Nakamura

LAHAINA – Aloha! As mentioned in last month’s message to you, for anyone who wants to nominate a student to be considered for the Honors Program at LIS, the nomination period is officially open.

It started on Monday, Jan. 30, and will close on Friday, Feb. 10. If you would like to nominate an incoming sixth-grader for the sixth grade Honors Math Program, please see your child’s fifth grade teacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary School or at Princess Nahi’ena’ena Elementary School.

At LIS, nomination forms may be picked up in the main office, or you may contact your child’s grade level school counselor to submit your nominations.

In grades seven and eight, all core content areas offer the Honors Program: English Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science.

Once the nomination period is closed, a matrix will be completed for each student. This matrix will include five areas in which the student will be rated. It consists of the student’s HSA-Reading or Math score, STAR-Reading or STAR-Math score, Renzulli rating, first semester report card grades, teacher recommendation, or a writing sample (ELA/Social Studies only).

A selection committee will tally the scores from the student matrices and create a descending list beginning with the top score. The cutoff guideline will be 25 students per honors class. All students are encouraged to participate in the nomination process.

“Opportunity Rocks” is here again! Our eighth-graders will be visiting West Side hotels that have volunteered to conduct tours through their departments to expose and educate our students about the job opportunities in our community. Thank you, hotels!

Students will be expected to write an essay to share their experiences, thoughts and career goals generated by the visit. Parents, if you haven’t already volunteered to be a chaperone, please call Lori Koyama at 662-3965, extension 231.

LIS has scored again! LIS placed third in the second annual Science Olympiad Competition at the district level on Jan. 21 at UHMC. Our students will now compete at the state level in Honolulu. Good luck, students! Thank you to science teacher Flaviana Ancheta and volunteer parents. Good job!

February is proving to be a heavy assessment month. Second-round HSA-Reading and first round HSA-Math are scheduled. English Language Learner (ELL) students began going through the WIDA annual assessment in January and continue to be tested in speaking and listening this month. Monthly benchmark assessments in reading and math are scheduled to take place during the first and second week of the month.

Parents, please be sure that your child is getting enough rest and is eating a healthy breakfast before coming to school. We need our students to be wide awake and alert for their assessments. Good luck, students!

Parents, please remember to check edline.net to get the “scoops” on your child’s progress… or lack of. We’re here for you and our students. Call us, write to us… let us know what you need at 662-3965. IMUA!