Hendricks Herald

I heard a great story the other day:

A husband and wife lived in a quaint house with a small backyard with an apple tree. Every year that apple tree produced the smallest, pulpiest, inedible apples. Every year as they produced the inedible fruit, the wife would beg her husband to fix the tree. “I just want apples to eat from our tree. What can you do? Please fix it.” After several years of this and wanting to be a good husband, he decided, with a proclamation to his wife over Thursday night dinner, “Honey, on Saturday, I’m going to fix the apple tree.”

Early Saturday morning, the wife wakes up to find her husband already awake and heading outside. She takes a look out the window to the back yard and sees her husband carrying a tall ladder, clippers, a hammer, a box of nails, and 3 bushels of apples. Confused, she watches her husband climb up the tall ladder to the limbs of the apple tree and begin pruning the small, pulpy, inedible apples from the tree. Once done, he begins to take apples from the baskets he bought from the local farmer’s market, and begin nailing bright, red delicious apples to the tree.

Proudly the husband re-enters his home, having solved the problem of the apple tree that would not produce delicious apples.

Problem solved, right? Of course not! Nailing apples to a tree that won’t produce fruit does not a productive apple tree make. In just a few days, those apples would rot and the “root” of the problem would remain; the tree would still produce only small, pulpy, inedible apples!

When it comes to our children we don’t want to be apple nailers, we want to be heart doctors!

Raising children and working with children is not just hard work, it’s heart work!

Ben Jones

Principal

September : Sources of Strength Kick-Off Month

September 2: Labor Day Holiday

September 3: Football vs LMMS @EFHS

September 5: XC Meet at North Hall Community Center

September 7: Football vs DMS @HMS

September 7: 6th Grade Only Beginning Band Clinic 9 AM - 12 PM

September 10: Football vs OMS @WFHS

September 10-13: 7th grade field trips to JA

September 10-16: National Arts in Education Week

September 11: Unplugged Night

September 13: 8th Grade Band Night @WFHS Football Game

September 14: XC Meet at the Oakwood UNG Campus

September 14: Football vs LMS @LMS

September 15-October 15: National Hispanic Heritage Month

September 17: Football vs SMS @LHS

September 18: PTO Spirit Night Vendetti's Restaurant

September 23-27: No School for Fall Break

Hendricks Middle School has a podcast. Kyle Pullano, one of our outstanding connections teachers, hosts the HMS Podcast. The podcast is updated monthly and features both students and staff members. Click here to listen to the most current or previous episodes.

Does your student have a teacher at Hendricks who has gone the extra mile? Please take the time to nominate that teacher to be a teacher of the month here at Hendricks. Thank you for taking the time to recognize the teachers. Keep the positivity coming by completing the nomination form linked here. Each eligible teacher of the month will be a candidate for the 2025-2026 Teacher of the Year at Hendricks.

Raising kids in this digital age is difficult. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, the time our children spend on various digital platforms can make them vulnerable in the online world. Because our school places high importance on keeping your children safe, we want to do everything we can to equip you with resources and tools to help you raise responsible digital citizens. Therefore, we are partnering with a company called Neptune Navigate. This service teaches students and families how to be smart and stay safe online through a comprehensive, engaging online curriculum for students K-12.

The topics your child will cover this year include Digital Citizenship, Cyberbullying, Digital Footprint, Digital World Basics/Social Media, Media Literacy, Privacy & Cyber Awareness, and Age Appropriateness/Tech Laws. Neptune Navigate also provides a module for parents called “Continue the Conversation” which includes a short video highlighting critical information being taught in each of the student modules. This is an important resource to help you further the discussion with your child/children about being responsible digital citizens.

You can access the link to Continue the Conversation for Parents here:​ https://neptunenavigate.com/ctc/

We desire to work together to help your children be smart and stay safe online. Thank you for allowing us to partner with you in this endeavor.

Unplugged Nights are evenings designated as nights when no homework will be assigned. The goal is for families to have an evening away from school work and technology where they can connect and communicate. Thank you for your support of our students, our community, and our school. Please let us know how we can partner with you to encourage ongoing unplugged time between home and Hendricks. We hope you and your family enjoy the time together on September 11th this month.

HMS is kicking off our first Sources of Strength campaign on September 12th. We will offer prizes and games before school from 8:30-9:00 in the commons, helping us getting the word out amongst our students about Sources of Strength. We are looking forward to seeing all of our Hawks discover their strengths. To learn more about the Sources of Strength program, please click here.

Mr. Flath: A-F

Ms. Chapple: G-M

Mrs. Schroeder: N-Z

Ms. Taylor: Wellness

Please note that a student must be seen by the school nurse to check out early with an excused absence for illness. If a child is checked out without being seen by the nurse, the absence will be unexcused unless a note from a physician is sent to the school.

The media center is the place to be at Hendricks. Students are coming daily to check out books, read, play games, or play instruments. In August, all sixth grade students visited the media center to explore the space, learn about all the media center has to offer, and play a Shelfie Scavenger Hunt game. We are beginning the implementation of our Hendricks Media Center Advisory Board in September for the students who applied to participate. The students will be assisting with book displays, media center promotations, and shelving. If you have any gently used board games, puzzles, blocks, or card games that you are no longer using, we would love to make them available to students in the media center. Students can drop them off any time during the school day. Happy Reading!

Forsyth County Schools will use MySchoolBucks.com for student breakfast and lunch payments. If you had a MyPaymentsPlus account with funds prior to this school year, the funds will roll over to My School Bucks for the new school year. Money in accounts will automatically carry forward to the student’s assigned school for the new year. You can add additional funds

FCS utilizes SchoolPay for all other student-related payment items. Parents/guardians need to create an account and attach their student to the account. Please click here for directions on creating a SchoolPay account.

Thank you for utilizing these two payment methods for your children.

Install the Canvas app and become an observer of your student's courses. Teachers will be posting all relevant course information in Canvas. Being an observer will keep you informed and give you additional tools to support your student's progress. Click here for more information on using Canvas.

Please email attendance excuses within 5 days to:

Andi Moran at amoran@forsyth.k12.ga.us

Excuses need to be received within 5 days of the students absence. If seen by a licensed physician, please ensure the attending physician provides a medical/dental/vision/etc. excuse.

STUDENTS MAY BE EXCUSED FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. Personal illness or attendance in school that endangers a students' health or the health of others.

2. A serious illness or death in a student's immediate family necessitating absence from school.

3. A court order or an order by a governmental agency, including pre-induction physical examinations for service in the armed forces, mandating absence from school.

4. The observance of religious holidays, necessitating absence from school.

5. Conditions rendering attendance impossible or hazardous to student health or safety.

6. A scheduled medical, dental, or eye examination of the student. (Please provide a note from the attending physicians office)

7. Registering to vote or voting.

8. Visiting with a parent or legal guardian who is in the military service in the armed forces and has been called to duty for or is on leave from overseas deployment to a combat zone or combat support post. The student may be excused for a maximum of 5 days per school year.

Non-school related activities and vacations are considered unexcused.

Website: https://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/hms
Location: 4950 Hyde Road, Cumming, GA, USA
Phone: (678) 965-5038
Facebook: facebook.com/HendricksHawks/
Twitter: @HendricksMiddle