The Hebron 9th Grade Campus will hold a new to the district meeting at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday in the library that both parents and students can attend. This year is the first time the ninth grade center has hosted the meeting in-person since the start of COVID-19. The 2020-21 school year saw 164 new-to-district enrollees — almost double that of the 2014-15 school year. 

“We are actually probably one of the bigger transfer destinations in the district,” HHS9 counselor Brent Hughes said. “I like to call [Hebron] the borderland because within five minutes, you’re in the Colony, Frisco, Carrollton, Plano or whatever. And our school district [has] an open transfer policy, obviously with applications.”

The meeting will mainly focus on enrollment paperwork, course selection, four-year planning, vaccination information, graduation requirements and general timelines. A short tour of the main hallway will be given as well. 

“[This meeting] is typically pretty fun because everybody is pretty keyed into the information — they’re very interested,” Hughes said. “I don’t know if every person who attends it ends up coming, so they could be fishing a little bit because it’s still early enough and then they make a different decision, but hopefully we try to win them over — it’s a bit of a pitch.”

Hughes and other HHS9 counselor Heather Burgess will lead the presentation. The HHS9 nurse, registrar, assistant principals, administration and principal Amanda Werneke will also be in attendance.

“We always want to make sure new families feel welcome, and we want our ninth graders to have an awesome start to high school,” Werneke said. “Ninth grade sets the tone, and Hebron is an extraordinary place, in my mind, for school because of the rich academics, fine arts, athletics and student life experiences. Our goal is that they get a taste of our school, [and] they get to meet some of the people that work in the building. We hope that [the meeting] gets people to ask questions and get a feel for our campus, and we hope they feel welcome here.”