FEBRUARY 2023 NEWSLETTER

Dear Amazing HSA McKinley Park Parent or Guardian,

As we enter the month of March and the middle of the 3rd quarter, I wanted to take a moment to update you on some of the exciting things happening at our school.

Academics:
Our students have been working hard and making great progress in their studies. Teachers have been focused on providing differentiated instruction and challenging our students to reach their full potential. We recently held parent-teacher conferences and it was wonderful to see so many parents engaged in their child's education. We encourage you to continue to communicate with your child's teacher and to support their learning at home. Our 3rd - 8th grade students are also getting ready to take the IAR state assessment that is happening very soon! More information about the IAR will be sent to you.  

School Events:
Our school community has been busy with a variety of events and activities. We recently held a successful science fair, where our students showcased their knowledge and creativity. Our Drama Club completed an amazing performance last week! We also celebrated Black History Month with special guest speakers, student and parent events!  

School Safety:
We take the safety of our students very seriously. We continue to review and update our safety protocols and procedures to ensure that our school is a safe environment for everyone. We appreciate your cooperation in following our protocols, such as checking in at the main office and wearing visitor badges when on campus.

Upcoming Events:
We have a lot of exciting events coming up in the next few months. Our school will be hosting a Literacy night in March, which will be a great opportunity for families to spend time together and have fun. 

School Enrollment Lottery:
Our school lottery is happening on March 3rd. Please make sure you have re-enrolled or make sure to let us know if your child will not attend HSA next year. This is important for us to know so we can make sure everything is in order for the 2023-2024 school year. 

Thank you for your continued support and partnership in your child's education. We are committed to providing a safe, nurturing, and challenging environment for our students to learn and grow.

Sincerely,

Mr. Vedziovski
2245 W. Pershing Rd. Chicago, IL 60609
(O) 773.247.8400 | (F) 773.247.8401
Operated by Concept Schools
Parent Teacher Conferences
Thank you to our families who attended our last Parent Teacher Conference of the school year. It was a great turnout, and we appreciate all the families who took our 5 Essential Survey on-site during conferences!

We are still promoting our survey throughout the month of March! If you still need to take the survey, please do so as soon as you can before March 31st.

Your feedback matters!
Click on the link below to access the survey:
High School Science Fair
We wanted to thank everyone who helped make our Science Fair a success! Thank you to our Science Department, especially Mr. Velez, and to our judges; we appreciate all of your time and effort to ensure the day went by without any glitches. Also, a special shout out to all our students who prepared awesome projects; we are proud to announce that 13 of our high school students will represent HSA McKinley park at the IJAS (Illinois Junior Academy of Science) competition being held later on in March. We wish our IJAS-selected students the best of luck!
K-4 Drama Show
On February 23rd, our K-4 Drama students performed their "It's a Hard Knock Life" Show for families and friends. Thank you to Ms. Bearden & Ms. Kolevka for putting together this amazing show. We have such large numbers in our Drama Club that the performances were separated this year. K-4 kicked off the performance this month, and we are looking forward to the older students and their show this coming May. If you did not get a chance to see the show, just click on the link below and enjoy:
Celebrating School Counselor Day
This month we are so happy to honor our School Counseling Team! National School Counselor week was celebrated this month, and we were happy to present a small gift of appreciation to all our school counselors.
This amazing group of people do so much for our students, and we were happy to celebrate them!

Thank you to Ms. Camacho, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Hall, Ms. Maldonado, and Ms. Kuran!
Model UN
We are proud to have started our first-ever Model UN HS Group this year. They participated in the Model UN Conference that was held on February 2nd-5th. Our Model UN Students represented The Gambia at this year's conference.

At the conference, they had the chance to meet with students worldwide, learn about international relations, and solve real-world problems. This conference was highly competitive, and our students did a fantastic job representing our school. We are proud of all of them for their hard work in preparation for the conference.

Info about the conference can be checked out here: https://munuc.org/ 
Robominds Season Success
Congratulations to RoboMinds FTC!
They competed this month at the Chicago League Championship. Robominds played so well that they ranked 4th place among the 20 teams and had a chance to play in the semi-finals!

Here are the awards they brought home:
-Connect Award 1st Place & Trophy
-Motivate Award 2nd Place
-Design Award 3rd Place

Also, FTC #7030 Robominds were the only middle school team who competed this past weekend against all high school teams. We are so proud of them!!!

GO Robominds!!
5th Graders
Ceramics Art Unit
The fifth-grade art elective class learned about the history of ugly face jugs. They discussed appropriation and how face jugs have changed throughout the years. They are making their jugs so they can retell the history of this popular pottery item. It has been a fun and interactive art lesson as they develop the skills to "throw" their clay to create this fun art project.
Fundraiser Success
We wanted to express our appreciation to all of the school community for their donations towards our school-wide dress-down fundraiser we hosted to help towards the relief fund for Turkey & Syria.

Thank you again to all that donated! We greatly appreciate your generosity!
Winter Sports Pep Rally & Dance
Our Junior Class Council team did great with our Winter Sports Pep Rally & Winter Dance this month. They honored our basketball teams as well as our Senior Athletes. The pep rally was an afternoon filled with a volleyball tournament and great music provided by Ms. Kovatch and our awesome school band! The winter dance came just in time for our students to celebrate Valentine's Day.


Thanks again to Ms.Portgual, Ms. Garmiella, and all the chaperones and staff who helped make this event happen for our high schoolers to enjoy!
Valentine's Day
We expressed our "affection" towards our staff members on Valentine's Day by giving each person a rose. This small gesture shows our appreciation to our amazing staff for all they do for our students and school community. We <3 our staff!
USHLI Conference
Our Seniors attended the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute National Conference on February 16th. This year's conference theme is 'Acelerando El Progreso Latino’. The conference program addressed many of the issues currently affecting the Latino community and had a great lineup of nationally prominent speakers and expert presenters. It was a great opportunity for our students and we can't wait to go back next year.
Alumni Dinner
HSA McKinley Park hosted a great night for our Alumni with a dinner on February 24th. Our Alumni Coordinator Mr. Jasso along with The Future Institute team planned a night designed to show our alumni that we are still in their corner with help and resources.

It was nice for our students to come back and catch up with each other. We are excited to continue making more events for our alumni students as we continue to grow as a school and community.
Girls Varsity Basketball
The Varsity Girls Basketball team finished the second half of their rebuilding season with three wins, including a 23-19 Lakeshore Athletic League win against Beacon Academy. Junior Zoey Roman led the team with 11.5 points per game during the 2022-23 season.
Boys Varsity Basketball
The Varsity Boys Basketball team finished their season with 13 wins in back-to-back years, marking their most successful stretch in school history. The season capped off with an exciting 51-43 victory against Goode STEM Academy on Senior Night. The team will say goodbye to team captains Christian Navarrete and Damien Orozco and Seniors Zyshawn Brown, Elijah Gutierrez, Josh Mack, Christian Navarrete, and Cristian Trujillo.
College & Career Corner
Save the Dates
Any questions? concerns?
At HSA McKinley Park, our top priority is the health and safety of students and staff. Should you have any questions or concerns, please email us at:

Mr. Seat Vedziovski, School Principal
vedziovski@hsamckinley.org

Mrs. Marisa Vega, Outreach Coordinator