The next early release Wednesday for Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South (Transition Center does not follow the early release schedule) will be on Dec. 7. You can access the bell schedule for the day by visiting https://bit.ly/3RBrPNK.

Based on feedback provided by the Parent-Teacher Advisory Committee during its meeting on Nov. 29, we want to remind families about the opportunities/resources that students can access on these days if they stay on campus following dismissal. They include:

Please contact your child's school for additional information about the opportunities/resources mentioned above or early release Wednesdays in general.

Tomorrow (Dec. 6) is the final day to donate new, unused and unwrapped toys to the toy drive that the Hinsdale South Hornet Leadership Board organized in honor of Joey Ventimiglia, a brave seven-year-old boy from Darien who passed away in 2018 from a rare form of cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). All items that are collected will benefit the WGN Toy Drive, the Off the Street Program and Help Heroes of Ukraine.

Please visit http://bit.ly/3XelQBw or click the image on the right for details about how you can support this important initiative.

Nearly 300 students from District 86 were named Illinois State Scholars by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. They were selected for this honor based on their SAT and/or ACT test scores and sixth semester class rank. You can access additional information about this recognition by visiting https://bit.ly/3G4zA8D. You can also use the links below to access the list of scholars for each school.

We congratulate all of the students who earned this impressive accolade.

We want to congratulate the following students from District 86 on earning All State selections from the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA).

We also want to give a special shoutout to Adam Fournier and Daniel Lee for their success in the ILMEA's Student Composition Contest. Adam took first place in the Jazz Instrumental or Vocal Ensemble category for a piece titled "A la Izquierda del Oeste," and third place in the Arranging category for a piece titled "A Hunka Junka Holiday!" Meanwhile, Daniel took third place in the Instrumental Solo category for a piece titled "The Serenity of a Dream." You can learn more about this contest by visiting https://ilmea.org/composition-contest.

Vespa, which is Hinsdale South's yearbook, earned a rating of All-American from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) for its 2021-22 edition titled "Made You Look." This is the highest rating the publication could have received from NSPA, and one that places it among the best in the nation.

We want to congratulate everyone who was involved in producing the yearbook, including faculty sponsor Jim Kelly and the various current and former students who worked on the different aspects and elements of the publication. This is truly an incredible achievement.

Hinsdale Central's Priya Dhananjaya and Cayleigh O'Hare are among the 1,557 students from across the country who have been named 2023 Coca-Cola Scholar Semifinalists. Only 1.7% of the more than 91,000 individuals who applied were chosen to move on in the selection process based on their "academic excellence, leadership, and service demonstrated in school and community activities."

Next up, Priya, Cayleigh and their fellow semifinalists will submit another application that will be used to identify the 250 Regional Finalists. Of those 250 finalists, 150 will be named Coca-Cola Scholars and receive a $20,000 college scholarship.

We congratulate Priya and Cayleigh on this tremendous accomplishment, and wish them both the best of luck in the next round of the competition.

Hinsdale South's fine arts department has been invited to perform its production of "Carrie: The Musical" at the Illinois Theatre Festival, which is being held at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Jan. 12-14.

We congratulate the cast, crew and theater director Danny Yuska on this tremendous honor.

The Hinsdale Central speech and debate teams have continued the strong start to their respective seasons.

During recent varsity, junior varsity and novice competitions hosted by Wheaton North, Downers Grove South, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg and West Chicago, Central's speech team earned two first place and two second place finishes. The group also had 49 top three finishes in their individual events at these tournaments.

Meanwhile, Central's debate team turned in a solid performance at the recent Walk the Plank Debate Tournament that was hosted by Palatine High School. In the Public Forum Debate at the junior varsity level, Ava Johnson and Finn Schmeltz took second place and Ravi Mahajan earned a speaker award. In the Public Forum Debate at the varsity level, Sebastian Attlan and William Schmeltz took third place, while Heidi Angelopoulos and Patrick Dugan finished in fifth place.

We congratulate both teams on their accomplishments.

Hinsdale South's step team, under the guidance and leadership of new coach Monique Alexander, took third place at the E-Town Stomp Down hosted by Evanston Township High School on Nov. 19.

We want to congratulate the team and Coach Alexander not only on their achievements at the competition, but also on their success in revitalizing this phenomenal program.

We want to congratulate Hinsdale Central football players Kevin Connors, Michael Gallagher, Sean Lynch and Gavin Vandelune on being named West Suburban Silver All Conference Athletes for the 2022 season, and Hinsdale South basketball player Jack Weigus on being named to the 2022 Varsity All Tournament Team for the Bill VandeMerkt Thanksgiving Classic.

We also want to give a shoutout to Hinsdale Central basketball player Ben Oosterbaan on being the latest student-athlete to be profiled by The Hinsdalean. You can check out the piece about Ben by visiting https://bit.ly/3OXm1xB.

John Naisbitt, who is a social studies teacher and coach at Hinsdale Central, was inducted into the University of Chicago Laboratory High School Athletics Hall of Fame in October. Naisbitt, who graduated from the Lab School in 1980, played four different sports and earned nine varsity letters during his high school career.

We congratulate Mr. Naisbitt on this well-deserved honor.

The Doings Hinsdale recently published an article about the young adult novel that was written by Hinsdale Central English teacher Angelique Burrell. In the article, Burrell talks about how she came up with the idea for the book, the process for getting it written, and how her colleagues and students helped her along the way. You can check out the online version of the article by visiting https://bit.ly/3FjaaXs (subscription required) and a pdf copy of the piece by clicking here.

Burrell's novel, which is titled “A Mark in the Road,” is scheduled to hit bookshelves on Oct. 3, 2023.

Hinsdale South named physical education teacher Nate Wolkow and administrative assistants Dorothy Morris and Kristin Scamehorn the teacher and support staff members of the quarter. We congratulate all three of them on this honor, and thank them for all they do on behalf of the school and our students.

We recently mailed the fall 2022 edition of our D86 Forward newsletter to nearly 38,000 residences and businesses in our community. The publication features the following:

You can access an electronic version of the newsletter by visiting https://bit.ly/3VJM7X1.

Please visit https://bit.ly/3B4pHHk to access the latest COVID-19 data for our district, community and county. Below are the metrics we plan to update on a weekly basis.