We are off to a great start in our first month of school! Our 6th graders are adjusting to life in the middle school with ease and grace. Our HMS teachers used the first two weeks of school to build a solid foundation of classroom routines, expectations and a classroom culture of respect and rapport. Students are back into "school mode" and falling into our school culture expectations. We have completed our first round of NWEA tests to set the baseline for their 2024-25 growth targets. We will take the 2nd round prior to winter break and the final testing round will be completed before spring break.

Teachers are now well into curriculum and you will be seeing more grades added to Skyward. All teachers use Google Classroom so your child can access any missing work or keep up when they are absent. Progress reports will be given to students this week. Conferences will be held November 5th (individual requested meetings) and November 6th from 5:00-8:00pm for student-led conferences. Students will share their portfolio of work thus far, report card progress report, MStep scores from Spring 2024, NWEA scores along with sharing their goals for the 2024-25 school year. We hope for 100% participation with families. At HMS, we have a grading for equity policy which gives a student 50% even if they have not completed the work, but it is still marked as missing. Our goal is to hold students accountable to do their work but also continue to give them hope to be able to pass their class. Transitioning to letter grades and percentages is difficult for our students when they are used to standards based report cards from their elementary years. We often find in the middle school that students who receive an E at the beginning of the marking period, give up on any efforts because they can't recover the low percentage to reach the minimum 60% for a passing grade.

See below for some highlights of our first month & upcoming events. Thank you for partnering with us to help your child have a successful 2024-25 school year! If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Respectfully,

Principal Thrush

989.539.7194

jthrush@harrisonschools.com

They have 2 more games go finish out the season. Come support them! All sport schedules can be found on our website under athletics. Annual sport passes for all home events can be purchased for $30!

Please make sure your child is up to date on their immunizations. We will be making phone calls in the next few weeks for those students that are not up to date.

HMS is committed to instilling the love of reading and building reading fluency and comprehension. All students and staff read a book of choice during Hornet Team Time Mondays and Wednesdays. During Tuesdays and Thursdays students are pulled by a teacher for just in time interventions OR they are reading. Fridays are for grade level meetings, assemblies or homework time. Please encourage your child to read and ask them about their reading:)