Community Updates

Dear Herricks School District Community,

Happy Friday Eve! I hope this email finds everyone doing well and that the first week of December has been productive and joyful for everyone. Here in Herricks, our students, faculty and staff have been busy engaging in a plethora of learning experiences that I am happy to share with you in this update.  

Herricks’ Happenings ‘24 - ‘25: Update #5

I am excited to share our latest Herricks’ Happenings video update for the 2024 - 2025 school year. In this video, we spotlight some of the terrific things happening in our schools over the last several weeks! We encourage you to carve out 3 minutes with the family (I promise that it will be worth your time) and check out this video, so you can learn more about the various charitable drives and collections our students facilitated, our high school students’ visit with local Veterans, and some of the other special activities that have taken place.  Please click on the picture below to access the Herricks’ Happenings video update and if you have any feedback after watching it, please email me (tsinanis@herricks.org).

Health Update
As we head into the winter season, we will be dealing with various illnesses including the common cold, the flu (click here for more information), Covid, and pneumonia, which is also impacting young children at an increased rate this year. To that end, we want to share some important reminders to promote a healthy and safe environment in our schools:

• If your child is sick, please keep them home until they are fever free for at least 24 hours and their symptoms are improving.
• If your child exhibits flu, Covid, or pneumonia symptoms, you are encouraged to keep them home and have them tested as these viruses are highly contagious.  
• Wash hands frequently for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.
• Cough/sneeze into a tissue or upper shirt sleeve covering the mouth and nose.
• Avoid touching the eyes, nose and mouth.

Curriculum Update

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of spending significant time visiting classrooms throughout the district. During one of my recent visits, I had a chance to spend time with first graders who were working in a small group to explore words with the long and short “i” vowel sounds. As part of the experience, the students reviewed the learning target for the lesson and then worked with their reading teacher to co-construct success criteria for the experience. The success criteria helped the students understand how they would measure their growth against the learning target, which they successfully did at the end of the lesson. I also had a chance to spend time in a high school social studies class where the students were leading a socratic seminar discussion about the belief systems associated with various civilizations and cultures. It was powerful to watch the students lead the discussion as a result of the work their teacher did in creating a safe space and modeling the expectations of a shared discussion format. I was impressed by their conversations as they shared their developing knowledge of different civilizations and their belief systems, making connections to the present day.  Finally, I had the opportunity to spend time with a group of students at Shelter Rock Academy, where the students were giving each other feedback on short stories they had written and were then presenting to the group. The focus of the learning experience was about communication - both in the form of writing and speaking. It was powerful to listen to the students offer each other constructive feedback. Across all of these learning experiences, it was amazing to watch our students access several of the 6 C’s from our Portrait of a Graduate. Needless to say, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, I remain deeply inspired by and immensely proud of the incredible learning taking place in our schools.

Other Important Updates

• FLYERS: As you know, community information can be found under the FLYERS tab on the homepage of the district website. For example, you can learn more about the upcoming District Council PTA “CommUNITY Fest” and the Herricks Community Fund by clicking here where you can see the latest community updates!
• VIDEO UPDATES: If you missed any of our other Herricks’ Happenings Video Updates, click here to find those videos.
• HERRICKS HERALD: You can check out each edition of the Herricks Herald here.
• BOARD NOTES: Click here to view the Board Notes for all of our Board of Education Meetings.
• IMPORTANT DATES:
• Our next Board of Education Meeting will take place on Thursday, December 12, 2024 at the Community Center at 7:30pm.
• Please be aware that schools are closed for the December break from Saturday, December 21, 2024 through Sunday, January 5, 2025. Schools reopen on Monday, January 6, 2025. 

Thank you so much for reviewing this information and for your continued partnership!  

Have a wonderful rest of your week! 

Sincerely,

Dr. Tony Sinanis
Superintendent of Schools
Herricks School District 
#WeAreHerricks
#EducationTodayKnowledgeForever