Just in time for Valentine’s Day GMSD is focusing on matters of the heart. Heart-healthy, life-saving techniques to be more specific.

At Dogwood, students enjoyed their 29th year participating in the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope for Heart Challenge. Dogwood has raised close to $800,000 over the years. Dogwood also earned the top spot in the nation for students who have watched the Hands-only cpr training video.

GOAL students were also training on CPR this week. This was not only a time to earn a life-saving certification, but also a time to come together as a school. The training was led in part by GMSD’s own Houston Hearts Student Club. We’ve mentioned the founder and president of the club before, but this week, Eden Johnson, not only helped lead the GOAL training, but joined the club and district leaders for another milestone. All of our schools are now Project ADAM certified, making GMSD a fully certified district–the first in TN. What does this mean? Now, every school has a certified AED emergency response team in place. The Houston Hearts Club at Houston High School made it their mission to see this through. We interviewed Eden Johnson in this week's Student Spotlight below.

Jason Manuel,

Superintendent

Math Instructional Materials Preview

Events will be open to the public in February. They will be held at district office (3350 Forest Hill Irene Road) on:

• February 21st from 3pm-7pm
• February 23rd from 9am-4pm

Family Life Curriculum Preview

Events will be open to the public in February. They will be held at district office (3350 Forest Hill Irene Road) on:

• February 23rd from 4-6pm
• February 24th from 12-3pm

*Materials can also be made available online by request by emailing Andrew.Martin@gmsdk12.org.

ESSER Planning

As required every six months, GMSD is seeking feedback on ESSER 3.0 Funding. While no changes to the plan have occurred, we want to make sure community members know they have access to the survey here.

Congratulations to both Kairavi Garde' and Logan Wu for achieving A PERFECT SCORE on the ACT examination.

GMSD is also delighted to announce that ALL EIGHT of its semifinalists have been reclassified as FINALISTS in the National Merit Scholarship Program:

Nolawi Alemayehu

Patrick Flaherty

Trevor Hodgson

Sydney Kong

Ananya Mahapatra

Olivia Mittag

Smayan Sompalli

Logan Wu

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million.

Semifinalist Smayan Sompalli encourages all students to take the PSAT, which qualifies you for the distinction. "It takes a bit of practice, studying, and maybe even a little bit of luck," said Sompalli. He plans to pursue a college education and career in Finance. Ananya Mahapatra echoes that sentiment. She plans to pursue a post-secondary education in pre-Law--one day becoming a lawyer.

"My parents encouraged me to push myself and to take ALL the opportunities," said Sydney Kong. She also added that determination and confidence can go along way when competing in academic scholarship contests. Kong plans to pursue a career in the organic chemistry field, preferably she hopes as a research scientist.

"Germantown School District is proud of the fact that we have eight students who qualified for National Merit Finalists this year. This is an exciting accomplishment for our students, but we are also proud of the fact this represents years of excellent education for these students. All of our educators and these students' families should be proud of the investments that they have made in these exceptional scholars," said Superintendent Jason Manuel.

Our very own SFE Chef Austin Wages paid a visit to the culinary arts lab at Houston High School. He led the class in creating strawberry salsa while discussing culinary career opportunities. It was delicious and educational–we've included the recipe below.

In Ms. Monica Thomas' Dual Enrollment Entrepreneurship Class, students had an opportunity to learn from guest speaker Carmeon Hamilton, an interior designer, merchandising consultant, the creator behind the brand, Nubi Interiors, and an HGTV Design Star from Reno my Rental.

"I finished college with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design, started my career in healthcare design and was later pulled into the world of residential. But, it wasn’t until I discovered retail, merchandising and environmental design that I was really able to explore my true passion for interior design and decor and apply my analytical thinking to such vast arrays of spaces," Carmeon shared as she described forging her own career path to the class of hopeful entrepreneurs.

In this week's Student Spotlight, meet Houston High Senior Eden Johnson. She is the founder and co-president of Houston Hearts Club. Learn what inspired her about Project ADAM and why she has worked alongside the district to certify teams at ALL GMSD schools and schools across the MidSouth.

(The picture above shows our HMS All-West students downtown at the clinic and performances earlier this month).

If you missed the opening day tour of the new Houston Middle facility, this is your chance! Come celebrate the new facility with the Houston Middle School Band for their Spring Concert on Thursday, February 23rd. Join them in the new gym to listen to 6th Grade Band, and 7th & 8th Grade Combined Band.

Check out this incredible promo for Houston High School's spring musical by student Megan Waugh. Megan is not just the creator of the video, she's also playing the Velma Kelly in the musical. Chicago: Teen Edition opens this week on Friday, February 24th. Get your tickets before they sell out! The show will run for two weekends. See the link below for more information.

The Little Mermaid Jr. sets sail on March 2nd!

Mustangs are preparing for the spring season with scrimmages, practices, tryouts, and photoshoots. Take a look in the Superintendent's video message for some of the footage. We look forward to sharing those stories with you.

Both the girls and boys varsity basketball teams reigned victorious in their first games for the district playoffs with impressive defeats against both Arlington and Southwind last week. You can watch these games on our new livestream channel on the Houston Athletics app. There are only a few chances left to catch these exciting games.

The girls varsity lacrosse team started their pre-season off right with two huge victories. In their first game they won against St. Agnes, with the final score being 16-1, and in the next game they beat Arlington 19-4.

GMSD is proud of all of our cheer squads, each earning a top ten spot in the nation! We encourage the Germantown Community to take time to watch the video of our Houston Middle School Small Squad above. They team won a National Championship in their finals in Orlando, but that was just the beginning. They also competed for a World Championship, where they hit each routine perfectly. They were named World Champions, and then received the Nations Cup. This award is given to the highest scoring team in each country, and this is the first time Houston has received this award.

The Houston High School Varsity Swim Team competed in the TISCA State Championships in Knoxville over the weekend, and they finished 6th place, against 132 teams and over 900 athletes from public and private schools. The Girls team finished in 7th place and the boys team finished in 13th. This is the highest Houston has ever finished at State. The Mustangs also finished the highest out of all Shelby County Teams at the meet.

Farmington’s Gather Round the Table campaign is off to an outstanding start–they’ve managed to fundraise $40,000. With fundraisers, come the unsung heroes of school administration–doing all manner of crazy things to motivate student participation. Rollerblading around the school, being the center of a food fight–We salute you.

Please join Germantown Municipal School District's Exceptional Student Education Department for a collaborative conversation about how to best support students across various disciplines. Refreshments will be served. Both meetings are being hosted in our Community Board Room at 3350 Forest Hill Irene Road, Germantown, TN 38138.

Preschool, private, public providers:

February 27, 2023 from 9:30-10:30 am

Medical professionals and private clinicians:

February 27, 2023 from 1:30-2:30 pm

What is Snapshots?

Hear from teachers, administrators, and other surprise guests at each of our six schools. Discover what makes working at Germantown Municipal School District special as you enjoy a tour, engaging activities, and casual conversation.

Houston High- Tues. March 7th from 3:30-5:30

Forest Hill Elem- Thurs. March 9th from 5:00-6:30

Houston Middle- Tues. March 21st from 3:30-5:30

Dogwood Elem- Thurs. March 23rd from 5:00-6:30

Farmington Elem- Tues. March 28th from 4:30-6:30

Riverdale Elem- Thurs. March 30th from 4:30-6:30

GMSD is launching a new high school athletics website! The new website, located at thehoustonathletics.com, will provide a wealth of information for our athletes, parents, and fans. You'll be able to see scores, photos, news, videos, player rosters, and profiles, among other things. Look for a middle school component coming soon!