Dear HSA McKinley Park Families,

What a great time of the year! It is exciting to see the joy on the faces of our students and staff during the holiday season. During this season of the year, we would like to say thanks to the following:  
  • Parents and guardians who diligently check their child’s homework, who are seated beside them as they complete their homework, and spend quality time with their child.  
  • All the volunteers who give countless hours to make HSA a better place for students and staff. For example, office workers, student ambassadors, student council members, activity night sponsors, PTO, etc.  
  • Community members and parents who organize fundraisers, make phone calls and bring food to classes and the staff lounge on special days.  
  • All the people in our school who are committed to giving their best to your children every day. For example, custodians, food service staff, bus drivers, school nurses, student aides, secretaries, teachers, and members of the school board.  
  • All of you who are doing your very best to send your child ready to learn every day

Winter Vacation begins Monday, December 26th. We return to school on Monday, January 9th. During the break, please have your child continue a routine of daily independent reading and other suggestions from your child’s teacher. 

Re-Enrollment:
Our re-enrollment campaign will begin very soon. You will receive information on how to re-enroll next week. This is an important step for all students staying at our school.  

End of Quarter 2:
Our second quarter ends on January 13th. Please make sure your child has all their assignments completed and submitted before this date in order to improve their grade. 


Sincerely, 

Mr. Vedziovski
2245 W. Pershing Rd. Chicago, IL 60609
(O) 773.247.8400 | (F) 773.247.8401
Operated by Concept Schools
GREAT NEWS!!!
We are so proud to announce that we ranked the #1 Charter High School with the TOP SAT Average Math Score #2 Charter High School with the TOP ELA Score!!!!
INCS Outstanding Illinois Charter School
Senior Award
We are excited and happy that our senior, Natalie Lopez, will be honored at this year's INCS Excellence awards ceremony. JD Koziarski, our Athletic Director, nominated her for this honor. On November 16th, we surprised Natalie, her family, and her friends with the exciting news. Thanks to INCS, who helped us make this announcement special for Natalie by ordering her flowers and balloons. It is an exciting time for all of us here at HSA McKinley Park, and we love all the good news we can report on. We are thrilled Natalie is being honored this year because she truly deserves it!
Dia de los Muertos Celebrations
PTO hosted its annual Dia de los Muertos Door and Altar contest event. Our hallways were decorated in vibrant hues of orange and purple, and the altars were covered in ofrendas (offerings), such as candles and flowers. Ofrendas are often specific to the deceased's tastes and can vary from small toys to their favorite dish.

Winners from the contest were announced on November 2nd and were awarded a pizza party. We appreciate our student's efforts in celebrating their loved ones that have passed and keeping this annual tradition alive for our school community to enjoy!
Report Card Pick Up
We were happy to launch a new system for report card distribution with our first-ever Report Card Pick-up day, which took place on November 1st. Our Assistant Principals hosted the event for our families, and we are so glad it went very smoothly. This event also allowed our families to meet our awesome Admin team.

Be on the lookout for our next report card pick-up day after the 2nd quarter ends in January!
Concept School Visit
Thank you to our CEO Sedat Duman and Vice President Ali Uslu from our Corporate Office for spending the morning with us on November 9th. We were happy to host our Corporate Leadership team and show them all of the amazing achievements our school is up to this year.

Our Ambassadors gave an in-depth tour, including stopping by our band, robotics, and College and Career departments, as well as some of our classrooms with our students and teachers. We appreciate your visit and support! #WeAreConcept
Principal's List Pizza Party
Quarter 1 Principal List students were awarded a pizza party with our school principal, Mr. Vedziovski. We are so proud of our students who achieved the highest GPA score! Our students enjoyed the delicious deep-dish pizza from Giordanos and the time spent with our principal.

Way to go Hawks!
Shred-A-Thon Success!
HSA McKinley Park's Green Committee kicked off the school year by hosting our annual Shred-A-Thon on November 15th, open to ALL of the Community! Thank you to all that came out and took advantage of these amazing services. We will continue to provide more opportunities for our school community to reduce, reuse and recycle.

**Special Recognition to our Green Committee Chair, Maribel Saldana, who organizes this event for us every year!
Special Guest: John LaGilia
During this month we wanted to show our appreciation towards our Veterans, and we were proud to host John LaGiglia, Owner of Chicago Fire Protection, for our high school entrepreneurship classes. He served 2 tours overseas in the US Army, is a Chicago Fire Fighter, and is a proud Veteran Owned Business Owner. He was more than happy to spend the morning with our students since he was in the same unit as Mrs. Marisa Vega years ago, so the invitation was gladly accepted! We appreciate the visit and thank John for sharing your story and successes with our students!

Thank you for your service John LaGiglia! Army Strong!
CYSP THANKSGIVING DINNER
During this season of Thanks, we were proud to host CYSP Family Dinner Nights this month. Thank you to Ms. Martin & Ms. Maldonado, for organizing these special nights for our families.

We hosted a CYSP Middle and High School night that was both filled with great food and fun family games.

Pictured are some of our families enjoying the event. The dinner was hosted potluck style so our families all brought a dish to share. It was a great turn out, and we couldn't be more thankful for the amazing support we receive from our families!
Veteran's Day Breakfast
It is so important that we continue building up our community efforts and relationships; that is why we look forward to hosting our annual Veteran's Day Breakfast every year. We were happy to invite all of the Veterans of our community and continue strengthening our relationship with our American Legion William McKinley Veteran Post #231. Pictured above are all of the Veterans we honored from the Navy, Marines & Army. Our Veterans were honored with their families at this special breakfast we hosted on Saturday, November 12th.

Thank you to all that helped make our breakfast such a success, especially to Ms. Kovatch and the school band and our amazing CYSP groups.

Special recognition to our Amazing CYSP Groups:
  • Cassat's group, who helped with the amazing setup
  • Maldonado's group cooked and waitressed the whole event!
  • Kuran's group who also were awesome waiters and hosts/hostesses and helped with clean up
  • Langton's group for running  the photo booth and helping with the cleanup
  • Al-Kurdi's group who helped with hostessing, helped with the awards, washed dishes, and cleaned up
  • Imamovic's group who was the clean-up crew, especially Sebastian Arevalo, who threw out all of the garbage and was the last student to leave:)


It was a great morning, and all in attendance loved the celebration and honor.
Variety Show
Every year, HSA's elementary music teacher, Ms. Bearden, puts together our highly anticipated variety show featuring HSA student talent. This year our Variety Show had about 40 different performances! Highlights included students showcasing their vocals, dance skills, comedy, instrument-playing abilities, and shining charisma! Our shining stars worked so hard to prepare, and we couldn't be more proud! Pictured above are all of the student performers! We loved watching the amazing talent and can't wait for next year's show!
Open Mic Night
Our high school and middle school ELA departments hosted an Open Mic night for our students on November 14th & 15th. It was a great turn out and the students who performed knocked our socks off! A special appearance was made by Mr. Morris (playing guitar), and special thanks to Ms. Moss & Ms. McB for organizing this event for our students! Also, for hosting the delicious snacks:) We look forward to the next Open Mic night to see more of our amazing student talent!
Factoring Five
We proudly present "The Factoring Five" our team at Cafe Mathe. Cafe Mathe is open for business (our very own student-based tutoring service) on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3:15 PM to 4 PM, and it is FREE! They strongly encourage our students to join them for study sessions and peer tutoring with our excellent Math tutors. They go over all middle & high school math. Coffee and Snacks are always provided. They are open for all math classes, as well as IAR and SAT practice.

Thank you to Dr. Yilmaz and the Math Department for leading this special project and keeping Cafe Mathe as the force behind our students becoming successful in Math!

Pictured with Dr. Y are Seniors: Luis Abarca, Gilberto Ceja, William Zamudio and Nicolas Roacho.
International Math Competition
HSA McKinley Park Math Department is happy to announce that 13 of our students had the chance to experience a Math Challenge in the International arena where students competed from 6 continents around the globe. 

International Math Challenge (IMC) is one of the leading mathematics-based competitions for many different schools. This year, IMC saw the participation of 8170 participants from 123 countries.

We are proud to share our student's fabulous success in IMC 2022. Please join us in congratulating them on achieving such incredible success internationally.

  • Maximiliano Ceja -Silver
  • Arianna Allen - Bronze
  • Sami Kuran Honorable Mention
  • Yusuf Ozturk Honorable Mention
  • Javier Ortiz - Honorable Mention
  • Abraham Cloudio - Honorable Mention
  • Enes Said Osanc - Honorable Mention
  • Ricardo Zuno - Honorable Mention
  • Ciara Lewis Armstrong - Honorable Mention
  • William Zamudio - Honorable Mention
  • Gilberto Ceja - Honorable Mention
  • Nicolas Roacho - Honorable Mention

Note: Last year in IMC 21, we got two bronzes and six honorable mentions. This year our students won a silver, bronze, and 10 honorable mentions!!! What a major accomplishment! Way to go HAWKS!!!
HS College Fair
Thanks to Ms. Bivens and the College & Career Department for hosting our High School College Fair on November 16th. We had over 15 schools in attendance, and they were ready to give our students the information they needed for their future.

We are so happy to host these important events for our students. In conjunction with college fairs, our high school students have also visited different colleges and universities, including National Louis University, Loyola University, and Purdue University this month alone. Our College and Career Department is working very hard to expose our students to as many different opportunities. We are on a quest to be the BEST!
Parent Appreciation Breakfast
During this month of Thanksgiving, we hosted a Parent Appreciation Breakfast
on Thursday, November 18th. It was a great morning filled with great company. Teachers nominated parents to be honored for this celebratory breakfast. We also honored 10 Veteran parents with a crystal award who have shown their unconditional support throughout the years! It was an amazing morning, and we can not wait to honor more of our amazing parents soon! Pictured is our amazing parents with our school principal.
Click on the flyer below for a close-up
Save the Date
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
vega@hsamckinley.org