We had a great week at HPMS! Please note that there will be no after school program next week for students. Additionally, this coming Friday, 12/16 is a half day for students. Middle school students will be dismissed at 11:30 AM.

The Ideals programs of HPMS and BMS combined to do an outstanding Winter Ideals Concert this year. Thank you to all of the students and Ms. Curry who worked hard to prepare for this program, and thank you to all of the parents and family members who came out to support them! The combined bands from both middle schools will be performing tonight at 7PM, and Ms. Curry will be co-leading that event as well. I have included some photos below.

Holiday Spirit Days

To celebrate the upcoming break and the holiday season, students may participate in the following spirit days:

Wednesday - Tacky Sweater Day - Wear your tackiest holiday sweater!

Thursday - Red vs Green Day - Wear your red or green!

Friday - Home for the Holidays Day - Wear your pajamas!

Softball - 7th and 8th Grade Girls

For 7th or 8th grade girls interested in playing softball in the spring, softball weight lifting takes place on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays from 3:40-4:40 in the weight room. Please contact Coach Jennings (jjennings@asd2.org) for more information.

Our EXCELLENT State Report Card Information

CLICK HERE to view our state report card data.

Schooldigger.com Rankings

Please CLICK HERE for the state-wide middle school rankings.

Please CLICK HERE for our school's profile and data breakdown.

We also need your help in maintaining our morning procedure for students. We hold them in the hallways before 7:45AM each day, and during that time, they should be sitting silently and reading or silently and eating breakfast. We have told students they are expected to have a book of their own. They have gone to the library with teachers at this point, so they should have one. If not, please have them get a book that they enjoy for the mornings so that they are prepared. Overall, students have done a great job with this procedure, but we want to make sure that we maintain it properly as the year progresses.

Additionally, students were provided more information regarding our procedures for dress code, safety, discipline, the handbook, and many other aspects of our school environment for HPMS. We thank you in advance for working with your student to be familiar with how things are done here to make this a focused and safe school environment. I do want to ask also specifically for your help with dress code this year. Overall, everyone has done a truly great job with this; however, the main issues we have seen so far are shorts that are too short, shirts that are too short with leggings, and holes in pants that are above the inseam. Please speak with your students about this this weekend so that they can be in compliance with our procedures.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE HANDBOOK (DRESS CODE ON PAGES 8-9)

State Department Tutoring Resource

This is a great resource from the state for students and parents. The link below is a quick Screencastify video that shows how to go to the Tutor.com program through discus. (No audio)

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/xXFJ54tuo7maIx8GiJDr

Grade Level Newsletters/Agendas

Click Here for the 6th Grade Newsletter/Agenda

Click Here for the 7th Grade Newsletter/Agenda

Click Here for the 8th Grade Newsletter/Agenda

Free and Reduced Lunch Application

Please remember that lunch and breakfast are no longer provided free at this time for everyone; however, we do encourage everyone to fill out this form, regardless of your previous form status. Please view the application, fill it out, and have it returned to HPMS if you haven't already completed one!

Free and Reduced Meal Application Link

Thank you,

John Michael Hall, Principal of Honea Path Middle School

The flyers above explain how students can utilize Tutor.com for free through scdiscus.org. Also, the link below is to a video tutorial that explains how it works and what features it offers. This is an excellent resource and we want to make sure all of our students have the information needed to access it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vseB8vIXI

Arrival and General Procedures

Please continue to assist us in the mornings with drop offs. It is very helpful to us and the other parents in line if you will pull forward, at least until the end of the brick flowerbed wall out front to let your child out if you are in the front of the line. We ask that other cars behind the lead car to pull forward as well. This adds only a few extra steps for your student, but it goes much faster for everyone and helps everyone get to class on time if we can unload 4 or more students at a time out front. Students must be in the building by 7:57 in order to be counted as on time.

Dress Code Information

We appreciate in advance your help with our updated dress code for this year. I ask you to please review these for yourself and with your students. They have been covered in school with the teachers, but we greatly appreciate your help at home. The most common issues we see are holes in pants that are far too large or too high, shorts that are too short, shirts that are too short or cut too low, exposed undergarments, and shirts/tops that aren't long enough over leggings. Please also note that we also don't allow blankets/pillows to be carried or hats/hoodies worn in the building.

CLICK HERE AND SCROLL TO PAGES 8 AND 9 FOR 22-23 DRESS CODE INFORMATION

PTO

If you’re interested in volunteering to help with the PTO, or if you're just interested in finding out ways to help support our students and teachers, please contact the PTO at hpmspto@gmail.com for more information! We would love to have you involved!

COVID Contact/Positive Test Procedure

It is critical that you let us know if someone in your household has been diagnosed with COVID or your student has been named a close contact due to a contact that occurred outside of school. If you become aware of this after school hours or on the weekend, please feel free to email me at jmhall@asd2.org AND Nurse Snipes at msnipes@asd2.org. We also encourage you to call during school hours ASAP and hold your student out of school until you receive more information from us based on our guidelines from DHEC. Your help with this is critical to keeping the school safe for everyone.

HPMS Parent/Student Handbook

This is our updated version and we ask all parents to familiarize yourself with our policies and procedures.

CLICK HERE FOR THE 22-23 STUDENT HANDBOOK

Links to Information (You may have to right-click on some links to open them)

Online Registration Site

Free and Reduced Meal Application Link

If you have more than one student attending HPMS, we ask that you follow the procedure for the eldest student. If you are carpooling, we ask that you follow the procedure for 8th graders.

6th Grade - 6th grade students will be dismissed to the front car line, and we will continue to have parents pull forward until you reach your child. 6th graders will be waiting down at the end of the sidewalk in front of the 4K building (except in cases of severe weather). We ask 6th grade parents to approach the school from the Main Street side of Central Avenue. This will keep us from backing up on to 252 from Brock, and it should require very little driving out of the way to get in line. We ask that you do not attempt to turn left from Brock into the front of the school as this is against the traffic laws on that road during school hours.

7th Grade - 7th grade students will cross the road to get in cars which will be on Park Ave. on the right side of the road. Please do not block the entrance/exit to the parking lot in front of the school when you are in line. Park Ave. is wide enough that if you will pull to the right, it will still allow traffic through on Park as needed. Once you pick up your student, please turn left onto Brock Ave. to help us keep that crosswalk cleared. We also prefer that you would get in line from the part of Central Ave. that runs behind the football field to avoid backing up traffic on Park. We realize this may not be practical for all.

8th Grade and Carpooling Students - 8th grade students will go to the parking lot across the street for dismissal. To make leaving easier for you, please park in the center column of spaces in the lot. We are also asking that you turn left out of the parking lot when you leave. We realize that this is less convenient for those of you who normally turn right, but it will keep from having two sets of traffic turning onto Brock Ave. at the same time and creating a bottleneck. If you are picking up two or more students, you are welcomed to use this lot as well, regardless of grade level.

We ask that you drive carefully around the school because there will be several different valves of traffic going to and from the school.

• 12/12 - HPMS Basketball @ Liberty Middle AWAY - 5:30PM and 7PM
  
• 12/15 - 6th Grade Roper Mountain Field Trip
• 12/15 - Belton Middle v. HPMS Basketball HOME - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 12/16 - Half-day for Students - Middle School Dismissal - 11:30 AM
• 1/2 - HPMS Basketball @ Dacusville Middle AWAY - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 1/5 - HPMS Basketball @ Walhalla Middle AWAY - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 1/9 - HPMS Basketball @ Starr-Iva Middle AWAY - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 1/12 - Liberty Middle v. HPMS Basketball HOME - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 1/17 - HPMS Basketball @ Belton Middle AWAY - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 1/19 - 7th Grade Roper Mountain Field Trip
• 1/19 - Dacusville Middle v. HPMS Basketball HOME - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 1/26 - Starr-Iva Middle v. HPMS Basketball HOME - 5:30PM and 7PM
• 2/2 - 8th Grade Job Shadowing
• 3/24 - Spring Pictures