Friday Memo - 9/17/21

Important dates
September 19 - Hixson Community Open House, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
September 24 - end of secret mission #1
September 28 - Growth plans due
October 4 - Picture retake/make up day
October 19 & 20 - Parent Teacher Conferences, 4pm - 8pm
October 21 - Parent Teacher Conferences - 9am - 4pm; NO SCHOOL for students
October 22 - NO SCHOOL (comp day)
November 1 - Hixson staff at Camp Wyman

86th issue of Hixson Happenings
Click HERE to read the most recent Hixson Happenings!

Webster-Kirkwood Times article
Please click the link below to read an article about the new additions/renovations to our wonderful school.

Tour New Hixson Additions on Sunday, Sept. 19

School Improvement Team update
We had a great School Improvement Team meeting on Monday afternoon. We had an opportunity to get together to talk about our three focus areas from our CSIP (Equity, Progress Monitoring, Relationships) and the strengths and areas of improvement for each. Thank you to all staff members who have agreed to be a part of this team! I've included the members of the work groups below. 

Character Education/SEL - Jeff Atterberry, Nick Pingel, Lisa Rodriguez, Sara Mangrich

Equity/Social Justice - Mike Hazelton, Shalay Hudson, Katie Kraushaar, Sean Cahn, Bridget Finnochiaro, Emily Kenney, Sheri Wells, Sherri Rachal, Wardell Ward, Amirah Garwood, Bianca James, Leslie Creath

Progress Monitoring, Intervention, Grading, and Assessment - Aimee Vogt, Liz Goosen, Liz Oliver, Kendra Day, Jill Right, Terrie Hobold, Adam Vorel, Kelly Williams

If you are still interested in joining, please send me an email! The more voices we have represented, the better.

Visit to Earth Dance Farms-Faculty Outing

Over the summer, I discovered a very cool place called EarthDance Farms! It is a farm located in Ferguson, MO. I first came across this farm when I read an article about their Pay What You Can Farm Stand. I decided to try to connect with EarthDance given the fact that we are starting a community garden at our school through our Sustainability class, and I'm certain there's a lot we can learn from them. I reached out to see if they offer tours of their farm. Turns out, they do!

The staff at EarthDance is willing to give up to 20 Hixson staff members a tour of EarthDance Farms. They will talk with us about their work and how it relates to equity in the Ferguson community. They would love to have us visit on Saturday, October 9 at 10:00 am. The tour takes no longer than 2 hours. If you are interested in visiting EarthDance so that we can extend our learning in Sustainability and it's connection to equity, and use that learning to expand Hixson's sustainability efforts, please RSVP to Dr. Mayes directly via email. In addition, click on the link below to read all about EarthDance Farms. If there is a lot of interest, I will attempt to arrange a second tour.

EarthDance Farms

Late Buses
I was told today that there the district has working on re-routing our bus routes, and changes are coming soon that will hopefully help all of our buses get here on time. Thank you for your continued patience as the district office and First Student works through our bus issues.

New Course Proposals for the 2022-2023 School Year
Believe it or not, I received an email a few days ago regarding new course proposals for next school year. I've included the district's timeline below. If you have an idea for a new course that you would like to discuss with Hixson administration, please email me and let me know so we can set up a time to talk about it. After reading the timeline, you will see that I have to meet with Jason Adams regarding new courses in the next 20 days, so please respond to me soon, because I would like to wrap up all building conversations about new courses by September 24 so that I can meet with Dr. Adams sometime during the last week of September.

By September 30th: HX and WGHS Principal (or designee) meet with Jason to begin an initial discussion about new course ideas for their respective school.

By October 31st: HX and WGHS complete a new course proposal form for each new course that has been requested. 

By November 15th:  If there are staffing implications as a result of new course requests, Jason Adams will meet with Sandy Wiley and the respective Principal to discuss possibilities. 

December 6th: New course proposal details (and any course drops) are presented to the Curriculum Coordinating Council for feedback. 

December 9th: New course proposal descriptions (and any course drops) are presented to the Board of Education for approval. 

January - August:  Once approved, course curriculum templates need to be developed for each new course proposal.  The curriculum template must be complete and approved prior to teaching the course in the fall of 22-23.  Course development can occur either through release time or through summer stipend work.