Important dates
May 3 - Faculty Meeting
May 3 - 7 - Teacher Appreciation week
May 15 - teacher packing day, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
May 22 - teacher packing day, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
May 25 - Pops Concert, 6:00 pm
May 26 - Virtual 8th grade Promotion Ceremony
May 27 - 8th grade celebration activities. More details to come!
May 28 - Last day of school! (half day)
July 26 - 30 - Custodial crew waxing floors; no access to the building this week
August 10 - rising 7th grade orientation
August 11-13, 16-18: Back to school work days for teachers
August 23 - First day of school!
Well, this year is just full of surprises, isn't it? With everything that transpired today, I want to thank you for helping get our students and yourselves to safety in a quick and efficient manner. You continue to amaze me with your resilience and dedication to the Hixson community. Teacher appreciation week couldn't be more timely this year given all that you have endured, and we we are so excited to celebrate you next week! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for everything!
End of year celebration at Leslie Bennett's house!
Please view the invitation below for our end of year celebration. Leslie Bennett has graciously offered her beautiful back decks for our open house style celebration. Please use the Evite to RSVP. http://evite.me/ztuB3DCrFf
It will be Friday, May 14 after school until 7pm. Spouses welcome. We will use this as an opportunity to celebrate all things. BBQ, dessert, and drinks will be provided. We just ask that a donation of $5 be made via
· Cash/check in Gail’s mailbox
· Venmo @Hixson-Courtesy
· Paypal: paypal.me/HixsonSocialCourtesy
· Zelle: tumminello.gail@wgmail.org
Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 5 so we can provide accurate information when ordering the food.
Matt and Michelle are registered at Target and Amazon. If you’d like to donate to a group gift, you can drop your money off to Kendra in room 202 or Venmo her @Kendra-Day-2
DOMAIN 1: HIXSON & COVID
St. Louis County Department of Public Health released new quarantine guidelines for COVID-19 exposures that occur in the school setting. If all pre-conditions (listed below) are met, then close contacts of positive cases are able to remain in school during their quarantine, however, they must quarantine at home during non-school hours. The goal is to allow students to continue their classroom learning without disruption when it’s safe to do so. And studies have shown that, when proper mitigating practices are in place (mask mandate, physical distancing, hand hygiene), classroom settings have relatively low transmission rates compared with other settings.
Criteria for modified quarantine:
- The exposure happened at school (not at home or during sports or extracurricular activities).
- Close contacts are under 18 years old or current K-12 students who are over 18 years old.
- Symptoms of the positive case are NOT upper respiratory in nature while at school (no coughing or nasal congestion).
- Masks were worn properly by the positive case and close contacts at all times.
- Additional mitigating strategies (screening and isolation of anyone with possible COVID-19 symptoms, hand hygiene, etc.) were in place, including physical distancing of at least 3 feet.
- There is no suspicion of classroom transmission.
Click HERE to view our revised plan for supporting students who are quarantined. If you need to change your plan, please let me know as soon as possible so I can update the document. Be sure to let your students know about the change.
Protocol for teaching remotely
Click HERE to access the protocol for teaching remotely.
Protocol for substitute teachers who will cover virtual classes
Click HERE to access the protocol for substitute teachers who will cover virtual classes.
DOMAIN 4: HIXSON & CONSTRUCTION
The Big Move!
· What is the “Big Move”? The Big Move will take place on July 15, 2021. It is defined as the day that the district has hired a moving company to help teachers move into their new classrooms. Due to summer construction and cleaning, teachers cannot be in the building prior to this date. This is also the reason why we cannot hold summer school in our building.
· Moving company – The moving company will provide plastic bins for teachers who are moving from Steger to Hixson and current Hixson teachers who are moving to classrooms in the new areas to use for packing sometime during the week of May 1, 2021. You will pack your belongings inside of those crates/boxes and put them outside of your current classroom by the end of the day on May 28, 2021 for current Steger teachers and June 4, 2021 for current Hixson teachers. You will clearly label the crates/boxes with your name and new room number. On July 15, the movers will move those crates/boxes to your new classroom for you. The crates must be returned to the moving company sometime during the last week of August. Therefore, you will need to have the crates emptied and ready to return by August 27.
· Labeling your belongings – You will receive a set of labels from the main office so that all labels are clear and easy to read.
· Moving your own belongings – You are welcome to move your own belongings if you’d like. You will still need to abide by the aforementioned timeline and process.
Our furniture at the Service Center - Our furniture at the Service Center will remain there until we know more about social distancing for next year. If social distancing guidelines are relaxed, then we will bring our furniture back from the Service Center. If we can bring our furniture back from the Service Center, then that will add another layer onto our moving process.
No access to the building June 4 - July 14
The S. Elm parking lot is going to be completely demolished and redone this summer. If you are a current Hixson teacher and plan to do any packing between June 1 and June 4 (the building will be closed on May 31 due to Memorial Day), you will need to park on the Moss Field parking lot and enter the building through the Shop entrance. The construction workers will take up the majority if not all of the parking near and around the cafeteria entrance because the S. Elm lot will be gone.
No access to the building July 26 - 30
The custodians will be waxing the floors during this week. Staff cannot be in the building while this is happening.
Saturday hours
Mike, Aimee, and I will offer Saturday hours for teachers to pack on May 1, May 15, and May 22 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm for teachers who would like additional time to pack up their classrooms.
