The Scots' Scoop
Highland Park Middle School's Weekly Family Newsletter
October 29, 2023
Translations
ENGLISH
Prefer a language other than English? You can open the newsletter link and click a button on the right (on a computer) or at the bottom (on a mobile device) to have it translated into many different languages. Please know that the translation function may be inaccurate or incomplete. If you have any questions, please call us at 651-293-8950.
SPANISH
¿Prefiere un idioma que no sea inglés? Puede abrir el enlace del boletín y hacer clic en el botón a la derecha (en una computadora) o en la parte inferior (en un dispositivo móvil) para traducirlo a muchos idiomas diferentes. Tenga en cuenta que la función de traducción puede ser inexacta o incompleta. Si tiene alguna pregunta, llámenos al 651-293-8950.
SOMALI
Ma waxaad doorbideysaa luuqad aan aheyn af-Ingiriis? Waxaad furi kartaa lifaaqa wargeysyada oo guji batoonka midigta (ee kumbiyuutarkaaga) ama xagga hoose (ee taleefankaaga gacanta) si aad wargeyska ugu tarjuntid luuqado badan oo kala duwan. Fadlan ogow in natiijada turjumaaddu ay noqon karto mid aan sax ahayn ama aan dhammaystirnayn. Haddii aad wax su'aalo ah qabtid, fadlan naga soo wac 651-293-8950.
HMONG
Puas xav tau ua lwm hom lus? Nej qhib txoj kab mus rau hauv daim ntawv xov xwm thiab nias lub pob ntawm sab xis hauv lub koos pis tawj, los sis yog lwm hom twj no ces nyob hauv qab, ces yuav muaj txhais ua ntau hom lus. Nco ntsoov tias cov lus txhais no yuav tsis raug txhua lo los sis txhais tiav tiav. Yog nej muaj lus nug, thov hu rau peb ntawm 651-293-8950.
KAREN
ကျိာ်ဂုၤဂၤတခါလၢနအဲၣ်ဒိးအီၤ လၢအတမ့ၢ် အဲကလံးကျိာ်န့ၣ်အိၣ်ဧါ. နအိးထီၣ်ကွၢ်လံာ်တၢ်ကစီၣ်ပှာ်ဘျးစဲ ဒီးစံၢ်လီၤဖဲ ပှာ်ဘျးစဲအဖီခိၣ်ဖဲစုထွဲတကပၤ(လၢခီၣ်ဖၠူထၢၣ်ဖီခိၣ်) မ့တမ့ၢ် စံၢ်လီၤဖဲတၢ်ဖီလာ် (လၢနလီတဲစိ ဖီခိၣ်) ဒ်သိး တၢ်ကကွဲးကျိာ်ထံအီၤလၢကျိာ်အဂုၤအဂၤအဂီၢ်သ့ဝဲဒၣ်န့ၣ်လီၤ. ဝံသးစူၤသ့ၣ်ညါလၢ လံာ်လၢ တၢ်ကွဲးကျိာ်ထံအီၤန့ၣ် ကအိၣ်ဝဲဒီး တၢ်အကမၣ် မ့တမ့ၢ် တၢ်တလၢတပှဲၤသ့ဝဲဒၣ်န့ၣ်လီၤ. နမ့ၢ်အိၣ်ဒီး တၢ်သံကွၢ်တဖၣ်န့ၣ်, ဝံသးစူၤကိးပှၤဖဲ 651-293-8950 န့ၣ်တက့ၢ်.
News and Updates
Greetings families and well wishes for this fall season! Spirit week at HPMS is this week. The dress-up activities for Spirit Week were student-selected. It will consist of the following activities each day:
- Monday, 10/30: Pajama Day (NO blankets or slippers)
- Tuesday, 10/31: Dress like a Soccer mom or BBQ dad
- Wednesday, 11/1: Pink Out! (wear pink)
- Thursday, 11/2: Black Out! (wear all black)
- Friday, 11/3: Highland Pride (wear red and Highland gear)
Did you know that any HPMS student can get support with their homework after school, on Mondays-Thursdays? Homework Help sessions are taking place during the first hour of Flipside (the after school program), but ANY Highland Park Middle School student can attend these homework support sessions...students do not need to be currently enrolled in Flipside to attend.
A reminder that we are nearing the end of Quarter 1, which is November 9th. Please continue to check your child's Schoology for coursework and assignment completion regularly. To do so, you may access Schoology via the app or online at schoology.spps.org. Enter your parent/guardian username and password. *If you are unsure of your username and password, you may easily receive your username and reset your password at spps.org/onestop.
The Scots' Scoop is Highland Park Middle School's newsletter to families and goes out every Sunday at 6pm. Be sure to read it weekly for important news and updates.
Important Upcoming Dates
- Thursday, November 9: Quarter 1 ends / primer quarto de semestre termina
- Monday, November 20: Family Communications Committee (FCC) meeting at 6pm (virtual)
- Thursday/Friday, November 23-24: No School; Thanksgiving holiday
Quarter 1 Mid-Term Grades
HPMS Families:
Because of a glitch in the reporting grades system (new this year), many mid-term grades were not reported properly onto Campus from Schoology. The mid-term window for reporting has now passed. We will have this glitch fixed in time for reporting Quarter 1 Final Marks, on Wednesday, November 15. In the meantime, you can access your student’s current grades on Schoology. You may also find your student’s current, “in-progress,” course grade in Campus or in One Stop (spps.org/onestop), as well. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
Homework Help sessions after school!
Homework Help sessions are being offered Monday-Thursday during the first hour of Flipside after school. Homework Help is available to any HPMS student, they do not need to be currently enrolled in Flipside.
- Students that would like homework help can check in with Ms. Nikol in the cafeteria after school on the day that they would like to receive the homework help. Families/Other teachers can also reach out to Amanda Sell or Camila Dávila ahead of time if they have additional information to share.
- Ms. Nikol will send them with a pass to Sell or Dávila's rooms depending on the day.
- Students NOT enrolled in Flipside will need to have their own ride home at 4:00pm.
Monday/Wednesday = Sell (Room #1304)
Tuesday/Thursday = Dávila (Room # 1416)
Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Please contact Amanda Sell at amanda.sell@spps.org or Camila Dávila at camila.davila-schrandt@spps.org
Community Mentoring Program: Delta Academy
A Community Mentoring Program: Delta Academy
Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy – “Embracing Girl Power on Purpose”
Delta Academy (ages 11-14) mentoring program is designed to provide young girls with the necessary tools to embrace their strength and worthiness. It emphasizes that our young girls are ready and prepared to be leaders in the ever-changing world, through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Locally, members of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated assist young females to sharpen their skills in areas such as Money Management, Leadership, Coding, International affairs, Character Building, Anti-Bullying, and Social Action.
Delta GEMS
The Delta GEMS program was created as an expansion of the Delta Academy program. Its goals are to “catch the dreams” of African American adolescent girls aged 14-18. Delta GEMS provides the framework to actualize those dreams through the performance of specific tasks that develop a “CAN DO” attitude. The Delta GEMS (Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully) participates in educational, cultural, social, and public service activities throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area, which have included various drives for the homeless, senior citizens, grade school youngsters, and charitable activities for the less fortunate both locally and internationally.
Bullying Prevention Month
October is Bullying Prevention Month. At Highland Park Middle School we are showing our support in creating a safe and welcoming school environment through a series of Foundations activities. Students will learn about the effects of bullying, how to be an upstander and how to get help from adults when necessary. We also will be participating in the national recognition of "Unity Day" on Wednesday, October 18. Students and staff are encouraged to show support for kind and welcoming behavior by wearing orange and/or displaying a virtual "Unity Day" icon on their iPad. It is important that we stand united and support our school community-together we can do this!
To learn more about what parents can do to support their children click here: https://www.pacer.org/bullying/parents/helping-your-child.asp
If you have any concerns about bullying behaviors during the school year, please contact your child's school counselor: Danielle Seifert, danielle.seifert@spps.org (grade 8); Elisabeth Mulvaney, elisabeth.mulvaney@spps.org (grade 7); or Nou Katzmarek, nou.katzmarek@spps.org (grade 6).
S.H.I.N.E. - Bi-weekly After-school Opportunity for Girls
We are thrilled to announce open enrollment for the SHINE Girls Group program for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year! Flier linked here
At SHINE, we are dedicated to providing a supportive and empowering environment for 6th-12th grade girls to grow, thrive, and shine. Our bi-weekly gatherings offer opportunities to have fun, make new friends, connect with peers, and acquire essential life skills through engaging lessons and community involvement.
Our program focuses on nurturing self-confidence, promoting community engagement, and helping girls explore their future goals and aspirations. We believe in instilling crucial social and emotional skills during this pivotal stage of development.
Don't miss this chance to be part of SHINE Girls Group! For enrollment visit http://www.weshinetogether.org for more information and registration details (interest form at the bottom of this page: https://www.weshinetogether.org/programs)
Highland Park Nordic Ski Team
Hello, middle school parents and students! The Nordic Ski (cross-country skiing) season starts on November 15. There is an informational meeting for skiers on Monday, October 23 at 3:05 in room 3303 in the high school. Nordic Skiing is open to all students grades 7-12. We have a fun team atmosphere and welcome all skiers, regardless of ability. We have ski equipment that skiers can rent for the season ($20).
Information about the season and links for registration can be found on the team website: https://sites.google.com/view/highland-park-nordic-ski/home
2023-2024 Season Information Basic Team Info, Renting School Skis, and Practice Schedule will be Linked Here.
Last fall we had about 30 middle school skiers (most with no prior ski experience). Email Coach brad.moening@spps.org if you have questions.
Alpine Skiing Race Team
Interested in ski racing? Join the St. Paul Alpine Ski Team (SPAST)! The team is open to SPPS students in grades 7-12. While some alpine skiing experience is necessary, racing experience is not required. It should be noted this is a race team and not a ski club.
The team practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Afton Alps. The activity fee is $250/$20 for free and reduced lunch. (The SPAST parent group is willing to help students who would like to join the team but whose families have limited financial resources.) In addition, a season pass to Afton is required. Bussing is provided and departs from Central and Highland High School. Please fill out this form to sign up to be invited to our informational meeting or email annekettler@yahoo.com for more information, and if you have a student who needs financial assistance for this.
Student Schedules
Student schedules can be viewed in the Student Portal on Campus, as well as in the Campus Parent app (be sure to download this app if you have not already!). Please direct any questions about student schedules to HPMS' school counselors:
- Nou Katzmarek, Grade 6 nou.katzmarek@spps.org (651) 744-3400
- Elisabeth Mulvaney, Grade 7 elisabeth.mulvaney@spps.org (651) 744-3399
- Danielle Seifert, Grade 8 danielle.seifert@spps.org (651) 744-7582
Drop-Off and Pick-Up
School Drop-off
Please enter the parking lot off Montreal Avenue and proceed to Door 20. Once you are in front of Door 20, please have your student exit the vehicle immediately. We experience a lot of car traffic in the morning at drop-off, so we need to be as efficient and safe as possible.
Please do not drop off your student in the parking lot at any point until your car gets closest to the school building, nearest to the sidewalk to Door 20. We want students to be safe. Dropping off students in non-designated areas creates an unsafe environment.
During the morning at drop-off, feel free to drop off your student along Montreal Avenue, with your car facing east (school building side of the street) as there is a sidewalk, and students may walk to Door 20 via the sidewalk that runs along the parking lot curb to enter the building.
Upon leaving the parking lot, you may only turn right onto Montreal Avenue, as the line of cars leaving with you backs up very quickly.
You may not drop off your student along Snelling Avenue at any time, as this is a busy bus zone for both morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up.
School Pick-up
Follow the same procedures as listed above. However, you may not park on Montreal Avenue at the end of the day, as Montreal Avenue becomes a bus zone for our school buses.
Outside food and drinks
Students may bring a bottle of water and bag lunch from home. However, food and drinks from, or brought to students, from establishments and food services (e.g. restaurants, DoorDash) are NOT permitted.
Only water is permitted in bottles. Other beverages are NOT permitted.
*If your student brings a beverage from a coffee shop, juice bar, etc., it must be finished by the time the student goes to class, as we are trying to minimize pest issues in the building.
Cell Phone, Earbuds, & Electronic Devices
Cell phones should be turned off and put away during school hours, 8:30am-3:00pm. Please see this link to our school policy as it pertains to cell phones, earbuds, and electronic devices.
We do not recommend that you bring any valuable personal items to school - including phones and earbuds. The school is not responsible for lost or stolen items.
Meals & Application for Educational Benefits
Application for Educational Benefits
The Minnesota Free School Meals Program provides all students with ONE FREE BREAKFAST and ONE FREE LUNCH per school day. *Students will be charged for single item purchases, such as milk and second meals. The prices for single item purchases can be found at here and on the website at spps.org/ns.
While all in-person students will receive free breakfast and lunch under Minnesota's Free School Meals program, it remains critical that all families complete an Application for Educational Benefits each school year. These applications determine how much funding your child's school receives for educational programs and supports. Additionally, eligible families can qualify for other benefits. The application can be completed online at schoolcafe.com/spps. Paper applications are available at school.
Daily, weekly, and monthly breakfast and lunch menus are available online at Nutrition Services spps.org/ns.
Every Meal Program
Healthy eating is so important for children. At HPMS, we work hard to ensure students receive a healthy breakfast and lunch each day to support their developing brains and bodies. Research shows that children who eat regular, nutritious meals are more likely to attend school and be engaged in learning.
We are excited to partner with Every Meal to offer a free weekend meal program to all our students.
Every Meal is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to fight child hunger through community and school partnerships. They strive to make a difference in children’s lives by focusing on food gaps like weekends, school breaks, and summer when they can’t receive food in school.
- Free for all families
- No qualifications required
- Students enrolled in the program will receive a 4-5 pound bag of nutritious, nonperishable food each week
- Every Meal does not collect information from families; privacy is protected
- Families may choose to participate in the program anytime throughout the school year
- Families may choose from a variety of different weekend food bag options
If you wish to participate, please fill out our enrollment form which can be found here. Or feel free to reach out to Katie Monroe, one of our social workers, at kathryn.monroe@spps.org or 651.744.4616.
Volunteering at HPMS
About HPMS
At Highland Park Middle School, our mission is to:
- Provide our students with a sense of community and global perception in a nurturing and caring learning environment,
- Help students acquire the skills necessary to value themselves, and take pride in their accomplishments, and
- Develop respect and understanding of other people and their cultures.
Website: https://www.spps.org/highlandms
Location: 975 Snelling Ave S, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: (651) 293-8950