Highland Park Senior High Headliner

Highland Families,

On behalf of the entire Highland staff, I want to express how thankful we are for you entrusting us with educating your child. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, it is a special time for us to connect with family and friends and to take time to remember how much we have to be thankful for in life. At Highland Senior we are truly thankful for each and every one of our students. Our students bring us much joy and it is a pleasure to see them learn, grow, mature and socialize each day at school. We have an amazingly diverse group of students, and we are thankful that they attend Highland. I wish each and every one of you a joyous Thanksgiving with your friends and family.

Thursday, November 23-Friday, November 24

• No School - Thanksgiving Break

Friday, December 1

• Red Cross Blood Drive

Thursday, December 7

• Winter Choir Concert 7pm

Thursday, December 14

• Financial Aid Info Session in Library 5-7pm
• Instrumental Music Concert 7pm
• Parent Teacher Conferences 4-8pm

Thank you to everyone that participated and donated to the Highland Park PTSA fundraiser on Thursday! We enjoyed great music by the student band Rock Melon, donuts and sunshine in the parking lot. We are over halfway to our goal but it's not too late to help us reach our goal of $18,000. Give to the Max Funds play an essential role in supporting teachers and students both in and out of the classroom. These funds are distributed by grants to clubs, classrooms, and programs that provide enrichment to the diverse student body at Highland Park.

Donations accepted on the website or by check

https://www.givemn.org/organization/Hpshgive

Highland Park Senior High School PTSA

1015 Snelling Ave S

St. Paul, Minnesota 55116

On Tuesday, November 21, The Good Club will be handing out bags of food for students to take home to their families to enjoy over Thanksgiving Break. Bags will contain staples like pasta and sauce, rice and canned vegetables. The food is all thanks to the National Honor Society who collected it from our neighbors in Highland Park during Trick-Or-Canning.

Families, encourage your students to pick up a bag of food at any school exit on Tuesday.

Dear 12th Grade Families,

This is an important update regarding the Direct Admissions Minnesota program in Saint Paul Public Schools. Eligible 12th grade students will begin receiving a Direct Admissions survey in the Campus Student Portal this week. In this survey, students will see which colleges and universities they are directly admitted to. Students should follow the instructions in the survey to select the colleges they are interested in attending. The deadline to submit the survey is 12/20/23.

Students will still need to complete an admissions application for each of the colleges and universities they are interested in attending. All participating colleges and universities are waiving application fees as part of the Direct Admissions pilot program.

Over 50 Minnesota colleges and universities are participating in the Direct Admissions program, including several community, technical, tribal, public and private institutions. Click here for a full list of participating colleges and universities.

Please visit the Direct Admissions Minnesota website for more information.

Last Friday evening, 30 of our IB Diploma seniors attended a research and writing night in the library, hosted by Ms. Rahman. Students worked on their 4,000-word Extended Essay, a requirement of the IB Diploma (while enjoying pizza… and caffeine!).

Homework Help Resources

Did you know? Homework help is available throughout the school year at the Saint Paul Public Library. Click here for information on their Homework Centers hours and locations as well as the Online Homework Help service.

SPPS Reads Movie Nights

SPPS will be showing the award-winning documentary “The Right to Read.” Executive-produced by host of PBS’ “Reading Rainbow” Lavar Burton, the film follows the story of the literacy crisis in America and what we can do about it. Click here for details.

Click here to see the latest CCRC newsletter! This newsletter highlights upcoming college and career-related opportunities.

Highland Park CCRC - The CCRC is here to help students with college and career planning! The CCRC provides the following resources to students:

• Interests and skills exploration tools
• Career Information
• Resume Help
• College and Post-Secondary exploration tools
• College Admission, Career and Military Representative Visits
• College Admission test information such as ACT and Accuplacer
• Scholarships
• Financial Aid
• Summer and Community Opportunities
• And more!

CLICK HERE to check out the new CCRC website! This site will be updated throughout the year with important information, resources, and opportunities.

https://www.balfour.com/minnesota/saint-paul/highland-park-senior-high-school

Our 10th grade students are starting their IB MYP Personal Projects! Students have met with their IB MYP Personal Project Advisors. Here are some key aspects of the Personal Project:

• It is a student-centered and student-selected project and provides an opportunity for students to undertake an independent exploration into an area of personal interest -- to produce a truly personal and/or creative piece of work.

• The personal nature of the project is important; the project should be based around a topic that motivates and interests the student.

• Students are involved in the process of inquiry, action and reflection.

• Students are encouraged to demonstrate and strengthen their Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills such as Communication, Social (collaboration), Self-management (organization and reflection), Thinking (creatively and critically), and Research.

• Finished projects include: a process journal, product/outcome, paper, and a showcase.

• The overall project (with journal and paper) should take about 25 hours to complete. The criteria for the project and paper are Planning, Applying Skills, and Reflecting -- these are very universal and will work with any topic.

• It is an expectation that all HPSH students engage in this project as do all IB MYP students across the globe!

Please encourage your student to keep thinking about project ideas, continue journaling, and start on the project. There are materials available to help with brainstorming, journaling, and planning in the Personal Project Course on Schoology. If your student is not yet sure of topics, encourage them to talk to friends and family- maybe pursue topics such as exercise, relaxation, art, mental health, culture, construction, service to others, etc. There are lots of topic ideas listed in the materials on Schoology as well. This should be a fun, meaningful, and interesting project!

Thanks!

Marissa Bonk

IB MYP Coordinator

marissa.bonk@spps.org

Virtual Parent/Guardian Info Meetings:

GTK- (Good to Know) information about HPSH for parents and guardians, especially those new to Highland. New this year- virtual parent/guardian informational meetings around relevant topics and commonly asked questions. Click here for more details.

Future Meeting Dates:
November 30, 2023
December 14, 2023

Missed the other meetings? We’ve got you!

October 26 Here are the links to the slides and recording from the first Virtual Parent/Guardian Meeting.
September 21 Here are the links to the slides and recording from the first Virtual Parent/Guardian Meeting.

Highland Families,

One of our outstanding teachers and coaches now has a burger named in his honor. Check out the information below and many thanks to Coach Moening for being such an awesome teacher and coach. Thanks also to Tiffany's Sports Lounge for their support.

Congratulations Coach Moening on being named the 2023 MN State Cross Country Coach of the Year! Join us at Tiffany Sports Lounge (Tiff's) all of November as we celebrate his award and give back to our community. True feel good food! For every C.M.B. burger sold Tiff's will donate $2 to the Highland Park High School Cross Country Booster Club. All you have to do is eat!

Coach Moening Burger – ground turkey patty, avocado, L.T.O, pepper jack cheese sauce, and chipotle aioli $17.

Check out what our awesome Scots are up to by following Highland Park Senior High on Facebook and highlandparksr.scots.pride on Instagram.

Need swag? Order here!

As the school year begins, there are two ways to support our terrific Highland Park teachers and staff:

• By purchasing items on the Wish List for use in the classroom: Wish List This list is always being updated—teachers are in the process of adding their lists for this school year.
• By purchasing general school supplies—Kleenex, hand sanitizer, pencils, pens, highlighters, dry erase markers, post-its and snacks. General supplies can be brought to the school office any time.

The PTSA will also be collecting Kleenex, hand sanitizer and general school supplies at the Open House event—if you can bring even one box of Kleenex, it will have a positive impact! It is the number one requested item from teachers and staff!

Thank you from the Highland Park PTSA.

There will be some positive changes to grading practices at all SPPS high schools beginning in the 2023-24 school year. SPPS is shifting to more consistent and equitable grading practices across all high schools to ensure that students’ grades truly reflect what they’ve learned. Visit the Grading Practices FAQ webpage for more information. More details will be provided this fall, including information sessions with language support for families.

In-person students will receive free breakfast and lunch under the Minnesota Free School Meals program. All students are eligible to receive one free breakfast and one free lunch each school day. Second meals, incomplete meals and single item purchases, such as milk only, must be purchased.

• Student Second Breakfast: $2.85
• Student Second Lunch: $5
• Milk Only: $0.50
• For a complete list of prices, visit spps.org/ns.

Visit schoolcafe.com/spps to manage your student’s meal account, view menus, ingredients and nutritional information, and complete the Application for Educational Benefits.

• While all in-person students will receive free breakfast and lunch under Minnesota’s Free School Meals program, it remains critical that all families complete an Application for Educational Benefits each school year. These applications determine how much funding your child’s school receives for educational programs and supports. Additionally, eligible families can qualify for other benefits. The application can be completed online at schoolcafe.com/spps. Paper applications are available at your child's school.

Use Parent Portal and see your child’s attendance, homework assignments, grades and more. Log on to spps.org/onestop and click on “parent portal”. This valuable tool will provide both information on your student and a means of communicating with your student’s teachers. Report cards are not mailed to homes.

For access please contact the main office at 651-293-8940.

The MTC Unlimited Pass is available to purchase for $97.00 per quarter. Bring the payment to Shawn Vennemann in the main office (checks payable to Highland Park Senior High School). When the first payment is made, the bus pass will be ordered. When the quarter ends the bus pass will need to be renewed by submitting a payment for the next quarter (schedule is below). If payment is not received by the due date the card will be de-activated. The card will be re-activated when payment is received it will take 24 hours after payment is made to be active again.

MTC Bus Pass Quarter Dates

11/2/2023 to 1/14/2024 payment due by Monday, October 30, 2023

1/15/2024 to 3/31/2024 payment due by Monday, January 8, 2024

4/1/2024 to 6/14/2024 payment due by Monday, March 25, 2024

Website: https://www.spps.org/highlandsr
Location: 1015 Snelling Avenue South, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651-293-8940