After lunch, students will report to their designated meeting place and complete the YouScience aptitude and interest inventory. For all other grades not testing, classes will run on their regular daily bell schedule.

This year, we are asking Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors to complete the YouScience aptitude and interest inventory.

YouScience is a great tool for students to learn more about themselves, explore careers that are a good fit for them, and gain a better understanding of how their unique talents are needed in the world. The results will be used for career research, staff writing letters of recommendation, and discussion points for future BHS courses. Additionally, BHS will be able to use the results to develop programs and experiences that directly align with our students' passions.

To complete the YouScience experience, classes will be engaged on the following days:

• Freshmen: October 6th in PE classes, October 11th after lunch

• Juniors: Students who have not completed YouScience from last year will be invited to an advisory on October 6th. All students will continue the experience on October 12th after lunch

• Sophomores: Students who have not completed YouScience from last year will be invited to an advisory on October 6th. All students will continue the experience on October 25th after lunch

We also encourage you to discuss the individual results of YouScience with your student. Check out this video to learn more about YouScience and what it means for your student.

On fall testing dates, we will be asking Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors to finalize their YouScience profile. We will then use the results to create a draft of their graduation plan and their post-high school goals through Transeo Journey.

Transeo Journey is an online “planning tool” that allows students to share their passions, career interests, and more. This system also provides the following:

• Students can track their progress toward graduation requirements, awards, and seals from the state.

• Students can survey the many opportunities and programs available at BHS.

• Staff will be able to use each student's goals to support counseling, class selections, and more.

For more information on Transeo Journey, please check out this video.

This school year the Board of Education will be modifying its meeting format a few times throughout the year to hold “CommUNITY Conversations with the Board of Education”. Instead of a regular Board meeting where action items are voted on, the meeting will be a topical discussion.

The first CommUNITY Conversation will be held on Oct. 18 at 7pm in the cafeteria at Station Middle School, followed by a tour of the new classroom addition. It will focus on the following topics:

• Framework 220 Strategic Priorities (Personalized Learning & Future Readiness) and how the new classroom additions at Station and Prairie Middle Schools are positively impacting teaching and learning

• District update on safety and security measures

Italian-American Heritage Month is celebrated every year to honor and recognize the centuries of achievements, successes, and valuable contributions of Italian immigrants and Italian Americans. Over 5 million Italians immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 2000. The largest influx of Italian immigrants arrived when coal mining companies were recruiting thousands of men to work the deep mines of West Virginia; Italian immigrants also found work on railroads and farms. By the second half of the century, Italian-Americans excelled in every career field, including law, medicine, teaching, and the arts. Religion and family have continued to be an important part of their heritage. Currently, there are over 26 million Americans of Italian descent residing in the United States. This makes Italian-Americans the fifth largest ethnic group in our nation.

BHS believes that attending class, completing assigned work and contributing to the class are indispensable to success in school. Only when a student is in the classroom can he/she take full advantage of fellow classmates’ ideas, the teacher’s knowledge, expertise and counseling, and presentations of materials that enrich the class.

However, we recognizes illness, death in the immediate family, family emergencies and situations beyond the control of the student to be valid causes for missing school. If your student is too ill to come to school, please keep them at home and report the absence via the parent portal of Infinite Campus. Please be aware that attendance calls go out at 11AM each school day for unexcused absences, so it is important to submit absences via Infinite Campus in a timely manner. Attached are directions on how to utilize the parent portal, via the app or website to submit absence requests.

Parents/guardians must seriously consider whether or not the reason for the student missing valuable instructional time is sufficient to warrant the absence.

Please join us on Monday, October 10th for the PTO meeting which will be held at BHS in room C271 at 9:15AM. Please arrive early and have your identification available to get through security. Parking in the visitor parking in the west lot, the spaces facing the tennis courts, and go towards the front of the building to enter.

If you wish to join the meeting virtual, here is the zoom link.

Passcode is 691375

• November 14th
  
• December 12th
• January 23rd
• February 13th - in CRC
• March 13th
• April 10th
• May 8th - in CRC

Please check out our new BHS PTO website -- where you can find our meeting minutes, meeting dates, how to pay dues and what the PTO does:

https://bhs.barrington220.org/families/pto