The Hive

We blinked and now it's August and school is about to start! We hope you all have had an amazing summer full of laughter, rest, travel, reading, and fun. We are SO excited to kick off the 2024-2025 school year! We know that this is going to be an amazing year and we are happy to have you join us along our journey of continuing to build our HMS community!

This is a long newsletter with lots of helpful information with dates and times for you. August is a busy month and we feel like we are kicking everything off a few days early this year. We encourage you to take some time to read through the applicable parts for your family.

Students will receive their schedules during Hornet Academy or 7th & 8th grade Orientation. One thing we learned last year is that scheduling is extremely complicated. We were shocked at how complicated the process turned out to be. There are several things that need to be taken into consideration when scheduling a student. The more specific the classes are (band, foreign language, 8th grade PE, etc) the more fixed a schedule becomes. Sometimes a class is only offered at one point during the day. Please keep this in mind as your student's receive your schedules. We appreciate your understanding with this.

With that said, Mrs. Starkey has moved to HHES to be the counselor there. We are excited to have Ben Nelson joining us as our counselor this year. We know you all are going to enjoy working with him!

As always, we try to convey that we have an open door policy. Our philosophy is that we are all in this together and we are a community together. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions, concerns, positives (you all have sent us SO many of these and we are incredibly thankful), or funny stories!

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer! We will see all of you soon. :)

With kindness,

BC & SS

If you are curious about what we are up to, we encourage you to follow us on Facebook! We try to post something every day. Last year, we posted 177/180 days and we are determined to continue this habit! We love sharing with you all of the awesome things that happen at HMS and this is a great platform to make that happen. It's also fun to interact with all of you in a different way.

Nicole Shores will be joining us as an additional special education teacher.

Ryan Spraker will be joining as an additional 6th grade ELA and Social Studies teacher.

Ben Nelson will be joining us as our new counselor.

Isabell Hunt has joined us as our night custodian.

Josh Hart & Bailey Metz will be joining us as paraeducators.

Who: All HMS Families

When: Tuesday, August 20th 4:00-5:00pm

Where: HMS Gym

We are looking forward to hosting our second annual family information night. Not only does this give us a chance to get to meet and visit with all of you, but it also gives us a chance to talk with you about our HMS Community. We will review what you can expect from us, what is new for this year, lessons learned from our first year, and some additional updates we would like to share with you. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions. We hope you will consider joining us!

HMS' picture day takes place during 6th Grade Hornet Academy on 8/26 and 7th & 8th grade orientation on 8/27. If you would like to pre-order your child's school picture, please use the following link:

School Picture Online Order Form

Who: 6th Grade Students

When: Monday, August 26th ( 8:00am - 12:00pm)

Where: HMS (enter through the main entrance)

During this half-day event, students will meet their teachers and run through their daily schedule. In each class, students will complete a different activity designed to help them get to know their school and prepare for their first day as a middle schooler. These activities will include taking their photo, getting their school ID card and signing up for a locker if they want one.

Parents: Please plan on dropping off your student for this event. Also, from 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, we will have a Schoology session for families to learn how to navigate our learning management system. Parents can also pay fees and sign Assurance forms for the Chromebooks.

Who: 7th & 8th Grade Students

When: Tuesday, August 27th (8:00am - 12:00pm)

Where: HMS (enter through the main entrance)

Details: Students, along with their parents, can pick up their class schedules, pay fees, sign Assurance Chromebook forms, take their school photo, sign up for a locker if they want one and learn more about school activities.

Who: 6th, 7th & 8th Grade Students & Families

When: September 3rd (5:30pm-6:30pm)

Where: HMS

Parents and families are encourage to stop by to meet their child’s teachers and learn more about the curriculum for each course. We hope to see you there!

We hope you had a great summer and are so excited to get the fall sports season started. If we have not met, my name is Sid Slom and I am the Athletic Director and Dean of Students at Hockinson Middle School. This fall, we have boys and girls cross country and girls volleyball. Please register for fall sports using FinalForms as soon as possible. You will need to create a new profile if you do not already have one and be fully cleared in order to participate in the first practice (Monday 8/26 for Cross Country or 9/3 for Girls Volleyball). Additionally, all athletes must have a current sports physical on file, sports physicals are good for 2 years. More information about registering on FinalForms & the Physical form can be found here ->

Final Form Registration

Physical Form

Cross Country

• First Practice 8/26

• 7th & 8th grade girls and boys

• We will have a 6th grade XC club - start date is TBD

Volleyball

• 7th & 8th grade girls

• Tryouts 9/3 - 9/5

There will be more sport specific information shared in the coming weeks through FinalForms. I look forward to meeting you in the coming weeks and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns that may arise in the meantime.

We are THRILLED for HMS to be the recipient of the first annual Schools on the Rise Award. Twenty-one schools were awarded this honor out of several hundred that applied from the entire state of Washington. We found out our school won in June while attending the AWSP conference. This award celebrates schools where students and adults collaborate to improve culture and amplify student voice, which is exactly the path we are trying to pave. We feel so lucky to be able to celebrate HMS and share this award with all of you and our school community! Go Hornets!!! 💛💙

We teach, guide, and support students and our community by creating a safe environment where we learn and grow together.

Wednesdays: 1 Hour Early Release

Office Hours: 8:00am - 3:45am

Email: bess.colpron@hocksd.org
Website: https://hms.hocksd.org/
Location: 15916 NE 182nd Ave, Brush Prairie, WA, USA
Phone: 360-448-6440
Facebook: facebook.com/HockinsonMS/