Dear HTSD Families,

Today marks the last day of our first month back to school. It has been a very busy month with our students, faculty, and staff getting into school routines and procedures. As we move into October, I encourage all families to engage with their children’s schools. This may include attending back to school nights, participating in school events and activities, joining the PTA, and supporting and assisting your children with their school work. It is vital to your children’s learning experience that families collaborate with the school and teachers.

A great way families can assist their children’s learning is by making sure they read each night before bed. Consistent reading has many positive, long term effects for children. It has been shown that children who read just 20 minutes each night during the school year will:

• Be exposed to thousands of new words during the year;

• Improve reading comprehension;

• Improve critical thinking skills; and

• Improve their overall learning experience.

Reading can be done together as a family for our younger children and/or be a discussion point at the family dinner table or family time. By encouraging your children, no matter what grade they are in, to read 20 minutes per day during the school year you are encouraging learning, expanding their vocabulary, and helping them with a lifelong skill of reading comprehension.

As I mentioned in my first update, this year the HTSD theme is EVERY DAY COUNTS. The school year is 180 days; every one of those days counts. Every moment within those days counts towards our students’ success and our success as a school community. As we begin our second month of the school year, we want to make sure every day counts in the classrooms, on the stages, on our athletic fields and within every nook and cranny of our district. I am committed to this work and I ask each family in our district to join me in this effort.

Sincerely,

Scott R. Rocco, Ed.D.

Superintendent

• Benedicta Adjei from West - Benedicta is a high school senior at Hamilton West who hopes to enroll in a prestigious 4 year college after high school. After college, her goal is to either become a pediatric or cancer genetic counselor in hopes of educating and empowering patients to make informed decisions regarding their diagnosis. In her free time, she enjoys watching rom-coms, reading horror books, and listening to true crime podcasts. She is also fond of landscaping and gardening. As a matter of fact, her favorite plant is an aloe vera because it’s extremely easy to attend to.

• Vanessa Bryk from Nottingham - Vanessa is a proud member of the Nottingham Northstar Class of ‘24 and is beginning her senior year at Nottingham. She is a member of the Key Club, The National Honor Society, the girls swim team and the girls lacrosse team. She is involved with Nottingham's student government and is also the French Club President. Outside of school, Vanessa works at a daycare, she is a certified lifeguard and also plays on a club lacrosse team.
  

• Melissa Simpson from Steinert - Melissa is a 12th grade student who has been involved in many clubs and sports in her four years at Steinert High School. She has been a member of Student Government Association, the newspaper club, and high scholar club as well as a four year track and field athlete. Melissa spends her free time volunteering, attending church and playing the bass guitar. She plans on majoring in Astronomy.
  

• Special Education Parent Advisory Group or SEPAG: This advisory group was very successful last year and held a number of meetings for parents. SEPAG has established meeting dates for this school year and we will continue to promote these meetings to engage more and more parents. SEPAG will meet on the following dates:

• October 30th

• December 5th

• February 27th

• April 23rd

• May 13th. This meeting is our Whole Child Fair. This was a wonderful event last year and I know it will be again this year.

The DCR (District Community Relations) Committee will host its first meeting at 5:00 pm on October 17th at Hamilton High School West.

There are four DCR subcommittees:

1. Climate and Culture
2. Curriculum and Community Outreach
3. Recruitment and Retention
4. Suspension Finding

To learn more and to register please visit our website.

The HTSD PTA Presidents have come together to tackle a problem that touches all of our schools - food insecurity. Regardless of the size of your school or the ages of your students, we know there are those who could use a boost of nutrition and satisfying food to have at home.

With the help and support of Dr. Rocco and BOE President Dina Thornton, we have come up with a plan to help combat this issue on a district-wide level. Our PTA's will host food drives for non-perishable items such as pasta, canned tomato sauce, rice, beans, peanut butter, jelly, and canned vegetables. Our hope is that soon we will have enough supplies to open a food pantry.

Once we open, our school counselors and/or nurses will contact us and let us know how many care bags they’d need. These bags will be packed and dropped off to the school - no identifying information will ever be shared with us - only how many packages the school will need.

• Security Upgrades to Buildings: Since last winter, as we began to develop and present the tentative and then final budget, I talked about security upgrades to our high schools and middle schools. Those upgrades are being installed in our schools. All 3 high schools, 3 middle schools, and HEP will get security systems where students, staff, and visitors pass through them each day. These are not your old school metal detectors; these are systems very much like you have walked through at a professional sporting event or a local emergency room. The system scans you as you walk through and if there is an item on you, or in a bag you are carrying that needs further review, the system identifies the exact location of that item and the person is asked to step to the side by a member of our school security team. The transition at our high schools was successful over the last month.

• In addition, our high schools, middle schools, and HEP will have retired law enforcement officers as security guards. Please be aware that HTSD Policy 8467 “weapons” does grant authority for the possession of a weapon if an individual is authorized by law and it is required in the performance of their duties. As such, at times school security members may be armed as necessary and allowable under BOE policy and state statute. We will still have our SRO’s and LEAD officers who are Hamilton Police Officers in our buildings. We have a longstanding and excellent relationship with HPD and this will continue for many years to come.

• All of our elementary schools will have a campus monitor as part of school security.

Upgrades to school safety and security are as important as the upgrades to our facilities or learning resources. We will continue to work on school safety and provide safe environments for all who work and learn in our district. An additional notice, specifically on school safety, is coming out from the Office of Administration.

Local radio station WPST is running a competition for the favorite high school marching band in the area. We have three OUTSTANDING marching bands in our district who would love the support of our community. If you are interested, click HERE to participate.

Hamilton High School West will host a Cavalcade of Bands on Saturday, October 14, 2023. Ten marching bands from across the region will compete including all three HTSD marching bands.

TAPInto.net related article.