Upcoming This Week
MONDAY, 1/23 BLUE
Track Practice Begins
TUESDAY, 1/24 GREEN
CLUBS
WEDNESDAY, 1/25 EARLY DISMISSAL - TESTING GROUPS
Students Report to Posted Testing Groups
Early Dismissal, 1:00 p.m.
Art Department Fieldtrip, 1:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Boy's Basketball @ Gregory Lincoln, 3:30 p.m.
Girls' Basketball vs Gregory Lincoln @POMS, 3:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, 1/26 GREEN
Literacy Leaders Series - Kylene Beers, 9:00-11:00 a.m., MPR
Softball vs Black MS @POMS, 4:30 p.m.
Swim Meet vs Tanglewood MS, Lamar HS, 5:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, 1/27 BLUE
Staff Appreciation Breakfast
All-City Middle School Band Concert and Clinic
Texas A&M College of Education Visits POMS
Express Soccer Tournament @POMS - No Fields Available
SATURDAY, 1/28
Company & Crew Dance Premier Showcase, Cy-Fair HS
All-City Middle School Band Concert and Clinic
Express Soccer Tournament @POMS - No Fields Available
Student Leadership Makes Change Proposals to SDMC
Last week the newly elected Student Body President, Tommy Lai, and Vice President, McHaley Ho, made two important change proposals to the campus Site-based Decision Making Committee, or SDMC. The SDMC is an advisory board, providing feedback to the principal on key school leadership issues such as budget, planning, curriculum and professional development.
President Lai and Vice President Ho presented the following proposals:
- The Chick-Fil-A and Other
Franchise Foods, Proposition 1 - Requesting outside food to be made available for purchase to students during the regular lunch period six times during the spring semester as a fundraiser.
- A Modernized Dress Code,
Proposition 2 - Requesting an expansion of colors to be available for sweatshirts and jackets, and allow logos smaller than the student ID.
The SDMC reviewed the proposals and made the following recommendations:
- Proposition 1 - The SDMC liked the proposal in spirit but immediately identified a number of logistical issues related to meal service and supervision related to the law on competitive food sales. The SDMC agreed to investigate the logistics of offering a single trial day this spring, in compliance with the law on competitive foods. This will require PTO support for selling wristbands, serving the meal on the ampitheater, and providing additional supervision during all three lunch periods.
- Proposition 2 - The SDMC felt strongly that royal blue was part of Pin Oak branding, just as other teams and even companies are branded by their color. They did feel however that variation in the shade of gray and the potential introduction of black into the dress code for sweaters and jackets needed further investigation. The SDMC asked that we gather the opinions of other constituents such as parents and teachers before making a recommendation. The same request was made for more input regarding the size of the logo on shirts and jackets.
Please provide your input on the dress code with our Proposition 2 Parent Survey.
Congratulations to President Lai and Vice President Ho for well thought out and presented propositions for change!
Boys' Lacrosse
The Pin Oak Boys Lacrosse team recently played in a
benefit tournament at The Woodlands, Texas.
The 7's for 7 Annual Tournament raises money for an important cause, the
research and treatment of Depression and Bipolar Disorder. Our team made it into the first round of
playoffs! Stay tuned for more lacrosse
news as the season kicks off in just two weeks!
Travel Opportunities
Each year teachers from Pin Oak offer travel experiences for students. I want to take a moment to help you better understand the types of opportunities they are offering.
Our choir, dance, band and orchestra programs, for example, offer trips during the school day while teachers are official "on duty" for Pin Oak and HISD. These trips include day trips, and extended overnight trips, such as Disney and New York. These are HISD approved trips and are chaperoned by VIPS approved adults and faculty members.
Our foreign language teachers have traditionally offered summer trips, while not on duty for HISD, to places such as Peru, Germany, and France. These trips are organized through a private travel company and the chaperones are chosen by the sponsor leading the group and may or may not be approved VIPS. I ask that teachers leading these trips provide an itinerary and contact information because these trips are being attended by our students, but please be advised, these are not HISD sanctioned and approved trips because they are outside of the official school calendar and are not part of the standard curriculum. When sending your child on one of these trips, you are contracting with a private company under the guidance of a POMS teacher acting as an independent trip sponsor.
So how do you know if a trip is approved by HISD? Anytime you sign an HISD permission slip you can be sure the school administration has reviewed the details of the trip and has gone through the proper channels to ensure volunteers and chaperones are approved.
Update on 8th Grade End of Year Activities
We expect to finalize the details for end of year activities for our 8th graders in the coming days. The planner indicates a meeting scheduled for Monday for our 8th graders. We are rescheduling that meeting to February 6th during TEAM Time. I can confirm that Schlitterbahn has been approved by the District and will take place again this May.
