Hi Everyone,
School is winding down and it has to be the fastest school year in my memory. There have been so many great memories from this school year. As our building continues to look for areas to improve, communication is at the top of my list -- you can never seem to have enough. Our academic boosters are continuing to look for ways to allow our community and parents to have a part in the business of serving students and supporting the efforts of teachers. Right now, we are considering changing our meeting time for academic boosters to possibly include more parents. Additionally, the academic boosters are working to improve communication and recruit new members. Personally, I'd love to at least double the members of this blog next year and reach more parents and community members. For this entry, I've included the report for the school board for your review. Look here in coming weeks for a few surveys about our communication with the community and ways we can improve for 2012-13. High on the list of our faculty and staff is keeping students on track to graduate on time. We want our school to be an engaging place students want to be and students to find the help they need to succeed.
We recently voluntarily participated in an AdvancED review. AdvancED is an international certification program. It provides feedback to schools participating for our improvement. School districts are not required to submit to a review of the AdvancED team made up of trained evaluators (administrators and leaders from other school districts usually from Missouri). They conducted interviews with students, parents, teachers and school leaders to review our high school. Also, they review documentation supporting our claims of what we do in our school. Finally, they observe classrooms and processes over a two-day period and compile a report. What is important about this process is this: We submit to the certification process because we want to improve and glean data they provide to guide our efforts. Our review is an unbiased viewpoint from an outside team of evaluators and they provide the valuable "fresh set of eyes" we need.
I hope everyone in our community feels welcome to provide feedback to our school leaders and teachers.
Our latest board report follows.
Sincerely,
Dr. Terry Robinson
Month/Year: April 2012
Current Enrollment: 681
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 253/51
Student Services Listing: 68
Students of the Month: March
Academics
Congratulations to the Class Officers for 2012-13 school year:
Class of 2013: President – Haley Auwater, Vice President – Megan Brandow,
Secretary – Danielle Bohr, Treasurer – Samantha Spurling
Class of 2014: President – DayNeisha Shivers, Vice President – Shannen Maxwell,
Secretary – Victoria Shaw, Treasurer – Keagan Riddick
Class of 2015: President – Abby Dick, Vice President – Sydney Schutte,
Secretary – Maddie Prince, Treasurer – Gabe Jones
From Mrs. Stephanie Gutshall, Ag Teacher: Please congratulate the following students for competing at Area 4 FFA Contest in Centralia during spring break:
FFA Knowledge Team- 2nd place, advancing to Districts; Abigail Hoer, Lauren Ransom, Sonny Roberts and Mackenzie Stumpee
FFA Creed--4th place alternate; Lauren Ransom
Division 1 Public Speaking- 1st place, advancing to Districts; Abigail Hoer
From Mrs. Julie Exendine, Foreign Language Teacher: Please congratulate our French and Spanish level 3 and 4 students. We attended the Foreign Film Festival at the University of Central Missouri and they represented our school well and brought home many awards! We competed against many Kansas City Schools!
Spanish III:
2nd Place Best Level 2 Comedy: La batalla épica
3rd Place Best Level 2 Mystery: El gato
Spanish IV:
1st Place Best Level 3 Comedy: Chicas antipaticas
3rd Place Best Level 3 Spanish Film: Chicas antipaticas
Best Actor Overall of Spanish Films: Michael Perll
French III:
Best Level 2 French Film: Mec Logique
Best Use of Language Level 2 French Film: Mec Logique
2nd Place Best Level 2 Comedy: Mec Logique
Best Actor Overall of French Films: Jordan Henry
French IV:
Best Use of Language Level 3 French Film: Assassiner, je t'aime
2nd Place Best Actress: Kaitlin Harlow
From the Administration Team
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
The academic boosters are working to enhance volunteer efforts at MHS. Specifically, they are working on a plan to foster growth of volunteers to assist students in the academic intervention study hall. The boosters are considering communication and recruitment efforts to support our intervention efforts. In addition, expansion of the academic intervention study hall is being considered to include more students.
Interviews have begun for open positions in the district and some recommendations should be ready by the next board meeting. Candidates for open positions in social studies were interviewed this week and last week and English will begin this coming Monday. Department chairs and members are participating in reviewing applications and making recommendations for candidates to interview. Additionally, interview committees will include department chairs and other department members by request of the chair.
The Senior Planning committee met (composed of senior students) and reviewed recommendations from students for the senior’s choice teacher of the year nominees. The winner will be named at graduation. In addition the class of 2012 will be honoring the support staff member of the year by establishing the Lori Mealy award, the award will be named in her honor and there are plans for the award to be accepted by her family. The class of 2012 hopes this will become a yearly award by senior classes for the support staff member of the year.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Mr. Brad Ellebracht:
The PBIS team continues to meet and review data regarding disruptions to class. Plans for incentives for students and improving data collection efforts have been discussed for 2012-13. In addition, the team has presented to faculty and solicited input from a variety of sources. The effort continues to be in conjunction with training and consulting from the Columbia Regional Professional Development trainers.
Mrs. Deb Haag, Assistant Principal over Instruction:
EOC testing will be held during most of the month of May. Teachers were provided information and training to assist them in transitioning to a block schedule to facilitate testing.
On March 28th and 29th AdvancED (formerly NCA) was here to evaluate MHS as a part of voluntary accreditation process. AdvancED is an international accreditation process. Mexico Senior High School has be accredited with this organization since 1908. At this time, a written report is being finalized by the chair of the Quality Assurance Review Chair. That report will be submitted to the state AdvancED office for approval within the next 30 days. The state will then approve or assign the rating and send MHS the written report.
At this time, the recommended outcomes from the Quality Assurance Review Team from this process are below (please note that all schools going through this process receive both commendations and required actions):
Overall Recommended Rating: Accreditation on Advisement
Commendations:
•Mexico High School has a great sense of tradition and history. There is great pride in the school and many faculty and staff members are graduates who have chosen to return to work in the school, speaking to strong community bonds.
•There is a strong tradition of teacher leadership, as Mexico High School recognizes and values the importance of developing leadership capacity within its instructional staff.
•There has been deliberate work to establish systemic structures and strategies to serve as vehicles for school improvement (i.e., ACT seminars, Building Leadership Team, School Planning Institute).
Required Actions:
–Choose and implement one or two instructional strategies across all classrooms in the school for both consistency and to leverage student learning.
–Utilize one or two of the current cadre structures to focus on meaningful data analysis, to improve all levels of communication, and to increase stakeholder involvement in the school improvement process.
–Create a building-level School Improvement Plan to focus the work, professional development planning, and implementation accountability for improvement goals, with a focus on one or two building goals per year.
Leadership in Practice:
On April 3rd, 4th, and 5th, thirty--eight freshmen and sophomores attended the 3rd annual Leadership in Practice Program held at the Elk's Lodge. The event was a success due to the support of the local community leaders/organizations and superb table facilitators. Students are recommended by their teachers, who are requested to consider all students that lead, not just those in common leadership positions. The students participate in many activities including: examining leadership styles, studying characteristics of leaders,practicing ethical decision making as well as designing and promoting a needed product. Their culminating activity is to present three ideas/processes/ways to improve MHS. Students left the on the third day empowered.
Guidance and Counseling Team:
The team is working on course requests, and supporting EOC testing for the month of May.
Activities/Athletics
From Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Random drug tests were conducted on April 11. Recommendations for coaching during the 2012-13 school year are also being considered. Academic intervention study hall for athletes has approximately 8 students meeting for additional help with their classes.
MHS Events and Activities:
April 5: ZAPS testing, Jrs. Act prep
April 12-15: Choir Trip to Nashville
April 20-22: State Speech & Debate Tournament in Columbia
April 26: State Music Festival
May 3: End of Course exams begin
May 4: Dinner Theater
May 5: Prom (at Elks Lodge)
May 16: Last day for Seniors
May 18: Awards assembly
