Staff Summer Memo - July 27, 2021

Important dates
August 9 - 6th grade orientation; orientation for 8th graders who were virtual in 7th grade, build the courtyard volunteer day #1
August 10 - rising 7th grade orientation, build the courtyard volunteer day #2
August 11-13, 16-18: Back to school professional development days for teachers
August 23 - First day of school!

Construction timeline adjustment (IMPORTANT!)

As of this morning, the date for teachers to access their classrooms has been pushed back and is no longer August 2. The new date is August 5 for teachers who have a classroom in the new academic wing, new music classrooms, counseling suite (except for Sarah Bodi), and room 236. The new date for everyone else is now August 9. Because of this change, I have made adjustments to our plan for our back to school professional development days to include even more time in your classrooms. Please read the agenda (below) carefully and let me know if you have any questions. 

Click HERE to access the agenda for our professional development days in August. Please note, the Hixson mini equity conference will be pushed back due to the change in the construction timeline.

Camp Wyman update

This is just a heads up to all teachers--more than likely, we will need to push the Camp Wyman dates back into second semester due to the continued spread of COVID-19. We want our 6th graders get the full camp experience, and delaying the dates will increase the chances of that actually happening. Please stay tuned for more concrete information on 6th grade camp.

Courtyard volunteers needed!
Eric Hayes - Hixson's Sustainability teacher - is in search of volunteers to help set up the new instructional courtyard on August 9 and/or 10 at 7:30 am. You would assist him in the following tasks:

• assembling the greenhouse, raised beds, storage shed, chicken coop
• moving and/or laying gravel for a pathway
• other duties as assigned :-)

If you are interested in helping Mr. Hayes, and you are not working 6th or 7th grade orientation, please email him directly as soon as possible to let him know. Mr. Hayes is also looking for student and parent volunteers from his Sustainability class as well.

For those of you who are new to Hixson and are not familiar with the Sustainability class, it will be an elective class that focuses on environmentally friendly practices, sustainability principles, identifying and addressing social/community inequities, and supporting students to enable them to do amazing things and make real and lasting differences in the community. A big part of this class is creating an outdoor classroom/community garden that is designed, built, run and named by Hixson students. This year will be the inaugural year of our Sustainability program.

Would you like to help decorate the new staff lounge?

The new staff lounge is moving along quite nicely, but it is indeed a blank slate. I would like some teacher input on what it should look like. If you are interested in helping decorate the new staff lounge, please let me know as soon as possible.

Open House - August 18, 2021
On the day of Open House, you are required to work from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. Open House will be a casual, drop by style for Hixson families. There will also be food trucks for our families and staff to enjoy. More information about Open House is forthcoming. Please note that you will need to prepare a syllabus for parents. Currently, we are considering the idea of digital syllabi in order to reduce our paper usage/expenses. With over 100 staff members, it would be VERY costly for every teacher in the building to print a stack of syllabi for parents. I will provide more details about Open House next week. 

New mural
To end this memo on a fun note, Cbabi Bayoc is painting a 3rd mural in our school! He is freestyling this one. When you are able to access the building, take a trip up to the second floor near the old elevator and check it out!