OMS Orientation Night Helps Prepare Students And Parents For New School Year

OMS Students and Parents attend Orientation Night to be better prepared to start the new school year.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Nervous faces filled up George Daily Auditorium for OMS orientation night, and that was just the parents. The kids were the one’s with the looks of excitement.

After a half-hour introduction to policy at the middle school over things such as arrival times, cell phone usage, and lunch, the group dismissed and headed off to the middle school itself.

Once there, students picked up their class schedule,and also found out what locker would be their’s for the year.

Learning the combination lock and actually making it function like you plan, walking the halls and finding where their classes will be, and saying hello to friends not seen in months were first impressions for many middle school students.

Oskaloosa Middle School Principle Andy Hotek was happy to have students back in the building, helping to bring it back to life. “July and August, was here a lot. All of August we were here getting staff in place, getting our building in shape, a lot of painting, painted our gym, painted our pillars, remodeling our media center. All these things are going on. Their wonderful things, but all that being said, as I was here walking through the halls in the summertime, there was one big thing missing, that’s the kids.” Hotek went on to say, “This building was built for kids, and it’s definitely noticeable when you’re walking through that’s missing.”

For those not familiar, why the Middle Schools does an orientation is best described by Mr. Hotek. “The objective for our new student and new family orientation is to welcome our new families right off the bat, orient them to our procedures. We welcome all of our 6th grade new families and new families to the community, give them their schedules, welcome them, make clear policies, procedure, how we handle things. Make them feel comfortable, make them feel welcome.” Hotek commented on what to do you if missed Middle School orientation. “If a parent or student missed orientation, they can always call in the next couple of days, get a hold of us. We’ll give them an opportunity to come to the building, get their schedules. Anything we can do to ease that transition, that’s all we want to do.”

You can contact the Oskaloosa Middle School at the following number 641.673.8308