Hawkins Middle School

🍎 It's National Teacher Day today, which is the precursor to a big event at NMSD...Teacher Appreciation Week May 6-10th! Check back as we will be sharing your teacher appreciation comments from the recent POSSIP survey, along with pictures of all the fun events happening around the District to celebrate our SUPERSTARS! We L❤️VE our TEACHERS!

🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ HMS cross-country, heading out to a meet at Mountain View MS in Bremerton. Good luck, Huskies!

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ It was a perfect afternoon for NMSD to host the middle school cross-country meet yesterday. Beautiful sunshine highlighted the campus, where teams from Curtis Junior High, Ridgetop MS, and Poulsbo MS, faced off against the Hawkins MS boys and girls teams. Athletes raced on a mile-long course around the campus and through the forest, cheered on by family members (and pets!), friends and teachers who lined the course. Great job to all who competed, and a big thank you to all who came out to support our athletes.

Ready to Recruit! Principals, Chad Collins and Robert Kalahan, along with Amber Nygard, Director of Inclusive Education, are at the WA Educator Career Fair today in Tacoma representing North Mason. Visit https://www.northmasonschools.org/page/job-openings to see open positions.

🎶🎷🎵 School Board Meeting, The Musical 🎶🎷🎵 Board members, administration and a large audience were entertained at last night's board meeting by the Hawkins MS Jazz Band. Principal Kalahan proudly introduced the students, who he enjoys hearing practice three mornings a week before school starts. Band director, Matt Frost, also took a moment to speak about the commitment of the students in the jazz band, which includes 5th to 8th graders. A few students shared, very eloquently, their love of music and what they gain from being part of the program. To see the full performances and heartfelt statements from our student musicians, please visit https://youtu.be/6HPzf2S93ho?si=2yyw1-tQtQCqG9qo&t=840 🎵❤️ Definitely worth watching! 🎵❤️

📊 Numbers Don't Lie 📊 From August 2023 to February 2024, our students have eaten 26,594 more meals than in the same timespan last year. This 12% increase represents breakfast and lunch meals, with all students able to eat for free in the district. 🍕🌮 Though pizza and nachos still top the list as favorites, the monthly menus at each building offer students a variety of choices that exceed the state nutritional requirements, often including items made from scratch. Mackenna Long, Child Nutrition Director, is proud of this, adding, "It's easier to control sodium levels if you make things from scratch, is usually tastier, and can be significantly less expensive." On top of the main menu items provided to students, between $1,800-2,000 a week is spent on fresh produce that is thoughtfully selected to incorporate a variety of choices. 🥝🍇🍎🍊🍉 Over at Hawkins MS, students form a line, waiting to customize their nachos, or pick up their corndogs or salads. They are greeted with big smiles on the opposite side of the counter, which they return without hesitation, obviously happy to be seeing the person who feeds them breakfast and lunch, every day. It is a small glimpse into "food being the love language of lunch ladies" that Mackenna spoke about last week. Mentioning this observation to her, she adds, nodding," ..and our buckets are FULL!" ❤️ Thank you to Bobbie, Cindy, and Lawanna at Hawkins Middle School, for taking good care of the students and providing them with the nutrition they need to thrive! Next week we round out Food Nutrition Month with a visit to NMHS.

⭐ Evolution of Excellence ⭐ Students from Hawkins Middle School and NMHS represented North Mason at the Technology Student Association state competition this past weekend. The students have been hard at work preparing for this huge competition since last October! Hawkins students participated in the VEX IQ Robotics competition and NMHS students took part in the Fashion Design competition. Congratulations to: middle school students: Alan Strange, Trevor Strange, Esteban Ponce Rodirguez, Fred Gaither, Aurora Martinez, Blake McDevitt, Gideon Partyka, Henry Griffin and high school students: Yadira Solis, Elizabeth Ordway and Ariyah Kluski. The Technology Student Association (TSA) is the only student organization in Washington devoted exclusively to the needs of students interested in STEM and technology. Members learn through exciting competitive events, leadership opportunities and much more. ⭐ Thank you to Mrs. Landers and Principal Kalahan for sharing this information!⭐

☃️Snow Day Make Up March 15th / Recuperación por el día de nieve 15 de marzo See you at school! ¡Nos vemos en la escuela! ❄️since we had a snow day on February 15th, students must attend school on March 15th ❄️dado que tuvimos un día de nieve el 15 de febrero, necesitamos que los estudiantes asistan a la escuela el 15 de marzo.

📣SAVE THE DATE! Great opportunity to learn more about the North Mason Teen Center at their upcoming open house. Event is for North Mason families with students in 6th-12th grade. Happening Friday, December 8th from 5-7 pm. RSVP for this free event by emailing grayj@bgcsps.org or call (360) 362-1855.

🦃 Thanksgiving Funny 🦃 Students at Hawkins Middle School were doing their Turkey Trot today, each class running a mile around the campus. When students asked one of their PE teachers, Paula Grande, "What's a turkey trot?" she had fun concocting an extremely elaborate explanation convincing some students there were turkeys hidden out on the trails that they had to catch. Some students jogged by, reporting defeatedly, "We didn't see any out there." Without missing a beat, she asked, "Not even behind the ballfields?" The students' heads swiveled in that direction, obviously upset they hadn't thought to look there. 😄😄😄 Next up, the Elf Run in December!

Register by midnight! Need assistance during the holiday season? This amazing North Mason Lions Club initiative helps families by providing gifts for children/teens. To register, or to help fulfill donations, please visit https://northmasonlions.org/giving-tree.

Have you filled out your Impact Aid forms? Impact Aid is a federal grant program designed to assist school districts who have experienced increased expenditures due to the enrollment of federally connected children. The program supports districts with concentrations of children whose parents work on military bases and other federal properties, and Indian lands. Filling out this survey gives us the information we need to verify our qualifications to participate in this program. Even if you do not work on federal property, we still need you to fill out the form. The Impact Aid forms are now available online through Skyward Family Access and ParentSquare. If you have not signed up yet, please follow the link below. Once signed up you can complete the very short survey for each one of your children enrolled in North Mason. Links available here: https://www.nmsd.wednet.edu/article/1290685 Thank you for taking the time to complete this very short survey!

Celebrating the "seniors" yesterday at Hawkins MS last home fastpitch game. Players were given flowers and goodies to honor their contribution to the team through the years. Can't wait to see what these players do when they continue on as NMHS Bulldogs! Pictured, left to right, Addyson Roy, Sydnnie Imlay, Elizabeth Henningsen, Aubrey Dunham, Madeline Smith, Elyssia Copeland

This week's feature for National Principals Month is Robert Kalahan, answering the question, "What makes you proud to be a principal at NMSD?" "I am the proud principal of Hawkins Middle School in the North Mason School District. I have worked in middle schools my entire career and love the kids at this age. I know that every day will be an adventure as you can really never predict where the social and emotional rollercoaster that is middle school will take you. I am proud of my amazing staff that I get to work with every day. I have been a leader in four different districts over my 20 years as a principal and have never had a staff that is as much fun as my crew is at Hawkins. Our Hawkins teachers, counselors, paraeducators, custodians, lunch ladies, and secretaries love our students and are always willing to go the extra mile for them. Their dedication to the community is inspiring to me." #thankaprincipal

IMPORTANT RELEASE TIMES FOR CONFERENCE WEEK OCTOBER 23 - 27 Half days for Elementary all week release 12:50 PM Secondary is no early release on Wednesday-it's a full normal day Secondary has early release Thursday and Friday release time is 11:25 AM

Students at Hawkins Middle School got an inside look at the career of an underground miner, thanks to parent Jon Hobson who works at Hecla Green Creek in Juneau, Alaska. Ms. Kidd's 6th grade science class were super engaged, asking tons of questions about what the job entails. Students were able to inspect rock samples, 1 oz pure silver and gold coins and they also received a bunch of prizes from the Hecla Mining Company. Thank you so much to parents Jon and Rebecca Hobson for organizing this very interesting career presentation for our students!

National Principals Month is a tribute to the pivotal role principals play in leading our schools and shaping the future of our nation’s students. Join us this October as we extend our gratitude to these transformative figures. Visit principalsmonth.org to #ThankAPrincipal! Thank you to our amazing principals, pictured left to right: Robert Kalahan, Hawkins MS, Alexia Hadfield, James A. Taylor/Homelink, Chad Collins, NMHS, Jason Swaser, Sand Hill Elementary, Jessica Collins, Belfair Elementary

Orange Shirt Day is September 30th North Mason School District honors the experiences of the Native American children who were victims of residential schools. We join with the Indigenous Peoples to celebrate resilience and affirm the commitment that Every Child Matters.

Good luck in your season opener vs. Cedar Heights! Go Huskies!

North Mason School District is committed to offering a variety of opportunities to highly capable/gifted students. The referral window for the NMSD Highly Capable/Gifted program is now open. Referrals will be accepted until November 24th, 2023. Some characteristics of gifted students include: • Ability to comprehend material several grade levels above their age peers • Surprising emotional depth and sensitivity at a young age • Strong sense of curiosity • Enthusiastic about unique interests and topics • Quirky or mature sense of humor • Creative problem solving and imaginative expression • Absorbs information quickly with few repetitions needed • Self-aware, socially aware, and aware of global issues Have questions? Savannah Elliott, Coordinator of Highly Capable Programs, 360-277-2110, smelliott@northmasonschools.org