I am excited to share with you our plan to raise the academic bar for all students at Holmes Middle School over the course of the next three years and beyond.  We believe that this plan will increase students’ access to rigorous instruction and open up future academic opportunities for all students.  While this will not impact any students currently enrolled at Holmes, I know that many of you have younger students who are future Holmes Hawks.  There is a lot of information here, so I appreciate you taking the time to read through it. 

What is the plan?

Over the next three school years, all students (with a few exceptions) will be enrolled in Honors classes for the four core academic areas: English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.  We will begin the process with 6th grade students only in the 2021-22 school year, and we will still provide 2 options for Math at 6th grade.  

In 2022-23, 6th and 7th graders will be enrolled in Honors for all four core academic areas (3 options will be provided for Math for 7th grade), and then by 2023-24, all 3 grade levels will be enrolled in Honors for all four core academic areas.  Each year, we will continue to provide at least 2 options for Math at each grade level.  Please see the image below (awaiting translation) for a sample schedule for each grade level and the course progression. 

Have questions or concerns?  Want to learn more?

• Take a look at this document (translations below) or the graphic below (awaiting translation) to learn more about why we are doing this and how we plan to implement this successfully. 
  • Amharic 
  • Arabic 
  • Chinese 
  • Farsi 
  • Korean 
  • Spanish 
  • Urdu 
  • Vietnamese 

Honors Info-Sessions with Principal Barnes with Q&A from parents

• Tues, 5/25 Honors Info-Session with Principal Barnes - ENG (video)
• Tues, 5/25 Honors Info-Session with Principal Barnes - SPANISH (video)

If you were unable to attend one of the sessions above, please feel free to reach out to me at @email, and we can set up a time to talk

Thank you, and I am looking forward to our partnership together!

Sincerely,

Margaret Barnes

Proud Principal, Holmes MS