Hero Happenings!

Hellstern Middle School Newsletter, Springdale, AR

October 11, 2021

No School this Friday, Oct. 15th AND Monday, Oct. 18th

From the principal....

We have a goal of having guest speakers visit our building at least once per month. Last year, we had to stop this as the unknown of COVID was looming over us. We are excited to say we are bring it back! On October 22nd our first guest speaker, FBI Agent Randall Jackson will be talking with students about social media and internet safety. We will do a modified assembly in which a few advisories will be with him live in the cafeteria and all the other students will watch through Zoom.

If you are interested in being a guest speaker, either for the whole school, or for a specific target audience, email me (abyford@sdale.org) and let me know! We have gotten good at virtual sessions too - so that is always an option.

Below, you will find information about some other speakers that we had with target audiences this week.

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Lt. Colonel Ross A. Conrad

Lt Col Ross Conrad is the Commander of the 1st Test & Evaluation Squadron, specializing in the testing of Space Command & Control Systems. He spoke with students during PrimeTime this week through Zoom. Mrs. Kautzer set this event up and facilitated the conversation with students that signed-up to attend the session. If you would like to see a few pictures from the event or want to know more about the guest speaker, click here.

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Astronomer works with math classes

Adam worked virtually with some 6th grade math classes this week to introduce a real-life ratios project that these classes will complete in the coming weeks.

Adam is a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University and a Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award recipient. His research focuses on measuring galaxy star formation rates in an effort to better understand how galaxies build up their stellar populations, as well as using machine-learning algorithms to reject outliers in distance measurements of faraway galaxies. In addition to his involvement with the ODIN and UVCANDELS surveys, he is a member of the Dark Energy Science Collaboration and will be defending his thesis in Fall 2022. Adam lives in Highland Park, NJ with his wife Anna and space dog Laika.

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Special Olympics was this past week

Some of our students traveled to Huntsville this week to participate in a Flag Football Special Olympics event. You can see pictures from that day HERE.

Heroes of the Month - October

October Staff of the Month - Congrats! Mrs. Packwood

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Child Development: Changes vs. Red Flags

Coming up is the 2nd of six (Pre-K -12) virtual parent nights with Ozark Guidance: “Child Development: Changes vs. Red Flags” Tuesday, October 12th, 6:00-7:00 p.m. on zoom.
Here is the link to pre-register. These are free events! Anyone and everyone is welcome – live or later: Just register to receive a link to join live and we’ll also send all registrants the materials and a recording.
We hope this approach makes bringing information and resources to families simple. Let us know! Please send questions or suggestions to school.outreach@ozarkguidance.org and check out our additional Outreach Services including student programming and professional development.

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Student Flu Clinic - Nov. 2nd

Forms are going home for the HMS flu clinic. They must be returned back to the school by Oct. 29th in order to ensure enough shots are available on the 2nd.

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Reminders about car-rider line

Please consider, we have many busses not running which means there may be parents in our line that are new to the process. Please use your blinker when you are merging, to show your intent.

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We need your help with Lexia!

Check to see if your student is completing his/ her Lexia Minutes weekly.This program closes gaps in decoding words, grammar, and reading comprehension. Every HMS student has an account they can access through the Clever app on their Chromebook.

Lost & Cleaned - Click here

If you see something that looks familiar, tell your student to check outside of the library to see if it belongs to him/her. Thanks!

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HMS Yearbook

We're really excited about this year's Hellstern Middle School yearbook. Why? Because you can add your own photos and memories to your personalized copy. All you have to do is create a free account with TreeRing.

TreeRing is a yearbook publisher that is focused on helping students and parents preserve their memories as much as it's focused on helping schools preserve their history. So, the yearbooks have a more personal touch.

Your book includes two, free pages for you to personalize with your own photos and memories. The personal pages are totally optional, so if you just want the more traditional yearbook, that's okay, too.

Whichever you choose, you can click here to purchase a yearbook for $23.97.

If you are going to use the personal pages, please have them done and buy your copy of the yearbook by April 22, 2022.

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School-based counselors...

You may or may not know that we have two full-time counselors in our building that represent two different organizations (Ozark Guidance Center & Burrell Health Services). Right now it is VERY hard to get counseling sessions scheduled for students because most mental health facilities are SO BUSY! The benefit of using our counselors at Hellstern is that they can see students during the school day. Everything happens right here during the day!

If you want more information just call our school and ask to speak with someone about setting up counseling with either Burrell or OGC and we will help you get connected!

Upcoming Dates

October

12 - End of 1st quarter

13 - 2nd quarter begins

15 - No School

18 - No School

19 - POSTPONED: Band Field Trip

19 - School Board meeting @ 5pm

25 - Report Cards go home for 1st quarter

29 - Hero Hangout

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7th Grade Athletics - Football/Volleyball/Cross-Country

Oct. 14 - FB: Springdale SMS (HOME) 4:45

Oct. 19 - XC: Wolf Run Conference

Oct. 19 - VB: HTMS (HOME) 5:00

Oct. 21 - FB: Siloam Springs (HOME) 4:45

Oct. 28 - FB: Rogers Elmwood (AWAY) 5:30

Nov. 4 - FB: TBD - Championship Week

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Meet Our Heroes

Each week we will highlight teachers/staff in our building. The Hellstern staff are an amazing bunch of people - we hope you enjoy getting to know us a little better!