August 8th, 2024
Dear Indian Hills Middle School Community:
The 2024-25 school year is nearly upon us and we are excited to welcome our new and returning students back to school!
We realize that everyone approaches the start of school with a mix of emotions, including excitement, nervous energy, and even dread. We understand that our students bring a variety of perspectives, experiences, and feelings related to school. Our goal is to meet every student where they are and to work with them and their families to make school a positive experience for everyone.
As you plan for your student’s return to school, we wanted to provide some general information so that you and your student can be prepared for the first day of school on Monday, August 19th. This information is provided below.
Thank you and welcome back!
Shelly Karren, Principal
✔ Schedules: Students’ schedules for all middle schools will be released on Monday, August 12th. If your student has received elective classes in their top five choices, then no schedule changes will be made. Please reach out to your student’s counselor if any errors have been made in your student’s schedule. Changes may be made only during the first ten days of each new semester. Additional info can be found on our website: https://ihmsstudentcenter.wixsite.com/ihms/class-schedule
✔ Back to School Night is on Thursday, August 15th from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Join us for Back-to-School Night at 6:00 p.m. A general meeting will be held in the Kiva from 6:00-6:30, followed by an open house from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
✔ 6th Grade Orientation is on Friday, August 16th: This event will begin at 8:00 a.m. and will feature our WEB leaders (8th grade students) who will help our incoming 6th graders to get to know each other and our school. We are excited to welcome our 6th graders to this event! Orientation will end at approximately 12:00 p.m.
✔ PTSA: We invite you to support our PTSA by becoming a member at our school for the 2025 school year. Your membership fees support our students and teachers in a variety of ways, and we appreciate that support!
✔ Student Supplies: Every student will receive a supplies pouch including: two pencils, one pen, a glue stick, a small ruler, two highlighters, an Expo marker, and a pack of colored pencils. Students will also be given a composition notebook. These supplies will be distributed in class on the first day of school. 6th grade students will receive a student planner each quarter, a new tool that we are piloting this year to support students’ executive functioning skills.
✔ Chromebook Check-out: Students will receive Chromebook, charging cord, and other information during the first week of school. This process will be facilitated by our library media team. We appreciate their hard work in preparing for this task.
✔ School-wide Disclosure. Our new disclosure is included below. In order to help us to align our classroom policies and procedures, including late work polices and end-of-term due dates, our building leadership team (BLT) created a new disclosure that will go into effect this school year. We are hopeful that this new tool will help to simplify things for our students, teachers, and parents.
✔ Cell phone policy: This year, we will implement an updated cell phone policy that will allow students to bring personal technology to school but will ask them to keep it out of sight during the school day, including lunch and passing periods. We hope that this updated policy will help us to promote positive peer interactions, safety during the school day, and greater classroom engagement. Phones and other personal technology will not be needed for classroom activities. We plan to remind students of the new policy and procedures through the first two weeks of school as we transition to this new policy.
Procedures: Students will receive a warning to begin. The second time, the students’ phone will be taken to the office for safe keeping. The first time the phone is taken to the office, students may pick up the phone at the end of the school day; for a second offense, the student may pick up the phone after their parent is notified; for a third offense, a parent will need to pick up the phone from the office and visit with a school administrator to determine a plan of support.
We have seen other middle schools in our district implement a similar policy with much success. We have also received extensive input from our School Community Council, BLT, faculty and staff, and PTSA student club as we have revised this policy. Our goal is to implement this policy as positively as we can with a focus on the goals listed above. For students with health needs, we will work with parents to ensure that phones can be used to communicate and monitor these needs. Please contact your student’s school counselor, school nurse, or administrator for this support.
✔ Wellness Room: Our wellness team has worked diligently to set up our new wellness room, located in room 209, near our Main Office (see photo below.) This room is available for all students to use for calming, emotional regulation, and anxietyreducing purposes and will be supervised by school personnel during the school day. Many schools in our district already have built such rooms at their schools to support students’ emotional well-being. We look forward to this new room as a resource for all of our students. We invite you to do a walk-through of this room on Back-to-School Night next week!
We are better together at Indian Hills Middle School!
Indian Hills Middle School Administration
We ask students to enter through their grade level doorway, which is marked by a banner. 6th grade is in front of the school. 7th and 8th graders enter on the east side of the building. If students arrive after the bell has rung at 8:05 a.m., they should check in at the Main Office. Students should exit the building as soon as the bell rings at the end of the day.
