March 2013 Report

Hello Everyone!

Snow and more snow...then reboot and get back to work! Bad weather can put a damper on all we do in a school system. Fortunately, teamwork and flexibility are attributes which help MHS move forward with our mission to increase college and career readiness with our students. We continue to try and find ways to improve the service we provide to students. I've included the March board report for a look into what is happening and what will be happening in the near future. As I reflect, I'm so appreciative of the turn out of seniors and their parents at our academic recognition banquet and the parents that attended for our recognition assembly on March 4. We need your support! When you take the time to honor your son or daughter, I believe it makes a difference in their mind - you believe what they are doing is important. Thanks to our community, faculty and staff helping make all the events you can read about below possible.

In addition I encourage all parents to take advantage of our online resources to prepare their young person for the rigors of the ACT. See our counseling department for login information. This is a free service to all students we added at district cost for this school year.

In addition, I've noticed I've neglected this blog the past few months. My apologies to those who follow from time to time. :)

Dr. Terry Robinson


BOARD REPORT FOR MARCH FOLLOWS:



Month/Year: March  2013

Current Enrollment: 661
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 234/43
Student Services Listing:  60

Students of the Month: Kaylee Stone and Alex Shaw

Academics
Ms. Laura Haynes/ Art Teacher:  Art Club and Global Service Club participated in the True/False Festival 2/28 - 3/3 by decorating the Forrest Theatre with paper mache leaves.

Mrs. Sara Given/ Speech & Theatre Teacher:  Congratulations to the MHS Speech, Debate & Theatre teams on a record breaking weekend 3/1 and 3/2 at MSHSAA Districts! There are 10 Individual Events.  Of the 10, we advanced 8 to finals.  In finals, we qualified
6 events to State!  (and we compete with 1A to 5A Schools all together); Loralee Hays 3rd place Storytelling- State Qualifier and 3rd Place Prose- State Qualifier; Jordan Henry 2nd Place Oratory- State Qualifier and 2nd Place Radio Speaking- State Qualifier; Alex Shaw- 2nd Place Humorous- State Qualifier; Austin Weber and Kirby Weber- 3rd place Duet Acting- State Qualifier; Austin Weber 4th place Dramatic; James Clampitt 3rd Place International Extemp also competing were Aaliyah Shivers United States Extemp and Ryan Spargo- Poetry.   The One Act Play "Rinse The Blood Off My Toga" was the Champion One Act and qualified for State!
The cast includes: Kirby Weber, Alex Shaw, Austin Weber, Noah Duncan, Loralee Hays, Ryan Spargo, Austin Bulson, Miah Case, Marisa Dennison, Dylan Goodman with tech crew Tex Alexander, Brandon Oligschlaeger, Emily Polacek and Riley Given.
The “Jellybean Conspiracy” won 3rd place and missed state by 2 points!  Congrats to Alex Shaw who placed 3rd in Humorous at The National Forensic League District Tournament and is the 1st alternate for Nationals and to Lauren Ralls placing 7th in Humorous.  Our semi-finalists were Jordan Henry in Oratory, Loralee Hays in dramatic and Austin Weber in Dramatic 3/9/13.

Mrs. Lindsey Yancey/ Librarian and Student Council Sponsor:  Reported the new Class Representatives for 2013-14 school year;
Student Council Officers for 2013-2014, Executive Officers: Jacob Lauer- President, DayNeisha Shivers- Vice President, Abby Dick- Secretary, Keagan Riddick- Treasurer
Class of 2014: Shannen Maxwell- President, Kamden Ekern- Vice President, Victoria Shaw- Secretary, Brooke Tessman- Treasurer                                                                    
Class of 2015:  Maddie Prince- President, Mariah Miller- Vice President, Whitney Fecht- Secretary, James Perll- Treasurer                                                                  Class of 2016:  Lauren Ralls- President, Allison Smiley- Vice President, Kaylee Hutcheson- Secretary, Rachel Owings- Treasurer                                                                                            

Administration Team:

Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:

MHS will be administering the ACT on April 23rd during school to all Junior and Senior students for free - no cost to students or the school district. This test is part of the ACT Scaling Study and for our participation our students receive a free test and a reportable score to colleges and universities.  All student registration paperwork will take place at MHS  and all Juniors and Seniors are expected to take the exam.

The ACT practice day for juniors was held on February 15. Teachers worked to host this event to prepare students for the rigor of the ACT. The test is given under ACT requirements and scores are analyzed by teachers. In addition we continue to offer online preparation for the ACT through their online test prep and our math department will be adopting ACT’s Quality Core to assist them with alignment to the rigors of the ACT. ACT’s Quality core is a product produced by ACT which provides summer training and test banks teachers can use in their classes. In addition Quality core identifies instructional units and objectives teachers should be teaching and measuring to better prepare our students for college and career readiness.

Graduation Speech try outs were 3/4/13.  Jordan Henry, Jose Hernandez, Gabby Keller and Aaliyah Shivers were chosen to speak at graduation.

Seniors submitted nominations  for teacher of the year; this teacher will be honored at graduation.

Academic Boosters: Continue to volunteer to tutor students after school. They have been involved in assisting students in our academic intervention study hall.

Students will be attending Leadership in Practice on March 25-27 at the Elks Lodge sponsored by MHS and the Chamber of Commerce. The 3 day conference includes local leaders and training to help freshmen and sophomores problem solve and consider leadership in their high school. Community leaders Dave Lankford and Dana Keller have been instrumental in continuing this program into the 4th consecutive year.

Students earning academic letters were honored. Sophomores and Juniors were honored for 3 or 5 semesters of maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above. Seniors were honored with a recognition banquet for earning a 3.5 GPA for 7 semesters. Seniors were further honored with a video produced by Mrs. Jamie Williams and their thoughts on success were included.

JROTC will be First Presbyterian Church Food Bank on Thursday March 14 as part of their service learning project. Previous volunteer effort was located at the Missouri Veterans Home. 2 MHS students are currently participating in Raiders

Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:

Activities/Athletics
Spring Sports practices started February 25th with approximately 175 student athletes participating. Spring will see Baseball, Boys Tennis & Golf, Girls Soccer & Track competing. Most seasons will start by the 19th.

We recently hosted Districts for Basketball and for Speech & Theatre. We also hosted a Sectional Basketball game for Class 3.

Our Boys Basketball team earned 1st at Districts, won Sectionals and lost in the Quarterfinal game. The Girls Basketball team had a big win over Helias, but lost to Kirksville to take 2nd at Districts.

The One Act Theatre group placed 1st and will be advancing along with 6 individual events.

The Readers Theatre “Jellybean Conspiracy” placed 3rd. They will be performing again on March 17th for the community @ Emmons Hall, 7:00 pm. The messsage of this play is powerful. The play addresses bullying and the need for tolerance of those with  individual differences.

PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention – Coordinator Patty Swisher
Our school received the following message from our Regional Professional Development evaluators. MHS has implemented Tier 1 ahead of the expected schedule. We have been successful because of our PBiS teamwork at the high school and will be applying for Bronze certification.

EMAIL BELOW:
From: Holloway, Amanda L.
Date: Monday, March 4, 2013
Subject: SET Results!
To: "Terry Robinson (trobinson@mexico.k12.mo.us)" <trobinson@mexico.k12.mo.us>, "Brad Ellebracht (bellebracht@mexico.k12.mo.us)" <bellebracht@mexico.k12.mo.us>, "Patricia Swisher (pswisher@mexico.k12.mo.us)" <pswisher@mexico.k12.mo.us>
Cc: "Starkey, Danielle Nicole" <StarkeyD@missouri.edu>

Dear Dr. Robinson and Mr. Ellebracht,

Thank you again for allowing me to visit your building today to conduct the Schoolwide Evaluation Tool (SET)! Please see attached for the results. Congratulations on your high level of Tier 1 SW-PBS implementation! This is especially great considering this is your first year of implementation!  I have attached an Action Plan template for your team’s use.

Please let me know if you have any questions on the results.
Amanda

Amanda Holloway
Regional Schoolwide PBS Consultant
Heart of Missouri RPDC
University of Missouri-Columbia, College of Education
2 London Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: 882-5763
Fax: (573) 884-5622


Guidance and Counseling Team:  

Mark Holman worked on the Job Shadowing Project for Sophomores and Special Services students.
Mark attended Inter- Agency Meeting with local agency leaders

All counselors worked on the ACT Junior Practice Day and our upcoming Junior Free ACT Day on April 23, 2013.

Phil Long and Kris Turlington along with financial aid workers from local colleges hosted the FAFSA Frenzy

Guidance Office hosted 4 college/university visits, 2 Military visits and 3 agency visits.

Amy Auwarter brought members of elementary m & M's to eat lunch with high school members of m & M's.

Participated in EOC Planning meetings with Administration, Technology Department, Teaching Staff


Upcoming MHS Events and Activities:  

3/18 - Spring Sports Pictures
3/19- Ned Miller meeting with select teachers
3/20 - Senior Graduation meeting
3/21 - 3/23 - Music Festival
3/21 - University of Michigan, Monitoring the Future Survey w/ Seniors
3/22 - No School
3/25 - 3/27 - Leadership in Practice @ Elks
3/26 - ZAPS, Act Prep test for Sophomores
4/1 - No School
4/5 - 4/7 Choir Trip, St. Louis
4/12 - Foreign Film Festival
4/13 - ACT Test