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January 2023 - Volume 7 Issue 5
Greetings Heatherwood Families
Dear Heatherwood Families,
Happy New Year and Welcome Back! I hope the winter break provided everyone the opportunity to connect with family, friends, and seek time to rest and recharge. It is great to have time to step away from our daily routines and reflect. And, at the same time, it is always so special to have our students and staff back in the building with renewed energy.
January is often observed as a time to refresh and/or create new goals. I encourage each of you to review individual and family goals together. It is helpful to communicate goals to build an internal accountability and support system for ongoing motivation and inspiration.
Our Heatherwood school community is glad to be back in session. Here are a few overall goals we would like to share so that we can be our best selves together. It takes all of us working together to provide a safe, cohesive, and positive school community.
1) Daily Attendance: It is pivotal that we arrive on-time to school every day and see daily attendance as the first step to success. Daily Attendance Matters!
2) Safety and Respect: We are all active contributors in creating a safe and respectful campus environment for one another. Safety First and Lead with Kindness!
3) Academic Success: We strive to be prepared, focused, and intentional with our teaching and learning. May we always be open to new ideas and actively contribute to the learning process.
4) Positive Involvement: We will provide positive opportunities for one another to get involved outside the classroom. Whether we greet a new friend, join a club or athletic team, and/or get involved in a lunch time activity…Campus engagement creates an enriched experience.
5) Active Communication: We will strive to increase our two-way communication. That is, we will provide pertinent information and resources to our campus community as well as seek assistance and feedback, when needed.
With first semester ending in a few short weeks – February 3, 2023…And, with our sights set on a strong finish through June 2023, we thank you for your renewed contributions to our shared vision.
Together we SOAR!
Laura Wellington
Principal
From the Assistant Principals
Dear families,
Winter 2 sports are right around the corner. 7th and 8th Grade Girl’s Basketball tryouts are starting on January 17th and Boy’s and Girl’s wrestling kicks off on February 14th. To sign up for a Winter 2 sport, please visit our school website and find the link to Final Forms from the Athletics page.
Activities Corner: Second Semester Clubs will be kicking off soon! Students can expect to hear information about clubs during morning announcements. In January, we will be hosting an after school dance on January 26th. If you are interested in helping out or chaperoning, please fill out a volunteer application on the EPS website and contact Carter McCoy at cmccoy@everettsd.org. In February, Heatherwood will be having a spirit assembly to honor students who were nominated for Star Attraction during first semester and all Fall and Winter sports.
Sincerely,
Alex Trepanier, Assistant Principal
Happy New Year Heatherwood Hawks! I hope that you each had a restful and relaxing winter break. Here at Heatherwood, we are continuing to focus on SOAR (Safety, Ownership, Achievement, Respect) with all things January and there are a few reminders we want to make sure to highlight as we approach the new year.
This month we are planning on completing our i-Ready diagnostic in reading and math. We look forward to checking in on student progress from where student skills were in the fall. Please feel free to connect with your student’s teacher if you have any questions on this process or your student’s progress.
As we come back from a long break, here are some reminders for supporting safety during arrival to school and dismissal.
On the Bus:
*Cooperate with and obey the drivers at all times.
*Stay in your seat, facing forward with your backpack on your lap.
*Keep head, hands, and feet inside the bus.
*Cross the roadway only in front of the bus and only with consent of the bus driver.
*There is no eating or drinking on the bus.
*Bus drivers are authorized to assign seats.
*Observe the same rules of conduct on the bus as in the classroom.
*Be courteous; use no profane language.
*Keep the bus clean.
*Ride your regularly scheduled bus route.
During Parent Drop-off and Pick-up:
*Please pull forward to the school entrance to drop off and pick up your student.
*Yield to school buses attempting to enter or leave Heatherwood campus.
Thank you for all you do to help keep Heatherwood a safe and SOARing community during the school day and beyond. I wish you all a very Happy New Year and a productive January. Go Hawks!
Chris Doll
Assistant Principal
Important Dates
January 3 – First day back to school – Happy 2023!
January 4 – Reflections Celebration, 6:00 - 8:00pm at the CRC
January 6 – LIF Day 1:35pm release
January 9 – PTA Meeting via Zoom – 7:00pm
January 12 – Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly
January 13 – LIF Day 1:25pm release
January 16 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day observed – no school
January 20 – LIF Day 1:35pm release
January 26 – After School Social 3:00 - 4:00pm
January 27 – LIF Day 1:35pm release
COUNSELOR'S CORNER
Happy 2023, Heatherwood Hawks!
As the end of the semester is approaching (February 3rd), we wanted to remind parents and students about Students Success Time here at Heatherwood in Room 214. This is an opportunity for students to get academic help from 3 PM – 4 PM. During SST, there will always be a minimum of 2 teachers available in Room 214 to help students needing assistance on their school work. Students may either be invited to attend from their classroom teachers or voluntarily opt to attend SST. If your student would like to attend Students Success Time, students can get a pass from any of their classroom teachers or the front office. Further, students can either be picked up at school or sign up to take the activity bus home. SST is a wonderful opportunity for students to get caught up on missing school work, get help from an adult on challenging assignments, and have a quiet space to complete work.
Also starting this month, all grade level counselors will be going into English classrooms for Naviance lessons. Naviance is the high school and beyond planning tool for Everett Public School students. Below is a list of topics that Naviance covers:
- set personal goals and tasks;
- build concrete steps to college and career planning;
- search for colleges and training programs;
- develop financial plans to meet post-secondary goals;
- and explore careers based on personal skills and interests.
For more information, please visit our district website at: https://www.everettsd.org/Page/20354
Ms. Jana Freeman, 6th grade School Counselor: jfreeman@everettsd.org, 425-385-6310
Ms. Myra Flor Arpin, 7th grade School Counselor: marpin@everettsd.org, 425-385-6314
Ms. Jocelyn Smith, 8th grade School Counselor: jsmith1@everettsd.org, 425-385-6313
Ms. Megan Reinikka, 7th grade Counseling Intern
LIBRARY NEWS
Since the beginning of the school year the library has circulated 13,657 books! Approximately 200 books are circulated daily at Heatherwood!
These high circulation numbers show just how much the Heatherwood community values reading! Way to go!
Did you know?
The National Endowment for the Arts report, “To Read or Not to Read,” found:
Regular reading not only boosts the likelihood of an individual’s academic and economic success—facts that are not especially surprising—but it also seems to awaken a person’s social and civic sense. Reading correlates with almost every measurement of positive personal and social behavior surveyed. It is reassuring, though hardly amazing, that readers attend more concerts and theater than non-readers, but it is surprising that they exercise more and play more sports—no matter what their educational level. These cold statistics confirm something that most readers know but have mostly been reluctant to declare as fact— books change lives for the better.
Read the full report here.
In the library this month 6th graders will be learning about Heatherwood’s AVID elective, 7th graders will review the power of their digital footprint, and 8th graders will practice media literacy.
Approximately 300 library books are currently overdue. If your student has books that have been overdue for more than 30 days their books will be marked as lost in the library system. Lost books notices will be sent to student and guardian emails starting this month.
If your child has a library fine, there are four (4) ways to resolve this issue:
Return or renew the library material.
Communicate with the library to see about acquiring a comparable copy of the item.
Pay the fine – find information on paying fines on the district website. You may pay student fines online: https://wa-everett.intouchreceipting.com/
Request a waiver – Send an email to the librarian (tcalderon@everettsd.org) to request a Fine Waiver Form.
If you have any questions, please contact the librarian (Taylor Calderon tcalderon@everettsd.org) We want to partner with you to resolve any outstanding library materials.
Mrs. Mussleman’s art students' creative color wheels and snowflakes are on display in the library until the end of the month.
ASB HAPPENINGS
ASB has been very busy this month, especially with fewer meetings due to winter break. Outside of our usual responsibilities, such as managing the student store and coming up with ideas for spirit week, we are organizing our first in-person assembly this year. The MLK assembly is right around the corner, and we’ve been working hard to make it our best one yet.
In addition, we have been excitedly planning our first all-grade dance since 2020. The theme for this year's winter dance is Winter Wonderland and it will take place on Thursday, January 26th, 2023, from 3-4 pm after school.
We would like to wish all of our Heatherwood Hawks a happy New Year.