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Horner Vision Statement
We at Horner Middle School, envision a future in which every student receives an effective, equitable, and engaging education that allows them to reach their full and unique potential.

Horner Mission Statement
At Horner Middle School our mission is to provide students with the Knowledge, Tools, and Skills they need to master content standards, make effective decisions, and collaborate with others, which will enable them to be successful lifelong learners.

Knowledge, Tools, Skills = Master, Make, Collaborate!

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Hello Horner Families!

Happy New Year! I hope you and your families had a restful holiday break!

It is almost Election Season (for next year’s leadership class). ASB is hosting an informational meeting on Wednesday 1/18 at lunch. Your students can run for class president, vice president and treasurer. This is only open for current 6th and 7th grade students. Please encourage your students to come and learn more about this process! Questions? Please email me mshaffer@fusdk12.net.

Our 3rd social is taking place on February 10th. Stay tuned for more info but tickets will be sold February 2nd-February 8th. They will cost 10 dollars. Hope to see you all there!

Last thing is have you noticed your students dressing up in crazy clothes or making you go to the store to buy more pajamas? Well ASB has spirit days throughout the year. When students dress up, they scan scanned for spirit points. (They also could have donated cans to our canned food drive). They can see how many points they have on our Instagram and website (linked at the bottom). It is time to cash those spirit points in. The week of January 23rd, students can come and cash those points in for prizes. We do our best but obviously some items sell out quickly. To see what items we have available please head to our website and Instagram for what items we will have. Your student can also save up those points when we host our second semester spirit point towards the end of the year. Totally up to them! See you all there!

Please head to hornerhornets.org or follow us on Instagram @hornermiddle.hornets for more updates on this incredible event to help families in need.

Mr. Shaffer

Activities Director

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The Horner HWSC has reopened on Thursday, Jan. 12th for stduents to attend after school.  Students who come to the HWSC should bring either their homework or something to study.

The purpose of the center is to provide support to students who need teacher assistance or who need a quiet place to do their homework or study for their classes.

Please remind your student that they MUST bring something to work on during this hour time.

The HWSC is open on Tuesday's and Thursday's from 245-345 pm.  Students are expected to stay the entire hour if they attend.

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Welcome to 2023!
Wow, one semester done and one to go until that infamous summer break.  It is unreal how quickly the school year is moving before us.

It is my hope that everyone had a wonderful winter break and that your child was "rip-roaring" ready to go back to Horner.  Our teachers were ready to hit the ground running on Monday and they are excited to start semester 2.  Many of our teachers have planned insightful lessons for students and eagerly getting them ready for even more content knowledge excellence.

With the new semester, many students have started a new elective course.  All schedules were provided in the IC parent/student portal for everyone's review prior to the winter break.

We have several fun-filled activities coming your way during the second semester.  Please see those upcoming activities under the tab titled "upcoming activities" in this newsletter padlet.

A note on the rainy weather we are having.  During rain or excessive heat,  we do provide shelter at lunch time for all students.  Students have the choice of going into the Big gym, the MPR, the breezeway or under the outdoor tents that keep students dry.  Many of our students opt to stay outdoors under the building shelter and as along as they remain dry, we do allow them to sit outdoors protected.

We do encourage students however to bring an umbrella so that they can stay dry traveling from class to class should they have to change buildings, as there is not a lot of overhand and covering when walking between buildings.

Students are also encouraged to wear appropriate shoes and jackets to keep them dry in the wet weather.
Please speak to your child about safety when walking from one class to the next.  We have had to make several announcements about not running outdoors on wet pavement as well as not running the hallways and on the stairs.  Your help with this is greatly appreciated.

The school schedule remains the same as it was at the beginning of the school year, which has an official start time of 8:15 AM.  The first bell to go to class rings at 8:10 AM.

Please plan accordingly when driving your student to school as the wet weather does cause a delay in arrival time and it is our hope that students, even in the wet weather, will arrive to school on time.

Also, please make sure that you are paying close attention to the traffic monitors in the parking lot.  We want to make sure that everyone is safe and that there are no accidents.
Please drive slowly and pay attention to pedestrians.

Should you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me via email (this is the quickest way to contact me as I am usually on the go around campus) and I will get back to quickly.  If you have a student related issue, please feel free to reach out to your child's Assistant Principal.

Have a wonderful January!
- Cindy Hicks-Rodriguez, Principal
chicks-rodriguez@fusdk12.net

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5 Ways for students to stay motivated

1. Try a new study method: Sometimes it can help to change things up and try new ways of studying.

2. Focus on the why:  It can be useful to try to think about the bigger picture or the big “why” to help you stay motivated

3. Participate in class:  Make an effort to join and participate in group discussions. Staying engaged in class will also help you stay focused on learning the material.

4. Ask for help: If you're stuck on a problem or a concept discussed in class, ask for help. Remember, we also have Homework Club on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:45-3:45 in the library.

5. Stay balanced:  Take care of yourself to stay balanced and keep your energy up. Aim to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, eat regular and balanced meals and make time for physical activity. Taking regular breaks when studying or working on projects is a great way to recharge and avoid burnout.

Remember - it’s normal to lose motivation at various points in the semester. Setting up routines, staying engaged and asking for help  can get you through when you aren’t feeling super motivated.

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In December, the Principal sent out to select parents, students who qualified to receive a chromebook from the school.

If you rec'd the email from Mrs. Hicks-Rodriguez, and have not picked up the computer that is assigned to your student, please email her to confirm when you are planning to pick it up.

This email was sent to specific parents.  If you did not receive such an email, you can disregard this announcement.

We would like to hear from those select parents no later than January 20th.

Thank you in advance.

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Independent studies:
If you should need to request an independent study contract for your child, please understand that the request for this contract should be no less than 2 weeks prior to your departure date.

Board policy allows teachers and the school 2 weeks prior notice to facilitate and approve the independent study contract.  Any requests that are submitted less than 2 weeks prior to the departure date will not be able to be approved.

IS contract requests will end the last 20 days of the school year.

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23-24 registration:
Registration for the upcoming year will begin in February.  Parents will be notified of the process for 23-24 registration very soon.

Please know that once you receive the necessary paperwork to register your child for school next year, there will be a deadline to submit that required paperwork.

AP's will begin providing information to students and parents in February so please keep your eyes out in the next newsletter for those important documents, timelines and requirements.

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Calling in absences:  Please make sure that if your child is absent from school that you call them in prior to the start of the day if possible.  You may leave a complete message with your child's name, date of absence and specific reason for the absence.  Please know that with COVID, RSV and the FLU, we will need to know specific symptoms so we can code the absence appropriately.  If we hear that they are "sick" that doesn't allow us to code the absence appropriately.  Thank you in advance.

Deliveries to classrooms:
We wanted to remind you that we do not deliver items to students classrooms once school has started.  We have an interruption free policy in which we limit the interruptions to classrooms once class has started.  Thank you for understanding that deliveries will not be made during the school day.  If your child forgets something, have them speak with their teacher and make an arrangement to bring it the next day.  Also, this would be a good reminder to speak with your student the night before to ensure they have everything they need for "work" the next day.  Thank you.

Student pick up during the day:
Often times parents have scheduled appointments for students during the day and they have a need to pick up their child during the day.  Please be advised that if you come to the school at lunch time or when your child has PE the pick up will be severely delayed as students have to be located in a sea of 1600 students and if they are in PE they have to go to the locker room, get dressed, grab their belongings etc.  Our recommendation is that if you are scheduling appointments in which you need to pick up your child, we suggest that you pick them up prior to lunch time, after lunch time and not when your child has PE.  Thank you for planning ahead of time and understanding this situation.

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Posting of grades for semester 1:
Please know that grades do not post in IC until January 23.  Thank you for your understanding with this.

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Happy New Year! My name is Avani Bhagat. I am the new librarian at Horner middle school.

I hope you are all safe and healthy. Students are allowed to check out 3 books at a time for 3 weeks. For renewals, please bring the books to the library.

Please feel free to reach me if you have any questions at abhagat@fusdk12.net or phone number 510-656-4000 ext. 48507.

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All schools complete their annual goals for the school plan.  Below are Horner's goals for this year.  We wanted to remind our parents about our 4 focus areas for this year:

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All schools complete their annual goals for the school plan.  Below are Horner's goals for this year.  We wanted to remind our parents about our 4 focus areas for this year:

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| Goal #1 Provide an educational environment that is conducive to learning. Goals: Horner will have a overall 1% increase in school-wide attendance as compared to the 21-22 school year; 100% of students will have participated in restorative practices activities within the classroom setting in order to address the underlying reasons for hurtful or inappropriate behavior as evidenced by an end of year survey completed by students; Horner will decrease the percentage of school-wide suspensions by 1% as compared to the 21-22 school year.

Goal #2: | Increase the academic achievement of all students through challenging and engaging instruction. Goal: There will be a 25% reduction in D and F grades during semester 1 and semester 2 as compared to D and F grades from the 2021-22 school year, as evidenced by the use of high leverage strategies in each subject area. Goal: 50% of English Language Learner students with levels of 1,2,3 will increase their ELPAC score by at least one level during the 2022-23 school year as compared to their ELPAC score from 2021-2022.

Goal #3:
| Implement strategies to involve students in their learning and interventions to eliminate barriers to success:  90% of our students will have actively participated in some type of self-reflective academic and/or social emotional activity in order to assess their own learning, as evidenced by student products, portfolios and student surveys. 100% of staff will participate in Social Emotional Learning activities throughout the 22-23 school year that will support students social and emotional learning as evidenced by sign in sheets, agendas, lesson activities and staff surveys.

Goal #4:
Increase the number of parents involved in school wide activities and events by 50% in the 22-23 school year compared to their percentage of involvement in the 21-22 school year as evidenced by sign in sheets and parent surveys at the end of the school year.

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Change of Residence/Falsification
It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to notify the school their student attends, within five
school days, when the student, parent/guardian move from the address provided at the time of
registration. It is considered falsification to move and fail to notify the District within five school days.

If a District employee reasonably believes that a parent/guardian provided false or unreliable evidence of
residency, the Superintendent or designee shall make reasonable efforts (document checks, phone calls,
home visits, etc.) to determine whether the student resides in the District. (BP/AR 5111.1, 5117)
Falsification of residency shall result in the student being dropped from enrollment.

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Visitors to School
To ensure the safety of students and staff and to avoid potential disruptions, all visitors shall check in or sign in at the office immediately upon entering the school building or grounds. All visitors must have pre-approval to be on campus by the site administrator.

A visitor’s badge shall be worn at all times while on campus. Horner has a digital sign in system to ensure campus safety.

Visits to the school and/or classroom at the request of the parent/guardian shall be arranged through the student’s teacher and/or principal. Classroom visits or conferences will be scheduled within a
reasonable time of the parent/guardian request. Except for law enforcement personnel, only the parent/guardian or those designated on the student’s emergency card are permitted to contact or take your student from school.
(BP/AR 1250)

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They come in different sizes and grade levels, but yearbooks always contain your student's memories of that school year: the people, the clothes, the events and more.

Now's your chance to purchase a yearbook they will cherish always! We can't guarantee that your student will get a book unless you order before 4/30/23.

Order yours at yearbookordercenter.com using school code 7874."

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Please review the TDAP and Varicela requirements for registering your child

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Please review the TDAP and Varicela requirements for registering your child

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2022.23 7th Grade Advancement Immunization Requirements.Eng_Sp_Ch_RVSD 1.26.22 (2)

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Counselor's Corner

In January,  Horner Counselors will present information on College and Career Readiness. 7th and 8th grade students will learn about high school requirements to graduate, as well as explore the different types of colleges including college Admission requirements for University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU) as well as private schools.

8th graders will be conducting college searches and a work importance profiler which highlights careers based on a students' values.  7th graders will complete a full interest profiler which helps students decide what kinds of occupations and jobs they might want to explore based on their interests. 6th graders will learn about multiple intelligences, discover their smart strengths and learning styles.  In addition, they will complete a mini version of the interest profiler.