Heartland MS Family Newsletter

What a wonderful week full of recognitions, celebrations, and performances! We started the week off with the finale of our Women's History Month celebration! Mrs. Stewart's 8th grade drama class did an excellent job of helping our students learn about prominent women in history! They hosted a live museum exhibit in our small gym and each social studies class stopped by to hear brief monologues and view student made poster presentations about exemplary women! It was an awesome event and we so proud of all of the hard work put in to make this event a huge success! Also, if you weren't able to see our Thunderstruck Show Choir sing the National Anthem at the OKC Thunder game last Wednesday live, be sure to check it out on our Facebook page, you won't be disappointed! These talented musicians held their composure under immense pressure and did a PHENOMENAL job! We are so proud of how well the represented Heartland!

Additionally, last Friday was National School Librarian Day! We are so thankful to have Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Murray serving our Thunderhawks! They work so hard to help foster a love of reading within our Hawks and we could not appreciate them more for their dedication to our students! Lastly, we were able to host our 8th grade social, A Night Under The Stars, last Friday in our new cafeteria! What a spectacular event it was! Our 8th grade Hawks are on the downhill slide into high school and we wanted to give them a night they wouldn't forget. There was dancing, eating, picture taking, socializing, and much more! A huge shout out to the parent volunteers, teachers, chaperones, and other educators that helped to make this event so memorable! Our Hawks will soon fly on over to Santa Fe and become Wolves! Cheers to Class of 2029!

Looking ahead, I would like to personally invite you to our Thunderhawk Theater's production of "The Addams Family" premiering this upcoming week! You definitely don't want to miss out on what is sure to be a spectacular event! I've sat in and watch a few snippets of their rehearsals and it is truly impressive! Come out and support our drama/musical productions program as they have been working tirelessly to prepare a fantastic show! It's sure to "WOW" you beyond belief! See the graphic below for more information regarding showtimes and to pre-purchase your tickets!

Next week is National Assistant Principals Week!! I am so fortunate and thankful to have Ms. Brown, Mr. McQueen, and Mrs. Williams by my side! I wouldn't be the leader that I am today without their strength, example, encouragement & collaboration! The Heartland community is so blessed to have such wonderful, hardworking & truly committed assistant principals setting high expectations for our students and educators. As assistant principals, they have helped to shape the conditions for our teachers and students to learn and succeed. I will admit that sometimes the days are long and tough, but they repeatedly show up day in and day out for our community and continuously make decisions that are in the best interest of our students! We are forever grateful for their leadership and impact on our Thunderhawk community, keep up the exemplary work! On top of this, we will be celebrating our staff of the year with a dress up week to recognize their hard work and how well they have represented Heartland at the district level! Our teacher of the year, Mr. Shane Hohn, our rookie teacher of the year, Mrs. Alex Williams, and our support employee of the year (and EPS finalist), Mrs. Cheryl Thatcher have all been wonderful representatives and embody exactly what it means to be a Thunderhawk!

As you can see, we are jammed packed with events, sports, and recognitions/celebrations and the weeks to come will be no different! The testing season will be here in a couple of weeks and our teachers are steady preparing our students for success. Please see the graphic below for testing dates and we ask, if at all possible, to ensure that your student is present for their scheduled tests. 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

Edmond Public Schools wishes to build strong partnerships with families by offering our parents and guardians the opportunity to access free research based and clinician-led live webinars to build resilient children. It can be hard to understand what your child might be going through. EPS welcomes you to join us from the comfort of your home.

Monday, April 22 from 6:00-7:00 pm

The final Daybreak session of this school year, Social Media & Youth Mental Health, is Tuesday, April 22nd from 6:00 to 7:00.It can be hard to understand what your child might be going through. Join this free webinar with Edmond Public School & a clinical expert from Daybreak Health to learn about social media & youth mental health, including:

• Understanding changes in child behavior and recognizing typical vs. concerning technology usage habits - Strategies to help kids spend less time on social media.
• Learning how to help keep kids safe online - Q&A with a licensed clinician

Hello, parents of future 7th graders! As we begin to think about enrollment for next school year, I wanted to make you aware of Oklahoma immunization requirements for students before entering 7th grade. All 7th-grade students will need to have documentation of a Tdap vaccine on file - this is typically given between ages 10-12 and serves as a “booster” to the DTaP vaccine given at an earlier age.

Alternatively, you may complete an Oklahoma Vaccine Exemption form and return it to the school.

Please email all immunization records to torie.moore@edmondschools.net.

As you already know, the district sent out communication regarding the need to add additional minutes to the school day due to unforeseen inclement weather days. In order to stay in compliance with State regulations for required seat time, EPS middle schools are required to add 10 minutes to the school day making the day last from 7:35am - 2:25pm. I have dispersed the 10 minutes amongst classes adding 1 minute to all instructional class periods. I have created a graphic for you to reference below. Please note that this effective immediately. Should you have any questions regarding the new bell schedule, please feel free to reach out to our office. Thank You!

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