MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL: Believe it or not, the time is finally upon us. Another summer will shortly be in our rearview mirror, and all of our children will be returning to school in just a few short days. It is my hope that everyone has had the opportunity to have fun with family and friends this summer, and that everyone is re-energized and ready for a great school year!

We have been hard at work and very busy this summer getting the physical school building ready for our student’s return, and also making sure that our staff are ready to go. 

We will be starting the year with long term substitute teachers in one of our art classrooms and one of our music classrooms. Ms. Hinkle will be teaching art in one classroom, while our new art teacher, Ms. Langlais is out on maternity leave. 

Ms. Doty will be teaching one of our music classrooms while we work hard to hire a new music teacher. 

We also have a great deal of teacher and staff movement in and out of our building from across our district and elsewhere. We will have at least one new teacher in the following grades (first, fourth, fifth, sixth, specials, and special education). Many of these teachers are not new faces, but have moved to take on new challenges and opportunities. 

We are looking forward to an amazing year, and I want to reiterate that the safety and security of your children is our number one priority, and it is always a goal of ours to build, foster, and maintain positive relationships and partnerships with our families and community as a whole. 

I look forward to seeing many of you at our Open house on Monday! Please enjoy this last weekend!! 

Below you will find pertinent information to begin the school year:

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: Grades 1-8 begin school on Tuesday, August 29th. School hours are 8:30am-2:45pm. 

Kindergarten students begin school on Tuesday, September 5th. 

OPEN HOUSE: Our Open House will be held on the afternoon/evening of Monday, August 28th. Please pay attention to the times below: 

Grades 1-4: 4:00-5:00pm

Grade 5: 4:30-5:30pm

Grades 6-8: 5:00-6:00pm

Families will meet in the cafeteria on the night of the Open house for approximately 10 minutes and then will be escorted to their grade level areas. 

2ND ANNUAL HUNKING BLOCK PARTY: Please mark your calendars and save the date, as we plan to host our 2nd annual block party here at Hunking on Thursday, September 7th from 5:00-7:00pm. We will have more specific information forthcoming during our first week of school. 

CLASS ASSIGNMENTS: All students should have access to their class assignments (homeroom/classroom teacher) through the school brains portal. 

SUPPLY LIST: A supply list has been posted to the Hunking school website. 

KINDERGARTEN SCREENINGS: K screening info was sent to all families via email. If you have an incoming kindergarten student and have yet to sign up for a screening, Shelley Macrae, from the Hunking school will be calling you to schedule one. Screenings will take place August 29th-31st and we will have a “Meet the Teacher” on Friday, September 1st from 9:00-10:00am. 

BUS STUDENTS: Starting this school year, all bus students will be receiving RFID cards to scan upon getting on and off of their bus. This is being introduced as a safety procedure. This will be a slow roll out and not all students will be utilizing them beginning on the first day. Please have patience as the district refines and streamlines this process. No bus student will be restricted to board until all cards have been issued and the system is fully up and functional. We appreciate your support through this process. 

DEVICE INSURANCE: If you are interested in purchasing insurance for your student’s chromebook, please click here to sign up: https://www.haverhill-ps.org/technology/device-insurance/

SITE COUNCIL: We will be looking for parents and community members who would like to become members of our school’s site council. Our Site Council works together to improve the school experience for all of our students. This includes looking at our school improvement plan, and other policies and procedures. If you are interested in joining the site council this year, please be on the lookout for an email with additional information in the coming weeks. Site council meetings will be held monthly from 5:00-6:00pm at the school on Thursday nights (dates to be determined), and will be directly followed by the monthly PTO meeting. 

PTO NEWS: Mark your calendars…the first PTO meeting of the year will be on Thurs., September 21st at 6:30 p.m. in the Hunking Conference Room! We have a lot of great things planned this year…and we need your help! We’re looking for volunteers who will largely help with (1) fundraising; (2) event planning; and (3) community outreach/communications. Additionally, and separate from the PTO, there is already an 8th-grade-parent-group established that is looking for new members to help support this year’s 8th grade class. Please note that all school volunteers must have an up-to-date CORI Form on file! 

Your opinion matters! Please complete a brief survey to help us better serve Hunking in the upcoming school year.

Lastly, the PTO is comprised largely of working parents, but if you simply don’t have time to volunteer, please consider making a small donation to help us get our 2023-2024 fundraising efforts started. Hunking’s a big school and any amount is greatly appreciated!

If you have any questions, please email HunkingPTO28@gmail.com or join our Facebook group, C.D. Hunking School PTO!

SCHOOL POLICIES: 

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

• Staff will begin supervision at 8:00am. Students should NOT arrive before 8:00am. 
• School begins at 8:30. If students arrive after 8:30am they must enter through the main entrance.
• Cars may enter the school using South Main Street (main entrance) or Revere Street. DO NOT enter via Winchester Street. This is for buses only.
• The speed limit is 10MPH. There are many students and families walking and driving on school grounds during drop off and pick up. Please drive with caution.
• Follow the traffic pattern and watch for staff directing traffic.
• DO NOT drop your child off anywhere other than the designated lower school or upper school drop off location. This is a huge safety concern.
• Please be aware that there should be NO DROP OFFS AT THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING BETWEEN 8:00AM-8:30AM. This is for safety reasons. We appreciate everyone’s support and cooperation with this procedure. Thank you!
• Safety and Security of our students, staff, and families is our number one priority, so we would like to ask that those families who utilize car pick up and drop off be cognizant of our security guards directing traffic. Security would like to emphasize the use of turn signals when picking-up or dropping-off your student. If you are not turning, please flash your headlights so that they are aware that you are continuing straight. We want to make sure everyone remains safe. We greatly appreciate your attention and support with this matter. 

WALKING

Morning Drop Off 

K-4 students enter through the set of doors in the lower school at the front of the school. At 8:00am a staff member will open the door to greet students.

5-8 students enter through the set of doors in the upper school at the front of the school. At 8:00am a staff member will open the door to greet students.

Afternoon Dismissal

If you are walking to pick up your K student please wait near the kindergarten doors and if you are walking to pick up your grade 1-4 student please wait at the lower school walker pick up door. DO NOT come to the lower school playground to pick up your child. The students in the playground area are waiting for car pick up only. 

K students will exit through the outside K classroom door (Door #20). 1-4 students will exit through the set of doors in the lower school at the front of the school. Staff members will dismiss students to the adult or sibling picking them. If a student is to walk home without an adult or sibling send the homeroom teacher a note indicating this.

5-8 students will exit through the set of doors in the upper school at the front of the school. If the student is walking home with a K-4 sibling they will meet the sibling at the set of doors in the lower school at the front of the school. 

CAR

No cell phone usage during drop off and pick up.

Morning Drop Off 

K-4 student cars will enter the lower school parking lot. Follow the traffic pattern and pull up along the sidewalk. Pull all the way up to the orange cone and stay in your car. There will be two staff members to assist with getting your child out of the car. If your child is able to exit the car on their own they may. They do not need to wait for a staff member to open the door. Students should be ready to exit the car – backpacks already packed and coats on.

5-8 student cars will enter the upper school parking lot. Follow the traffic pattern and pull up along the sidewalk. Stay in your car. Students should be ready to exit the car – backpacks already packed and coats on. If your child requires assistance a staff member will be there to assist. Parents and Guardians, please be aware that the safety and security of our students is the number one priority. We kindly ask that all parents/guardians who drop students off in the morning on the upper school side of the building, please follow the proper traffic pattern to ensure everyone’s safety. Please do not cut across the parking lot. We ask that you drive slow while on school grounds, and we appreciate your patience as we are aware that many people have places to be after dropping off. Again, we appreciate you prioritizing the safety of our students. Thank you!

Afternoon Pick Up

K-4 student cars will enter the lower school parking lot. Follow the traffic pattern. Staff will direct cars where to go. Once directed to, pull up to the sidewalk. Stay in your car and a staff member will assist your child in getting in the car. Please put a sign in the driver’s side dashboard with your child’s full name. 

5-8 student cars will enter the upper school parking lot. Follow the traffic pattern. Staff will direct cars where to go. Once directed to, pull up and stay in your car. Your child will get in the car once you are stopped. If your child requires assistance a staff member will walk your child to their car. 

CELL PHONE POLICY: 

-Cell phones are not allowed to be used throughout the school day. The expectation is that the phone is turned off and put away. 

-If students are found to be using their cell phone for any purpose the following policy will be followed:

-1st offense: Cell phone will be confiscated and submitted to the main office where the student can get the phone back at the end of the day with a warning. 

-2nd offense: Cell phones will be confiscated and submitted to the main office where a parent/guardian will need to pick up the phone.

-3rd offense: Cell phone will be confiscated and submitted to the main office where a parent/guardian will need to pick up the phone and the student will be issued an office detention. 

-4th offense: Cell phone will be confiscated and submitted to the main office where a parent/guardian will need to pick up the phone and a meeting will need to take place in order to establish a contract where phone can either be dropped off at arrival time and picked up at dismissal, or the phone is not allowed in school. 

-Students will not be allowed to have cell phones in the bathroom. Students will need to leave their phones face down on their desk when leaving for the bathroom. 

-We recognize the importance for students to have cell phones, but we respectfully ask for your support in reinforcing the cell phone rules. If there is ever a reason for a student to call home, I am happy to allow them to utilize my office phone. Also, if you have to get in touch with your student, we would ask that you please contact the main office during school hours. 

Specialist Grades: We would like to note that students in grades 5-8 will be given letter grades (A-F) on their report cards beginning this year. This is a new district wide policy. Specials classes for our middle school students include, Physical Education, Art, Music, Health, and Technology. Students will not be graded in or during their library class. 

Student Dress Code: The student dress code has always been a “hot button” topic We recognize that this is a sensitive topic and one that includes a lot of “gray area”, so I have attached the dress code policy that can be found on page 23 of the HPS student handbook for all families to review below, but a couple of specific notes about Hunking include that students are allowed to wear hats in common areas. It is at the discretion of individual teachers if they allow hats to be worn in their classroom, and we appreciate your support with this. At no time are hoods allowed to be worn inside of the building. We finally ask that parents help support students coming to school in proper attire that does not present a distraction…please see the handbook policy below:

“The responsibility for the dress and appearance of the students will rest with individual students and parents. 

They have the right to determine how the student will dress providing that attire is not destructive to school property, complies with requirements for health and safety, and does not cause disorder or disruption. The administration is authorized to take action in instances where individual dress does not meet the stated requirements. 

This does not mean that student, faculty, or parent groups may not recommend appropriate dress for school or special occasions. It means that students will not be prevented from attending school or a school function, or otherwise be discriminated against, so long as their dress and appearance meet the requirements set forth above. 

Students are not permitted to dress in any manner that is distracting to teaching or learning, to other students or disrupting the educational process or environment of the school. Clothing that is considered to be distracting includes but may not be limited to the following:

• Extremely short skirts or shorts rising more than 7″ above the knee.
• Shirts or blouses bearing midriffs. 
• See-through clothing.
• Halters or tank tops with less than 1″ straps, tube-tops, or blouses with excessively  low cut tops. 
• Low rider pants and pants that do not cover underwear. 
• Clothing or jewelry that advertises or promotes products or activities that are illegal. 
• Clothing containing inappropriate or suggestive language or pictures. 
• Clothing that identifies students as members of a gang or an imitation of gang paraphernalia will not be permitted. This includes but is not limited to bandanas, pins, insignias, colors, jewelry, emblems, wave caps, etc. 
• Studded accessories such as belt buckles, bracelets, chains, etc. are not permitted.
• Any other dress that distracts, disrupts, intimidates or provokes can be deemed inappropriate by the Principal or Assistant Principal. 

The Principal and Assistant Principal have the final decision in making the determination that there has been a violation of the dress code policy. In the event that the Principal is unavailable, the Assistant Principal has the full authority to make the final determination on whether a student’s clothing is in violation of the dress code policy.”