Hi Everyone,

This past school year has had some great improvements to both academics and our school culture - the way we teach and reach our students.

For me, MHS is first and foremost about serving our students. This year brought many new challenges. We have been endeavoring to maintain a low failure rate (students failing courses) and students off-track to graduate on time (students should earn at least 6 credits per year to graduate on time and be on track). I'm proud to report that we continue to maintain around a 10% course failure rate and our students on-track to graduate on time continues to be high. In addition, we have earned bronze level recognition for positive behavior intervention and support from the state regional professional development program. Finally, our faculty helped students raise their end of course test scores in every area with only one exception.

An interesting statistic came from a look at ACT results in April. At this point we had received all but the final scores from our seniors. These scores indicated students taking the test several times were very likely to score higher each time. Almost 90% of the students attempting the ACT more than once scored higher on subsequent attempts. We will continue to encourage students to try and if they fail, to try again. I was pleased to see our teachers were successful encouraging so many young people to work hard - it pays.

Finally, I was proud of our senior class of 2013 and their scholarship accomplishments. This class worked hard and earned approximately $100,000 more than the class of 2012. While college selection and other factors come into play when arriving at the final figure for all scholarships awarded, the number is a positive indicator of their success.

I've attached our final board report for 2013 below.

T.

Month/Year: May  2013

Current Enrollment: 660

Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 234/42

Student Services Listing:   68 IEP

Students of the Month: Austin Bise and Haley Auwarter

**Teacher of the Month: January - Ms. Yount, February -Mr. Clow, March - Ms. Silver, April - Ms. Beshears

**see note in Dr. Robinson’s portion of this report on how this is determined

Academics

Ms. Michelle Yount, Biology Club Sponsor:  Bio Club planted 7 trees that were donated by the city along the parking lot by the practice field on Monday, May 6th.

Mr. Robert Cotez, Band Instructor:  On April 25, ten students represented Mexico High School at the MSHSAA State Music Festival in Columbia.  Six of our students qualified for State Medals; Jared Melton (Piano Solo), Lillian Rotte (Vocal solo), Jacob Lauer, Madeleine Prince, Chelsea McCord, and Haley Barnes (Saxophone Quartet) - all these students were awarded an Excellent Rating (2) at state.  Also participating in the State Music Festival were Austin Weber, Cassandra Schmidt, Lucas Handlin, and Caleb Quinlan (trombone quartet).

Members of the Mexico High School Band performed the National Anthem at Busch Stadium on May 1, 2013.  In 2006, the band was the first-ever high school marching band to perform at the New Busch Stadium, and has performed there for eight straight years, sponsored by Great American Opportunities.

The Mexico High School Jazz Band and Dixie Gray Band performed at the annual Parade of Bands on May 7 to a packed house in the Sports Complex Gym.  Members of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade bands from Mexico Middle School also performed.

The Mexico High School Jazz Band performed at the Mexico Public Safety Awards night on Friday, May 10, at Presser Hall.

Mrs. Sara Given, Speech & Theatre Teacher:  

Jordan Henry placed 4th in Radio Speaking at the MSHSAA State Speech Competition.  The one act play "Rinse the Blood off My Toga" qualified for State competition and finished 4th in its pool at the competition.  Although we did not advance to the final showdown, the ranks were AMAZING!  The Jellybean Conspiracy production raised $2,135.50 for our local Special Olympics Team.  Loralee Hays, senior, auditioned  and was accepted to the  American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles, California.

Ms. Laura Haynes - Art Teacher:

Art In The Park exhibition was held in Gooch gym on Tuesday, May 7th.

Mrs. Jami Willaims - Multi-Media Teacher:

Introduction to Multimedia - The Introduction to Multimedia class was invited by the website www.codehs.com to submit a testimonial about how they utilized the website to learn and write computer programming code. The testimonial by Ms. Williams is currently featured on the testimonial page of the website. Ms. Williams was invited by Brentwood High School in St. Louis, MO to assist their mathematics department in writing a semester long curriculum incorporating multimedia into mathematics using the codehs.com program.

Journalism - Congratulations to Marissa Bradford for being chosen and Editor in Chief and to Sierra Forsee for being chosen Design Editor of the 2013-2014 volume of The Growl.

Publications - Mexico High School has been inducted for the second year in a row to Walsworth's Gallery of Excellence. The Gallery represents the top five percent of all yearbooks printed by Walsworth. The 2012-2013 edition of The Mascot will be made available nationwide as an example of excellence in theme, design, copy and photography. Mexico High School is one of the smallest high schools in the nation to be inducted into The Gallery two years in a row.

Broadcast Journalism - The Bite (The Mexico High School student network) will be featured on the Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting website as one of schools who are making broadcast journalism work well with the current technology in our district. The Studio Tour feature is by invitation only after viewing clips of student work. Mexico's program was selected based on the quality of the work produced. According  the  Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting founder Dave Davis MHS has "The kind of stuff you expect to see from the multi-million dollar facilities; the kind of work that puts those schools to shame when you compare the facilities. Proof positive that quality has nothing to do with money and equipment and everything to do with commitment, quality standards and teachers who demand the best..."

Administration Team

Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:

We met our goal to achieve Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Bronze level(level 1)  with the hard work of everyone in our building. Valuable leadership from Ms. Patty Swisher and Mr. Ellebracht was key to helping our team stay on track and guide the effort. The team will travel to a statewide networking meeting in June to begin working toward the next level of certification (silver).

We have been planning our last day of school celebration of success assembly and field day/bar-b-q for students; all students may attend if they have finished their finals on the two days prior.

A school wide survey was given to all teachers and the results are being used to guide academic improvement efforts with the instructional leadership team (dept. chairs and key personnel are on this team). The team focuses on the first two questions every professional learning community attempts to answer:

1. What is it we want our students to learn?

(essential skills, objectives, essential learning, standards)

2. How will we know if each student has learned it?

(formative and summative assessment)

Recently the team assisted with planning our past “Find Your Path” night for incoming freshmen and decided the best placement of 6 additional minutes of instructional time for the 2013-14 school year -these minutes will be added to our lunch period to alleviate the effect on split lunch classes. Finally, they contributed to how our online courses should be handled (E2020) in relation to awarding credit.  The team will meet at a time to be determined in late July to make instructional decisions for 2013-14, to review EOC and ACT results, and plan for teacher team learning.

ACT - an analysis of senior ACT results (prior to our last free test in April).

125 students had taken the test at least once.

151 students had not tested yet.

Of the 125 students tested, 83 students attempted the ACT two or more times (up to 4 times in a few cases).

74 students or 89% of students raised their scores from 1 to 11 points. This is an indicator additional student effort (perseverance) and MHS preparation are making a positive impacts on college and career readiness results measured by the ACT. We do not have the final results from the last free ACT in April yet.

**We have field-tested a new process to provide customer (student) feedback to our teachers. We have surveyed approximately

15% -20% of the entire student body every month since January 2013 and asked: “Which one of your teachers is working hard to help you learn and deserves to be recognized as teacher of the month?” Students also have to provide one statement why they believe the teacher deserves the recognition. Mr. Anderson, Mr. Ellebracht and Dr. Robinson distribute feedback cards to students randomly each month ( over 100 are collected) and they are then tabulated. The teacher with the highest percentage of positive feedback is named teacher of the month. The teacher receives the best parking space parking pass, a gift card from Dr. Robinson and all teachers receive their feedback cards from students.

Activities/Athletics

Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:

Spring Sports Report:

Boys Golf – Brock Lunceford, Alex Bledsoe & Austin Kelsay  made the cut at Districts and went to Sectionals on the 6th of May. Austin Kelsay had a wonderful day of golf at Sectionals and qualified for State! State golf is the 13th & 14th of May. Brock was also All-Conference for Golf.

District Track was held here on the 10th of May with Jake Anderson, Jon Anderson, Anne Baker, Karen Baker, Jami Brandow, Colin Cosby, Kamden Ekern, Phoebe Frazer, Malik Holman, Zori Holman, Sean Kelly, Christian McKeown, Alex Shaw, Tori Shaw & DayNeisha Shivers all moving on to Sectionals. Sectional Track will be held in Mexico on the 18th of May.

Baseball, Girls Soccer and Boys Tennis are all competing at the District Level this week.

The Spring Sports reception will be held on May 22nd with Cookies & Punch starting at 6:30.

Dead Week is August 3-11 and the first day of Fall practices will be August 12th.

Guidance and Counseling Team  

Guidance office April activities:

Provided EOC training for Teachers at MHS, MEC and MMS.

Assisted with career Path Breakout Sessions

Counselor had several Scholarship committee meetings for Local Scholarships

Phil supervised the ASVAB test, and EOC testing and EOC make up testing

Organized A+ Summer School tutors

Career Path parent night at MHS

Student Presentation at MMS and St. Brendans for 2013-2014 course requests

Supervised the ACT/Aspire Testing

3 college/university visits

8 agency visits

4 military visits

A Look Inside with "This is MHS" and other videos from our students

Hi Everyone,

Did you ever wonder about what's happening in the classrooms of MHS?  Maybe you wonder what students are thinking about current topics, homecoming, activities...we'll take a look at this link with several videos created this school year from Mrs.Jamie Williams Media and Broadcasting class.

In particular, I asked students to create a "This is MHS" video with the classroom as focus. I hope you enjoy taking a look as some of what is happening at MHS.


HERE's THE LINK:
http://www.schooltube.com/organization/164887/

Dr. Robinson

Reflecting on a Positive 2012-13

Hello Everyone,

It has been a quick school year and it is hard to believe we only have a few weeks remaining! At this time of year I begin to notice all the great seniors around our building and realize they won't be with us next year. Senior leadership makes a difference at MHS and the class of 2013 has made their mark in a positive way at MHS. Their school spirit, their leadership in sports, student council and many other activities along with their academic prowess has helped improve the atmosphere at MHS.

In general this time of year we start to look back on what we can improve and be an even better service to our students and their families. At this time of year I hope you remember our teachers and all support staff as we wind down the year and offer them a kind word of thanks. We are all reflecting on what we were able to accomplish and what we plan to improve for the coming 2013-14 school year.

Thank you for your trust in us to lead your young person to success.

T.


REPORT TO OUR SCHOOL BOARD FOLLOWS:

Month/Year: April 2013


Current Enrollment: 656

Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 273

Student Services Listing: 69 IEP / 9 LEP


Students of the Month: Kamden Ekern and Danielle Blair

Academics


Katrina Dukes - P.E.
We have incorporated new activities in our Girls Strength and conditioning classes: zumba, P90X, insanity, and Pilates (just to name a few).. Many of the students enjoy the different workouts and are investing in these programs on their own.

Mrs. Lindsey Yancey/ Librarian and Student Council Sponsor:

Mrs. Yancey, Jacob Lauer, DayNeisha Shivers, Victoria Shaw and Gabe Jones attended the State Student Council Convention in Washington, MO over spring break. Jacob and DayNeisha were group leaders of discussion rooms for students from schools throughout the state! We were able to share many of the great things we do at MHS as well as pick up new ideas where we can improve!

The MHS Student Council was awarded the Gold Level Honor Council award. To meet the qualifications for this award we had to meet standards for community service, student and teacher appreciation, involvement with Special Olympics, attendance and involvement at the district and state level of Student Council and many other things. The MHS Student Council sponsors are very proud of the work our students have done!

MHS Speech and Theatre and Student Council are partnering for a very special community event. The Jellybean Conspiracy is a Reader's Theatre piece performed by regular as well as special services students and carries a very moving message of tolerance and the value of all people. This will be performed on April 17 at 7:30 in Emmons Hall. Please consider attending this event, see how talented and amazing our students really are! Cost is $5 at the door, doors open at 6:30.

Mrs. Bridget Bingham - Special Services

The Home Management Class is tickled pink! We went to the library today to check our pencil machine. (this was an additional project for students in Mrs. Bingham’s class this year) We had some money! The students counted $27.50!! The students are excited to see the deposit ticket. We are also having a guest speaker from the United Credit Union come talk with my math class about banking this April.

Mrs. Linda Rice - FACS and FCCLA

Eight Mexico HS students will be attending the FCCLA State Leadership Conference April 7-9 in Columbia. They have been preparing all year for the conference.

FCCLA will hold an officers election on April 24. The event will be a formal dress-up affair. Students interested in running for office for 2013-14 will give speeches and have a friend give a speech. Elections will be held April 25.

FCCLA will sponsor a banquet on May 11 at 4 PM for members and parents. Dress will be formal. A candlelight induction ceremony will be held.


The Life On Your Own classes learned how to plan menus based on the meal planning principles of variety in color, texture, taste, temperature, size and shape of food. The meal had to be nutritious, representing all the food groups on the USDA MyPlate, and not cost more than $1.50 per person. In one class, Brent Hildebrand brought an electric smoker and his group smoked ribs, while another group made homemade rolls, fruit salad and chocolate torte. Lyssa Smith brought her family recipe for Cajun chicken which was served with homemade mac and cheese and tie-dyed cupcakes. Emri Kerr showed off his cake decorating skills by teaching students to decorate cupcakes using homemade frosting and decorating tools.

The Advanced child Development class is designing a day care. They named it "Da Crib". They decided on what centers to offer, what toys and equipment to put in the centers, and planned a daily schedule to begin at 6 AM and close at 7 PM. They are publishing an activities booklet containing children's games, crafts, recipes and their favorite story books. They made hand puppets and are planning to invite in some small guests to play with us.

There's never a dull moment in FACS. Stop in sometime for a visit. We will make you smile!!!

Administration Team:

Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:

Our Career Path Night for incoming Freshmen and their parents was held on April 4. We changed the format of this meeting to include an informational video created by Mrs. Williams and I and invited teachers from HCC and MHS representing our college and career pathways to meet with parents and students. The counselors also provided information about scheduling and planning to take courses focusing on a career path. The event was well attended with approximately 200 parents and students in attendance.

All departments are focused on final preparations for the End of Course tests. Teachers have had the added advantage to examine student progress with the addition of a SCANTRON machine. In addition, departments have met to review their curriculum scope and sequence. Our focus has been on developing an answer to two essential professional learning community questions: 1)What do we want our students to learn? 2) How do we know they have learned?. For 2012-13 teachers were directed to measure their results regularly so they could know if students were learning. In addition, I’ve collected survey data from our faculty to better inform our building plan for 2013-14 as we continue to address professional development needs and overall building needs. Almost all teachers provided valuable feedback and the Instructional Leadership Team made up of building teacher-leaders and administration will be reviewing the feedback to plan well for 2013-14.

I attended an AdvancED review of Vashon High School in St. Louis. MO on April 2-4. This review was a new enhanced version of the review of Mexico High School last school year. It offered some new tools to measure school success and systems for students. Vashon High School faces many of the challenges of MHS that are coupled with students from a disadvantaged background. It was a valuable learning experience.

PBiS - Positive Behavior Intervention and Support

Since our last review went well, we have decided to submit our application for Bronze status. We believe we have a very good chance of being certified ahead of schedule. If not, we will have the benefit of being reviewed again and receive quality feedback about where we can improve to achieve Bronze status.


Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:

Activities/Athletics

Spring Sports have begun. Many reschedules due to the wonderful winter weather sticking around longer than we would like. Track will be hosting the Ron Whittaker Classic on the 20th with many teams attending. Baseball will host a Freshman Tournament on the 27th and Varsity will play in the Marshall & Fulton Tournaments. Boys Tennis & Boys Golf are both well into their seasons. Tennis has an upcoming Tournament in Hannibal. Girls Soccer will be competing in the Camdenton Tournament the 26th & 27th.

Mr. Robert Cortez - Band and Orchestra

The Dixie Gray Band will be performing the National Anthem at Busch Stadium on Wednesday, May 1.

Here's the update from Music Festival . The Annual MSHSAA Music Festival was held March 21-22-23 at Mexico High School. Ten students qualified for the State Music Festival in Columbia.

Results from Mexico High School are as follows:

State Music Festival - Large Groups

Mexico High School Band - Robert Cortez, Director - 1 (Superior)

Mexico High School Choir - Julie Dreier, Director - 2 (Excellent)

District Music Festival - Solos and Small Ensembles

SUPERIOR (1) RATINGS - Advance to State Music Festival in Columbia (April 25)

Lillian Rotte, Vocal Solo

Jared Melton, Piano Solo

Saxophone Quartet (Jacob Lauer, Madeleine Prince, Chelsea McCord, and Haley Barnes)

Trombone Quartet (Austin Weber, Cassandra Schmidt, Lucas Handlin, and Caleb Quinlan)

Guidance and Counseling Team:

Guidance Office hosted 4 college visits, 6 agency visits, 6 military visits

Guidance Office hosted the ZAPS-ACT workshop on March 26th.

Local Scholarship deadline was March 15th, with 68 Seniors turning in 2064 scholarship applications. In addition, 24 current college students turned in 55 scholarship applications.

The 2013-2014 course Catalog was finalized and enrollment will begin the week of April 1st.

The CHECS program hosted four community volunteers within the Career Paths of Business, Management, & Technology & Human Services. Juniors, based upon their selection of possible career paths, attended the Career Path Breakout Sessions. Mr. Neely, Mrs. Turlington and Mr. Louder facilitated the sessions.

Mr. Holman organized the 8th grade high school tour on March 5th.

Upcoming MHS Events and Activities:

4/17 & 7/18 - Jellybean Conspiracy Performance in Emmons @ 7:30p.m.

4/19 & 4/20 - State Speech & Debate in Columbia

4/20 - Ron Whittaker Bulldog Track Classic

4/23 - ACT Free Testing for all Juniors and Seniors

5/4 - Prom “A Roaring Night Under the Lights”

5/7 - Parade of Bands

5/8 - Band Banquet

5/9 - Spring Choir Concert in Emmons

5/10 - Noteworthy Dinner Theatre in Emmons

5/14, 5/15 & 5/16 - Senior’s Finals and Grades Due

5/16 - Last Day for Seniors

5/17 - Senior Awards Assembly @ Sports Complex 9:00a.m.-11:00a.m.

- Graduation Practice & Senior Class Panoramic Picture @ 1:00p.m.

5/19 - Baccalaureate in Emmons @ 6:00p.m.

5/20 - 2013 Commencement Ceremony @ Hawthorne Heights 8:00p.m.

5/22 - 5/24 - Finals and Grades Due

5/24 - Last Day of School

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

November 2012

Hi Everyone,

We continue to work to improve the high school. We are committed to continuous improvement. I appreciate everyone responding to our last survey about parent-teacher conferences. The data we collected was insightful and helped us gauge our efforts and the event.  In response to some of the data, we will be advocating for a second parent-teacher conference for Spring 2014 - so next school year will likely have two parent teacher conferences. In addtion, in collaboration with our academic boosters we are pushing for students to attend our academic intervention study hall and for our teachers to support this after school study hall by providing assignments students can complete to earn credit in their courses. I've appreciated the continued support of our academic boosters to help us shore up our graduation rate. In addition I encourage you to check out the following website created by Jamie Williams our media and broadcasting teacher and her students - take an inside look at MHS and the learning opportunities we provide for our students:

at   http://worklikeadog.weebly.com/

I apologize for being a bit behind in my posts; I'm going to attempt to catch up this month, the October board report is below for your information.

OCTOBER BOARD REPORTS FOLLOW:

Month/Year: October, 2012

Current Enrollment: 719
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 320; 42%
Student Services Listing: IEP-84, LEP-10
Students of the Month: Jake Anderson and Sarah Smith

Academics

Administration Team:

Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:

Using Data to Inform Instruction

Department chairs will have four collaborative department meetings during the month of October to complete their Plan Do Check Act continuous improvement cycles. Tentatively these plans will be presented in November by each department so all faculty will be aware of and consider plans in the building. These cycles of improvement are team level efforts by MHS departments to improve EOC scores by 10% in the top two levels - advanced and proficient and to meet at least the state-level annual performance review requirement for the ACT. Ms. Gina Gilman, Mr. Michael Auer and I have facilitated department chair meetings and attended department level meetings when available to support his effort. In addition, Mr. Auer, from our Columbia, Missouri Regional Professional Development Committee will be assisting department chairs and attending some department meetings to assist in building teamwork within departments and embedding professional learning community and quality improvement practices. Overall, the goal of the high school is to grow teacher-leadership capacity and teamwork to achieve results

Our first practice ACT was held for seniors on September 27. This date was moved forward to gain data sooner about areas teachers could address with our seniors and possible affect final ACT scores. We are also attempting to enhance the data processing in the high school of the results via a computer program using scanned answer cards. Mr. Neely and Ms. Gilman have been instrumental in working toward implementing the new scanning machine and working with our vendor and Jenn Kraft and Dana Hunt.

In classroom walkthroughs I have observed more use of PLAN, EXPLORE and ACT test items to prepare students. We are still planning to enhance our finals for December 2012 by better reflecting the rigor of the ACT and EOC assessments.

JROTC Continued Growth

Over 40 students are currently participating in JROTC with support from the Missouri Military Academy. This program has nearly doubled in growth. Our homecoming parade featured the first Mexico High School JROTC color guard.

Parent-teacher conferences measured in post-conference online surveys

Our parent teacher conferences were measured as part of our continued improvement in this area at the high school. Parents participated in their conferences with teachers, then parents privately responded to a survey online which tabulated the results.

I’ve included the results below from an email memo sent to our teachers. The items we measured consider respect and communication, as well as the overall experience at parent-teacher conferences. 202 parents completed the survey. Our goal is to continue to improve these areas in our communication with our parents. We have collected these results which now allows us to chart our progress and monitor our performance each year. (see email memo next page).

Summary from an Email to our teachers follows:

September 28, 2012

Congrats to everyone on Parent-Teacher conferences!

Here are our overall approval ratings from Parent-Teacher Conferences Sept. 2012:

Total responses: ranged between 196-202 parents for each one below; some items were answered, while others were not

Overall rating of experience: 95% Positive or Very Positive - A

Communication on child's progress was helpful: 87.3% Agree or Strongly Agree - B+

Communication about grading: 85.5% Agree or Strongly Agree (parents understand how

grades being determined) - B

Communicating respect to parents (Teachers): 92.5% Agree or Strongly Agree - A minus

Communicating respect to parents (Administrators): 84.9% Agree or Strongly Agree - B

Child feels safe at school: 82.8% Agree or Strongly Agree - B

**note: a few items not calculated here for the "other" category in the question asked would push a percentage up or down by 1%

More to come, but good grades all around with some room for improvement

Our next goal will be to have all As in every category.

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Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:

Mexico High School hosted softball districts this past week as an addition to our homecoming festivities. We will be meeting this week to determine the location of district competition for basketball. Due to some district reassignments being made by MSHSAA, Mexico was not the top choice by voting schools in the new district for wrestling districts competition for 2012-13. St. Charles West will host district wrestling for the 2012-13 school year. However, the wrestling district tournament will be held in Mexico for
2013-14.

PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Patty Swisher

The team has continued to attend trainings and is meeting requirements for PBiS with guidance from the Columbia, Missouri RPDC. The next meeting will be in Columbia on October 11, 2012. An informational video on proper assembly behavior was shown to seminar classes just prior to the homecoming assembly. In addition, students continue to be frequently recognized with bulldog respect, responsibility and safety tickets each week. A drawing has been held each week for dinner and food coupons to local Mexico restaurants. We have also expanded the collaboration and idea sharing at the district level by attending a district level meeting for PBiS. We recently completed our first set of discipline data to review. This data provides areas to improve with our students by category of offense, area and time of day.

Bridget Bingham – Special Education Teacher

The Home Management students will be walking to Westlake's next week to purchase mums. We will be planting them in the flowerbed adjacent to the MHS circle drive. This is an annual project for the students and a welcome addition to enhancing our school environment.

Sara Given – Speech, Drama and Theatre Teacher

On Friday, September 28 Sara Given presented a workshop at the Speech & Theatre Association of Missouri Conference at their annual conference. Sara was asked to present about her Advanced Children's Theatre program. She specifically addressed the current script writing unit the students are completing and their original anti-drug program they will perform at our elementary schools October 9-11.

The Advanced Children's Theatre class will present their anti-drug program at St. Brendan's Tuesday, October 9 at 2:00, Eugene Field Wednesday, October 10 at 2:00 and McMillan Thursday, October 11 at 2:00. All are welcome to attend.

Jami Williams – Media, Technology, Yearbook and Publications Teacher

The Mexico High School broadcast journalism program debut their first video newsmagazine, The Bark, on the MHS student broadcasting network, The Bite, on October 4, 2012. The network is currently an online channel and is currently housed at www.thebitemhs.weebly.com. The show, which was student-generated, student-written and student-produced, is the first broadcast since the program moved to Mexico High School from Hart Career Center this year. There are 21 students enrolled in the class and each student had a hand in one of the six stories that aired. The Bark will be produced every two weeks with the next show going up on the site on October 18, 2012 at 9 p.m. The October 18 show will feature digital profiles of each students' "hero" or a character in their life that has had an impact on them. The Bite has recently been invited to become a Midwest affiliate of STN (Student Television Network), which is a division of the Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting. Ms. Williams, the instructor/adviser, has also received an invitation to present her student work at the ASB Vid-Con held in Springfield, MO, at the end of the month.

The Bite, the overarching student broadcast network, will also begin working with KWWR/KXEO within the next month to bring a student presence to the local airwaves. One possibility that has been discussed is a morning drive-time show "Drive with a Dog" which will be pre-taped by members of the class and submitted to KXEO and run one day each week during the morning drive to school.

Stay tuned for GREAT things from the Broadcast Journalism students!

Guidance and Counseling Team:

Guidance Office activities during the past month of September:

• ACT practice day Sept. 27

• ACT meeting with senior seminar groups

• Mr. Neely attended the Articulation/CTE Advisory at MACC in Moberly

• Parent/Teacher Conferences

• College Career Fair

• Counselors meeting at HCC

• Mr. Holman administrated Explore and Plan Tests for 9th and 10th graders

• All counselors proctored small group testing for Explore and Plan

• MACC visited concerning DC Classes

• Senior Parent Night

• Scantron integration

• Mrs. Turlington and Mr. Neely attended the MU Counselor Meeting

• Mr. Holman attended our local Interagency Meeting

• New Scholarship opportunities have been downloaded on our website

• 8 College/university visits during September

• MHS/HCC College Fair

• 1 Army presentation

• 8 Army lunch room visits

• 104 transcripts requests mailed

MHS Events and Activities:

We concluded District Softball on the 6th. We hosted this event with 2 games on Wednesday, 2 games on Thursday and the championship game on Saturday.

Girls Golf is competing in sectionals on October 8th. They and tennis both finished up district competitions earlier this month.

School House Rock practices are well under way. Our students will perform this wonderful musical on November 16th & 17th at 7:00 pm and again on Sunday the 18th at 2:00 pm.

Football, Cross Country, Volleyball & Boys soccer will all wrap up regular seasons this month with districts to follow at the end of the month.

The MMS & MHS Student Councils will be bringing “Rachel’s Challenge” to our district on the 23rd of October with an assembly at both the Middle School & the High School.

Winter sports will have practices starting on October 29th. Schedules are posted on the MHS Athletics page.

Parents and Guardians,

We will hold parent-teacher conferences this week on Thursday, Sept. 27, 1:00 - 8 pm and Friday, 8 am to 11 am.
If you haven't made an appointment with a teacher yet, they may have difficulty reaching you.
Please call the main office and we can set an appointment for you.
573-581-4296

We'll also be collecting feedback on our parent=-teacher conferences. This is the link:

http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=dg7w6psinlgre5p1045645

After parent teacher conferences we encourage you to visit our feedback table and inform us about your experience and how we can improve. The table will have several laptops you can use to reach the survey website above, but if you're pressed for time, feel free to use the link above following your conference from home.


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