22 August, 2013
Dear Parents,
I hope that you and your family’s summer has been a pleasant one. Our office staff, counselors, custodians, maintenance staff, and teachers have been busy organizing, reorganizing, cleaning up from the past year and preparing for the coming one. While there is still plenty to do prior to September 4, we are getting closer each day.
Summer Spruce-Up Day
This Saturday, August 24 has been designated as “Hopkinton Public Schools’ Summer Spruce Up Day.” HMS Community members, including some of our groups such as IGNITE and Principal’s Advisory will be on hand to pull weeds around our school’s property. This is an informal day of sprucing up. We welcome those of you who can attend anytime between 8 and 11. A few key pieces of information:
Volunteer adults can bring their children to help, along with trash bags for weeds, and some basic tools to help cut back and pull up weeds, and other basic spruce-up activities.
Don't forget your garden gloves.
Please be careful around our school--poison ivy is prevalent.
The target projects specific to HMS will include:
Picking up trash around the Middle School grounds, playground, parking lots, and fields
Weeding around the building and the parking lot.
We will not meet at 8:00 a.m. to begin, instead, adults and children who are able and willing to volunteer their time and effort can drop in anytime between the hours of 8:00-11:00 a.m.
Thank you for your willingness to help spruce up our school on this day.
Schedules
As you may recall, we had slated “mid-August” for the release of student schedules; however, you should have received the Listserv message from our new Director of Technology, Ashoke Ghosh, which named August 27 as the date that iParent will open to parents for the release of schedules.
Our New Grade 6
We are excited to welcome a new group of students to our HMS family. Our grade 6 teachers, counseling staff, Mrs. Grady, and I had the pleasure to meet our incoming grade 6 at Step Up Day in June, and Mr. Verra spent extensive time speaking with each class in his visits to Hopkins School. Now it is time for your child’s Middle School career to begin and we are thrilled to officially welcome them into HMS. The next step in this journey to Middle School takes place on Thursday, August 29 from 9-11:30 as our Grade 8 IGNITE leaders and IGNITE staff will offer an enthusiastic greeting and orientation.
On this day, incoming grade 6 students and parents will both meet in the auditorium from 9-9:30 a.m. for a brief presentation on Middle School life and reminders pertinent to both students and parents.
At 9:30 a.m., parents will be “dismissed” and the Grade 6 IGNITE orientation will begin. Students will finish their spirited orientation at 11:30 a.m. and can be picked up at the water tower entrance to the Middle School. We look forward to seeing you and your child here that morning.
A Note Regarding Schedules for Parents of Grade 6 Students
Hopkinton Middle School operates on two different “master schedules”: one for grade 6 and one for grades 7 and 8. As you likely know, grades 7 and 8 have five academic subjects; grade 6 has four (no foreign language). The software we utilize for our student schedules, however, can only accommodate one schedule per school, so when schedules become available to you on August 27, do not be alarmed when you see an opening on your child’s schedule. Period lengths are modified in order to accommodate the absence of a fifth class.
Families New to Hopkinton
I would like to remind those of you who have children entering grades 7 and/or 8 and are new to Hopkinton Schools that we will host a “Grades 7 and 8 New to Hopkinton Orientation” on Wednesday, August 28 from 11-12:30 for parents and students. Students will meet with their school counselor and fellow students, while parents will meet with administration and fellow parents. Lunch will be served to both groups.
Student Drop-off
Due to continuing issues that compromise the safety of our students and staff, we have worked with the police department and our Buildings & Grounds Department to attempt to make more clear the procedure for morning drop-off of students. Parents dropping off children in the morning will note blue lines that indicate the proper path for a car that is dropping off a child. It is my expectation that the newly painted blue lines will ensure that everyone who drops off a child in the morning understands and follows this procedure. Too many times last school year, parents looking to save a couple minutes cut through rows of parking and put unsuspecting students and staff in harm’s way. Please show the same consideration to our staff and your neighbor’s children that you would expect them to show yours. In a modification of a popular neighborhood sign that is popular, I would ask that we all, “Drive Like Your Kids (and their Teachers) Go to School Here.”
Lastly, please be aware that the earliest that a child can be dropped off at the Middle School is 7:00. We have staff members that supervise students in each grade beginning at 7:00 a.m.
Website
A reminder that our website has a wealth of information on it, including supply lists for each grade level on our front page, as well as specific information for Incoming Grade 6 and Incoming Grade 7.
Coming Listserv Messages
In the coming days, we will send along to you listserv messages on: 1) the first day of school, 2) student drop-off and pick-up, and 3) schedules.
We wish you and your family an enjoyable and relaxing remainder of summer,
Alan M. Keller
Principal
