Homer High-Lights

Thanks to everyone who filled out surveys last year. I know they take time and can be tedious, but they provide us with great information that can help us develop our school improvement plan. While we probably won't purchase couches, (Yes, many of our students wanted to have couches placed in our hallways and commons) we did get lots of great information.

Here are some interesting things we learned from our end of year surveys.

• We have very low rates of bullying (8%)
• Most students feel safe (91%)
• Most parents and students feel they are getting a great education (87%)
• Most parents (75%) are happy for communication in general with the school
• 24% of parents would like teachers to kept the Power School grades more up-to-date

This is very positive data for HHS. Schools across the country would love to have results like these. It tells me we are doing something right. Of course, we also received some great suggestions for for improvement. We got some suggestions for how to improve our counseling department and that we should advertise certain school activities in more places than just Facebook and our webpage. Those changes will be made this year.

It is very apparent form both the student and parent surveys that we have a very low rate of bullying. Homer High does a great job when dealing with overt or obvious bullying. What we learned is that we still have some issues with the hidden or quiet bullying. This is when someone quietly calls someone a name in the back of the room, bumps into someone while at the water fountain when the teacher isn't looking or uses social media like Facebook to spread rumors. This type of bullying is harder to monitor and the only way we can deal with it is if students report it to us.

We have made reducing this quiet bullying part of one of our school goals. We plan on providing training for students on what bullying is and how they can help reduce it. We will continue to implement the Green Dot program which deals with reducing violence and bullying and we will try to develop an anonymous reporting system for reporting bullying. These are small steps, but everything helps. Our goal is to have zero bullying and to have 100% of our students feel safe at school.

We are always looking to improve and I would love to hear your suggestions or insights. You can email me at dwaclawski@kpbsd.org or call me at 235-4600. If this doesn't work for you, feel free to come into school and I would be glad to talk to you in person. We work hard to develop a positive and safe school environment, but we can't do it alone. If you know of a problem please let us know.

Sincerely,

Douglas Waclawski

Principal

Our first Site Council Meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 3:45 in the Homer High School Library. New parent representatives are Lisa Pitta, Nina Coffey and Michael Hayes. New teacher positions and community representative will be decided at the first meeting. Meetings are open to the public and happen the first Tuesday of each month (except for January.

The KPBSD School Board will meet in Homer at the Mariner Theater on Monday, September 12th at 6:00 pm. All are welcome to attend.

Sept. 2 - Volleyball vs Nikiski - 3:30, 4:30 & 6:00 pm

Sept 3 - Swim and Dive Triathalon starting at 8:00

Sept. 3 - Football vs Juneau Douglas - 3:30 pm

Sept. 5 - KPBSD School Board Meeting - Mariner Theater

Sept. 6 - Site Council Meeting - Library - 3:45 pm

Sept. 6 - Volleyball vs Soldotna - 4:00, 5:00 and 6:30

Sept. 9 and 10 - Swim Dive Homer Invite

Sept. 9 - JV Football vs Valdez - 5:00

Sept. 10 - Football vs Seward - 2:00 and 4:30

Sept. 19 - C Team Football vs Nikiski - 4:00

Sept. 24 - Varsity Football (Homecoming) vs Joe Redington 2:00

Sept. 28 - First day of wrestling practice

Sept. 29 - Volleyball vs Grace Christian - 3:30, 4:30 and 6:00

Sept. 30 - Volleyball vs ACS - 3:30, 4:30 and 6:00

Oct. 1 - Volleyball vs Kenai - 11:00, 12:00 and 1:30

Senior Reminders

Parents of seniors should be aware that while application dates may be months off, scholarship monies can be first come first served especially for out of state colleges and universities. Most schools begin accepting applications in September which is also a good time for seniors to work on essays before the school work and other commitments start to pile up. Senior year is a fun but hectic year which always goes faster than it seems possible. Procrastination can be enemy #1 with so many things competing for seniors’ time.

College Testing

Throughout the year there will be important tests, beginning with the PSAT in October and throughout the year for SAT and ACT. There are fewer offerings this year so it is important to keep in mind that early testing means there is time for retakes if the first scores are not as high as hoped for (See the calendar of important dates at the end of this notice). We will be offering practice sessions for the PSAT starting in September and encourage students to take advantage of this opportunity as we find that students who do some preparatory work (either in groups or on their own) score higher than those who do not.

AP Testing

This year we have even more students taking Advanced Placement classes. Grades for these courses yield a grade boost but the District requires that students take the AP Test at the end of each class in May. Do keep in mind that tests cost around $90 each but many colleges will award credit which can provide a considerable savings in the end.

Look for more information throughout the year in the Counselors’ Corner and let us know how we can we can be of help to you and your student.

Important Dates

• SAT—Oct. 1, Nov. 5, Dec. 3 Jan. 21, March 11, May 6 June 3
  
• ACT—October 22, Dec. 10, Feb. 11, April 8, June 10
  

The list of top schools in the country, as reported by US News & World Report, is out and Homer High is among the top in the country again! HHS was awarded the Silver Medal for being in the top 5% of schools in the country. This award is based on AP, AMP, SAT and several other indicators. Go to http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools for more details.

Homer should be proud of our students, our teachers and our school. We continue to excel on state and local assessments, but most importantly, we help your child grow up and become wonderful citizens.

It seems like there are a million surveys, but your feedback is very important to HHS and to the district. Please take a couple of minutes and complete this district needs assessment survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VV59RFH

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District values information it receives from its stakeholders. We especially value school specific information for the development of the School Improvement Plans. Please assist us in collecting information for the building of the School Improvement Plans by taking a few minutes and complete the survey. Thank You!

We want to be able to give you instant up-to-date information about what is going on at school. This can include emergencies, sports scores as well as dates and times of events. To stay tuned to what is going on at Homer High, "like" us on Facebook. The address is www.facebook.com/homerhs. Join close to 600 other people who have liked HHS on Facebook and the over 2000 people who view our Facebook posts.

Are you wondering when sports teams have home games? Do you have a senior who needs paperwork for their senior service project ? Do you want to see agendas and minutes from our site council meetings? Check out our school website to find answers to these and other questions.

The address is http://homerhighschool.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/wpmu/.

You can access PowerSchool from our website and weekly activities as well. There are lots of great links and valuable information about Homer High School. If you have suggestions for things you would like to see on our website, please talk to Mr. Waclawski.

We expect to have a great year, but we always need to be prepared for the worst. Hopefully we will never need to use these protocols, but it is comforting to know we are prepared no matter what happens.

For general information such as what to do for snow days and delayed starts look here: http://www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/communications.aspx?id=22877 .

For procedures for what to do for an armed intruder please read this document about our A.L.I.C.E. procedures. http://www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/Workarea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=34276 .

For guides to help parents understand what they should do in an emergency look here:

http://www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/Workarea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=34275

If you have any questions about any of these emergency procedures please fell free to call me at 235-4600 or come in and we can discuss them in person.

Email: dwaclawski@kpbsd.org
Website: http://homerhighschool.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/wpmu/
Location: 600 E Fairview Ave, Homer, AK
Phone: 907-235-4600
Facebook: www.facebook.com/homerhs