The Key Notes : January 2026

Staff Spirit Week

Secret Staff Spirit Week is officially on the calendar. Time for more staff fun!

As you know, we encourage bold, playful interpretations and a commitment to acting like nothing is unusual at all. Participation is always optional, but if you choose not to participate on a given day—normal professional attire is expected. Below is the schedule so you can plan accordingly:

Monday, February 9: Staff Twin Day
Coordinate with one or more staff members to dress alike. The bigger the group and the crazier the outfit, the more memorable you will look.
Tuesday, February 10: Inside-Out/Backwards Day
Wear your clothes inside-out or backwards and proceed as if everything is perfectly normal.
Wednesday, February 11: Dress Like a Pun
Pick a pun and dress to represent it—literally. The goal is to look confusing to students but hilarious to adults who get it. An example would be “Smarty Pants” by taping Smarties candy to your pants.
Thursday, February 12: Show Some Love or Anti-Valentine’s Day
Staff can either “Show Some LOVE” by wearing the same attire as students or embrace Anti-Valentine’s Day and dress in the opposite style. Think dark colors, goth vibes, etc.

· Friday, February 13: Accessory Overload
Go all out with accessories—scarves, hats, necklaces, bracelets, sunglasses, or any silly props. The more, the better!

Core Values-Behave With Care

One of our Core Values is Behave With Care. As part of this, we set a goal of entering at least one positive behavior per student each trimester. We’re now halfway through Trimester 2, and I hope that by this point you’ve already recognized at least half of your students with a positive behavior entry in MyNHA.

As a reminder, the purpose of this initiative is to support a positive classroom culture, decrease student attrition, and strengthen communication between home and school. This impact is only possible when the recognition is authentic and meaningful. If all of the positive behaviors are entered at the end of the trimester, it can diminish their sincerity and the opportunity to reinforce positive actions in real time. If you haven’t started yet, I strongly encourage you to begin on Monday.

Thank you for consistently seeing and celebrating the good in our students.

Reunification PD

We have rescheduled our reunification training for our upcoming half day on Friday, February 13. All staff (hourly, salary, SFE, and Aramark) need to attend to learn/review our reunification plan and visit the reunification location. More information to come.

Welcome to the Team

I’m happy to announce that we have hired our second Speech Pathologist, Rebecca Carr. Rebecca will be working remotely with Keystone one day a week, as she splits her time between our school and another NHA school. With her addition, alongside Saima who works full time, we are excited to share that all of our students will now be able to receive their speech services. Click here to learn more about Rebecca.

Affirmations

Robyn for all of the work you’ve done with Cold Buddies and for keeping communication consistent and clear.

Steve, Tracy, Sarah G, Yasmeen, Emily, Amanda, Kim J, and Robyn for taking the time to attend a Behavior Support Team meeting and thoughtfully determining what was in the best interest of a student.

Stacey Reed for providing all required documentation to ensure we remain in compliance with MICIP and the Comprehensive Needs Assessment.

Kim J for organizing February Friends. You consistently go above and beyond to support positive staff morale at Keystone.

Robyn, Tameka, and Sally for ensuring assessments were rescheduled and that students completed their testing.

Stacey Ramirez for providing me with a homemade dinner. Thank you for thinking of me.

Nikki for your words of kindness in writing. You know I love words of affirmation.

Stacey Ramirez for your assistance with our Sunrise Social flyer. I appreciate your patience as I made a lot of changes.

Stefanie for taking the time to update the welcome letter for our new families and helping set a positive first impression.

Jane for your diligence with contacting numerous authors to make sure our students are exposed to appropriate literature.

This Week

Monday, February 2:

· Candy Gram Fundraiser for Mott’s Children’s Hospital (February 2-6)

Tuesday, February 3:

· SLT Meeting

Wednesday, February 4:

· Perfect Attendance Reward

Thursday, February 5:

· Purple Club

· Kim B’s Birthday

· Morning Assembly Presentation Due (Presidents’ Day)-Buckles

Friday, February 6:

· MTSS/IAT Meetings K-8

· Black History Month Dress Down-FREE

· Payday Breakfast-3^rd Grade

Happy Birthday

There is a special gift in the mailboxes of all the people who celebrate their birthdays in

Important Dates

February 10: Jessica W’s Birthday

February 10: Staff Meeting

February 10: Staff Meeting Snacks-7^th Grade

February 11: Count Day

February 12: Morning Assembly Presentation Due (Black History Month-who and how)-Baker

February 12: Show Some Love Dress Down-FREE

February 13: ½ Day of School-Staff PD

February 16: No School-Presidents’ Day

February 18: Dress Down & Hat $1.00 each

February 18: Sunrise Social 7:35-8:00 AM (Families with last names A–O)

February 19: Sunrise Social 7:35-8:00 AM (Families with last names P–Z)

February 19: Morning Assembly Presentation Due (National Women’s History Month-what and why?)-Nelson

February 20: SPED Team Pay Day Breakfast

February 20: Change Bulletin Boards

February 20: Spirit Day

February 23: Saima’s Birthday

February 23: Social Studies Mock Interim-Grades 5 & 8-(2/23-3/20)

February 23-27: Leadership (Principal & Dean) Appreciation Week

February 24: Team PLC Meetings

February 24: Megan M’s Birthday

February 24: Stefanie’s Birthday

February 25: Lisa’s Birthday

February 26: Family Learning Night

February 26: Tri 2 School Store

February 27: End of Tri 2

February 27: No School-Regional PD

February 27: Social Media Post Due to Jorvonna-5^th Grade

February 26: Jessica S’s Birthday

*If you have an event to add or something has been forgotten, please let me know!

Welcome to the Team

I would like to welcome Joelle Sabbagh, as our new Library Technology Specialist (LTS)! This will be her fourth year being a LTS at an NHA school. We are thrilled to have her expertise and passion on our team. Click here to learn more about Joelle and be sure to say hello when you see her on Monday!

Valentine's Day Party

You are welcome to plan a small Valentine’s Day celebration in your classroom on February 13. We request that this celebration take place the last 30 minutes of the day. If you would like to do Valentine’s Day themed academic activities throughout the day, you are welcome to do that as well. We encourage you to invite families into your classroom to join your celebration.

Per our student handbook, “Students in grades K-5 may celebrate by bringing valentines for their classmates. Students who bring valentines must give one to each of their classmates.”

To maximize time, have your students only write who it’s from, instead of writing each student’s name on the valentines. If you do provide a class list to families, please make sure not to include last names.

Core Values

NHA’s Core Values define who we are as an organization and provide a sense of alignment between employees and the organization's mission, vision, and purpose. We should use the Core Values to guide our individual behaviors, decisions, and actions. They remind us of what is important and what you want in your life. To gain a better of understanding of our Core Values, please click HERE to review NHA’s Core Values and see what they look like in action.

Student of the Month Awards

As we live out of Core Values, it’s important that we Behave With Care. One way to do to that is by recognizing as many students as possible during Fridays’ assemblies.

To ensure that the specials teachers do not choose a student that has already been recognized by their homeroom teacher, please make sure that you are filling out this form consistently each month.

Thank you to all the staff members who have been completing the form every month.