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I hope everyone is enjoying a safe, quiet summer. We have been busy planning for this coming school year at Hamburg Area Middle School. We have made several changes, and I wanted to keep everyone informed.
The first week of August a mailer was sent home detailing your student’s bussing information. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the bussing information, please contact the transportation director, Kim Byassee, at the district office, 610-562-2241, ext# 723 or 1723.
Also enclosed in that mailer was a shopping guide for each grade in the middle school. This list will allow you to hit the “back to school” sales or to plan on purchasing school supplies through our school store. Individual teachers will be requiring additional items, but these lists will get you through the first couple days of classes. If you would like to purchase items through our school store, you may send in the completed order form with cash or a check made out to “HAMS School Store.” If you drop off the form with payment prior to August 20, we will bag your order and hand it to your student on the first day of class.
School calendars will again be handed to each student on the first day of school. This district-wide decision will save the school district over a thousand dollars in postage costs.
Many students want to know which team they are on, Red or White. When the students arrive on the first day of school, 6th grade will report to the cafeteria, 7th grade will report to the LGI, and 8th grade will report to the gym. At that point, teachers will call their homerooms to their classes. We will not post class rosters prior to the first day of school because we will need to make last minute adjustments to schedules based on summer enrollments.
Our “Meet the Teacher Night” will be Wednesday, September 10, 2008, starting promptly at 5:45pm. Please mark your calendar and plan on attending. We encourage you to bring your middle school student along to act as your tour guide for the evening.
Fall and Spring Pictures will be taken again this coming school year. The fall portraits are scheduled for September 24, 2008 and the spring portraits are scheduled for March 3, 2009. Please plan accordingly when purchasing school photos.
The cost of school lunch has increased for the coming year. In the middle school, student lunches will be $1.90. We will continue to use our “point of sale” system, allowing you to pre-pay for lunches.
We have hired a new math teacher to replace the retired Mr. Robert Swope. Mrs. Jennifer Carestia will be moving from the high school to fill the eighth grade mathematics opening. We have also hired Mr. Joel Geisinger to replace Mrs. Norine Quire, who has left Hamburg Area to pursue her life-long dream of living and working in Florida. Both of these teachers have experience as middle school educators. Mrs. Tiffany Gruber has changed her position, and will now be our seventh grade learning support teacher. This has allowed Mrs. Suzanne Knopf to also move from the high school to the middle school to work with our students. We look forward to the experiences and expertise these new staff members will bring to our students.
In an effort to help our young students grow into successful adults, Hamburg Area Middle School will expand its focus on the Six Pillars of Character. Thanks to a grant supplied by the Hamburg Drug Abuse Prevention Team/Marci A. Delewski Memorial Fund, training materials, banners, posters, DVDs, and handouts have been purchased to enforce the six key character traits outlined by the Josephson Institute. The terrific pneumonic “TRRFCC” is used to help everyone remember the Six Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. This is reinforced by their motto, “Six Pillars of Character, Everywhere…All the Time.”
With the consolidation of bussing runs in the district, Hamburg Area Middle School has been able to add twelve minutes to our academic day. The building will again open the cafeteria doors to students at 7:00 AM. Students must be in homeroom by 7:42, which is three minutes earlier then last year. The student day will end with the bus riders being dismissed at 2:39. The walkers will be dismissed at 2:50. This is nine minutes later then last year. This change will add two minutes to each academic class, totaling six hours of additional instructional time for each class across the school year.
Hamburg Area Middle School’s sixth grade will again be attending “Sixth Grade Outdoor Education” at the Camp Conrad Weiser YMCA facility. The dates are locked in for October 22-24, 2008. This year we will be charging each student a $25 fee to help cover expenses.
I am positive you have heard the great news about the investment the district has made to increase technology in the school district, and the middle school was not forgotten through this process. Twenty four interactive white boards have been installed into the core classrooms in all three grades, and seventeen more are on the way for the remaining classrooms. The building will be increasing the number of laptop carts from one to six. A new phone system is being installed in the district, and should be operational August 8, 2008. This web based phone system will link all the school buildings together, creating a more user-friendly system. With all this increase in hardware, we have not been able to implement the online grade book, but that should be available by the start of the second semester. Until then, please continue to check your student’s agenda, and email the teachers to keep abreast of your student’s progress.
August 25 will be here before we realize it. Please have your students read every day this summer, either the newspaper, a magazine, or anything that may grab their interest. You can also access math drills through the Saxon web site: <http://saxonpublishers.harcourtachieve.com> and click on the “on Line Activities” button.
Now that you are up-to-date on all the news from the middle school, please take the time to enjoy the rest of your summer.
R. Kenneth Buck, Jr.
Principal
Hamburg Area Middle School
Events for the week of December 1, 2008
Monday, December 1
Tuesday, December 2
Wednesday, December 3
Saturday, December 6
For a complete list of scheduled events,
visit the calendar.
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