Parents

WELCOME TO  O. HENRY MIDDLE SCHOOL 
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The entire O. Henry Middle School staff is very excited to start the new school year and welcome students to the O. Henry Middle School Mustang Nation! We are looking forward to all of the academic and extracurricular opportunities and programs that the school year brings.
This document should provide most of the information a student will need prior to the first day of school, but please don’t hesitate to contact the O. Henry Middle School main office at 512-414-3229 if you have additional questions.
 

 
Student Arrival and Departure:

• Parent drop-off/pick-up - Traffic will be VERY heavy the first couple weeks of school. If possible in the first days, consider carpooling with a friend or neighbor. Drop off is on the 2-way street of West 10^th in front of the school.  Please do not park in the staff parking lot as this blocks our special needs buses from departing and is dangerous for our students exiting the building.
• Bus Transportation - Busses will drop off students in the morning at the back of the school on Wayside Drive. Students exiting the busses must walk on the sidewalk to the front of the school on West 10^th street and enter the campus through one of the two front entrance doors.  Buses will be staged around the perimeter at the back of the campus at the end of the day.

Use the link here to find your student’s bus stop.

Bell Schedule on the First Day of School: 
8:20-12:40   Students in their ACES classes
        6^th grade lunch:  10:55-11:25
        7^th grade lunch: 11:30-12:00
        8^th grade lunch: 12:05-12:40
12:45-3:20   Students will follow their periods 1-8 schedule
3:25-3:40      Return to ACES for dismissal
 
O. Henry Bell Schedule:
Bell Schedule can also be found on our web page
AISD School Calendar
 
Schedule Upon Arrival on the First Day of School:
· Navigating the campus - Staff members and signs will be directing students as they arrive on campus. Detailed campus maps will be posted and distributed to students as they arrive.

· Report to ACES Advisory - All students will report to their Advisory class by 8:20am. Students will find their ACES Advisory class by checking the rosters posted in the front of the school on the cafeteria windows. Students can also log in TEAMS through their AISD Student Cloud account at my.austinisd.org to find their Advisory teacher and classroom location (default username = Capital S + Student ID, default password = Capital of Last Name + 6 digit birthdate + lowercase “s”)

· Class Schedules - Students will pick-up their official schedule in their ACES Advisory class. Per AISD policy, students who do NOT attend ACES Advisory and pick up the official hard copy of their schedule will be considered “no shows” and subsequently withdrawn, requiring students to go to the office and “re-enroll” in order to attend classes. To be admitted to their class each period, students will be asked to show their official hard-copy schedule.

IMPORTANT NOTE - The schedule that appears in TEAMS prior to the first day of school is unofficial! The class periods, room numbers, and teachers may change multiple times and at the last minute due to the balancing of class sizes, new student registration, and for other reasons. Students will receive their official schedules in their ACES Advisory class. Students do NOT need to print and should NOT follow the unofficial schedule from TEAMS.

· What to wear and what to bring: Because the hallways at O. Henry Middle School are not climate-controlled and because HVAC repairs are currently being completed, students should be prepared for warm temperatures.
Know what to wear to school with the NEW AISD Dress Code Policy.  We will be reviewing this with our students on the first day of school.

School Supply List  Students do not need to bring school supplies until the second day of school. Notebook paper or a spiral and pen/pencil is adequate for the first few days of school. This list can also be found on our web page.

Lunch Information:
· The student body is divided into three lunches.  Lunch is determined by their 5^th period class on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday AND their 6^th period class on Thursday. In most cases 8^th graders have A lunch, 7^th graders have B lunch, and 6^th graders have C lunch. In some cases 8^th and 7^th graders may have a mixed lunch based on their unique elective.  

· Student lunch costs $2.85, and the lines may be longer the first few days of school.

· Students are invited to eat in the cafeteria.  On Friday’s, weather permitting and with adequate supervision, students are invited to eat on the front lawn and picnic tables.  After the first 15 minutes of lunch, students with a library pass are permitted to go to the library.  All students requesting lunch tutorials must have a pass from the requesting teacher in order to leave the cafeteria.

· Lunch accounts - Parents can create or manage their student’s lunch account through www.schoolcafe.com, or by downloading the SchoolCafé mobile application, available on Apple and Android devices. Through SchoolCafé, parents can make payments, view purchase history, receive low balance alerts, apply for free or reduced price meals and view school menus.
 
Parent To-Do Items:

• Read over the 2019-2020 Parent and Student Handbook with your child. Please read over the Cell Phone Use Contract and our section in the student handbook.
• Please consider completing the Free or Reduced-Priced Meals application (hard-copy available in the O. Henry Middle School main office). Return the forms to school with your student to turn-in to either the Advisory teacher or the main office. If you think there is a chance your family may qualify, please take a few minutes to complete the form.
• Set-up your own AISD Parent Cloud account (using your student’s cloud login information will prevent you from accessing important parent resources and information). The AISD Parent Cloud is used to check your student’s attendance and grades, set your contact preferences, access your child’s course information in BLEND, submit the Chromebook consent form (8^th grade), and more.

• Join our Amazing PTA. Visit OHENRYPTA.ORG to:Check out the PTA Calendar, Programs & Events, and Wish List Grants and Complete a Volunteer Interest Form.
• 7^th grade students: Turn in your child’s immunization records.  What do you need? Click here for the full list of requirements.  Please note that records need to be updated by Thursday, August 22^nd or your child will be withdrawn as per AISD guidelines and requirements.
• Find commonly asked questions and answers by reading our O. Henry Middle School Back to School Guide- If we did not answer your question, then please reach out to Principal Marlo Malott at marlo.malott@austinisd.org.  We will be sure to update as your questions come in.

Counselors will accept and consider requests during the week of August 26th through August 30th only. "Change of mind'' requests will not be considered. 

Changes to core course level (Academic to Pre-AP or vice versa) from teachers and students will be considered throughout the year. You might hear your child say that they did not sign up for a particular class. It's hard for our kiddos to remember what they signed up for last February.  

The Counseling Department works to try and give students their top choices but there are times when a student's top choices do not all fit in the master schedule. 

VISITOR CHECK-IN POLICIES
All visitors must check in with the office, no exceptions. Below are our policies and guidelines for visitors.

● During school hours, all visitors must buzz in through the front door. Should someone knock on a side door asking to be let in and does not have a badge or visitor sticker, do not let them in. Ask them to go to the front office to check in first. Report any suspicious behavior to the office immediately. If anyone gets upset with you, please remind them that it’s for the safety of the students and that they may talk with administration if they have concerns.

All visitors must sign in at the front office and obtain a visitor's sticker. Some volunteers may have an additional special badge that they wear while volunteering. District employees and subs don’t need to obtain a sticker, but they do need to have their badges displayed on their person. We have a new visitor check-in system this year so EVERY parent will need to have their ID rescanned the first time they visit the campus this year.

● Parents may visit classrooms during the day only if they are volunteering. Visitors should not be loitering in the classroom unless they are actively helping the teacher; if a parent wishes to observe a class, they need to obtain written permission from an administrator. If a visitor is being distracted to the learning environment, please notify the office so that we can help.

● Students and staff will report suspicious persons or activities to the office immediately.

● Students are not released to parents or other custodial adults from the classroom. Parents or custodial adults can only obtain a release of their students from the office and must complete the appropriate paperwork and confirmation of identification as required by the school.

● All visitors to the campus will be expected to follow all campus and district policies related to decorum and items that are not allowed on campus, including offensive clothing and behaviors.

● Faculty and staff must wear district identification when they are on campus or be performing functions directly related to their district responsibilities.
 
DRILLS
Austin ISD has adopted the Standard Response Protocol created by the I Love U Guys Foundation. The SRP provides clear language and concise instructions for teachers, students and school visitors in case of a critical incident on a campus.
The SRP uses five terms to address critical incidents:
• Lockdown: Locks, lights, out of sight.
• Lockout: Get inside. Lock outside doors.
• Hold: In your classroom. Clear the halls.
• Evacuate: to the designated location.
• Shelter: in the designated location.
Emergency drills are practiced according to the recommended schedule from the Austin ISD emergency management department. Evacuation drills are practiced monthly throughout the school year and all other drills are practiced once per semester.
 
I know this is a lot of information to process and some of these changes will take a while to get used to and run smoothly. We appreciate your patience and support as we work to provide the safest and best school environment possible for our students.