HAMPTON PREPARATORY
Dear Hampton Parents & Students:
Welcome to another exciting year at Hampton Preparatory where our motto is: “One school, One vision: College Opportunity.” As we embark on a journey into a new future, we invite you to reflect with us in the positive and confident manner that has always characterized the mission of Hampton Preparatory. We look forward to the many exciting opportunities that lie ahead. These opportunities run the gamut from new instruction for the young people of our community, new training and support programs for our talented and dedicated staff, and additional involvement and support options for our parents and community members. We invite and encourage you to join our efforts as we continue to seek and determine long-range plans for the direction and future of our school.
Within the pages of this Handbook and Code of Conduct are the policies, rules, consequences, and procedures that are in place this year at Hampton Preparatory. Please read them carefully with your student(s) and refer to them throughout the year. By familiarizing yourself with this information, you can help support the school’s effort of establishing and maintaining an academic learning environment free of distractions. With your help, our students will be well informed and be able to avoid situations that result in an administrative consequence.
We would like to extend an invitation to each of you to become an active part of your student’s Hampton Preparatory experience. This year we will continue to seek ways to provide more avenues for parents to become informed about the resources at Hampton Prep. Our HIP (Hampton Involved Parents) and MoH (Men of Hampton) organizations and staff are always looking for ways to include our entire school community. We welcome feedback and questions. Please feel free to call or email us at any time. Our doors are always open.
Sincerely,
The Hampton Administrative Team
Administrative Team
Richard Harrison Roxanne Ashley Corey Harris
Managing Director K – 8th School Director High School Director
Larry Washington Vinson Smalls
Operations Director Dean of Students – 6th – 12th
section I. - Vision and Mission – Uplift Principles / page 4The international baccalaureate (IB) learner profile / page 5
commitment to excellence compacts / pages 6 – 8
admission to an uplift school / page 9
Section II. - school specific information / page 10
school schedule for students / page 10
attendance / page 12
Section III. - academic program / page 15
Uplift education – gpa / ranking / credit policy / page 17
promotion and retention / page 19
academic dishonesty / page 19
electronic devices / page 20
Section IV. - beyond the classroom / page 21
section v. – homework and test policy / page 21
section vi. – assessment / taks / academic support / page 22
Section Vii. - behavioral expecations on campus / page 23
Section viii. - Uplift student code of conduct / pAGE 24
SECTION IX. - school property / PAGE 31
SECTION X. – dress code / page 32
section xi. – district information / page 36
section xii. – Child Nutrition – meals / page 39
section xiii. – health information / page 40
section xiv. – parent involvement / page 42
Table of Contents
Section I. Uplift Education - Vision and Mission
The mission of Uplift Education is to create and sustain schools of excellence that empower students to reach their highest potential and inspire a lifelong love of learning, achievement, service, and responsible citizenship.
Uplift Principles
· Our students deserve the very best public education that we as an organization can provide. Our goal of rigorously preparing each student to enter and subsequently to succeed in college must be the overriding objective in every thing that we do.
· We select our teachers and staff one by one, recognizing that we cannot provide a great education for our students without seeking and retaining the best possible teachers and school leaders. The measure of our success as educators starts first and foremost with the quality of the teachers in our classrooms.
· Our schools are demanding and place high expectations on everyone involved…from our students, our teachers, our staff and our boards of directors. From great expectations come great results.
· The dedication of our people to closing the achievement gap, demonstrated through substantial amounts of real time in the classroom, is greater than that found in many other educational institutions. We think that our uncompromising dedication to making “every second counts” when impacting the life of a child is an important part of our success to date.
· We believe strongly in the power of student-faculty relationships and foster them through our small school sizes and reduced grade level teams. As a result, each teacher has the power to make a real difference in their students’ lives.
· Our curriculum must be relevant to the lives of our students, teaching them to be world citizens, tolerant and understanding of how we are all different yet also recognizing how our common values create a compelling need for us to work together for the greater good.
· We offer our professionals the opportunity to make a meaningful difference sooner than they might at other organizations. We sufficiently empower our school leaders with more control and input than that found at other schools in the belief that each leader, reporting to a dedicated local operating board, should have the ability to control their team and their environment.
· We are fully accountable to all of our stakeholders, especially the parents of our children and the taxpayers and philanthropic organizations who provide our funding. We will measure and report our results on an ongoing basis to each constituency who has given us their trust.
· We expect everyone within our community to maintain high ethical standards in everything that they do, both in their professional responsibilities and in their personal lives. Our integrity is not a grey area that can be negotiated or compromised.
· While we take great pride in the quality of the education that we provide, we also seek to continually reflect and improve upon it by sharing our most successful approaches across each of our schools while also seeking to learn best practices developed at other institutions. We must recognize that we can always be better.
THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB) LEARNER PROFILE
The aim of the IB Programme is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful work.
IB learners strive to be:
Inquirers: They develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives.
Knowledgeable: They explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, they acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.
Thinkers: They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems and make reasoned, ethical decisions.
Communicators: They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.
Principled: They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and consequences that accompany them.
Open-minded: They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience.
Caring: They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.
Risk-takers: They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.
Balanced: They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others.
Reflective: They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.
Commitment to Excellence Compacts
The Commitment to Excellence Compact is an accountability statement which puts into words those commitments which reflect our organizational symbol -- the triangle. These commitments are the underpinnings of the “whole village” concept – “it takes a village to raise a child.” Each triangular side depicts the one of the three areas of responsibility necessary to ensure each student’s academic success: School-professional community, Parent/Guardian-home, and Student-individual.
This Compact is made between Hampton Preparatory, a college preparatory public school organized and existing under the laws of the State of Texas, the student, and the parent/guardian in pursuit of a rigorous college preparatory education and leadership development for the academic year.
Student’s Commitment to Excellence
As a Hampton Preparatory student, I fully agree with and commit to the following:
· I will arrive at school every day fifteen (15) minutes prior to the beginning of the school day, in order to guarantee a full instructional day.
· I will strive to become a global citizen by acting as a thinker, risk-taker and balanced student.
· I will approach my learning with creativity, curiosity and enthusiasm.
· I will attend tutoring, detention or any other support services that are needed as required by school officials.
· I will work, communicate and behave in accordance with the school’s honor code.
· I will complete all my homework every night and attend each session of any required or assigned program.
· I will speak to my teachers if I have a question or problem.
· I will be respectful and cooperative toward my parents and teachers.
· I will be principled in all my actions and accept responsibility for them.
· I will be knowledgeable of and follow all school rules, codes, policies and procedures.
· I will always behave in a caring manner that protects the safety, interests and rights of all individuals in the classroom and the school community.
· I will conduct myself in an inquiring manner that is conducive for learning.
· I will be a reflective, open-minded member of my learning community who will show empathy, tolerance and respect.
· I will maintain academic integrity insuring my work is my own.
· Failure to adhere to these commitments can cause me to lose various Hampton Preparatory privileges and can lead to removal from Hampton Preparatory.
Parent’s Commitment to Excellence
As a Hampton Preparatory parent, I fully agree with and commit to the following:
· I will make sure our scholar is in class and seated every day by 8:00 am Monday through Friday. My scholar will be present in school for the entire school day every instructional day on the school calendar unless my scholar is sick or there is an emergency.
· I will make arrangements so our scholar can remain at school past the school day for tutoring, detention, or other after school support services.
· I will always help our scholar in the best way we know how. We will do whatever it takes for him/her to learn. This also means that we will check our child’s homework/Homework Planner every night and let him/her contact the teacher if there is a problem with homework. We will monitor our scholar’s progress via Power School.
· I will support all codes, policies, and Core Values of Hampton Preparatory.
· I will always make ourselves available to our child and the school regarding any concerns they might have.
· I will notify the school when our scholar is absent or call in advance when we know that he/she will be absent.
· I will thoroughly read all correspondence sent home from Hampton Preparatory Administration/ Staff/Teachers. We will sign and return (if necessary) within 2 school days.
· I will attend all parent meetings and conferences related to our scholar.
· I will allow our child to attend school field trips, including out-of-town field trips.
· I will support the school as it administers consequences in response to student behavior in accordance to the school policy.
· I will volunteer ten (10) hours each semester at Hampton Preparatory.
· I will pay our scholar’s Student Activity Fee in accordance with policy.
· Failure to adhere to these commitments can cause my scholar to lose various privileges, and can lead to my scholar’s removal from Hampton Preparatory.
Hampton Preparatory
Administration/Teacher/Staff
Commitment to Excellence
· We will be in place to serve students by 7:30 am.
· We will remain at school 30 minutes after student dismissal unless there are other assigned academic obligations.
· Teachers will always teach using educational best practices, and we will all do whatever it takes to meet individual student needs.
· We will attend and participate in all staff meetings and professional development activities so that there is continuous improvement.
· We will always make ourselves available to work with scholars and parents to address any concerns they might have, including off-hours communications.
· We will respond to communications from scholars, parents, colleagues, and administration within 48 hours.
· We will actively seek and utilize data on student achievement and school improvement.
· We will always protect the safety, interest, and rights of all individuals in the classroom.