IHS December Newsletter

December 23-January 5: Winter Break

January 1-January 31: School Choice Lottery season

January 6: NO SCHOOL--Professional Development Day

January 16: Last day to request Pass/No Pass

January 20: NO SCHOOL--Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

January 30: End of Semester 1

January 31: NO SCHOOL--Grading Day

February 3: NO SCHOOL--Professional Development Day

If you're like me, you're finding it almost impossible to keep track of the A/B schedule this year. And let's not even get started on figuring out which day Advisory is going to fall on each week. Thankfully, there are amazing teachers and graphic designers who are here to help us! Nina Herbst, the Visual Arts and Graphic Design teacher at South, and Zac Paskalev put together this very easy to read calendar for the South staff. I'm going to give you all an early holiday gift and put a copy here for you too. The next time you're trying to schedule your student's dentist appointment, check this schedule first!

IHS Site Council Meetings are going well so far this year! We have had a great turnout of parents, teachers, and students. We meet once a month, on the second Tuesday of the month, from 4:15-5:15 at South High School in room 541. Snacks are provided :) OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10!

If you are interested in being a parent member for IHS Site Council, please email me: dearinger_c@4j.lane.edu. I will add you to our email list so you can receive updates and a copy of the agenda before each meeting.

DATE CHANGE--PLEASE NOTE!

The school district is maintaining the same policy as last year in regards to taking courses Pass/No Pass. All academic classes will earn a letter grade (A-F) unless a request for Pass/No Pass is made by the student. Students can choose a P/NP grading option until two weeks before the end of the semester. For Semester 1, that deadline date is JANUARY 16.

One of the requirements to earn the honorary IHS diploma is to PASS all of the IHS courses required during junior and senior year. For IHS students, those courses are:

11th grade: IB Economics, IB Literature, IB History, IB Junior Seminar

12th grade: IB Literature, IB History, IB Theory of Knowledge

If your JUNIOR OR SENIOR student received a D/F on their midterm grading report for any IHS class, you should have received a letter sent to your home explaining the possible consequences of failing an IHS class. The letter reminds you and your student that there is still a lot of time left in the semester to improve grades, and teachers will be communicating with you about progress and improvement as it occurs. However, if a student fails any IHS course for any semester during junior or senior year, they are ineligible for the IHS honorary diploma.

Students who fail a course are still welcome to remain in IHS--they can still take IB exams and pursue the IB diploma, if they so choose. Students are even allowed to still participate in our graduation ceremony. However, they will not be awarded the IHS diploma. Please read below for more detailed information about the requirements for earning the IHS honorary diploma.

We have two amazing educational assistants available to work with all IHS students at our three host campuses. Suzanne Jarvis and Amy Baker split their time between the three campuses and do their best to be available for any IHS student who needs support or additional help in any IHS class. If your student is looking for extra support, please see the EA schedules below. A student does NOT need to have an IEP or 504 plan to ask for help from our EAs!

Here is the schedule for Suzanne Jarvis:

And here is the schedule for Amy Baker:

Thanks to everyone who helped us make our IHS Volunteer Fair a huge success! On the Monday of parent-teacher conferences, we hosted 14 local volunteer organizations at South Eugene HS. During our 2-hour fair, we had over 75 IHS students from all campuses and all grade levels show up to learn more about ways they can volunteer in our community. The organizations were all very complimentary of our students and the genuine interest they showed in helping serve our Eugene community--and they asked to be invited back the next time! Special thanks to Jenny Hehnke, our CAS coordinator and Melanie Namkoong, IHS South secretary, for their help in organizing all the details and making this event a success.

If your student wasn't able to attend, we hope to plan more events like this one later in the school year, so stay tuned for our next one!

For IHS juniors and seniors, the IB internal assessment (IA) season has officially begun! Internal assessments are IB required tasks that are assessed by the classroom teachers and then sent off to IB with a final grade. Students who are testing in IB subject areas must complete every IA required of each course. Internal assessments include historical investigations, oral literary analysis, science labs, essays, and much more! These tasks are student-driven and offer IB students a chance to learn more about topics or areas of interest; the assessments can be time consuming and rigorous. In addition, the due dates are strictly enforced as IB requires these assessments to be submitted according to their deadlines. The IB team works hard to try to space out these internal assessments so that students don't have too many due all at once.

If you have a junior or senior student, please check in with them about their IAs! Ask them what topics they've chosen to work on, or offer to see a rough draft. You'll be impressed with the extent and depth of knowledge our students already have, and on the broad range of topics they choose to research. And please help them plan ahead to make sure they have time dedicated to submit each IA by the due date.

Believe it or not, we're already in the planning stages for the School Choice lottery for next year! The School Choice lottery will run the entire month of January, from Jan.1-31, 2025. During this month, schools offer information sessions for students and families to attend to learn more about the options available throughout 4j. Students who are interested in a school outside their drawing area or in a special school (like Eugene IHS) need to apply through the 4j lottery, which closes on January 31.

This year, Eugene IHS will hold (4) information sessions for prospective students and families. If you already have a student in IHS but you have an 8th grader this year, you are welcome to attend. We sent information to all our feeder middle schools, but please feel free to pass this information along to other families who might be interested in Eugene IHS.

Tuesday, January 14--Churchill High School from 7:00-8:00 pm in the cafeteria

Thursday, January 16--ONLINE (Google Meet link to be provided later)

Tuesday, January 21--Sheldon High School from 7:00-8:00 pm in the cafeteria, with Spanish immersion breakout session from 8:00-8:30 in room C9

Thursday, January 23--South High School from 7:00-8:00 pm in the cafeteria, with French immersion breakout session from 8:00-8:30 in the library

This past month, we were contacted by the director of The Little French School asking us to advertise open enrollment for the current and upcoming school years. If you are interested, please read the message below for more information:

The Little French School is a French immersion preschool that has been providing high quality bilingual French childcare to children in the community for 37 years. We are located inside the First United Methodist Church (but are not religiously affiliated) at 1376 Olive St, Eugene, OR 97401. We serve children aged 2 - 5 years old, and we are currently enrolling for both the 2024-2025 Academic Year and the 2025-2026 Academic Year. No previous knowledge of French is required to enroll a student in our school.

Currently, we have 10 spots available in our Toddlers classroom (ages 2-3 years old) and 2 spots available in our Pre-K classroom (ages 4-5 years old). We would love your help in filling these remaining spots. Could you please share our enrollment flyers with your current families to see if any of them are currently needing childcare?

An enrollment flyer is attached here as well.

_________________________

Assitan Sylla Traore (Assa)

Director

This is a reminder that our Spanish immersion teacher, Mr. Ricardo Zapata Bello, is sponsoring the Hispanic Honor Society at Sheldon High School. The Hispanic Honor Society is open to all Sheldon students (including students not in IHS) who fulfill the prerequisites listed below:

• Student must have taken Spanish for at least 2 years to join
• Minimum GPA of 3.0 (unweighted GPA)

Benefits for members:

• Scholarships for seniors pursuing post high school education
• A formal induction ceremony
• Graduation cords to be worn at IHS and Sheldon graduation
• Weekly meetings with other students about issues and concerns important to the group

If this is a club you think your student would be interested in joining, please tell them to go to the next meeting and check it out! Meetings are held in Mr. Zapata's room (B10) on Tuesdays during lunch.

The IHS branch of Model UN has officially kicked off the 2024-2025 session! This year, our group will be representing Slovenia, Egypt, and Guyana. Meetings are held twice per month at each campus, and the Model UN State Conference will held in the spring at the University of Oregon. Students are still able to participate this year! So If your student is interested in joining Model UN, please reach out to Steve Smith (smith_st@4j.lane.edu) or Joanne Heidel (heidel_j@4j.lane.edu). Mr. Smith tells me that this year we have the largest Model UN club in recent IHS history with over 50 members! All are welcome to join!

One of our IHS juniors would like to promote an amazing opportunity for all IHS students and families! This is a program that brings Costa Rican teenagers to Oregon to live with host families and shadow their host siblings at high school for one month.

Here is what the student said:

"My family and I have hosted twice already plus I went on the two month Southbound program and lived with two different families and made so many friends while learning Spanish. We are hosting again this December. This is a culture and language immersion program so the participants really get to experience life in the US and build connections across borders."

Students aren't required to go on the program if they host, but they can apply to go on the summer program if they are interested. There are six students who still need host families in January, and they can match US and Costa Rican students who have similar interests (like soccer, dancing,video gaming, etc.).

Here is the website information: https://www.partnersorcr.com/.

And, here is a slidedeck of the students they are still seeking families for: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AUK56qM1dTVUerZtJNjdYfGVzSz-rXbexgVoXjXRrAQ/edit#slide=id.g2f477fef115_0_0

If you are interested or would like more information, please contact me at dearinger_c@4j.lane.edu and I will put you in touch with this family!

Would you be interested in traveling with Lisa Joye in 2026?

Please take a moment to fill out this Google form:

https://forms.gle/pmrL8koeTLoNZ84EA

Last day to enroll in the Switzerland trip is March 4, 2025

Last day to enroll in the Iceland trip is April 20, 2025

Email Lisa Joye @ TravelwithLisaJoye@gmail.com to learn more about 2025 travel opportunities

Eugene International High School offers students a chance to earn an honorary diploma at the end of our four years together. Students still earn their high school diploma from their host school--for example, a student's high school diploma is from Sheldon High School, but they also receive the honorary IHS diploma as recognition for completing our separate set of standards and requirements. Eugene IHS holds our own separate graduation ceremony at the Hult Center (my favorite night of the school year!) where we recognize graduating seniors together from all three host campuses.

In order to earn the honorary IHS diploma, students must do the following:

• PASS all required IHS courses in 11th-12th grade
• Submit a final draft of the Extended Essay research paper (completed during Junior Seminar)
• Take at least (3) years of a world language (does not have to be the same language all three years)
• Complete (100) CAS hours (Creativity, Activity, Service) during junior and senior year
• Complete all graduation requirements for the high school diploma

**Please note that students DO NOT have to take any IB exams in order to earn the IHS diploma. IB testing and the IHS diploma are separate and do not affect the student's ability to earn the diploma.**

Our IHS Graduation Ceremony will take place on Friday, June 6 at 7:00 pm at the Hult Center! This year, we have a record number of graduating seniors across our three campuses--in June, we will graduate 211 IHS seniors! I will put important graduation information in this newsletter starting in January.