Summer is a great opportunity for your student to continue reading and to catch up on the reading that he/she did not have time for during the school year. Research shows that students typically lose the equivalent of one month of knowledge over the summer. We do not want that to happen! Thus, we have created a Summer Reading Program to motivate every student enrolled at Hawthorn Middle Schools to read over the summer. The purpose of this year’s Summer Reading Program is to encourage our students to want to read. We feel that allowing students to choose what they read will increase their enjoyment and foster life-long readers. A reading log is attached along with more information about summer reading.

2014 Summer Reading Letter

2014 Summer Reading Log

Decisions by the board regarding direction to the Reorganization Committee after reflecting on the proposed strategic plan:

1. Full day kindergarten at all schools. The Board would like the Reorganization Committee to explore the opportunity to provide a full day kindergarten program for all students.
2. Grandfather clause. The community has provided consensus. They would like current students to be grandfathered into their current school. The Board of Education would like the Reorganization Committee to determine how to grandfather students into their current schools. If not possible, the Board wants a compelling rationale why it would not work.
3. Dual Language. The School of Dual Language is a curriculum program school as opposed to a choice. The board has affirmed that any reorganization recommendations include the School of Dual Language as it currently exists (K-5) and has asked for more information to be gathered from the DL community to determine whether there is community interest in expansion of the program to K-8.
4. School Choice. The Board of Education has agreed that the current state of school choice is not supported nor in alignment with the newly proposed strategic plan.  They are open to other choice possibilities in the future. The Board is directing the Reorganization Committee to not maintain the current choice model in the reorganization plan.