Hello families,

We are now in our 9th week of the new semester and just 2 short weeks away from Spring Break. This past week was a busy one on our campus. We began the week with professional development for our teachers. Teachers received the "Speak Up" session from the Austin ISD Cultural Proficiency and Inclusion Department. This session was collaboratively decided on by the campus instructional coaches and administration because it has the power to provide our teachers with tools to assure all students feel welcome and accepted. Later in the day teachers received training on first amendment rights and strategies for teaching newcomer/refugee students. This ongoing professional learning for our staff will assure teachers have the tools to create a GREAT learning experience for each one of our scholars. The fine arts departments delivered an amazing Spring Concert Wednesday night, Hornet basketball concluded its regular season Thursday Night, 5 Kealing teams placed at the Austin Regional Science Fair. This week we look forward to the first Principal's Coffee of March, March PTA Meeting (moved to 3/1 after Principal's Coffee), playoff basketball and interviewing for our next Magnet Director. After looking at the strain it would cause on the campus to have so many campus leaders interviewing during the day, we decided to move the Magnet Director Interviews back to March 4th because it would not have any impact on the day-to-day operations of the campus, assuring teachers & students have support at critical times. Thank you for choosing Kealing Middle School and Austin ISD, feel free to reach out to me directly for any reason at all: jerald.wilson@austinisd.org

Hornet Parents,

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent PTA meeting (Feb 3). At that meeting, we approved a letter to the superintendent and trustees opposing the proposed change in planning time for teachers for next year. Many parents and organizations throughout the district opposed the proposal and on Friday we heard that the district will stay with a 6/8 schedule for middle and high school teachers next year as well as schedule planning time for elementary teachers. This means that the budget deficit will have to be made up elsewhere. Please continue to pressure your state representatives to change the recapture formula that takes nearly half of collected property taxes for education in Austin and sends them to elsewhere in the state.

TEACHER APPRECIATION
This week we will be having our second Secret Pal gift drops. If you’ve signed up as a secret pal, you’ll be dropping off your gifts on either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Make sure they are well labelled and have your student drop the gift off to the front office.

We all know that teachers are feeling beleaguered these days. Please encourage your student to write a note, make a video or post on this padlet (https://padlet.com/vpmembership3/qarn8d4kph7fa5jw) to show some love and appreciation to our teachers. You’re welcome to send notes as well!

MEMBERSHIP
Our hive is strong with a whopping 509 members; currently, Kealing has the highest Middle school PTA membership in Austin ISD. We only need 126 members to receive Texas PTA all-time high award. If you haven't joined the KealingPTA, it's not too late! You can join Kealing PTA at www.kealingpta.org

COMMUNICATION
PTA is adopting a new communication tool, Konstella, to provide Kealing with a voluntary, opt-in Directory for current families (and teachers/staff), and the ability for PTA to easily communicate direct to email. In the future Konstella can also be used for volunteer sign ups, committee organization, and more. Konstella can be accessed via your desktop or by mobile app by downloading the Konstella app on iOS or Android.

To start with Konstella, please visit: https://www.konstella.com/cd/DZLPNN which will take you through the Kealing Konstella registration process. Like the Kealing MS Parents Facebook group (which can be found in the Kealing Middle School Facebook page), Konstella activity should pertain specifically to Kealing and remain kind, courteous, and respectful of others' privacy. Hate speech/bullying, self-promotion or spam are not allowed.

We hope Konstella makes connecting with each other even easier. Please reach out to Jen Loving at jen.loving@gmail.com with any questions about registering an account or using Konstella.

HOW TO HELP
Sign up to monitor lunch (gives the teachers a break during the day!) or monitor hallways during passing periods. Sign ups are found in Konstella. You can sign up as often or as rarely as you like. If you're going to volunteer on campus, please register as a volunteer here: https://austinpartners.org/volunteer/

NEXT MEETING
Our next meeting will be on March 1 immediately following the regularly scheduled Principal's Coffee. We had discussed calling an extra meeting, but feel that the topics we would discuss there are being covered in the extra Principal's Coffees.

Monday - February 28th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Playoff Basketball -7th grade A team plays at Small Middle @6p

Playoff Basketball - 8th grade A Team plays at Paredes Middle School at 6p

Tuesday - March 1st- A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

Principal's Coffee - 8a - 9a

PTA Meeting 9a - 9:45a

NAEP Assessment

Wednesday - March 2nd- B Day (5th - 8th Periods)

Thursday - March 3rd - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)

Friday - March 4th -AISD Employee Appreciation Holiday (No School)

Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/KealingMS/

Hornet Herald - https://kealing.austinschools.org/parents/archive

Twitter - @KTXHornets

Webpage - https://kealing.austinschools.org/