Cheetah Chronicles

Saturday, March 1, 2025 is a makeup day for students on tracks 1, 3, & 4.

The school day will follow a normal arrival schedule:

• 8:50 AM - students may enter the building.

• 9:20 AM - tardy bell rings, students need to be in their classrooms at this time.

• Buses and vendor transportation will be running on their normal schedule in the morning.

• Daycare centers (Hunt Center, Beyond, Active Tracks, Big Blue Marble, and Magnolia) will be closed and will NOT provide transportation. Please plan accordingly if your child usually accesses one of these transportation options.

The school day will last for 3.5 hours: 9:20 AM - 12:50 PM

There will be no recess so that this time can be focused solely on core instruction.

Dismissal will begin at 12:50 PM, and will operate as it would normally:

• At 12:50 PM, walkers will dismiss from the media center.

• Carpool will begin at 12:50 PM - please have your carpool tag or a photo ID if you do not have a carpool number. At 1:20 PM, any students who were not picked up in carpool will be brought to the main office.

• Buses will dismiss as normal from the bus loop and the Bus Arrival & Departure Time document will be updated in real time as it is daily.

• Daycare centers (Hunt Center, Beyond, Active Tracks, Big Blue Marble, and Magnolia) will be closed and will NOT provide transportation. Please plan accordingly if your child usually accesses one of these transportation options.

Any transportation changes must be communicated with your child’s teacher or the front office. Please communicate these changes in writing. If no communication is made, the school will place your child on their normal transportation. For example, if your child normally rides the bus, your child will be placed on the bus if the school is not notified of a transportation change.

There will be no Before School or After School Care provided on Saturday makeup days.

Additional information will be coming early next week via School Messenger and classroom teachers.

Click on the photo above to be taken directly to the Wake County Public School website to enroll.

Enbridge Gas Construction Lane Shift & Detour

A detour and lane shift will affect drivers and pedestrians on Holly Springs Road between Raleigh Street and Bass Lake Road for an Enbridge Gas project. The company, formerly Dominion Energy, is upsizing its gas main along the road frontage.

For a couple of weeks during the first phase of construction, which could begin in late February at the earliest, drivers traveling from Main Street toward Sunset Lake Road will be detoured onto Raleigh Street, Earp Street, and Bass Lake Road between 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on weekdays. Drivers on Holly Springs Road traveling toward Main Street will switch lanes to the opposite side of the road during these hours. Access to the school and nearby homes and businesses will remain available throughout construction.

The sidewalk between Raleigh Street and Bass Lake Road will be closed in sections during the project’s entire construction, which is expected to last several months. The sidewalk section between Raleigh Street and Cayman Avenue is expected to close first. Pedestrians should find an alternate route. The crosswalk from Johnson Street into the school entrance is expected to remain open throughout the project.

Additional lane shifts and detours are expected during the several-months-long project. Watch for signage along the road, which will announce lane closures and detours closer to the construction date.

For questions about the gas company’s project, contact Enbridge at (919) 819-1325.

Student Intent Forms for next school year were sent home earlier this week for Tracks 1, 2, & 4. Track 3-your forms will go home on Monday. All forms will be due on Monday, February 24th. This will help tremendously as we are planning for next school year.

Families of currently enrolled HSES students who prefer a different track assignment, other than the one to which they are currently assigned, should complete this form. Administration would like to grant all requests; however, state class size limits, keeping families together on the same track, and other variables must be considered when assigning students to tracks/classrooms. You will be notified of your final track assignment for the 2025-2026 school year in late spring (end of May). Thank you for your understanding and support.

Please note that the opening of new schools in the area has led to decreasing enrollment at HSES for the 25-26 school year. This change may make it harder to change tracks and some families may be notified of the need to change tracks due to state class size limits. *Deadline to consider any track changes: March 7, 2025*

Track Change Request Form: https://forms.gle/ErB7mwDGDjNpq3SZ6

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer McKinnon

Principal

The parent/custodian submitting this track change request acknowledges that both parents/custodians of this student are in agreement with this request being submitted. In cases where one parent/custodian has sole custody of the student, the person submitting this track change request acknowledges his/her legal authority to do so.

El padre/la madre/el tutor legal que somete esta petición de cambio de sección (“track”) verifica que ambos padres/tutores legales de este estudiante están de acuerdo con la entrega de esta petición. En los casos en que uno de los padres o el tutor legal tiene custodia exclusiva del estudiante, la persona que somete esta petición de cambio de sección (“track”) verifica que tiene la autoridad legal de hacerlo.

Single Subject Acceleration

Parents interested in having their child evaluated for SINGLE Subject Acceleration (SSA): Please click HERE for the WCPSS Advanced Learning Services (ALS) 2025 SSA Parent Information presentation (has voiceover). The county also created a "one-pager" of info - LINK. The same SSA info can also be found on our school's website (https://www.wcpss.net/hollyspringses) and http://bit.ly/HSESAIG (access code AIG).

Please review the entire SSA Parent Information presentation to determine if SSA testing is appropriate for your child.

SSA Test REQUEST Windows:

Track 1: February 17 - March 7, 2025 | Tracks 2 + 3 + 4: March 10 - March 28, 2025

Please go to the WCPSS ALS SSA page (LINK), for your track's test request Google form. Completed SSA Test Request Google forms will ONLY be accepted during your track's window. No forms will be accepted after 5pm on your track's last test request day.

If you have questions regarding SSA at HSES, please contact Kiersten Bashor (kbashor@wcpss.net), AIG teacher.

2nd Annual Dare to Dream - African Americans and Labor is Feb. 27
Join us on Thursday, Feb. 27 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Ligon Magnet Middle for an evening of community, culture, and unity showcasing the talents of our district’s students and educators. Through spoken word, dance, choir, music, step teams, and art, participants will honor the contributions of African Americans in labor and beyond. Register now.

Parents/Guardians - The HSES EOG dates have been finalized and can be found here and on the HSES website. It is important that every effort is made for your 3rd, 4th, and/or 5th grade child to be present during EOG testing days. Please plan vacations/trips, doctor appointments, etc. accordingly.

A reminder that when parents visit the classroom, students CANNOT leave with their parents until the parents have signed the student out in the office.

Likewise, parents need to wait until after an event to sign their child/children out. All parents must sign their child/children out in the front office.

WCPSS K-12 Math Parent Resource

https://sites.google.com/wcpss.net/k-12mathematics/home

Use the following link to read the HSES Homework Grading Plan for 24-25:

HSES HW Grading Plan

Even if you were approved as a volunteer last school year you must be approved again this year. Many field trips are coming up and we do not want you to wait or miss out as it takes a while for volunteers to be approved. Follow the steps below carefully:

Register as a WCPSS Volunteer

All WCPSS parent and community volunteers are required to register through the new MyVolunteer system. Please complete your registration on a computer at home or school. It is very difficult to complete using a mobile phone. It can take several weeks for your registration to be approved so don’t wait until field trips to try and register. Register now so you are ready and able to volunteer in the classroom, volunteer for school events, or chaperone at any time this school year!

1. Click the link below to start your volunteer registration: https://myvolunteer.com/wcpss/volunteer/login

2. Click create new account.

3. Complete the online form and select all the schools that you are requesting to volunteer or chaperone for the 2024-2025 school year.

4. It will then say pending.

5. Soon after you will receive an email with a customized link for you to complete next steps for your background check. This link expires 10 days from the day you receive the email. Follow the instructions in that email. You will fill out all items in red boxes and then you will review and digitally sign four documents (Summary of Rights Under the FCRA, Disc & Auth, NC Security Freeze Notice, and WCPSS Volunteer Agreement).

6. If you leave the CRC background site before completing your contact information, you will have to begin the process again.

7. You must include your social security number to register to volunteer. If you do not have a social security number, please contact volunteers@wcpss.net or call 919-694-8233.

8. Great news is that this year you will be notified by the MyVolunteer system if you are approved to volunteer!

Please Note: If you are a WCPSS Employee seeking to volunteer/chaperone in the schools, you do not have to complete a criminal background check. However, employees will still need to register in the MyVolunteer system (https://myvolunteer.com/wcpss/volunteer/login) and complete the Wake County Volunteer Agreement and other required forms. Employees must select the “Current Staff of WCPSS” link on MyVolunteer to complete the volunteer registration process and must use their WCPSS email address to complete the registration.

Parents are welcome to join their child for lunch at school. To ensure a smooth experience, please note the following guidelines:

Pre-arrangement: Lunch visits must be scheduled in advance with your child’s teacher.

Location: Due to limited space in the cafeteria, parents and their child will need to enjoy lunch at the picnic tables in the courtyard or in the reading garden.

No Friends: Lunch visits are just for you and your child, so friends won't be able to join.

Procedure: Parents will meet their child at the front office and return them to the front office after lunch. Don't forget to check out at the office before leaving.

If you have any questions or need more information, please feel free to reach out to the school administration.

Breakfast is $1.75 and lunch is $3.50. All families must complete an application for the 2024-2025 school year in order to receive free or reduced lunch prices. Please allow 10 business days for processing.

Check out school menus in Mealviewer

Menus will now be available on our interactive website, MealViewer. Monthly school meal menu PDFs will no longer be posted on the district website.

The purpose of this section is to provide updated information to families about the use of personal devices which aligns with district policy - smartwatches, cell phones, etc. on school grounds. Board Policy 3225 Technology Responsible Use states:

Students are expected to comply with the Code of Conduct and the applicable “Rules for Use of Technology Resources” set forth in this policy when students use a personal device on school property, at school-sponsored events, on school-based transportation, or anytime a personal device is connected to school system technology resources. As an example, students using a personal device on school property, at school-sponsored events, on school-based transportation, or when the device is connected to school system technology resources, shall not engage in creating, intentionally viewing, accessing, downloading, storing, printing or transmitting images, graphics (including still or moving pictures), sound files, text files, documents, messages or other material that is obscene, defamatory, profane, pornographic, harassing, or abusive.

Recently, more and more students are wearing Smartwatches or similar items to school. Smartwatches are allowed only if put on Airplane mode in order to disable text messages and phone calls from being received by the watch/device. The watch is considered a cell phone UNLESS airplane mode is activated. Cell Phones should also be in Airplane mode and in student backpacks. If a student's cell-phone is out after the teacher has asked for it to be put away, the cell phone will be placed in the school office for a parent to pick up. The school system assumes no responsibility for personal technology devices brought to school.

o DCRI Literacy at Home One Pager (English)

We would love for you to come and volunteer this school year at HSES and/or as part of PTA!

Register to volunteer HERE

Click the letter below to learn more about the Positivity Project and to view the yearly calendar:

P2 Family Information Letter

Tracks 1, 3, & 4 - Love of Learning

How Can You Help Your Child with Impulse Control?

• establish clear expectations and rules

• teach your children to label their feelings

• use positive reinforcement

• play games that require waiting, taking turns & not always winning

• encourage emotional regulation techniques (I.e. deep breathing, visualization, grounding)

• practice delayed gratification

• be consistent with consequences

Do you have a different home language other than English? Are you willing to volunteer at the school? If you answered “yes” to these questions please continue reading. We are looking for HSES parents who are willing to help translate for some of our English Learning parents during school events such as curriculum night, Literacy night, etc. Currently we have a need for the following languages. Spanish, Amharic.

If you are interested or want more information please contact the ESL teacher, Sarah Rodgers (at srodgers3@wcpss.net.

Last Call for Yearbook PHOTOS!!!!

Click the link above to share photos for the yearbook.

Talent Show Sign Up

HSES' Talent Show is April 24th! We are looking for 30 (3rd-5th grade) students to show us what makes them SO special! Visit the form for more details. Registration deadline is March 14th- don’t wait!

Click on the photo above to access the PTA Board Nomination Application

Click the image above to order your 24-25 HSES Yearbook

Proceeds from sign sales help to fund the 5th Grade Celebrations!

Click on the signs below to order!

BECOME A PTA MEMBER!

Ever wonder what treats to get the wonderful staff of HSES? Well wonder no more!

Click on Teacher Favorites to see, well, the teachers' favorites!

• Took an awesome photo of your student and would love to see it in the yearbook?! Help make it amazing by adding YOURS!

• LAST CALL FOR YEARBOOK PHOTOS!

School Store SignUp Genius