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👋🏻 Hello, Highlands Families!
September 1, 2025
Check out how our Hawks are working everyday to fulfill the SMSD Portrait of a Graduate competencies! 🤩
✅ I am an Innovative and Critical Thinker.
✅ I am an Effective Collaborator.
POG - Critical Thinker, Effective Collaborator.MP4
25-26 Theme: Better Together
Hawk Night Flight - Color Run: September 11th @ 5:00
Cultural Night: October 9th @ 5:30
✏️ Three full weeks of the 25-26 school year are complete! Hawks have made valuable connections with teachers and peers in their classrooms, settled into routines, and have completed all of the beginning of the year testing. We are excited to move towards a fun and learning-filled month of September! 🍂
🌎 Cultural Night (October 9th): We need more Global Tables! Last year's involvement was SUCH a success and both the Crestview and Highlands communities learned so much from all of the cultures represented. Scroll down to sign up!
🔵 Lancer Day (September 5th): Lancer Day is coming Friday, September 5, 2025. For those new to this annual Shawnee Mission East (SME) tradition, SME hosts an annual Lancer Day parade on or near the date of the first home football game of the year.
If you choose to have your student attend the parade and will be picking them up early from school, please email Sloane Junge (sloanejunge@smsd.org ) by the end of the school day Thursday, September 4. Please include the pick-up time and your student’s teacher. This will help to make for a safe and efficient pick up.
Go Hawks!
Laura LaHue, Principal
🗓️ Upcoming Dates:
September 1st: 🚫 No School: Labor Day
September 3rd: 📌 PTA General Meeting @ Highlands Library
Come learn about instructional priorities this year, as well as information about getting involved in the PTA!
September 11th: Hawk Night Flight - Color Run @ 5:00
September 12th: 🚫 No School: Teacher Professional Learning
October 9th: 🌏 Cultural Night @ Crestview Elementary
October 10th: 🚫 No School: End of 1st Quarter
October 16: 👥 Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-7:00
October 17th: 🚫 No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences
October 24th: 🎡 Carnival @ 5:00-7:00
October 31st: 🎃 Halloween Class Parties @ 2:30
November 3rd: 🚫 No School - Teacher Professional Learning
⏰ Daily Arrival & Dismissal:
Drop-off starts at 7:50 (stay on playground until 8:00 - inside MPR if inclement weather)
Enter classrooms at 8:00
Starting bell at 8:10
Breakfast starts at 7:50
Dismissal starts at 3:10
🤩 Our SOAR Store is Open!
Thank you to our incredible PTA for funding our SOAR store inventory each year! Our 6th grade StuCo members generated the inventory list - it is sure to be motivating for students to earn those SOAR tickets & tokens!
📌 Looking for: $5 gift card donations to add to this inventory. These would be the "big ticket" items for students to earn and save up for. You can drop off any gift card donation to Sloane or Monique in the front office - thank you on behalf of our 6th grade StuCo!
September is National School Attendance Awareness Month!
Highlands Attendance WIG: Maintain the percentage of students chronically absent below 5% (24-25 = 4.5%)
💡 Did You Know?
Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. Half the students who miss 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school.
Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back.
By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That’s just two days a month and that’s known as chronic absence.
🎙️ Shawnee Mission Mic'd Up Podcast
🎙️Season 3 Episode 2 “Welcome to the NEW Tomahawk Elementary”
“The Tigers are in the building! Tomahawk Elementary School is brand new but the traditions live on. We're exploring the history, legacy, and tradition that make the Tomahawk community so special while celebrating the new learning spaces.”
🌟 pTA News 🌟
🌟 pTA News 🌟
🗓️ PTA General Meeting on September 3rd @ 6:00 @ Highlands Library
Come learn about instructional priorities this year, as well as information about getting involved in the PTA!
🏆 Character Champs of the Week
Kindness: I can act with understanding, generosity and care.
Week #1
Week #2
🚗 👟 🚲 🛴
Arrival & Dismissal Procedure
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