Home of the Hornets!
Hanover School District #28
Prairie Heights Elementary
Junior/Senior High School
17050 S. Peyton Hwy.
Colorado Springs, CO 80928
District Office
719-683-2247
Superintendent x402
Principal PHE x400
Principal JSHS x212
A.P./Dean JSHS x203
Admin Assist. JSHS x112
Counselor JSHS x114
Business/HR x412
District Website
click HERE
Hanover School District #28
The Buzz
Welcome to the Updated BUZZ Newsletter
Hanover School District is on a success run! Our school
ratings are on the rise, budget continues to add more
towards instruction, growing the fund balance to all time
highs, adding courses at the secondary level, and adding
more highly qualified employees. For this school year the
district is operating under two new grants totalling
$275,000.These two grants are providing for our staff to
update the written Reading-Writing curriculum across
preschool through twelfth grade. The other grant is allowing
us to hire a Student and Parent Advocate, serving our
students and families.
Hanover School District is in a continuous improvement mode. Despite our recent
successes we will never be satisfied. Our goal is to meet and exceed the action steps in
the strategic plan. Please go to the district website to read the strategic plan. We are
always seeking feedback from parents and community members. Regardless of where
you live within the school district, WE ARE ALL HANOVER! Let’s go Hornets
October 2019
Page 2 Page 2 October 2019 Hanover School District
Homecoming Parade
Elementary students playing on the playground at PHE.
Elementary students watching the Homecoming parade, waiting for candy.
Elementary students watching the Homecoming parade, waiting for candy.
Elementary students showing school spirit with Hat Day.
Elementary students enjoy using the picnic benches and digging a dirt hole on the playground.
The new playground set at PHE includes a poured rubber surface for cushion.
Page 3 Page 3 October 2019 Hanover School District
continued...
Spirit Week and Homecoming
The Hanover High School and Middle School students participated in designing and creating floats in support of our
Homecoming Volleyball and Football game on Friday before the game Saturday. The Spirit Week theme was
Thrownback. Each grade did a different decade. The 12th graders wanted to incorporate all generations so they did
The Magic School Bus, they were able to use one of the schools smaller buses as their float. The 11th graders theme
was the 1980’s with Nintendo, 10th grade was 1970’s with Disco, and 9th grade was 19Flappers and geometric
design.
The 8th graders in their Grease Lighting and 1950’s fashion.
Elementary students were lined up and ready to watch the parade and get candy from the Hanover Junior/Senior High School students in the parade.
Page 4 Page 4 October 2019 Hanover School District
continued...
Spirit Week and Homecoming, continued…
The 10th grade float with the 1970’s and Disco.
The 11th Grade float -1980’s with Nintendo.
Page 5 Page 5 October 2019 Hanover School District
continued...
Spirit Week and Homecoming,
continued...
During Spirit Week the high school girl students participated in Flag
football while the high school football players dressed
as cheerleaders to support them.
High school football players in a pyramid.
High school flag football team with coach Decker.
High school football team introducing themselves at the prep rally.
Page 6 Page 6 October 2019 Hanover School District
Spirit Week and Homecoming, continued...
Our Spirit days were hippie/ floral day, black and white day, Grease the Movie day, and over the top blue and gold day.
Here we have four of our 6th graders with Ms. McFarland dressed for Over-theTop-Blue-and-Gold day.
Dr. Jeri Brandom is dressed for hippie day. We had several students and staff dress up for hippie day.
We had several students and staff dress up for Grease the movie day.
Page 7 Page 7 October 2019 Hanover School District
PreSchool News
Preschool is off to a great start! During the month of September our
program focus was getting to know each other, learning our
classmates’ names, experience working as a large group, learning
our classroom rules and how to successfully separate from our
families during the preschool day. I think this was the first year that
we didn’t have any tears on the first day, at least from the children.
There may have been a few tears shed by mommies and daddies,
but we all made it just fine!
The children are loving our improved outdoor space. The new play
surface areas are eye appealing and create opportunities for
additional play, such as barefoot sand castle building (a favorite
shared by all children)
Please help me welcome a new preschool team member, Ms. Ashley! Ms. Ashley was a
student at the Hanover School District and we are lucky to have her return to us as a
paraprofessional. She brings knowledge in the special education field and is
proving to be quite an asset to our preschool community.
We look forward to meeting with our preschool families at conference time. This is our chance to brag on our
children and discuss their development and learning.
Ms. Jody, Ms. Pam and Ms. Ashley ~ Your Preschool Teaching Team
Page 8 Page 8 October 2019 Hanover School District
Math and Reading Growth
Students at Prairie Heights Elementary School are working on two online skills programs, each intended to
compliment the classroom with skills development. These two programs, Lexia CORE 5 for reading and MobyMax
for math, are delivered during specials time. As students progress through the skill development they receive
certificates. The certificates for the month are displayed in the cafeteria for all students to see, and celebrate. We
are proud of everyone’s continue efforts and growth!
Lexia Reading Recognition Certificates board in the elementary cafeteria.
MobyMax Math Recognition Certificates board in the elementary cafeteria.
SWARM
Safe. Wonderful. Accountable. Respectful. Motivated. These are the words that form the acronym, SWARM. Across
the school district staff work with students daily to display SWARMy behavior in and out of the school. Our positive
behavior intervention support system (PBIS) is where we positively recognize students for demonstrating SWARMy
behavior. Each month both schools recognize students. At Prairie Heights Elementary School we recognized the staff
members for their SWARMy behavior with the monthly Golden Apple.
Congratulations to Amber Ibarra!
Chico Basin Field Trip
Prairie Heights has reignited the annual tradition of
going to Chico Basin to learn, among other things,
about bird banding. Chico Basin is located just a few
miles south of Hanover Jr-Sr High School. What an
amazing location for our students to learn!
Chico Basin field trip
Page 9 Page 9 October 2019 Hanover School District
Message from the Principal
We finished the month of September with a Bang. Homecoming was a
tremendous success. Our class of 2019 invoked some changes to our
parade by including horses, a mule, and some moto-cross dirt bikes. Way
fun! We hope these new traditions live for a while. Nice job class of 2019!
October 4th is our second annual excursion to University of Colorado
Colorado Springs (UCCS) with this year's incoming class the 7th grade for
Problem-Based-Learning (PBL) development. Last years class now 8th
graders, will be venturing for their 2nd year to UCCS for similar work
January 10, 2020. This partnership will net potential Hanover graduates
by 2022 almost 25 graduate UCCS credits. We so appreciate UCCS’s
partnership with this help for our kiddos. Too, we have almost 30 high
school students that will be traveling to UCCS on October for a tour of the campus and lunch. Great exposure for
our high school students.
Our practice SAT/PSAT/CMAS day is coming October 16. We call this day “Future Day.” Reason being, as we
continue to develop assessment relevance for our students, is that we get immediate feedback/data from our
vendor (College Drive) that our students, teachers, and staff use from October to April (date of the state test) to
help them determine/guide their “Future.” This data is critical in helping our students determine their Grade Level
13 Readiness - be it College or Career.
Lastly, our PTA is looking for some help in a Halloween school project. Please contact our PTA organization if your
willing to help out. Our students would greatly appreciate any assistance.
Yours in Education
Tim McNerney
Page 10 Page 10 October 2019 Hanover School District
Counselor’s Corner
October has been a busy month for our students with all of our
future planning going on in college month. Aside from the many
events planned to help students truly understand the college
experience, students also learned about FAFSA and financial aid.
Many scholarships have deadlines in October and November, and
all students have the option to meet with me to work on them!
Social/emotional preparedness is a major part of being a
successful student and adult as well. This month, students are
learning about the limitations of labeling themselves and others
as well as how to live up to their full potential.
Middle School Skills Center
The Middle School Skilz Center is running at full speed! Every Tuesday and
Thursday from 4:00-6:15 all middle school students are welcome and encouraged
to attend after school tutoring. Students can receive help on homework and class
work for all subjects. Mrs. Moody and Mrs. Lynch give one on one and group help
to the students in order to help them stay caught up and get ahead in class. It is an option for all students but if a
teacher sees a student falling behind then the teacher will communicate with parents and ask that the student
attends after school tutoring so they can improve their knowledge and grades. Please encourage your students to
attend!
AP Language Arts
Students get excited for the challenges being
presented in the Advanced Placement Language Arts
class at Hanover High School. Dr. Sardi, the teacher,
constantly engages our students to push their
thinking outside the box, as it were.
Page 11 Page 11 October 2019 Hanover School District
8th Graders Participate in UCCS Pre-Collegiate Program
The Hanover Jr/Sr 8th Grade Class attended the first date of their UCCS Pre-Collegiate Program a few weeks ago.
They were very excited to experience the program from a different perspective. They started off the day with team
building activities that had them grouped with students from Fountain Middle School and Ellicott Middle School It
was exciting to see them interact and work with students from other schools, a few of our students even took the
lead role in many groups! This year will be focused on showing the students different career opportunities for when
they graduate high school. The focus on the 4th was on jobs in the science industry. They worked at several stations
to determine why chinchillas were dying. They mapped where the chinchillas went, used math skills to figure out
how much contaminated water a chinchilla needed to drink to die, tested chemicals to see what would kill a
chinchilla and finally tested water in different wells to determine which was contaminated. It was very cool to see
the kids using the skills they learned in their classes on a real life problem. It was even cooler to see them connect
what they are learning in school to the real world and jobs they may be interested in doing in the future.
Page 12 Page 12 October 2019 Hanover School District
College Month at Hanover High School
October is college month for our students, and we have had many amazing events set up. High school students went
to UCCS for a tour and admissions questions, and later in the month they will be going to Colorado College Fair at
Cheyenne Mountain High School. After all this exposure to the many colleges Colorado has to offer, the students will
have an opportunity to apply to all Colorado colleges for free on October 15th. The month will close out with a visit
from Adam’s State University and Pikes Peak Community College.
DAR Good Citizen Award
Daughters of the American Revolution has a competitive scholarship program
for good citizens starting with high school nominations.
Staff nominated Marcus Vigil and Melissa Bannister to apply to represent Hanover for the DAR. After a
rigorous application process, Melissa Bannister was chosen as the Hanover Jr/Sr High School Good
Citizen of 2019. She will now go on to compete for more scholarships through DAR.
Page 13 Page 13 October 2019 Hanover School District
Mr. Gilbreth’s World History Class Show and Tell With High School
Students and 6th Grade Students
Mr. Gilbreth has collected items to allow students to learn hands on about history throughout his time at Hanover. He says
former students have sent him items from all over the world to share with his classes. This week in World History, Students
were learning about Rome and the Roman government’s use of coins.
Bubba Widger using a wax seal to obtain goods during Roman times. The seal has an imprint of
Mr. Gilbreth’s ring.
Aiden Ford displaying a Roman coin
from 27 B.C.--14 A.D. with a profile of
the Roman Emperor Augustus.
Mr. Gilbreth invited the 6th graders to his World History class and 6 th grader Kennedy
Worrix is participating in the fun.
Wrapping up the lesson of bartering v. currency in Rome.
Mr. Gilbreth demonstrating bartering for goods with different types of “money” with
Kevin Venzor.
Page 14 Page 14 October 2019 Hanover School District
Fused Glass in STEAM
Students in the STEAM class have been working on creating art using glass fused in the kiln. Students have
completed their first fused-glass pieces and have participated in the first STEAM art critique.
Amanda Jordan with her tack-fired glass project.
Jeremiah Nickel cutting out original art in copper for firing between sheets of glass.
Peter Bannister displays his finished copper inclusion project.
Page 15 Page 15 October 2019 Hanover School District
Students Employing Spreadsheet Functions for Statistical Analyses
Using computers in the STEAM lab, Bryan Moreno shares how he solved a difficult statistics problem using the
Google Sheets spreadsheet program with fellow students. Students in the Hanover HS Statistics class are learning
how to use spreadsheet programs while they learn statistics. The expertise that they are learning in spreadsheet
operations allows them to go beyond statistical understanding and computation to build real-world skills for
complex data compilation, manipulation and graphical presentation.
Page 16 Page 16 October 2019 Hanover School District
Hanover Junior-Senior High School PTSA Fall Festival
Come join the Hanover community for a fun night of
games, prizes, dinner, and CANDY!
Page 17 Page 17 October 2019 Hanover School District
Hanover JSHS Band
and Choir Concert
Hanover JSHS BAND AND CHOIR CONCERT
11/7/19 at 6:30pm
Our Band and Choir students have been diligently
practicing and honing their ensemble skills to
present a concert for our school and community.
The Choir students will do a standard R&B song as a
group, then each class will present its own song of
choice. Band students will also present a song as an
ensemble and will highlight small ensembles as
well. Please join us for this music extravaganza!
Veteran’s Day Assembly
at Hanover JSHS
Veteran’s Day Assembly at Hanover JSHS
11/ 12/19 at 8:00am
Everyone is welcome to join us on this special day to
honor our Veterans. We honor all of the men and
women who have served and are currently serving in
our armed forces. Our veterans have sacrificed so
much to protect our nation, and every year we get
the opportunity to thank them. Please join us in this
recognizing the veterans in our community..
MS Diversity Awareness Club
The middle school students at Hanover High School have started
Diversity Awareness Club. Every month they have a new topic,
and this month it is communication and community. The
students have a presentation for their peers on how they can
better communicate, support each other, and build community
on Friday, October 11th during advisory period.
Page 18 Page 18 October 2019 Hanover School District
Well, we are just over halfway
through our fall season and we have
settled into the routine of practices
and games. Our Middle School
Teams and Programs continue to
shine and grow as we progress
through the school year.
Our M.S. Football team is coming
off of an exciting 52 - 48 win over
Miami-Yoder. It was a game that
say a few lead changes and a final
stand on defense to solidify the
victory. Our M.S. Spirit Team
continues to work hard and
improve as the season progresses.
They performed a dance routine at
the Homecoming Assembly and at
halftime of the Varsity Football
game and they did an amazing job.
They have a lot of energy and
enthusiasm and they are exciting to
watch. Our M.S. Volleyball Team is
currently 3-2 in league play and
they are climbing up into the top
half of the league as we move
towards the end of the season
tournament.
Here is the remainder of our
schedule for M.S. Football - home
against Deer trail at 10:30 A.M. on
Oct. 12th, away at Cripple Creek/
Victor on Oct. 15th at 4:30 P.M.,
home against Eads at 10:30 A.M. on
Oct. 19th, and home against
Primero at 10:30 A.M. on Oct. 26th.
The remainder of our M.S.
Volleyball schedule looks like this -
home against Swallows Charter at
4:30 P.M. on Oct. 10th, home
against ECA at 4:30 P.M. on
Oct. 11th, home against Deer Trail
at 11:00 A.M. on Oct. 12th, home
against Eads at 11:00 A.M. on
Oct. 19th, home against Cheraw at
4:30 P.M. on Oct. 22nd, and finally
away at Edison at 4:30 P.M. on
Oct. 25th.
Our H.S. Football Team is coming off
of a dramatic 32-25 win over Edison
where, just like the M.S. Team, had
to rely on its defense to secure the
victory. We are currently 2-1 in
conference play sitting at an overall
record of 3-3 with a rather young
team overall. The future is looking
good for our team. Our H.S. Spirit
team continues to work and
improve. They did a great job of
performing their routine at the
Homecoming Assembly and during
the halftime of the Homecoming
Game. Our H.S. Volleyball Team is
coming off of a 3-0 win over CSDB
and they continue to improve every
day. Their record may not reflect
their effort but the girls and coach
are working hard every day.
Here is the remainder of our
schedule for H.S. Football - home
against Deer trail at 1:00 P.M. on
Oct. 12th, home against Eads at
1:00 P.M. on Oct. 19th, and home
against Primero at 1:00 P.M. on
Oct. 26th.
The remainder of our H.S. Volleyball
schedule looks like this - home
against Swallows Charter at
6:30 P.M. on Oct. 10th, home
against ECA at 6:30 P.M. on Oct.
11th, home against Deer Trail at
1:00 P.M. on Oct. 12th, home
against Fountain Valley at 4:30 P.M.
on Oct. 15th, home against Eads at
1:00 P.M. on Oct. 19th, home
against Cheraw at 6:30 P.M. on
Oct. 22nd, and finally away at
Edison at 4:30 P.M. on Oct. 25th.
Here is to wrapping up the Fall
Season.
Brett A. Williams
Athletic Director/Assistant
Principal
Hanover JSHS
Athletics News
#wbtsa #wbtsc
Page 19 Page 19 October 2019 Hanover School District
Junior/Senior High School Golden Apple Recipient
Golden Apple recipients are:
Amber Ibarra (PHE) and Jeanette Thurman (JSHS)
Ms. Amber is in her second year working at Prairie Heights Elementary School as a paraprofessional. This school year
she is supporting students in reading intervention, supervising during lunch/recess and facilitating art during
specials. Ms. Amber is always cheerful. She interacts lovingly with all students. Whenever and wherever needed Ms.
Amber steps up to help.A fun fact is Ms. Amber is currently taking classes to become a certified teacher. She
exemplifies SWARM by supervising students for SAFE, flashing a cheerful smile for WONDERFUL, guiding students in
correcting their mis-steps for ACCOUNTABLE, engaging students with an inviting voice tone for RESPECtfUL, and
encouraging students to do their best for MOTIVATED.
Ms. Thurman has been with the district for 13+ years as a Paraeducator and
done some pretty amazing things for our students. She is an integral part of
our High School Learning Center we use for individualized student
inventions, she is constantly involved with and supporting students their
Pathways (CTE) online learning, and probably most important, she is always
volunteering to give of her talents wherever they are needed in our building
every day - all day! Simply outstanding work Ms. Thurman.
Hornet of the Month
Every month each grade level identifies their Hornet of the Month (student of the month). The Hornet of
the Month has exemplified what it looks like to be Safe, Wonderful, Accountable, Respectful and
Motivated. It is a great honor to be named the Hornet of the Month.
Angel Clemente, Kindergarten
Kylee Crowley-Medina, First Grade
Kindsey Stevens, Second Grade
Brooklyn Ricks, Third Grade
Aiden Hancock, Fourth Grade
Edgar Vera Wences, Fifth Grade
Page 20 Page 20 October 2019 Hanover School District
Junior/Senior High School Students of the Month: October
Each month, the High School and Middle School award a Student of the Month based on how each student
accelerated in the following Criteria: Safe Warm Accountable Respectable Motivated (SWARM). Faculty and staff
nominate students and then our Leadership Council makes decisions from these nominations. Very exciting!
High School Female: Roxana Lopez High School Boy: Steven Findley
Hornet Pride
Middle School Female: Aspen Combs Middle School Boy: Alexis Moreno
Page 21 Page 21 October 2019 Hanover School District
Advertising in this newsletter does not imply endorsement by the school or district.
Sponsorship space in this
newsletter is extremely
affordable!
Reach parents in your local
community & a significant
portion of your investment
goes back to the school!
Want to sponsor this school?
Please contact Rob
Mangelson at
(720) 878-4107.
Highlights of Upcoming Events
*all district events are posted on the district website using the calendar on the main page. October 24 JSHS PTA meeting @ JSHS - 6:30 p.m. October 25 MS/HS Volleyball vs. Edison @ Edison - 4:30 p.m. October 26 MS/HS Football vs. Primero @ JSHS - 10:30 *HS Football - Parent/Sr. Appreciation game - 1:00 October 28 District Professional Growth Day October 31 Hanover PTA Fall Festival 6pm-9pm at Hanover Jr/Sr High School November 1 Prairie Heights PTO Fall Festival 6-8pm at Prairie Heights ES November 4 District Professional Growth Day - Literacy Curriculum Project