still practice during that time. However, individual coaches may have other team rules regarding practice.
• Probation vs. Ineligible. The first week a student has a grade that qualifies them for the eligibility report - they are listed as "on Probation"... At that point in time - they can still participate and play in games. (Again - team rules may be more strict) If the student raises the grade by the next eligibility report run - their name comes off the list and they are good to go. If there is still a grade in question - the student becomes ineligible.
• If a student is listed as ineligible - AND - raises their grade (yay!!) the next time there is a grade in question -- they move back to the probation category. Therefore, there is always a week of grace after a student has worked to get their name off of the list.

Please feel free to contact Heartland Athletic Director Laura Brown with questions as I know it can be confusing.

Honesty - Being truthful in what I say and do

Enthusiasm - Expressing interest and excitement in what I do

Attentiveness - Concentrating on the person or task before me

Resiliency - Recovering from adversity and finding the inner strength to withstand stress

and do my best

Tolerance- Demonstrating respect for others who do not share my perspective

Leadership- Knowing the way. Going the way. Showing the way.

Accountability - Accepting responsibility for my actions

Nice- Dude. Be Nice!

Discipline- Choosing behaviors to help me reach my goals and finish strong!

Veronica Johnson - Lead Principal

Laura Brown - Asst. Principal, 8th Grade/Athletic Director

Dana Williams - Asst. Principal, 7th Grade

Paul McQueen - Asst. Principal, 6th Grade

Kim Treece - 7th Grade Counselor

Neika Jackson - 8th Grade Counselor

Cara Bowerman - 6th Grade Counselor

Email: heartland.middleschool@edmondschools.net
Website: https://heartland.edmondschools.net/
Location: Heartland Middle School, Explorer Drive, Edmond, OK, USA
Phone: (405)340-2972
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartlandmiddleschool