Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox.
Katie Burke, sixth grade science teacher at Helena Middle School, leads the school's new sixth grade students in an assembly on the first day of school on Wednesday.
Every summer’s end is a new school year’s beginning.
Wednesday was the first day of the 2022-23 school year for many grades in the Helena Public Schools.
Helena Middle School has about 700 students for the 2022-23 school year. About 238 of those students are going into sixth grade - their first year at a new school.
The Where Everybody Belongs (WEB) Program was created to introduce and transition students to middle school. Both Helena middle schools have the program to welcome their sixth graders.
Before classes begin for higher grade levels, sixth graders come to the school for an orientation. At HMS, the sixth graders were sorted in 27 groups, and each WEB group had two eighth grade leaders in bright yellow shirts, totaling about 60 eighth graders, who led them through activities, showed them the school, and more.
Eighth grade leaders Kate Hall, Ellie Zipfel and Emily Temple enjoyed helping the sixth graders out the past few days, especially because they didn’t get the chance to do WEB as sixth graders themselves because of COVID-19.
“We never had WEB leaders in sixth grade, so we never got to experience what we did today,” said Hall. “It was interesting getting thrown in and learning from there.”
Temple added that their WEB was mostly online and not nearly as fun as this year’s.
Eighth grade leaders and cousins Brook Dasilva and Sebastian Sarbu are excited for classes this year. Dasilva is looking forward to band class and playing the clarinet. Sarbu is looking forward to the excitement at the end of each school day.
About five seventh graders helped as well. Charlotte Schulte and Mei Boedecker are two seventh graders who did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work.
“We’re the people who make a lot of the things today happen,” said Boedecker. “We make the signs hanging around. We stuff the bags they get. We do all of that.”
“The bags have handbooks, school maps, activity lists, pencils, paper, straws,” said Schulte. “Each group gets a bag with enough stuff inside for everyone.”
Katie Burke, a sixth grade science teacher who was trained to lead WEB activities, spoke to the sixth graders and eighth grade leaders in the auditorium Wednesday.
She left them with two takeaway lessons to focus on throughout the year. The first was about how they were going to let other people influence them throughout the school year. The second was about pulling people up, not down, this school year.
“(The eighth grader leaders) didn’t know what to expect, but kind of knew what to expect,” said Burke. “They were so eager to learn the curriculum we were teaching them and to just be awesome. The fact that they didn’t get this experience (as sixth graders) gave them a different filter to see it through.”
After Burke finished her talk, lunch was announced, followed by many cheers from hungry sixth graders.
“I have a Capri Sun today,” said sixth grader Nathaniel Donovan. “Lunch is my favorite class.”
Graham Gilbert and JP Howard sat together at a lunch table. They’re both sixth graders who went through WEB. Gilbert is looking forward to advanced math, football and Minecraft club this year. Howard is also excited for Minecraft club and football, plus book club.
“I’m not very nervous,” said Gilbert. “Football practice started about three weeks ago, and I see a lot of teammates I know from there.”
“Hopefully this year, we make it to the championship,” added Howard.
Neko Gabriel is going into sixth grade, and she had pizza for lunch. She’s looking forward to art and English because she loves writing and drawing. She and a friend want to start a fantasy club because they love that genre of reading and art.
“I’m (excited), but I’m honestly a little nervous,” said Gabriel. “(Through WEB), I got to know people and my group. It was really helpful.”
She fist bumped with her eighth grade WEB leader, who was sat at the table next to her. They both stated that their group, number 12, was the best WEB group.
The WEB program will meet again in about a week to check-in with how school is going for the sixth graders. Throughout the year, the WEB groups will meet monthly as a support system/check-in.
“The WEB program is so important for every sixth grader,” said Andrew Roberts, who teaches seventh grade math and helps with WEB. “Even for my daughter who’s been in this school so many times, but last night she said, ‘Dad, I’m really nervous but excited. I have two emotions at the same time.’”
Megan Michelotti can be reached at megan.michelotti@helenair.com.
Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
East Helena’s 14-year-old Tobey Peck is the first youth and only female from Montana to make the USA Archery Regional Elite Development (RED) team.
The Helena Education Foundation (HEF) is gifting a new hardcover, age-appropriate book to 600-plus first graders as part of its Fabulous Firsts program.
For Helena Public Schools, the school year will be beginning with a four-week rotation bus schedule, similar to last year’s.
Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen is partnering with New Meridian, a nonprofit assessment development company, to develop and pilot a next-generation state testing system.
For the past 20 years or so, Elisabeth Danielsen has spent around $3,000-$4,000 of her own money every year on Helena children’s back-to-school clothes.
Funding for the Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) Pilot Program has been completed by a $2,967,259 Competitive Grant for State Assessments (CGSA) from the federal government.
The nonprofit ACE Scholarships Montana has given out more than 1,000 scholarships to students from low-income families around the state this year to help them afford private school tuition.
Loreley Drees and Keiran Boyle are this year's student representatives on the Helena school board.
Katie Burke, sixth grade science teacher at Helena Middle School, leads the school's new sixth grade students in an assembly on the first day of school on Wednesday.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.