We have an outstanding community school and it is no accident- it takes commitment. Teachers and support staff are constantly looking for ways to engage students and make MHS the best college and career readiness high school in the state. Probably at the top of our list in making this happen is having a strong professional faculty committed to our kids. I don't say "our" kids lightly - WE CLAIM THEM and LOVE TO HELP THEM GROW.
I've attached our last board report and I hope you enjoy reading the contributions of several of our teachers. MHS is the place where kids are first.
T.
DECEMBER BOARD REPORT:
Month/Year: December 2014
Current Enrollment: 642
Free/Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 222 / 42
Student Services Listing: 68
Students of the Month November: Haley Test and Brandon Oligschlaeger
Teacher of the Month: Wendy Ford, English
Bronze Bulldog Peer-to-Peer Award for Making A Difference at MHS: Keith Louder, Math
Academics - What have we learned?
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal
Teachers and students are prepping for finals this week. Students will be testing during the week of December 15-19, 2014. When we return from holiday break teachers will use data they’ve collected to determine areas students struggle and how we can work together to address deficiencies. In math courses 73% of students are currently passing their math course 403/552. This is still lower than we would like to see, however we have seen many more students engaged in regular tutoring and additional effort during this semester. The math team continues to try and reflect what students are learning through math grades by measuring their level of proficiency on college and career readiness math standards.
The administration team and counseling team at MHS have been reviewing attendance and working on additional strategies and incentives to address students just below and far below the 90% attendance rate. Both teams have met with parents and students regarding reasons behind poor attendance and offered guidance and assistance.
Jennifer McDole - Special Education Department Chair
The special education department is pleased to report we were approved for two mini A+ grants in the middle of November. The total monies allotted were around $5,300 dollars. Ms. Troesser wrote a grant to obtain many of the Kagan Cooperative Learning teaching resources. This will be a huge asset to the High School Sped Department as many of our students respond positively to these types of classroom structures. Ms. McDole wrote a grant to obtain the materials needed to cultivate a miniature garden in her classroom from which her students will collect data to create algebraic equations to make predictions of their yields. This will give life applicable algebraic equations in hopes of building a deeper connection to the material. Ms. Oliver has put into place Action-Based Learning and has had much success with it thus far. Her students are making strides in reading and will continue to improve as the year progresses. Progress is happening almost across the board for each individual student with the support of all of our excellent team.
Jennifer Silver - MHS English Department Chair
Currently, the main focus of the English Department is to complete current units of study and prepare our students for finals. We will be reviewing grammar, vocabulary, and reading and writing strategies. Seniors are submitting their final research paper drafts. The juniors recently took the practice ACT plus writing exam. Our department graded the writing essays and gave students feedback so their could improve. Students in English III and DC American Literature classes have been assessing their essays. Two areas students need to further develop are more concise thesis statements and addressing the opposing point of view more specifically. Freshmen and sophomores have been working on research projects too. Freshmen are catching on to MLA format rather quickly and the sophomores seem to be retaining that information from last year. Finally, the 60 new Google Chrome books have been used more extensively as the semester has progressed due to students becoming more proficient with them and more research-based projects being assigned.
Ms. Kendra Allen - FFA Sponsor
Kymberlynn Tessman competed on Tuesday, November 18th at the NE District FFA Fall Speech contest. She placed Alt. to State in her division!! She has put in a lot of hours to get this far, please congratulate her!! Thanks, Ag Ed Dept.
Mr. Robert Cortez - Band
Allison Heckman will be auditioning for All-State Band on Saturday, 12/6. The annual Dixie Gray Christmas Concert will be held at 7:00 P.M. Friday, December 12, in Emmons Hall. The annual Band Dance will follow in the band room immediately following the concert, with the coronation of the traditional Band King and Band Queen to be held at 9:30 P.M
Ms. Sara Given - Drama, Speech and Debate
The MHS Speech & Debate Team hosted the annual "War of the Words" Tournament this past weekend. There were 21 schools attending. This was a great opportunity for our students to learn how to run a tournament, for students who are considering joining the team to see events they might want to compete in and for an economic boost to our community. We are so appreciative of all the community and parent support for this event. The Theatre 1 students just completed their very first Shakespearean performance. Each of the students performed group scenes from "Midsummer Night's Dream". Shakespeare is challenging for beginning actors and on a whole the class was extremely successful.
The vocal music and theatre department produced "When in Rome" on November 21-23. It was a great success! A large portion of the cast were performing in their very first theatre production. The production is run entirely by students during show week. We'd like to formally recognize the hard work of our student Stage Manager, Hayden Foreman, Sound Technicians Alie Finch & Grace Troesser and our Light Board Operator Abbygail Deihl. Thanks to all who contributed and attended.
Ms. Jami Williams - Yearbook and Multi-media
The Advanced Production class has been invited by Armel Nunnelly to produce his "hype" video for the final stage of auditions for the television show "American Ninja." He has made it through the preliminary interviews and trials and will be interviewed in St. Louis in February where he will be tested for competition. If he is chosen, our video will be on national television. The media department has been tapped by the Audrain County Emergency Services Department to set up and run a YouTube channel for the county. This would be an ongoing and continuing partnership between the school and a county agency. We would be providing a vital service for them at no charge. Also, we were asked to film and edit the licensed copy of Presser Performing Arts Center's performance of Shrek. This is quite an honor because the license for filming is a HUGE investment and the fact they they entrusted this to us is amazing. The media department seems to be finding their niche when it comes to being a source of service to the community at large.
Ms. Bridget Bingham - Special Education
The Everyday Math students are constructing a budget. They had to use Missouri Connections to look up jobs in Missouri with the listed average wage. They will be figuring out how much take home pay they will earn. They also used the Internet to research vehicles and houses and calculated monthly payments on both. They will use this information to decide if their job will support them and construct a budget with all the information they have found.
Family and Consumer Science and FCCLA- Ms. Karen Ford
Our FCCLA group sold almost 300 cupcakes during intermission at the “When In Rome” play, we also hosted the hospitality room for the Speech and Debate Tournament on and last night we had 14 members at a meeting, we have never had that many members before, our group is growing!
Guidance and Counseling Team
All counselors attended the Missouri School Counselors Association Conference
All counselors attended CHECK & CONNECT Conference
Kris Turlington and Kaitlin Hopke attended the Bright Future Committee Meeting
Kris Turlington and Kaitlin Hopke attended the FAFSA Workshop in Jefferson City
Mark Holman represented MHS at Inter-Agency Meeting
Mark Holman attended the PBIS Tier 2 Meeting
Registration is in process for Board Paid Senior ACT test
CMU Fine Arts visited with Art and Drama Students
ACT Practice test was given to all Juniors on Nov. 24
Some local scholarships were due in November, such as the Earl Collins and Hagan
We hosted 7 agency visits, and 6 military visits
Two college representative visited in November
Upcoming Events:
More local scholarships will be due in December
Northwest Missouri State and Westminster will be visiting in December
ACT Senior Testing will be December 13th
Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director
Saturday Jan. 3rd, 2015-Gary Filbert Classic 11:00 AM-10:00 PM
11:00 AM Community R-6 Girls vs. Jamestown
12:45 PM Community R-6 Boys vs. Jamestown
2:30 PM Paris Girls vs. Silex
4:15 PM Paris Boys vs. Cairo
6:00 PM Mexico Girls vs. California
7:45 PM Mexico Boys vs. St. Dominic
Missouri Football Coaches Association All State Teams Announced:
Karsten Ekern-2nd Team All State Linebacker
Northeast Missouri Media All District Teams Announced
Karsten Ekern-1st Team Running Back & Linebacker
Conner Templeton-1st Team Offensive Line
Skylar Harrington-1st Team Defensive Back
Tyler Bracht-2nd Team All Purpose Back & Defensive Back
D’Milo Nunnelly-2nd Team Running Back
Caleb Quinlan-2nd Team Offensive Line
Jaylen Lee-2nd Team Defensive Line
Chance Harper-2nd Team Linebacker
MHS Bulldogs Head Football Coach Steve Haag was named the NorthEast Missouri Media All District Classes 3 & 4 Coach of the Year for his efforts in guiding MHS to a 9-3 Season.
Missouri Football Coaches Association: Academic All-State
These students met 2 of 3 Criteria: 3.5 GPA, 25 ACT, Top 10% of Class
Johnny McDonald Sr
Chance Harper Sr
Caleb Quinlan Jr
Karsten Ekern Jr
Brit Wilson So
