Hamilton Headlines
News and notes from Hamilton Middle
| | |
|
Next Week is Go Time!
While our entire Hamilton staff has been hard at work on our campus for some time now, our students don't return until next week. Sixth grade students join us on Thursday, September 1, while students in all grades, 6-7-8, will be on campus on Friday, September 2. As a reminder, school start and end times are:
Mondays: 9:15am-2:40pm
Tuesdays-Fridays: 9:15am-4:17pm
Our building opens to students and breakfast service beginning at 8:55am. Students must be in their first period class by 9:15am each school day to avoid being marked tardy/absent.
| |
|
Hamilton Phone and Personal Technology Policy
Across the first few days of school, students will be presented with many policies, protocols and procedures that are designed to ensure that our Hamilton Middle campus is a safe place to be, and is supportive of an environment that is conducive to learning. Many of these protocols will be shared with you through this newsletter and other mechanisms as we move through the next few weeks. One policy that I want to give you a heads up on is the one focused on phones and personal technology; technology that is not required in order to gain access to learning.
While there will be some times during the school day when students can check their phones and use personal technology such as earbuds, etc., this type of technology must be off and put away in classrooms. We will be educating our students about this policy and explaining the reasoning behind it. We will always begin with a reminder when a student enters a classroom while in obvious use of a phone and/or personal technology. A second violation of the policy in the same class will mean that the student needs to surrender the phone/tech to the teacher and pick up the item(s) after class. Moving forward, an additional violation of the policy will result in the phone/tech being sent to the office where the student can pick it up after school. A fourth violation in the same class will involve parent contact AND require the parent to pick up the phone/tech at school. Again, this policy does not apply to personal technology that is in place to provide access to the curriculum and/or to accommodate students with disabilities.
If you have a child who will be bringing a phone and/or personal technology to school with them when school begins, please talk with them about this policy. Thank you for supporting this policy and protecting learning environments!
| |
|
Vehicle Traffic On and Around Our Hamilton Campus
Do you know that well over 1,000 people arrive to our combined Hamilton/Van Hise campus each and every school day? In the morning, the arrival works pretty well as there is a large window of time across which students arrive to campus. The afternoon can be a different story at Hamilton when 740+ students all depart our campus at the same moment. The photo accompanying this news item is from a rainy/snowy day end of day pick up this past spring. These inclement weather days are particularly problematic in that the vehicle traffic is much, much higher, often creating grid-lock on Waukesha Street, which in turn prevents our buses from reaching the pick up area--with the result being lots and lots of students standing in the rain waiting.
This is the first of what will be many reminders across the year to help make the start and end of day routines as safe and efficient as possible, which of course requires your cooperation. I hate to write newsletter items with a bunch of "don'ts", but there is really no way around it. So as we head toward the start of school on September 1, please keep the following traffic related items in mind:
Don't:
- Don't park or wait for your child on the school side of Waukesha Street where our six buses off-load and load each day.
- Please be respectful of our neighbors. Don't park in their driveways or block their driveways while dropping off or picking up your child.
- Do not drive into our upper parking lot off Waukesha prior to 9:11am each school day, or to pick up your child at the end of the school day. Just about all 740+ Hamilton students cross this parking lot to begin and end each school day and it is not safe to have vehicle traffic in the lot at these times--and yes, even when it's raining.
- Do not use our staff only parking lot in the back of the school (off Segoe) to drop off or pick up your child.
Do:
- Arrange to pick your child up in a location other than Waukesha Street. La Crosse, Segoe, and LaFayette are all streets with more space for picking up your child. Remember, your child is in middle school and can walk a block or two to your vehicle, even when it is raining.
- It is okay to pick up your child on the non-school side of Waukesha, but please, please encourage your child to cross Waukesha in a safe manner. (A student was hit by a vehicle and killed at Lincoln Elementary some years ago at the end of the school day when crossing the street from between two buses.)
- Be mindful of speed limits and crosswalks in the vicinity of our campus, especially on Segoe Road (speed limit is 25 mph, and police do ticket in this area).
- Dropping your child off late to school? As long as it is after 9:11am, it is okay to drive into our upper parking lot to drop your child at our main front door.
- You can also pick your child up at our main front door if leaving school early (prior to 4pm Tues-Fri, and before 2:15pm on Mondays), or if picking your child up from an after school program (after 4:30pm; 3pm on Mondays).
- Consider helping your child "plan ahead to get ahead" by having a plan for rainy days that does not require you to pick them up from school--okay, that's sort of a do and a don't!
| | |
|
School Food Services Updates
*The following item is from our MMSD Food Services Department.*
School meal waivers related to the pandemic expired June 30, 2022. This means families will again need to apply for free and reduced meal eligibility and/or return to paying for school meals, depending on that eligibility. This also means that the entire school will not qualify for free meals like in the past. As a school district, we have a new and much improved free and reduced application which allows for quick filing, and immediate and direct updates to parents on the outcome of their application through a vendor called 'School Cafe' (see below link). (If you are having technical issues with account creation, you can call the School Cafe tech support line at 855-PAY-2EAT / 855-729-2328, Monday - Friday, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. CST.)
Meal prices will remain at pre-pandemic levels.
2022-23 School Year Middle School Meal Prices
Breakfast: $1.70 | Lunch: $3.20
Reduced - Breakfast: District assumes cost | Lunch: $.40
Free - Free breakfast and lunch for eligible students
| |
|
Madison School & Community Recreation Information (MSCR)
To our new families and students: Welcome to Hamilton! And for all our returning families: Welcome back! At the middle school level almost all after school clubs are free of cost and held on a drop-in basis, which is a big shift from the elementary model.
MSCR will offer a variety of clubs at Hamilton this year, but that selection and schedule will not be set until teachers return and let me know what clubs they are interested in leading. Activities are heavily dependent on teacher and student input so we will evolve to follow interest as the year progresses.
Once the school year starts students will get an email with the MSCR Google Classroom code. Information will be posted in the Google Classroom as it becomes available, so this is the best way for your student to stay informed on what MSCR is offering at Hamilton as the year progresses.
I am excited to have students return and to start our after school programs this fall!
Kris Anderson
MSCR Lead, Hamilton Middle
| |
|
Reminder: Pandemic Protocols Update
There has been a fair amount of information coming to parents and in local media with regard to changes to pandemic mitigation protocols for MMSD schools. Below is a thumbnail of where we stand in MMSD on pandemic protocols, along with a link to the District's webpage with the full information:
Masks Indoors at School and on Buses: Highly recommended, but not required.
Physical Distancing: No longer required as per CDC guidelines.
Procedures When Feeling Ill: Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms will be asked to test. If the test is negative, and they don’t have fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, and they are able and willing to wear a mask, they may stay in school. If they decline testing, they will be asked to go home for a minimum of 24 hours, and symptoms must be resolving, or they receive an alternative diagnosis before they can return to school. In addition, students returning to school who have had covid-19, but who are now symptom-free and who have tested negative, are asked to continue to wear a mask across days 6-10 as measured from their first day of having covid.
| | |
|
Upcoming Dates of Interest | |
Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates:
September
-
1-First Day of School SIXTH Grade Only
-
2-First Day of School ALL Students
- 27-Picture Day
- 28-Open House (More information to follow)
Link to 22-23 MMSD Calendar
| | | | | | |
