Dear HSA McKinley Park Families,
It is unbelievable that we are almost moving into the month of December and that the school year is progressing quickly. As we move forward into the 2nd quarter we cannot stress enough the importance of student engagement in both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Course content is progressing and it is imperative for students to keep up with their school work. Parents, please be sure to check your child’s progress on Concept SIS or through the Google Classroom classes.
We are also hosting our second virtual parent teacher conference which will be held on Thursday, December 3rd from 2pm to 7pm and on Friday, December 4th from 12:30pm to 3pm. A flyer with specific information will be sent out soon. All Kindergarten to 4th grade families will set up meetings directly with the grade level teachers and all 5th - 12th grade families will call the front office to schedule meeting times. We are encouraging all parents to sign up to meet with teachers. The goals of parent teacher conferences are for teachers to share academic progress and growth based on classroom observations, testing data, assessments, portfolios, and assignments and for teachers to learn from parents or guardians so they can be better informed about students' strengths, needs, behaviors, and learning styles.
I would also like to take the opportunity to discuss student absences since you can imagine, attendance is a significant factor concerning student success. The more a student is absent, the increased chance he/she will fail their courses, fall behind in class, and lose a connection with the school. We also understand that students get sick, have family emergencies, and things do come up. This is where we need your help. It is essential to call the school if your child will be absent, late, or leaving early from school. If no one calls the school to notify of the student’s absence this will be recorded as an unexcused absence.
Below is our school’s policy on absences :
-Any student who accumulates 5 total unexcused absences will receive a warning letter from school.
-Any student who accumulates 10 total unexcused absences may receive a parent meeting request letter from the school requesting a conference with administration. At that point, administration may also require the implementation of an Attendance Intervention Plan (AIP) with the parent or guardian.
-Any student who reaches 15 total absences (excused or unexcused) may be required to meet with administration.
-Any student who reaches 30 total days of unexcused or excused absences during the school year will be considered to have failed his/her current grade and will repeat the same grade the following year unless the student’s principal and teachers of the failed subject areas agree that the student is academically prepared to be promoted to the next grade level.
During this season of Thanks, I wanted to take this time to thank you all for your continued support. I am very thankful to be serving the HSA McKinley Park Community.
I want to wish you and your families a very blessed Thanksgiving!
Serving You,
Mr. Vedziovski
2245 W. Pershing Rd. Chicago, IL 60609
(O) 773.247.8400 | (F) 773.247.8401
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Molex Virtual Career Panel |
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On November 2nd, FIRST 5125 Hawks On The Horizon, one of HSA McKinley Park high-school robotics teams, had the opportunity to participate in a Virtual Career Panel hosted by Molex, a sponsor of our team. During the Virtual Career Panel, students were able to ask questions and hear about the education and career journey of 4 engineers. The diverse group of engineers drew from their college experiences and from working at Molex, a leading international manufacturer of over 100,000 electrical connectivity products.
Special thank you to Molex and their staff involved in making this Virtual Career Panel possible and for sponsoring our robotics program. This awesome virtual career panel provided a unique opportunity for our students to learn about what their future can hold.
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We are very proud of our first quarter honor roll students. The Honor Roll ribbons and certificates will be mailed out soon so be on the look out for them. Also please click on the list to see an up close version of our students. Again we wanted to take this time to thank all of our parents for their continued support during this current e-learning phase we have all adjusted to during the first quarter. As we move into the second quarter we will continue with this new norm as the safety of our students is our top priority. Again if you have any questions or concerns please contact us at 773-247-8400.
*Please note High school students are not listed because they are not on quarters but semesters, once the 1st semester has been completed we will announce high school honor roll students.
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We are very proud to have on staff, three US Veterans! Thank you to all of the veterans that have served or are currently serving and especially to the veterans we may have in our own family and friend circle. We are very thankful to our very own veterans we have on staff for serving our country and protecting our freedom. Today and every day we are grateful for your sacrifices.
Special Recognition to our very own Veterans:
Marisa Vega, US Army
-Community Outreach Coordintaor
Peter Marron, US Marines
-Math Teacher
Victor Berry, US Army
-Building Operations
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Please join us in celebrating our high school Art Students & their entries into the Illinois Tollway’s 2021 Annual Map Cover Art Contest honoring Everyday Heroes! We are excited to announce that we had a total of 6 art students who entered into this year's Art Contest:
-Valeria Cruz (Graphic Design/Illustration)
-Nareen Aydogan (Graphic Design/Illustration)
-Mimi White (AP 2D Art & Design)
-Kayla Rendon (Graphic Design/Illustration)
-Ivy Cortez (Drawing)
-Bryanna Ibarra (Graphic Design/Illustration)
We are so proud of all our art students and their awesome illustrations they entered into the contest. Thank you to our school community who showed their support and voted! We are proud to announce that we have a winner!
Congratulations to this year's 3rd place winner Bryanna Ybarra. In addition to being recognized on the IL Tollway's website, Bryanna has also won a $200 gift certificate to Blick Art Materials as well as a $100 gift certificate to use at Oases stores.
Way to go HSA Hawks!
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Our Juniors took the preliminary scholastic assessment test (PSAT) test on Tuesday, November 10th. Our high school department worked collectively with our high school guidance team so that our Juniors can be prepared before taking the actual SAT in the spring. Our students all adhered to the safety precautions and were screened before entering the building. Each classroom only hosted 8 students max. A special recognition to all of the high school teaching staff for their continued support and flexibility in providing our students the best preparations for their future. |
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We are very thankful to our PTO this year for sponsoring the Turkey Giveaway at this month's PTO meeting. At this month's meeting we had a HSA trivia game and the parents in attendance who answered correctly won a turkey! It was a fun way to surprise our parents this month. Also mentioned in the meeting is that all events and meeting for December will be canceled due to the current stay at home order issued to all. We will resume our meeting in January of 2021. Stay tuned for more details concerning the new year coming soon.
Congratulations to our parents!
(pictured below )
Noemi Ramirez
Nicole Caccitolo
Evelio Dimas
Cynthia Gonzalez
Juana Alvarado
Alma Ybarra
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In compliance with the current stay-at-home order, Saturday school will be canceled until further notice. We will keep all of the parents updated who were offered this option for their students. Our admin team worked very hard behind the scenes to develop a Saturday School Support Program to help our current students who are currently struggling to improve on their academic performance. Every safety precaution was mapped out and a limited amount of spaces were being offered in compliance to the COVID-19 restrictions. We are hoping to get this program up and running once it is safe to do so. In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns regarding your child's academic progress please feel free to email our admin staff.
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WORKSGIVING TO VIRTUAL
RECIPE SWAP
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Our annual staff dinner has been canceled as we adhere to the stay at home order that was issued to the city. Every year we have hosted a staff "Worksgiving" potluck dinner celebration. To keep our annual tradition going, we decided to ask our Admin team to share their tasty recipes via video. Check out the video below for some delicious, quick and easy recipes brought you by our Awesome Admin Team!
Happy Cooking & Enjoy!
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HSA McKinley Park is extremely grateful to all those families who purchased books at our annual Fall Book Fair and made it such a success. This pandemic switched our normal in school book fair to a virtual one. We are very happy to host our book fairs every year because we love to share the love of reading to all of our students. During this time off as we celebrate the upcoming Holidays let's Raise Readers! Lets try and gift more books than toys and spend at least 20 minutes a day reading with your child. It is extremely important now more than ever that we all keep up with our child's reading progress. Any questions or ideas needed to help improve on your child's reading progress, send an email to Ms. Benita Johnson- [email protected] or Ms. Manzella- [email protected]
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Our CYSP groups closed out their monthly coat drive on Saturday, November 21st.They were able to collect 130 coats and 264 hats, gloves, scarves and socks! A special thanks to all of the families that came out and donated!
Also thank you to all of the volunteers that helped out this past Saturday. They were able to pass out all of the donations to those in need in the McKinley Park Community. This has been a very successful coat drive and they are planning on making it an annual event for the many years to come.
Salia Matheny, our very own senior, organized this coat drive and we are closing out with her mission of her #staywarmchiraq initiative:
The mission will always and forever be to spread love, peace and joy
no matter the circumstances!
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Save the Dates
VIRTUAL
Parent Teacher Conferences
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HSA McKinley Park parent book club, "Chapter Chat" is close to wrapping up the first book on their list this month. With the help of Dr. Regina Armour, Director of Community Engagements & Partnerships, "Chicago Region" Concept Schools, we are so happy we decided to host such an awesome way to stay connected to our parents. We are especially thrilled because this allows us to also stay connected with one of our sister schools, HSA Belmont. This fun and easy read "The House on Mango Street" written by Sandra Cisneros is allowing us to all to learn what we are benefiting from by joining this parent book club:
- Allows You to Reach an Achievable Goal
- Decreases Stress
- Gain New Friends and Get Involved with the Community
- Gain New Perspectives
- Boosts Teamwork Skills
- Improves Your Own Writing Skills
If you are interested in joining chapter chat there is still time to join before we start a new book next month. Please email Ms. Armouti at [email protected]
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Teacher Spotlight: Peter Marron |
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This month's teacher spotlight shines on Peter Marron. Since we are honoring our Veterans this month what a great opportunity to get to know everyone's favorite Math teacher and our very own Veteran a little bit better. Mr. Marron was born and raised here in Chicago. Throughout his childhood years though he grew up in Midolothian but came back to the city for high school and hasn't left yet. His childhood dream was to defend his country in some way, shape or form so he joined the United States Marine Corps in 1987 and served on active duty for three years and three years in the reserves. His primary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was an avionics tech (electrician) on the UH-1N Huey helicopter. He also volunteered as an aerial observer (door gunner) while deployed overseas during Desert Storm.
After Desert Storm, he wandered from job to job, having already fulfilled his childhood dream of joining the military. As long as he was able to pay the bills he was at a point in his life where he didn't care what he was doing. Consequently during that time span he had many jobs, easily 15 plus. While living on unemployment and a severance package from spending six years at a computer firm downtown, his sister (ELA teacher of 10 years at the time) asked him to help out at her school as a teacher's aide. He worked as an aide for a year and a half, immediately falling in love with the education field. He then went back to school and acquired Bachelors degree majoring in elementary education with a minor in math education from Trinity Christian College. He was a full time substitute teacher for his first year, working the full range of K-12. He worked at Parker Junior High in Flossmoor, IL for four years. After which he found his way to HSA McKinley Park and have been here ever since.
This is year seven for Mr. Marron as the 8th grade mathematics teacher. Besides teaching he has run the Strategy Club (combination of Chess & MTG card game), directed traffic out in front of the school, and recently became the 8th grade chair (2 years).
We couldn't be more prouder of having such a great teacher on staff like Mr. Marron.
We thank Mr. Marron for his service to our country and to our school!
Closing out with his favorite quote:
"It is good to know things but it is better to know people". - Pete Marron Sr.
His father shared that quote with him when he was ten years old. It didn't make sense to him until late in high school but he has seen the truth of it for the last forty years:)
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At HSA McKinley Park our top priority is the health and safety of students and staff, and we will continue to follow the guidance of local, state, and federal health officials in this evolving situation. Should you have any questions or concerns please email our school principal,
Mr. Seat Vedziovski at:
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