Thank you Meredith Bjorck Real Estate Team for sponsoring

Raider communications!

Congratulations to Our Raider Agenda Cover Contest Winner!

We are pleased to announce that 6th grader Yihan Li is our Raider Agenda Cover Contest Winner for the 2024-2025 school year! Please join us in celebrating her. She brought the theme of "Every Moment Counts" to life in a beautiful and creative way.

We would also like to recognize the following finalists, whose artwork was also in the running: Adelyn Ortiz, Stella Kovac, Kate Snelleman, and Hadlin Honea. Hundreds of students and faculty voted in the Agenda Cover Contest, and 50 students submitted contest entries! We thank each and every one of you for your dedication and creativity!   

Information from the Clinic: Head Lice

Helpful Information for Parents: We do not notify every class at the secondary level of an incident of head lice due to the number of classes that the students have. The school clinic would like to give out some information and reminders for parents.

Head Lice Prevention Tips

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, head lice are spread most commonly by direct head-to-head (or hair-to-hair) contact. The risk of a lice infestation from a louse that has fallen onto furniture or carpet is very small. However, it is possible for them to spread via clothing or other belongings if lice have crawled onto them or nits have attached.

How to Avoid Lice in the First Place

• Teach kids to avoid head-to-head/hair-to-hair contact with other children at school, sleepovers, or extracurricular activities.
• Teach kids not to share belongings that touch their heads or hair
• Combs and brushes
• Hats
• Hair ties, clips, or headbands
• Headphones or headsets
• Bike helmets
• Towels
• Scarves
• Check your child for lice/nits once a week. Although you may find head lice anywhere, they are often found at the back of your child's head, near the neck, and behind the ears.
• Recognize the symptoms of head lice which include an itchy scalp and small red bumps or sores on the back of your child's neck and scalp.

Sweet Rolls for February Cafeteria Volunteers

Everyone who helps at the Cafeteria during the month of February will receive Brenda's famous sweet yeast rolls. We love our volunteers and would like to show our appreciation. Grab any open shifts this month to get your treat!

Raider Pop-Up Shop

The Raider Shop will host a Valentine pop up shop on Wednesday, February 14 during regular Raider Shop hours! Come by for some heartfelt happies for yourself, mom, bestie or someone special. We will also have fun new hats and fan flags to show your love for the Raiders. Many thanks to Jennie Logan for her help making these fun new products!

Letter from the Principal

Dear Raider Families,

Thank you for meeting last week to discuss course selection as we begin our transition process for next year. We are proud of our 6th graders' hard work, academic growth, and developmental progress as they continue through the final semester at the intermediate school. Our goal is to provide a seamless transition to 7th grade and the middle school. Our 5th graders are also preparing for their next educational and developmental steps, and there are many great opportunities ahead. Thank you for partnering with us to support their continued progress.

We honored the support of our counselors this week, and they reminded us in our character lesson that we all have the opportunity to be kind and that kindness seems to spread and multiply wherever it goes. Whether it is a kind note, an encouraging word, or an act of service, we all can be kind. As intermediate students make new friends and meet new people, students they are going to transition with through the rest of their educational career in HPISD, showing kindness to others is a great lesson to remember.

We are looking forward to a great week of learning at McCulloch this week!

Go Raiders!

Dr. Skip Moran, Principal

McCulloch Intermediate School

morans@hpisd.org (214) 780-3500

Upcoming Transition Deadlines

Upcoming Deadlines

• 5th Grade: Submit 6th Grade Elective Choice Sheets to Advisory Teachers by February 21.
• 6th Grade: Submit 7th Grade Elective Choice Sheets to Advisory Teachers by February 16.

HP Class of 2030

6th to 7th Grade Transition & Elective Course Selection

Information from the student & parent transition presentations and other helpful resources are available on Mrs. Richter's webpage.

Students' 7th Grade Elective Choice Sheets are due to Advisory teachers by this Friday, February 16. Advisory teachers will guide students in inputting their selections in Skyward.

Contact 6th grade counselor Charlotte Richter with any questions.

Letter from the Principal

Hello Parents and Families,

Thanks for helping us through another successful week. We are extremely proud of our Raiders! Please see the information below:

• We are in the process of selecting courses for next year. If you have any questions or need help with this process, please reach out to your child's counselor or let me know.
• Our winter musical, The Adventures of Flat Stanley, Jr., is coming soon. There are two performances on Friday, February 23 at 4:00 & 7:00 PM at Highland Park Middle School.
• Monday, February 19 is a student holiday and staff work day.
• Basketball season has concluded. We are extremely proud of our girls and boys teams for representing our school all season long. Track season begins soon.
• Attendance this week: 7th grade - 91%, 8th grade - 91%, Overall - 91%. Goal for next week - 95%

Study Skill Focus - Time Management

1. Write everything down in one place!  When you use a planner or digital sticky notes, you will be less likely to forget things.
2. Use visual reminders. Set timers, set an alarm for break times, and know what commitments you have before and after school that will take time away from studying. If you have a big test or project due, have a countdown on your mirror or desk at home.
3. Prioritize! What is necessary today? What can wait until tomorrow? If it can wait, will you have time to do that task tomorrow?
4. Put away distractions like your phone, watch, or tablet.  If you don't need your chromebook, put that away too. The less distractions you have, the better.
5. Ask for help.  If you are struggling to manage your time, ask someone else to look at your schedule and help you out.

Our mission at HPMS is to ensure high levels of learning and personal growth for all Raiders in and beyond the classroom. Thank you for helping us achieve our mission!

As always, please let me know if you have questions, suggestions, or concerns.

Thanks and Go Raiders!

Dr. Kevin Hunt, Principal

Highland Park Middle School

huntk@hpisd.org  214-780-3600

Raider Roundup (Episode 3)

Please click HERE to view Episode 3 of the Raider Roundup. In this episode, Dr. Hunt has a talk with Coach Trevino. Our teacher feature this week is 8th grade Language Arts teacher of the year, Mr. Mires. Go Raiders.

High School Course Selection (8th Grade Only)

Skyward Course Registration is now open.

All 8th grade students must log in to Skyward to enter course selections into their Career Plan for the 2024 -2025 school year. 8th graders will have the opportunity to review their selections with their counselor this week and will submit completed course cards with student and parent signature and final Skyward Career Plan entries during Raider Hour on February 13 and 14. All students will input their course selections for 9th grade and their course plans for 10th through 12th grades.

Here are some helpful resources to help you navigate the new features in Skyward for course selection next year. Click on the links below to access the documents. 

1. Online video and Step by step instructions for choosing courses through the Career Plan feature of Skyward.
2. 2024-2025 Course Cards for 9th-12th grade
3. 2024-2025 Academic Planning Guide
4. Highland Park High School website
5. Kiltie  

Here are some final tips for selection of courses: 

• Make sure you are logged in to the student's Skyward account, not a parent account.
• Make sure to enter alternate courses on your course cards.
• The counselors will be reviewing requests in late February to verify course selections. If you are not sure about a specific course, your counselor will assist you.
• Please note that several new courses/programs will be offered next year. Course descriptions can be found in the Academic Planning Guide. 

Remember, you have until March 22 to confirm your course selections. As enrollment increases and teacher allotments remain the same, we anticipate that there will not be many opportunities for schedule changes once next school year begins. We will be adhering to the schedule change policies as printed in the Academic Planning Guide and the Kiltie. Both publications can be accessed on the HPHS website.

Raider Cheer

Attention 7th Grade Parents: Applications for 8th Grade Cheerleading are due on Friday, March 8. No late applications will be accepted.

Please contact Erika Hultsman with questions.

HPMS musical theatre presents

The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley Jr. 

Come see your 7/8 classmates bring this beloved children's book (and pop culture phenomenon) to life. Everyone's favorite two dimensional hero, Flat Stanley and his friends will take you on a fun, family-friendly musical adventure around the world! 

Two performances will be held on Friday, February 23 at 4pm and 7pm at the HPMS Auditorium. Tickets are general admission and available for $5 at the door and in the cafeteria the week of the show! Follow us on Instagram at adventures_of_hpms_flatstanley. 

Thank you to HP Arts, Raider Drama Booster Club, HPMS and Highland Park Education Foundation for their generous grants that made this show possible!

"Find Flat Stanley in Snider Plaza" Contest

HPISD students - Find our small Flat Stanleys in businesses throughout Snider Plaza and enter to win fun prizes!! Win show tickets, concession vouchers, gift cards to JD's Chippery, Yumilicious, Supercuts, Dear Hannah Prep, jewelry from Gemma Collection & more! We will announce winners on our Instagram page @adventures_of_hpms_flatstanley on Tuesday, February 20! 

Please congratulate your lady raiders on finishing out the season strong with a SWEEP against Prosper Rushing. B and C teams went UNDEFEATED all season. If you see any 7th grade basketball players, please congratulated them on such a great year.

Please congratulate your 8th grade girls B & C teams on their District Championships this past weekend! 

Please also congratulate your 8th grade basketball team on their hard fought games against Rushing this week. The B team (pictured below) went undefeated this season! Way to go Raiders! 

Last Saturday, the Red and White Teams traveled to McKinney Johnson for the district tournament. Both teams went undefeated and claimed the District Tournament title.

On Monday, the Raiders traveled to Prosper Rushing for their final regular season game of the year. Please congratulate your 7th Grade Boys Red and White Teams on being outright District Champions! 

The Gold Team traveled to Prosper Reynolds yesterday to compete in the District Tournament. Please congratulate them for bringing home the District Championship trophy.

Please congratulate the Red & White 8th Grade boys basketball teams for earning the right to call themselves District Champs! This past Saturday both the Red and the White teams began the day with their end goal in mind and ultimately were successful by taking care of business one game at a time.

Please also congratulate the 8th Grade boys basketball teams on bringing home 3 Ws against Prosper Rushing and defending the home floor of the Scots on Monday! Thank you to Lee Rivera for putting our team logo and pictures on the new scoreboard and to Ben Fitzgerald and Henry Iles (former Raiders and current Scots) who took photos and videos of the games.  

Notes from the Raider Library

Raiders Read 2024

This week we are launching Raiders Read 2024! Students in grades 5-8 are encouraged to read as many books by New York Times bestselling author and Raider favorite ALAN GRATZ. Extra copies of the novels are available in the library; students who get their hands on one are invited to read it, log it in Beanstack (a new tool available through Clever in the HPISD portal), and then "read it forward" to another reader!   

For more information, watch this short video of Raider Librarian Mrs. Bellomy talking about this exciting new initiative. Watch this short video for details on how students can access Beanstack and log their reading of Alan Gratz's books or anything they are reading!

RED any good books lately?

This year's annual Raider Library Book Fair will follow the Raider Reads initiative and will run Wednesday, February 28 - Friday, March 1. The Scholastic fair will offer an incREDible variety of books to interest and engage our reading Raiders.  

If you would like volunteer to help cashier at the fair, watch for shifts to be added to VSP and sign up!  

Book fairs help raise much-needed funds for the library and get new books into the hands of our Raiders. Thank you in advance for your support of this year's fair! 

Alan Gratz Author Visit!

To culminate all of this literary excitement, our featured author ALAN GRATZ will visit MIS/HPMS Tuesday, March 5! He will provide an interactive presentation to all four grade levels! Additionally, Mr. Gratz will speak that evening at 5:30 p.m. HP families and community members are invited to attend and hear Mr. Gratz speak about his books and his writing process. 

Books are available for preorder to be signed by the author on the day of the visit. The form is available HERE, in the library, and at www.hpraiderlibrary.com. Completed forms with cash or check payment are due in the library by Wednesday, February 14.  

Thank you to HP LitFest for generously contributing to the speaker fee for this special event!

-Jill Bellomy, Raider Librarian

TAG Waiver Application (Current 8th Graders)

Thank you to our MIS/HPMS PTO Board of Directors. We are so grateful for the discussion and reports at each meeting!

Thank you to Sarah Taub for showering our crossing guards and counseling office with love last week. The smiles you brought to each recipient were priceless!

Thank you Beth Beakley, Sara Fay Egan, Lacy Lange, and Lisa Palmer, our PTO Hospitality Chairs, for putting together a great lunch for our PTO meeting with guest speaker Kathleen Fischer.

Thank you to June Molnoskey, Raider Agenda Cover Chair for all the work you put in for such a successful 2024-2025 Raider Agenda Cover contest! We are so excited about next year's agenda cover. Thank you for your time, enthusiasm, and dedication.

HPHS Golf

Do you have a child who loves to play golf and might be interested in playing on the high school team one day? If so, Coach Mercedes Trent (girls golf) and Coach Richard Wager (boys golf) would love to get to know who those kids are.

With most high school sports, coaches get to know their future players through middle school athletics/youth sports organizations. Golf is not one of those sports. Coach Trent and Coach Wager would like to get to know their future players earlier than right before their freshman year. If you think your child could be interested in playing high school and would like to know what you should do to him or her them prepare, please reach out.

Coach Trent – trentm@hpisd.org

Coach Wager – wagerr@hpisd.org

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

For more information click HERE.

Lady Scots Soccer Clinic

On March 2 from 9:00-11:00am the Lady Scots soccer players will be hosting a middle school pre-season Soccer Clinic for 7th and 8th grade girls interested in playing middle school soccer to help them get ready for the season and learn about high school soccer. This will take place at the indoor facility at HPHS. Please see the flyer for registration details. For questions you can contact Laura Andrews at dearenlala@gmail.com or 214-901-3888. 

Raiders Reaching Out

Raiders Reaching Out is ready to serve our Raider students, families, and staff in need of support and to honor those who go above and beyond to serve our school and children. Please let us know if you know someone in our Raider community who needs some sunshine sent their way! You can email us confidentially raidersreachingout@mishpmspto.org.

Not receiving Raider Weekly and News To Know email newsletters?

McCulloch Intermediate & Highland Park Middle School