Community Resource Fair
During Parent Teacher Conferences we hosted a Community Resource Fair for our families. Our families had the opportunity to stop by the cafeteria and check out all of the available resources we have in our community that include employment services, educational services, realty services, medical/health services, neighborhood resources, and legal services. We wanted to express our gratitude to our Community Partners for showing their support and joining us:

  • McKinley Park District
  • Illinois Department of Corrections
  • PTO
  • 9th District Chicago Police Department
  • Aviation Institute of Maintenance
  • Neighbors for Environmental Justice
  • ESporta Gym & Fitness
  • Acosta Law Offices
  • Chicago Scholars
  • Realty of Chicago
  • MidTown Educational Foundation
  • Resurrection Project
  • Chicago Rec Sports
  • Superior Ambulance
  • St. Anthony Hospital

If you would like more information regarding these Community Resources, please contact Mrs. Vega at: vega@hsamckinley.org

FLL Qualifier
HSA McKinley Park hosted the FIRST LEGO League Qualifier on Saturday, December 3rd. We opened the doors to over 15 different middle school robotics teams in the Chicagoland area.
Such a great opportunity for our school to continue to host this qualifier, and we have done so already for the 6 past years.
Thank you to all of our volunteers for helping make this event such a success. 

Especially our very own robotics students, who helped with the setup, breakdown, and planning of this whole event:
- Jaylin Chen
- Nicolas Roacho
- Victor Pastrana
- Misael Magana
- Marissa Estrada
- Josue Toledo
- Audrey Chen
- Uriel Sanchez
- Sydney Phung
- Aiden Tong
- Edgar Reyes
- Evan Martinez

We are so proud of all involved and can't wait to host this event again next year!
AfriCaribe Chicago
HSA McKinley Park was thrilled to host AfriCaribe Chicago for our students to enjoy! This performance was rescheduled from October to December 5th. We contacted AfriCaribe Chicago in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month but due to schedule conflicts, we were happy to see their amazing performance this month!

Thank you to Tito Rodriguez and his amazing group for showing us the beautiful cultural dances of Puerto Rico. For over 20 years, AfriCaribe has dedicated itself to the preservation and development of Puerto Rican and Caribbean cultures through music, dance, theater, and other artistic media. It was truly an honor hosting this amazing group for our students. We can not wait to invite them back to our school for more performances in the future!
INCS Awards Night
Our very own Natalie Lopez was awarded on December 5th at the INCS Charter School Excellence Awards Ceremony. A big crowd of supporters was in attendance for her that night, including her family and staff members. Especially JD Kozi, her softball coach, who nominated her for this award.

It was a great night, and we are all so proud of her. We wish Natalie the best of luck in all her future endeavors and we know this is not the last time the spotlight shines on her!
DECEMBER PTO MEETING
Thank you to all of the parents and staff that attended PTO's December Meeting. Our school principal, Mr. Vedziovski was in attendance to give everyone safety updates, as well as two special guests: Alfredo Romo from Neighbors for Environmental Justice and Miriam Virto from Cooking Matters. Alfredo and Miriam are our Community Partners, and we are excited for 2023, we have some great partnerships coming up, all benefitting our students and families. Stay tuned as more information will be rolled out as it all gets planned accordingly!

Please Save the Date for our Next PTO Meeting happening on February 14th, 2023
CYSP HOLIDAY FIELD TRIP
Our CYSP groups enjoyed a Holiday Field Trip to Lincoln park Zoo to check out the Zoo Lights this month! Thanks to Ms. Martin for scheduling this fun field trip for our CYSP trips to enjoy, we hosted 3 school buses full of bundled-up students to have a night out in the zoo.

This year we are focusing on making more trips available for all of our CYSP groups to enjoy together. This collaboration brings our groups closer together and we are excited to see what trip is planned next!
National Honor Society
Induction Ceremony
We wanted to congratulate the newest members of the National Honor Society HSA McKinley Park Chapter. It was a nice evening to acknowledge our inductees and their families. The celebratory induction ceremony was hosted by Mr. McCully and the NHS Student Board on Thursday, December 15th. It was a great night to honor this elite group of students.

Pictured above are our newest members:
  • Havilyn Aitken
  • Maria Barrios
  • Jaqueline Cardona
  • Erika Escudero
  • Daniel Martinez
  • Leslie Rivera
  • Angelique Roldan
  • Martha Romero
  • Adela Velazquez


Congratulations!

Guest Speakers for our Seniors
During the past two months, the College and Career Readiness Class has hosted various guest speakers in person and via zoom to familiarize our seniors with many career options for their futures.

Thank you to our guest speakers:

  • Kerry Nasserbaukt, a shoe designer for Steve Madden. Kerry graduated from the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York with a specialization in shoes and accessories.
  • Jonathan Fuentes, a lab technician for Northwestern University Medicine. Mr. Fuentes works in cancer research and spoke to the students about majoring in Biochemical engineering while running track as a student-athlete. 
  • Allison Zelikoff, Registered Nurse and MSN, is a nurse manager for Harborview Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals on the west coast, and is teaching part-time at The University of Missouri.
  • Carlos Perez and Mauricio Gonzalez, Class of 2019 alumni speakers, Carlos is majoring in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Mauricio is our first and only student to attend an Ivy League institution, Columbia University in New York, majoring in Computer Science. Both students answered questions and offered advice about college life, finances, and career choices. Carlos also provided information regarding his time working in an extremely competitive internship for Amazon in Silicon Valley over the past summer.

We appreciate our guests taking the time out of their schedule to speak to our Seniors! Thank you to Ms. Cotto for organizing these guest speakers, and we look forward to seeing more guests come through to share their experiences and knowledge.
Breakfast with Santa
Thank you to all families who joined us for our Breakfast with Santa Event! Tickets sold out fast; it was a packed house on Saturday, December 10th.

Special Thanks to our amazing PTO for hosting this great event, to our parent volunteers, and last but not least, to our outstanding STUDENTS & CYSP GROUPS. Thank you again to Maldonado’s, Alkurdi’s and Yazici’s groups for their fantastic help!

Also, to Mr. & Mrs. DeVries, Becky Martinez & Alia Anderson for helping surprise our students as Santa Claus & helping elves.
Middle School Spirit Week & Winter Formal
Thank you to Ms. Manzella & Ms. Bearden for spearheading the Middle School Holiday events to include a Spirit Week & Winter Formal Dance. Many of our middle schoolers had the opportunity to experience their first dance at this year's Winter Formal. It was a great week for our students and you can check out their smiley faces in this video below:
Mr. Johnson is on a Roll
Mr. Johnson, our high school Business Law, and History teacher is going above and beyond to ensure our students learn in a fun and interactive way.

For his Business Law classes, Lawyers from Llyod Law firm came by this month to check out their student lead mock trials. Students gave opening and closing statements and questioned witnesses, followed by feedback and Q&A sessions with the Attorneys.

Also, this month, for Mr. Johnson's History classes and in preparation for semester two covering the two world wars, students had the opportunity to learn in a virtual classroom. Students were given interactive glasses and were able to visit WW1 trenches, take a monument tour, and were able to have aerial views of the Auschwitz Concentration camp.

We appreciate our teachers' efforts in making the learning process fun and exciting, and we were happy to share what Mr. Johnson has been up to this month.
Santa's Gift Shop
Thank you to our amazing PTO for hosting their annual Santa's gift shop for our students. Our students had the opportunity to shop in school for their family and friends this Holiday Season. A special Thanks to our Volunteer Gift Wrappers, who all pitched in to help us get our students back to class on time after they shopped!

Winter Concert at
Aperion Care International
Special recognition to Ms. Kovatch and our school band for making their way to Aperion Care International to play their Holiday program for their residents. Ms. Kovatch has built up this Community partnership and has made this concert an annual event for our band students and residents. It is a great way to show our students the importance of giving back during the Holidays and we are so proud of our band students for playing again this year for them.
Who wants to be a MathONaire
Our traditional contest, "Who wants to be a Math-O-naire," was held on Thursday, December 8th, in the Cafe Mathe for our high school students. Our students will always have fun and amazing opportunities to learn at HSA and we commend our Math Department for doing so with this annual competition.

Pictured are Ms. Garimella & William Zamudicompetitiono during the competition.
December PTO Winners
Thank you to all of our parents who joined us for our December PTO meeting. This month we surprised our parents who attended with a Holiday Raffle! Our 3 Lucky winners won special gifts including a gift card and a special cooking gift! This awesome raffle came just in time for the Holidays!

Pictured on the right are 2 out of the 3 winners: Maria Castellanos and Tionn Parker. Not pictured is our 3rd winner Tenisha Jackson
Congratulations!
Holiday Book Giveaway
On December 22nd, (before the snow storm) Santa Claus and our school librarian, Ms. Manzella, passed out bags filled with books for our students in K-5th grade.

We wanted to express our esteemed appreciation to Bernie's Book Bank for contributing the books for our Holiday Book Giveaway! This book giveaway initiative is to continue to spread the love of Reading to our students, especially during this Winter break.

Happy Reading!
12 Days of Reading
We are excited to continue our Literacy Holiday Tradition with the 12 days of Reading for our k-5 students. Every day we had a different staff member read a Holiday book virtually to our students and assigned a different challenge to complete in connection to the book they were reading.

A special shout-out to our Holiday Readers:

  • Mr. Sullivan-Day 1
  • Ms. Wrobel-Day 2
  • Ms. Monti-Day 3
  • Ms. Manzella-Day 4
  • Mr. Tiwet-Day 5
  • Ms. Camacho-Day 6
  • Ms. Brewer-Day 7
  • Mr. Jasso-Day 8
  • Ms. Morgan-Day 9
  • Ms. Krippinger-Day 10
  • Ms. Esparza-Day 11
  • Mr. Imamovic-Day 12

Thank you again to our families that participated and watched each night!

Pictured above are our 3 Lucky Winners:
Mackenzie Knepp, Chloe Gonzalez, and Leo Morales.
Congratulations to our Raffle Winners!
Thank you to all of our students K-5 who participated in our daily challenges connected to our 12 days of Reading! This was a very exciting activity we launched to promote literacy and the spirit of the Holiday Season. Our daily challenges were connected to the books that were read daily and we were very happy to see our students participate and send us their photos. We offered 12 opportunities for our students to enter our raffle, and we were able to put together a great prize. Pictured above are our 3 lucky winners! Our baskets were filled with literacy board games, crafts, and all 12 books that were read!
Annual Winter Concert
Thanks to our elementary music teachers, Ms. Bearden, and Ms.Kolevska, for coordinating our K-5 Winter Concert! Our K-5th grade students sang their favorite Holiday songs on December 21st in front of their families and friends. We are so proud of all our students! Way to Go Hawks!
VISION BOARDS FOR 2023
Check out Ms. Bivens, Ms. Johnson, & Mrs. Vega's CYSP groups making their vision boards for 2023 before they take off for Winter Break! Setting goals and positive affirmations are what these groups are all about for the new year! This special project helped our young scholars set their sights on what they want to achieve in 2023. It was a fun day full of great company and teamwork. Their mentors are up for the challenge to help them achieve those goals! Let's Go CYSP!
Piñata Making with our Spanish Classes
During this Holiday season, we are happy to see our students doing great things!
Ms. Gonzalez and Ms. Diaz and their Spanish classes are covering fiestas decembrinas en Latino América y España this month. Their students had the opportunity to learn the building process of piñata making. Piñatas are a common element in parties around Christmas time, and we were excited to see our students learn how to make them. We will update in our next newsletter the updated and finished pictures of our fabulous piñatas.

Way to Close out the Season
Congratulations to our 7th/8th-grade Volleyball team for playing 2nd in the championship league this year. We are so proud of our girls and coaches for this great accomplishment!
College & Career Corner
***Click on the Document for a Close -Up***
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 contact:

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


Mrs. Marisa Vega, Outreach Coordinator: