Cardinal E-News Dec. 2

Band Concert - December 13

The Bellaire Mighty Cardinal Band is in concert Tuesday, December 13th! This free concert is open to the community. Please park in the visitor parking lot at S. Rice and Maple and enter through the main entrance. Overflow parking is available in the parking garage.

Jazz Band

The Mighty Cardinal Jazz Band will be performing this Saturday Dec 10, 10am-noon at the Braeswood Farmers Market (braeswoodfarmersmarket.com) located at 10425 Hillcroft (Westbury Baptist Church parking lot). Please come and enjoy the market!

STAAR Retesting - Next Week

STAAR Testing will continue next week for students that missed testing or need to retest. This will be the last opportunity for students to take the STAAR 1.0 exam. All students will take the newly redesigned STAAR 2.0 team beginning in the Spring of 2023. Students will receive testing notifications in their HISD email accounts. If you have questions about testing please email our testing coordinator, Laura Perez

Final Exams

First Semester Final Exams will be held Dec. 16 - 21. Final Exams are weighted as 10% of a students final average for the semester.

HISD high schools are able to utilize a state waiver in order to release early these four days. HISD school buses will run early as well. Students that do not ride the bus should arrange early pick-up. Lunch will be available for all students to pick up at 1:00 pm each day.

Study Tips and Advice

Finals begin next Friday, and if you need tips on getting organized or how to study for your exams, we have resources curated for you to look through. Check out the resources here. Creating a study schedule can really help too.

Mobility and Building Entrance/Exit Information

Arrival and dismissal continue to improve. We appreciate everyone's efforts and will continue to implement and refine arrival and dismissal procedures.

There will be three entry and exit doors for students.

Main Office at the front of the school on S. Rice Ave.
“Main Street” doors. These are located in the center of the school area known as “Main Street” and they are the doors students would use if they are entering from the parking garage.
Bus entry doors. These are the same doors that bus riders have been using.

NOTE: Students walking to school or being dropped off should no longer use the bus entry doors. They should use the doors at the Main Office or on “Main Street”. Students will no longer enter nor exit through the doors on the back bus lane and loading dock lane.

Drop-Offs and Pick-Ups

The student drop off and pick up lanes are on S. Rice Ave. at the front of the school and Maple St. by the parking garage, just like before. For safety reasons, students are not to walk onto the bus lane starting on Monday, November 21st. They should use the doors at the Main Office or on “Main Street” only.

Bus Lane

Only school buses should enter the bus lane, which is a one-way road that enters on Maple St.

Visitors

All visitors will park in the outside parking lot at the front of the school on S. Rice Ave. In order to alleviate traffic issues, visitor parking lot hours are 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. All visitors must enter the building through the new main office doors on S. Rice.

This is going to take a community effort in order to make the changes as smooth as possible. It’s nothing too major, but there are some tweaks nonetheless so thank you in advance to everyone for their part in making traffic and student entry and dismissal as smooth as possible. Please review the changes with your student(s).

ID Badges - Mandatory

Please begin spreading the word now All students need to have IDs on and visible while on campus. Students will need to have their ID badge on, out, and visible starting Monday, January 9^th.

If students can't find their ID and needs to request a new one, they will need to pay a $5 ID replacement fee on SchoolPay or see Ms. Littlejohn with cash and submit a request for a new ID online here.

Students who have recently enrolled should submit a request for a student ID here.

Canvas Parent Accounts

Observer roles are now available to parents in CANVAS our Learning Management System. With an observer account parents and guardians can monitor students’ Canvas courses, calendars, and announcements. Observers can view the course content but cannot participate in the course. Observers can access their account on a browser, or the Canvas Parent app using iOS or Android devices. More info here.

Club Meetings This Week - Get Involved

Check out the clubs that are meeting this week during Cardinal Hour. We strongly encourage all students to join a club. Joining a club can allow you to spend time learning about something that you are interested in, meet new friends, and give back to the community through participating in a service project. Check out the different clubs on campus here. This is a new page on our website, and it is being updated.

Prospective Students - Magnet Tours

Magnet information sessions and tours kickoff November. 17th. Prospective students and families can attend to learn more about the World Languages program at Bellaire HS. Visitors should park in the visitor's parking lot located at the corner of S. Rice and Maple Street. Magnet sessions will begin in the auditorium.

Prospective families should sign up for a day to tour here!

IB Information Session

Prospective families that are interested in learning more about Bellaire's IB program are invited to an informational meeting on December 14th or January 10th to learn more about the diploma program and the application process.

Fun Food Next Wednesday

Head down to Main Street for Fun Food on Wednesday, 12/14. Donuts before school, Chick-fil-A Sandwiches for lunch, and snacks after school. Cash is preferred.

Volunteers Needed

The Class of 2022 will be selling fun food for students all day on December 14th. Sign up here to help during one of the shifts!

Support the Class of 2023

The Class of 2023 has had very few opportunities to raise funds for their After Prom. Prom at Bellaire is held at the Museum of Natural Science and the Grand Hall is transformed into a fantastic party with games, prizes and foods. The After Prom is free for all seniors to attend. Please donate to help us fund this event for our seniors.

Library Update

The library opened this week and it was an amazing reception- with a Three Penny Press piece written about the opening, over 400+ student signs ins before the end of the day Thursday, and 179 books checked out in 3 days. We have had students start getting used to the space, study rooms have been booked, makerspace has been used, and students are starting to get used to the new sign-in system.

We look forward to welcoming more students, and more services for students and staff in the next semester. So far freshmen have been the most consistent users with 141 visits in 3 days, juniors in second place with 94 visits, sophomores narrowly behind with 91 visits, and seniors trailing behind with only 65 visits. It has been an amazing week thus far and we cannot wait to see how it goes next week!

Support Over the Holidays and Beyond

The Harris Centers’ Mobile Crisis Team (MCOT) is a resource to support any emotional needs that may occur during this holiday season and beyond. We know these can be difficult times for individuals and families, and we want to provide as many resources and tools as possible to assist our school community in their emotional well-being. MCOT will respond to crisis situations after school hours and on weekends to assist our students with staying safe and getting regulate. Click here to view the information above full screen. Click here to view the Harris Center website.

College Center Update

Upcoming Dates

Thursday, December 15^th- Texas State University Scholarship Deadline

Friday, December 9^th- Financial Aid Workshop (via English 4)

Sunday, January 1^st- Major College Deadline (Check your Application List)

Friday, January 6^th- Last day to register for the Feb. 11^th ACT

Reminders:

Just because you press submit does not mean you are done. Make sure you think FAST

F- Fee/Fee Waiver- Did you pay the application fee? Did you submit your college application fee waiver to the university? If you need a waiver, visit the College & Career Center
Application- Review that all information is correct and press submit.
S- Supplemental Items- Don’t forget to submit any essays, letters of recommendation, resumes, test scores, or any other items needed for you to apply. Do the research to make sure you don’t miss anything for your specific major/deadline/college. If you forget, the university will send automated emails until the deadline.
T- Transcripts- All official transcript request must go through Naviance 10 days before the deadline. Bellaire will send the transcripts to the university.

After you press submit: In 24-72 business hours after pressing submit, you should receive an email with your login credentials for your university portal. Please write store this information in a safe place, as you will get one for each university you apply to.

We are currently in a high intensity deadline period meaning colleges and universities are receiving partial documents from all across the US to make completed application files for each student. Please be patient and allow up to TWO WEEKS before you see updates in your portal.
As you start to receive your acceptance offers, please 1. Make the change your admission decision in Naviance and 2. Upload a pdf/screenshot/picture of the acceptance to tinyurl.com/accept23. We need to be able to see the student’s name, the universities name, and the fact that you’ve been accepted.
Apply for Admissions BEFORE Financial Aid, the deadline to submit the FAFSA is January 15^th.
Free Application Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)- This is the FREE federal application open to US citizens, permanent residents, refugee, and asylum seekers to apply for federal grants, federal work study, and federal loans. Click HERE for the FAFSA Checklist
Texas Application for Student Financial Aid (TASFA)- This is the FREE state application open to students who are undocumented looking for state funding to attend a college in the state of Texas. Click HERE for the TASFA Checklist
CSS Profile- The CSS Profile is a very in-depth online application that collects financial information used by nearly 400 colleges and scholarship programs to award money directly from the institution. This application is $25 for the initial college. Additional reports are $16 per university. Fee waivers are provided in the CSS Profile, based on the information that you input. Click HERE for the CSS Profile Checklist
What Can I Do First? - Create your FSA ID. This is a username and password that, the student, will create. Additionally, at least one parent at home (with a social security number) will need to create an FSA ID too. If neither parent has a SS number, then that is okay, you the student will need to create yours.
Looking for scholarships? Visit Cash4Cards, this is a one-stop shop for all the scholarships that come through the College Center. This is a living document, so please ensure that you are checking it regularly. If you search through all the active scholarships and you don’t find anything for you, let me know and I can provide you search engines for independent research.

Freedom from Period Poverty Project

Once more the Italian National Honor Society has posted the Freedom From Period Poverty Project on Donors Choose for female students to be provided with free period hygiene products in the school's restrooms. We are very thankful for the previous donations, but we need to ask for your help again as our resources are once more running low.

If you can help, by donating or even just sharing the project. Email Ms. Borsa for the link to donate.

Support BHS When You Shop Minted and AmazonSmile

We are partnering with Minted this holiday season! Make your holiday card & gift purchases count this year by shopping at Minted using our unique code FUNDRAISEBELLAIRE at checkout. You’ll get a 20% discount and Minted will donate 15% of every purchase made using our code back to BHS PTO at the end of the year. Spread the word and happy shopping! https://www.minted.com/

Register with AmazonSmile and every time you make an eligible purchase, Amazon will donate 0.5% to BHS PTO. All donations generated through AmazonSmile support the programs at BHS directly. Choose "Bellaire High School Parent Teacher Organization" as your charity and bookmark the link. Email the link to family, friends and neighbors and have them register too! Please remember to use AmazonSmile every time you shop!

Join the Bellaire PTO

Everyone is welcome to join and participate in the Bellaire High School PTO. Joining is quick and easy online. A list of meeting dates and other information can be found on the PTO website. Click here to learn more.

It Takes A Village...

"Bellaire Share" is new this year. Please help us collect important information and get student and staff accomplishments out to our school community. Share with us Bellaire HS activities and student achievements. You can upload your pictures of any event easily. Together we can accomplish a lot. You can submit information anytime on the homepage on the right side of the page or bookmark this link.

Thank you to the Bellaire PTO Corporate Sponsors for 2022-2023

Remind Messaging App

All parents and students are encouraged to join their BHS Class Remind Group. Remind is a communication tool that will deliver important communications through text message or email. You can download Remind for IOS here and Android here. Once you download the app, simply text the class code you belong to above to the number 81010.

Remind can also be accessed by clicking on the links below to join a group.

In addition to the class codes above, students will have the opportunity to receive communication and correspond with their teachers through the Remind App.