Wolves ready for new year
PEARCY — The Lake Hamilton School District looks forward to welcoming back students and staff for the 2017-18 school year.
The first day of school at Lake Hamilton is Aug. 14. Lake Hamilton is proud to be able to provide free school supplies to all K-12 students.
Open houses begin during the weeks leading up to the first day of school. For complete open house information, visit the school website at http://www.lhwolves.net/ or social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The big news at the primary school is the start of the Lake Hamilton Pre-K for the 2017-18 school year. In order to receive state funding through the Arkansas Better Chance program, the Lake Hamilton School District has partnered with the Dawson Educational Cooperative to administer the new program for 4-year-olds. The program will be housed on the Lake Hamilton Primary School campus.
Lake Hamilton Elementary School will implement the Orton-Gillingham Approach into the literacy curriculum this year. All second-grade teachers, paraprofessionals and resource teachers have been trained on the approach, which assists students in reading, spelling and writing.
For the middle school, a seventh-grade coding class and courses in computer science have been added as elective options for sixth- and seventh-grade students.
At the junior high, grades 8-9, the computer science classes continue to grow and will have expanded space and more class offerings for students. There will also be a four-week computer coding block taught to all eighthgrade students this year. A brand-new course, Pre-Advanced Placement 8th physical science, will now be offered to eighth-grade students for high school graduation credit.
Wolftime was started at the junior high last year to allow students built-in time during the school day for enrichment and remediation. To focus on the district Target 101 initiative to prepare all students for college or career after high school, the junior high Wolftime groups have been changed to focus on future careers and career exploration this school year, as well as giving time for student enrichment and remediation.
The high school will be full of new, completed construction, curriculum, technology, programs and classes. The brand-new cafeteria is expected to be completed by the start of the school year and includes a new kitchen, serving area, seating area and an outdoor courtyard for students to enjoy during lunch.
The new construction also includes a new family and consumer science wing complete with large commercial kitchen, six home version kitchen stations, a separate sewing and work lab with 15 workstations and storage, and a separate classroom. The old cafeteria at the high school has been renovated and will be used for a study hall, three classrooms, and a conference area. The old family and consumer science classrooms have been converted to house our sports medicine program that began last year. There has also been a new classroom renovated at the high school to house the online teaching environment.
The new construction has allowed two teachers to move out of portable buildings behind the high school into new classrooms inside the building. It is a very exciting time at Lake Hamilton since all classes will be housed in the main building for the first time in many years without having to use portable buildings.
New classes offered at the high school include graphics/ design, social media/communications, quantitative literacy, AP computer science, English Composition I and II for concurrent college credit, three more sections of family and consumer science due to student requests and a college and career readiness coach provided by Henderson State University, who will be on the high school campus two days a week. The high school will also add two Chromebook carts to the building to allow for even more technology access by students.
The athletic department has added a brand-new coed sport at Lake Hamilton this year: wrestling. The Wrestling Wolves will be using the renovated Lake Hamilton Middle School physical education gym, previously used as a storage facility, for after-school practices and matches.
In June, the Lake Hamilton School District Board of Directors approved a student policy revision that results in the elimination of the clear or mesh backpack requirement. As parents begin to prepare for the start of another school year, please note clear or mesh backpacks are no longer required by any school in the district.
The free Lake Hamilton School District mobile application can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play. The LHSD app is your “go to place” for all things Lake Hamilton, including lunch menus, calendar, announcements, grade access, cafeteria account balances, school directory, news and more.
Lake Hamilton has a large presence on the social media scene with the district Facebook page, @LakeHamilton-SchoolDistrict; Instagram, @lhsd_wolves; Twitter, @lhsd_wolves; and YouTube, lhsd_wolves.
The official hashtag of the Lake Hamilton School District is #LHWolfNation. All wolf fans are encouraged to use our hashtag when posting about the district.
The district website is loaded with lots of information for students, parents, and community members. Lake Hamilton continues with the goal of keeping everyone “informed and involved” with everything that’s going on in Wolf Territory.