Dear HSA McKinley Park Families,

It has certainly been an exciting and smooth start to what promises to be a fantastic school-year. No one can deny that COVID-19 poses challenges, but we feel our health and safety protocols are strong, consistent, and working well! Our covid task force team has improved communication with parents, students, and teachers. Please email us if you have any questions at [email protected]

I would like to make an important announcement for the following changes in our administration team. We have moved Ms. Bivens to be our new Assistant Principal of High School and Mr. Khan to be our new Assistant Principal of Upper Elementary. Both leaders will do amazing things for our school and I am confident they will guide our teachers and students into the right direction for learning and success.  

We also held our first parent teacher conferences virtually last week and had about 40% of parents participate. We may adjust to an in-person for future PT conferences if the amount of covid cases continues to drop. In addition, we also had all of our Kindergarten to 8th grade students complete the first round of Fall MAP testing at the beginning of September and now as we are moving into October our high school students will take the first round of PSAT assessments. This data is important for our teachers so they can understand and assess their students more effectively. As we have done in previous years we look forward to sharing the successes of our school and student improvement throughout the year. 

Parent support is vital to student achievement in school. To help support your child this year in school be sure to consistently monitor your child’s grades on our Concept’s SIS system. If you haven’t reviewed your child’s account or grades, I strongly encourage you to do so. This allows you to keep track of your child’s assignments and support. I have included the link below for your information. 



Sincerely, 

Mr. Vedziovski
2245 W. Pershing Rd. Chicago, IL 60609
(O) 773.247.8400 | (F) 773.247.8401
Operated by Concept Schools
Celebrating our Employees
We kicked off our Teacher Institute week by awarding our dedicated 5 year staff members with a token of our appreciation! Since we opened in 2013 we have never recognized our staff for their commitment to HSA McKinley Park. Not only did we honor our 5 year employees but we also recognized and honored our veteran staff members that have been here since the very beginning. It is an important time for us to show our appreciation to our teachers for all of their efforts and contributions to the success of our school.
Aerospace Engineering
Neighborhood Field Trip
HSA McKinley Park's Outreach Department set off early to build our community partnerships. They started off the school year by visiting the Aviation Institute of Maintenance. They extended the invitation to some of the Aerospace Engineering students to join the tour of the facility. This new facility is located in our very own neighborhood and will launch its first class of students this fall. We were so excited to share this visit with our students and build our relationship with Mr. Lee Mueller and the Aviation Institute of Maintenance.
Community Meeting Host
The Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission received public testimony and completed a first rough draft map of Chicago's new ward boundaries during its hybrid in-person and online Ward Redistricting Hearing on Thursday, August 26, 2021.
The session included both discussion and active work divvying up the City of Chicago into 50 wards that meet population and legal requirements, including minimum amounts of representation by racial cadres.
HSA McKinley Park was happy to host such an important community meeting Thank you to Mr. Sravan for organizing this meeting and being involved with the community!
 
Banner Dedication
HSA McKinley Park celebrated their banner dedication on Wednesday, September 8th. In attendance were some community partners, neighbors, students and staff. It was an exciting moment for HSA McKinley Park to share their new street banners with the the community! We are so proud to serve the McKinley Park Community now for 9 years.

We are on a quest to be the best!
Family Movie Night
To kick off the school year we hosted a Family Movie night for our HSA School community. On Friday September 10th we hosted a drive- in style movie for our families, "Jungle Cruise" starring The Rock and Emily Blunt. It was a great turn out and our PTO hosted the concession stand and we were excited to introduce the FM radio transmitter for the audio of the movie. We made sure to really give our families a real drive in movie experience.
We hope to host more Drive in movies for our families to enjoy in the future.

Be on the look out for the next one!
Community Connections Podcast
College & Career Counseling Team
HSA McKinley Park's Outreach Department is proud to host their "Community Connections" Podcast again this year. Each month HSA will host a special guest from our school community to shine some light on all of the great work and programs they have in place for our students. This month the outreach staff was happy to host our College & Career Counseling Department. The Outreach department sat down with Mrs. Kuran and our new counselor, Ms. Maldonado. This was a great opportunity to promote their department and all of the exciting workshops they are planning to host this year for our parents and students. Please take a few minutes and watch our amazing podcast with our counselors, they are excited to serve our students this year and help them all reach great success!
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
HSA McKinley is excited to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with all of our students this year! After a year in quarantine we wanted to make sure we stuck with our traditions and kicked it off with our annual dress down day on Wednesday, September 15th. During Lunch we had a surprise Mariachi Serenata by Mariachi Perla de Mexico and we passed out delicious churros to all students. Also this month we are celebrating with a panel of guest speakers who are visiting our students in person or via zoom. We are hosting successful Latinos in our Community to motivate and inspire our students to achieve their goals as they have. A special thank you to all of our guest speakers we are honored and proud to host you all during this celebratory month:

  • Gilberto Villasenor II CEO of V & V Supremo
  • Natalie Martinez from NBC Chicago
  • Evelia Aguirre Torres Owner & Founder of De Mi Tierra
  • Tubs a Visual Artist from Chicago
  • Jose Longoria from the University of Houston, Mariachi Puma Program
  • Cecilio Garcia from Ballet Folklorico de Chicago
  • Dr. Lesly De Souza, Scientist from the Chicago Field Museum
  • Dee Paola Yoga in Vogue Studio Owner
Chapter Chat
HSA McKinley Park's parent book club, "Chapter Chat" is kicking off their reading list with, "I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER" by Erika L. Sanchez. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage month, our book club members wanted to support Hispanic writers and read more books about the Hispanic culture and identity. They chose this book because it is based in Chicago and because it very relatable to our school community. They are closing out this read and Hispanic Heritage month by hosting a Chapter Chat meeting at "Rabanitos", a well known Mexican restaurant in Pilsen. A great way to celebrate this great book and month!

If you are interested in joining our parent book club please email Ms. Armouti at:
Student Council Results
Congratulations to our newest
Senior & Junior Student Council Members

Junior Student Council: 
President - Leonel Alba 
Vice President - Angelique Roldan 
Secretary - Nicolas Roacho 
Treasurer - Natalie Lopez 

Senior Student Council: 
President - Nareen Aydogan 
Vice President - Antwon Cooper 
Secretary - Rachel Gonzalez 
Treasurer - Valeria Cruz
Middle School Super Stars
High School Fall Sports Teams
Cross Country is Taking Off!
Our Fall Sport teams are up and running and that means in full stride for our Cross Country runners. A special shout out to all of our runners for sticking with this rigorous sport and competing for our school.

"Only the Strong Survive" is this season's motto and our Hawks are surely proving that this season.
Boys Soccer Team
Congratulations to boys soccer team for having a great season so far. They have competed and have won many of their games. We are so excited for our hawks as they will be competing in the conference playoffs soon! Best of Luck to our Hawks! Let's bring home the Victory Trophy!
Girls Volleyball Team
Under the direction of the new coach Timlin, our girls volleyball team is doing great. It was a big turnout for tryouts and we are proud to have both a JV and Varsity team. On Tuesday, October 12th our volleyball team will host their annual Senior night where they will honor the Senior Athletes as they play their last season as a Lady Hawk. Good Luck to our girls as they finish off their season.
Staff Spotlight: Madeline Manzella
This month's staff spotlight shines on our school librarian:
Madeline Manzella

Ms. Manzella was born and raised in Glenview, Il and just recently moved to Chicago. She attended DePaul University for her undergrad and she is currently at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. She is expected to complete the program and be fully certified in the Spring of 2023. She has a BA in Secondary Education and a BA in Literature Studies. 

Ms. Manzella has been working at HSA since 2018 but completed her student teaching with HSA in the fall of 2017. 

She initially went to school to be a High School English teacher, growing up she always had a love of reading and she really hoped to share that with students. After her first year at HSA she saw how the library can help to support that same love of reading and literacy on a broader level than being in a classroom. From there she started looking into programs to become certified and really started working to increase the literacy programs to help support the library and what it can offer to the students and staff. 

Besides hosting book fairs and various literacy programs, she also helps to mentor the FRC robotics team with Mr. Sravan.

Outside of school you can catch Ms. Manzella at concerts, spending time with her mom and their 5 dogs, and baking.


Closing out with her favorite quote:
"A reader lives a thousand lives before they die." -George R.R. Martin
 
Save these Date
Any questions? concerns?
At HSA McKinley Park our top priority is the health and safety of students and staff, and we will continue to follow the guidance of local, state, and federal health officials in this evolving situation. Should you have any questions or concerns please email us at:

Mr. Seat Vedziovski, school principal
vedziovski@hsamckinley.org

Ms. Jena Armouti, Outreach Coordinator

Mrs. Marisa Vega, Outreach Coordinator