Principal's Message to Hornet Families for the week of 1/9/2022
Great evening fantastic families,
Last week we welcomed scholars back into the building and had a very smooth three days. Our scholars took the masking mandate seriously, we restructured our courtyard eating situation to help with contact tracing, we adjusted our dismissal process to assure less students were in the hall at the same time as we transitioned out of the building, and we ensured each teacher had the adequate amount of plexiglass dividers needed in classrooms. Currently we are waiting on a new order of HEPA filters for staff offices. Mr. Estes sent out our positive case community update on Friday. We had 18 cases but only 8 of which had been on campus. The others were positive over the break and made the wise decision to stay home. Thank you all so much for your communal response and supporting our plans & protocols for COVID Safety. We have included the positive case letter later in this newsletter near our COVID Safety Protocols section. We want you to know that safety is our number one priority and creating a GREAT learning experience is number at Kealing Middle School.
This past week we were also able conduct Girls' Soccer Tryouts and Boys' Basketball Tryouts, created a contingency plan for courtyard seating when it is too cold or rainy outside, hosted our monthly PTA meeting, and boasted the highest enrollment & Attendance percentage in all of AISD. This week we look forward to our first Principal's Coffee of the Spring semester (zoom only - click here for link), an opportunity to celebrate our scholars' 1st semester success academically and on Austin ISD's Short Course Assessments.
Next week we will have our first service day of the Spring semester (1/17 @11:30a) & CAC meeting (1/20 @ 4pm) of the new year. Our campus instructional focus this week and next will be student engagement and participation. We look to see teachers engaging students in the lessons and allowing a space to respond at least once every 6-10 minutes. Thank you all for choosing Kealing Middle School and Austin ISD as your child's primary educator.
#BEGREATmentality #ProgressNotPerfection
PTA Corner!
Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone who attended the PTA membership meeting on Thursday morning. The next meeting will be on February 3rd at 8 am on zoom.
With the additional outdoor seating purchased by the PTA, our kids have more outdoor eating options at lunchtime. This requires extra adults to supervise! If you can spare an hour or two once a week, it would be greatly appreciated. If you'd like to help, you can let us know your availability here: https://forms.gle/KFPkc7UVLU5dbuhe6 Thank you!
At our December PTA meeting, the student council presented a proposal to give the teachers stipends if they host an after school club. The PTA executive board decided to use the extracurricular budget funds to pay each teacher $100/semester to host a club. We know it's not a significant amount of money, but it's available in the budget and it's at least a small token of gratitude for taking on the extra work.
Our fundraising goals are below where we would like them to be in order to do all the projects we were hoping to this year. Keep an eye out for more information about fundraising.
Not a Kealing PTA member, yet? Click the link below to join Kealing PTA.
Happy Holidays!
The Kealing PTA Executive Board
2021-2022 Initiatives and Goals
1.) Daily Formative Assessment
2.) Literacy in Every Classroom
3.) Standards Aligned Instruction
4.) Progress Monitoring
Academic Goal
Utilizing an array of assessments (MAP- Measure of Academic Progress, SCA - AISD Short Course Assessment, and STAAR - State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness), the percentage of each demographic/special group of students performing at the meets level in Math & English will increase by at least 5% - 10% from August 17th, 2021 to May 27th,2022.
Social Goal
- TBA (we are still working on this but planning to look at the types of counseling visits our students are requesting)
KMS Safety Protocols as of 1/9/2021
All Day
Mask wearing is mandatory
Before School
All staff, students, and visitors are encouraged to self screen for COVID 19 symptoms before entering into a campus or other Austin ISD Facilities each day
Arrival
- We will maintain outdoor markers to social distance
Transition
- we will encourage moving halls where students are encourage to not stop while transitioning to classes
- staggered release
Classrooms
- We are seating/desks at least 3 feet apart when feasible
- Each classroom has a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filtration unit
- Personal Protective Equipment will be available in each room
- Plexiglass dividers available
- Additional outdoor seating (2 outdoor classrooms & the courtyard if teachers plan to use)
Breakfast & Lunch
- Assigned seating
- Students are allowed to eat lunch both inside the cafeteria and outside in the courtyard
- Plexiglass accordian dividers
-Volunteer lunch monitors
- The courtyard comfortably seats 4 classes, which is from 25% - 100% of the lunch capacity for each lunch period.
Dismissal
- we will have staggered dismissal where scholars will be dismissed by areas of the building to reduce traffic.
Upcoming Dates
Monday - January 10th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)
Tuesday - January 11th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)
Principals' Coffee 8am - 9a (virtual meeting only - click here for the link)
Wednesday - January 12th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)
Thursday - January 13th - A Day (1st - 4th Periods)
Friday - January 14th - B Day (5th - 8th Periods)
Monday - January 17th -
KMS Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Day, 1p - 3p in the Kealing Garden
Congratulations to Anish Sharma - International Maths Olympiad Challenge Champion
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Hornet Herald - https://kealing.austinschools.org/parents/archive
Twitter - @KTXHornets
Webpage - https://kealing.austinschools.org/
