Friday Memo - 10/15/21

Important dates
October 18 - Panorama window opens; Grading window opens
October 18 - Mayes at District Admin Cabinet meeting 9:00 am until --
October 19 & 20 - Parent Teacher Conferences, 4pm - 8pm
October 20 - Book Fair ends, end of Quarter 1, Mayes having Virtual Coffee with the Mayor of Rock Hill at 9:00 am
October 21 - Parent Teacher Conferences - 9am - 4pm; NO SCHOOL for students
October 21 - Admin at DLT, 8:45 am - 9:45 am
October 21 - Mayes at New Admin meeting, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
October 22 - NO SCHOOL (comp day)
October 25 - Mayes at District Admin Cabinet meeting 9:00 am until --
October 27 - Panorama window closes; Grading window closes
October 28 - 6th grade day at the park
October 29 - End of Secret Mission #2
November 1 - Hixson Staff Retreat at Camp Wyman
November 8 - School Improvement Team meeting
November 24 - 26 - Thanksgiving Break

90th issue of Hixson Happenings
Click HERE to access the newest issue of Hixson Happenings.

In full transparency...
Being a building principal of a school of approximately 1,200 students and staff is challenging to say the least. Simply put, the volume of work is tremendous and I sometimes feel like I am drowning. I'm sure many of you can relate to this in different ways. I have very important tasks pending in my queue of work that need to get done, and I am having a hard time finding time to complete these tasks. Someone suggested to me several months ago that I set aside regular chunks of uninterrupted time to complete the types of tasks that are currently pending in my queue. At this point, I have backed myself in a corner and I have no choice but to do exactly that.

Starting next Wednesday, October 20, and on Wednesdays thereafter, I will set aside three to four hours of "off campus work time" either in the morning or afternoon to power through tasks such as progress monitoring, intervention, & data analysis, grant writing, community engagement & partnerships, budgeting, planning professional development, strategic planning, planning Principal's Council etc. During this time, I will be unavailable but accessible by the assistant principals or Sarah Magruder in case of an emergency. I will likely be working out of Givens Elementary since I know they have space! I do believe that having dedicated time for these things each week will positively impact our school. Thank you in advance for your support.

Newsletters during the week of Parent Teacher Conferences
You do not need to publish a newsletter for the week of 10/18 - 10/22. I will not be sending a Hixson Happenings on Friday, October 22. The next newsletter you will need to publish is on November 5, 2021. 

Staffing updates
Please welcome...

• Kelsey Brock who is the long term sub for Chantell Mason (Computer Science), who is on maternity leave.
• Cindy Delaney who is replacing Karen Finn (receptionist).
• Laurie Forsythe who is replacing Clifton Price (counseling aide).

WELCOME TO HIXSON!

Panorama update
The Panorama window will open next week starting on Monday. No one will test on Monday. We will use Monday to "test out" the survey to make sure it works and address any glitches, if needed. Statesman Time groups will start the survey on Tuesday. Click the link below to access the schedule so you know when your group is supposed to take the survey. The survey is 9 questions and is estimated to take 3 minutes to finish. I will send instructions on how students access the survey on Monday.

PANORAMA SURVEY SCHEDULE

Hixson Spirit Wear Store
Interested in purchasing Hixson spirit wear? Click HERE to order! When you place your order, you can choose to have your items shipped directly to your home for an additional fee, or you can choose to have your items shipped directly to Hixson for free. 

Meals for Parent Teacher Conferences
October 19 - Q'Doba provided by Hixson Administration
October 20 - Joe Boccardi's provided by Hixson PTO
October 21 - Steve's Hot Dogs provided by Hixson Administration and Social Courtesy

Dinner will be served at 3:30 pm on October 19 & 20. Lunch will be served at noon on October 21. 

Take care of yourself, take care of each other, take care of this place
Thank you so much for your feedback on the idea of getting students involved with taking care of our school grounds. The feedback we received from staff was VERY positive, and some of you have expressed that your Statesman Time is ready to get started!

There were also questions about student accountability at lunch. A few thoughts on that...

• This idea is meant to be in addition to holding students accountable for cleaning up their trash during lunch...not in lieu of. Hixson students will continue to be held accountable for cleaning up.
• Remember, we now have 320+ students eating lunch at each lunch shift. It is not possible for every lunch supervisor to catch every student who does not throw their trash away. Lunch supervision is very much like a giant game of Whack a Mole.
• If we want students to take ownership of our school and care about the space that we share, then we must teach them how to do that. Engaging students in serving their school community is an effective way to reinforce our core values of positive relationships, respect, and teamwork. 

The admin team will likely move forward with creating a rotation for Statesman Time groups to help keep our campus clean. We will have our final discussions next week. One other change on the table for consideration is adding 30 seconds to passing time to make each one four minutes, including a longer passing time before Statesman Time so that students can pack up before the 3:25 pm bell, which would allow us to speed up dismissal. The goal is to start any changes during the week of October 25. If you have any questions or feedback about any of these changes, please share them with the admin team as soon as possible.

New Chromebook return protocol
To streamline and maximize our efficiency in getting repaired equipment returned to our students, Jason Heisel (technology specialist) will send an email directly to the student (who should have a loaner device until their device is repaired) once their device has been repaired and is ready for pick up in the library. 

Once the student receives the email, the teacher can choose the appropriate time to send their student to the library to pick up their repaired device. Please remind students to check their email at least once a day, if not more. We are hoping this process will decrease intrusions during instructional time as well as streamline the work of locating and getting students to come and get their equipment. We will begin this new process on October 25. We will assess how this new process works after one week of implementation.

Message from iDEA The iDEA (professional development) committee met on September 7th to begin planning dynamic PD opportunities for the 2021-2022 school year. For more information about the mission and goals of iDEA, please visit our website: iDEA website.

For more information about iDEA at the building level, please reach out to your representative - Leslie Creath and Lisa Rodriguez.

Grant Opportunities:

The Webster Groves School District iDEA Committee has developed a grant to support professional learning that enables teachers to implement innovative practices designed to enhance learning for all students. The purpose is not to supplement available general operating funds, but to provide money for a worthwhile project that would not otherwise be funded by the Webster Groves School District. Please know that these grants can be used for virtual opportunities.

The grants can also be found on our iDEA (professional development) website

WGSD Grant Approval Form
Please be sure to complete THIS FORM  if you are planning to apply for a grant. The form must be complete and sent to Pam Frazier BEFORE you apply for the grant. This form is not required if you are planning to apply for a WGSD Foundation Grant and iDEA grant. For the WGSD Foundation grant, you simply need to let me know you're applying. No notification is required for the iDEA grant.