Report Cards and Calendar Changes

Happy Friday!

Nearly a month after our initially scheduled end to the first term we are finally distributing report cards this afternoon to all students. I encourage all parents/guardians to ask their child(ren) for the report card tonight. I am planning a Connect-Ed message as well to act as a reminder this evening that report cards were distributed. On behalf of Monson High School and the entire district I apologize for the delays in distributing the report cards. Unfortunately the technology crash we experienced for the past several weeks made this most important task impossible.

Related to the historical snow storm in late October and early November we lost six valuable school days. Six school days equates to just over 6% of an entire semester. We have decided to extend the first semester to Friday, January 27, 2012. This will aid in making up this lost time, which is very important as we continue to prepare our students for MCAS, SAT's, AP testing, etc. The superintendent shared a Connect-Ed message earlier this week noting that we have now changed our two half days in January to now be Thursday and Friday, January 26th and 27th. This will allow our first semester exams to run those two days and afford our teachers an opportunity to grade the exams, close out the first semester courses, and prepare for the new second semester courses that will begin on Monday, January 30, 2012.

Until next time...enjoy your weekend!

Parking Lot Safety

Greetings,

I've been in recent communications with our district Transportation Director and the Monson Police Chief. These discussions have centered on a few topics. Please review the following points and feel free to contact me with any questions:

1. The law prohibits any vehicle from passing a school bus or school van that is in the process of loading or unloading students. Recently we have had drivers pass our school vans as they are parked loading and unloading students by the school entrance. Please, if you see a parked van do not pass them. To avoid potential confusion I would recommend all general traffic to use the upper parking lot as a pick up and drop off and allow the buses and vans to use the upper drop off area.

2. I have asked for assistance from the police department to help monitor drivers leaving the school at dismissal. We have had some instances where student drivers are exiting too quickly and I am fearful of potential accidents.

I am sharing both of these topics to not only remind people to be cognizant of the buses and vans and the appropriate laws, but to also inform people that an increased police presence within our parking lots and Margaret Street should not come as a surprise. My main focus is on the health and safety of all our students, faculty and community and hope if we can work together we will minimize potential tragic circumstances.

Thank you!

Monson Technology Concerns

It is truly amazing how dependent we have become on technology. I've never realized how important technology is within my professional and personal life until we are faced with such issues. As many of you know, the October snowstorm caused severe infrastructure damage to the school district's network capabilities. I wish I had the magic answer to solve these problems so we can get back to full functioning. Email communication is difficult with several domains and teachers and staff have no access to drives so files are inaccessible.

The most frustrating aspect for the high school is our inability to access our Student Information System. This includes grades. Yes, report cards were supposed to be distributed last week. Due to the technology issues, this is impossible. Once the systems are back up and running we will complete the exporting of grades so we can complete the report card process and distribute. This hopefully will occur soon after the Thanksgiving break.

Seniors should be in contact with their school counselor if our technology problems are interfering with the college admissions process. Our counselors have reached out to several colleges already. Thus far the colleges are understanding. We will do everything within our power to ensure our seniors are not negatively impacted by the technology flaws. Please encourage your seniors to seek out the school counselors with any questions and/or concerns.

Thank you. I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving break!

MHS Athletes of the Week

Each week the Monson Athletic Boosters Association sponsors an Athlete of the Week. I would like to take a moment and congratulate the following student-athletes who have received this special honor thus far this season. I will continue to update everyone as we continue recognizing our athletes.

Connor Maloney - golf
Jennifer Lusty - JV soccer
Kurt Gallo - JV soccer
Adrianna Russell - XC
Ian Thorp - XC
Brooke Murphy - soccer
Nick Lobik - soccer
Jon Fabrycki - golf
Miranda Couture - JV soccer
Nick Levesque - JV soccer

CollegeAccess

The Town of Monson was recently selected as a community eligible to receive a wonderful service through the Valley Opportunity Council. This opportunity is called CollegeAccess and entails several free workshops targeting low-income families (adults and children) that will assist these families towards increasing their college awareness and prepardeness.

The first workshop will be held at the Monson Library on November 17th at 6:30pm.

I encourage families to seek out this opportunity to learn more about the entire process.

This link is of a flyer describing in more detail the CollegeAccess program.

Rebuilding Monson

This link provides some useful information for families still struggling with the post-tornado cleanup. Students and families wanting to pitch a "helping hand" are asked to volunteer this coming Saturday for the Monson tree planting event. Check out the link for more information! Students needing volunteer hours and also complete their service through one of these events.

Progress Reports and Other Thoughts

Can you believe today marks Day #23 of the school year? That's almost 13% of the school year. Recognizing that we are 1/2 way through our first term I wanted to notify everyone that we will be conducting our typical progress report routines this week. Teachers who are concerned about certain students will prepare a progress report and submit the reports to Guidance this Wednesday. We will then collate all the progress reports and mail them home on Friday. We do this knowing that Edline is a valuable tool, but want to ensure an extra step of communication is made in hopes of better serving our students. Feel free to contact your child's teacher and/or school counselor with any questions or concerns you may have.

Onto other news...

1. Congratulations to the 67 students recognized at last Monday's Fall Academic Awards/ Pep Rally. These students achieved the honor roll for each quarter last school year. I thank the entire school community for their spirit and attendance. Also, a big thank you goes out to our guest speakers at the event, Mrs. Erica Walch from the PTSA, our Superintendent Mr. Dardenne, and a big applause for Ms. Serena Willis who provided the keynote speech. Ms. Willis was the 2011 Distinguished Service Award Recipient and truly hit a home run with her presentation. Who else wants to be part of the 212 degrees team? I sure do!

2. Our fall athletic schedule is well underway. The rain sure has put a damper on our teams, but all our student-athletes are performing well. I encourage the community to catch some action. Our students love it when spectators are cheering them on!

3. Next Monday is Columbus Day and thus no school. I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable "long weekend".

Until next time...take care!

One-Act Play Competition Decision

After long thought and many discussions, I have decided to end our typical routines surrounding the annual One-Act Play Competition. For those unfamiliar with the tradition, our class advisors would organize and direct a One-Act Play and compete with the other classes during an Interclass One-Act Play Competition. Years ago, the competition awarded points to the winning class towards the school's Winter Carnival activities. More recently, the competition was simply a nice evening event that brought individual classes together.

Please understand I do not intend to totally eliminate a One-Act Play activity. My goal is to work with our Drama Club Advisor in developing a new event that is based on One-Act Plays. In addition to this change in the One-Act Play structure the vision will be for the Drama Club Advisor to continue with our annual Spring Production.

Thanks for your time. Take care and have a wonderful day!

Congratulations to Mr. Bardwell

Mr. Bardwell, one of our MHS school counselors along with being the director of the district school counseling program, was recently awarded the 2011 Government Relations Award by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). According to Mr. Bardwell's notification letter the award is, "chosen by the Government Relations Committee, this award is presented to a NACAC member who has made outstanding efforts in support of policy initiatives that promote equal access to higher education, encourage student achievement and counselor excellence, and further the other government relations priorities of NACAC members."

On behalf of the entire MHS staff and faculty I congratulate Mr. Bardwell for this wonderful award. He is truly a special person and asset to our entire community.

Connect-Ed Message Going Out Tonight!

I am scheduling a Connect-Ed message that will be sent out to our school community this evening. For those that miss the call here is the what I am sending:

Good evening,

This is Dr. Linkenhoker, the Principal of Monson High School. I have a few important announcements to make regarding upcoming events at Monson High School. To begin, our fall Open House is scheduled for next Thursday, September 15^th beginning at 6:30pm. You’ll be able to meet with your son or daughter’s teachers along with his or her S.A.P Advisor. I hope to see many of you there as the evening builds important bonds between teachers and parents so we can better serve our students and children.

Secondly, I have scheduled our annual fall awards program for Monday, September 26, 2011 beginning at 8:45am. This program recognizes returning students who maintained honor roll status the entire previous year. A mailing is being prepared to be mailed home to families of awardees. This program is intended to honor the success of these students while acting as motivation to our new and returning students for a successful school year.

Parents of freshmen and new students should expect a mailing over the next few days. This mailing includes your personal login and password information for Edline, our web-based grade reporting service. Please find time to login and create your account so you can remain aware of your son or daughter’s grades. Parents have found this resource invaluable over the past several years.

And finally, I want to once again reiterate that I have discontinued the traditional Parent Newsletter. My blog is up and running and hopefully you have had a chance to view it. You’ll find periodic updates and information posted on the blog and hopefully we can use it as a more efficient means of communication and idea sharing. You can view the blog at: www.mhsprincipalblog.blogspot.com

Take care and have a great evening!

Changes to the MHS Attendance Policy

This entry is going to detail the changes to our Attendance Policy, which is probably the biggest change to our Parent-Student Handbook this year. I hope everyone takes the time to review the policy as it will definitely impact students as we move forward. In short, we've cut the allowable absences per semester in half. Previously students were allowed 12 absences in a semester before losing academic credit. This year students are only allowed six absences in a semester.

The handbook outlines five excusable absences that will not go against the Attendance Policy. The five reasons are: student is hospitalized, observing a religious holiday, there is a death in the immediate family, the student participates in a school sponsored or approved activity, or there are mandated court appearances. The one excuse that is not listed and will not be an approved absence is a family vacation. The handbook states, "family trips, vacations, or appointments should be scheduled to coincide with school vacations or non-school days."

I realize life does happen and for that reason we do offer an appeal process. If a student does exceed the attendance limit then a parent/guardian is allowed to appeal the policy. The appeal involves writing a short letter asking for the appeal. This letter should be addressed to me. I will then review the situation and either make an immediate decision or call for a meeting.

The change in the Attendance Policy comes after reflecting on our mission statement. Were we truly preparing our students for living, learning, and working in the 21st century if we were allowing students to miss 12 days in a semester (24 days a year)? I am confident the new policy will better prepare our students for the expectations they will face in college, at work, or within the military.

As a reminder, you can access the entire Parent-Student Handbook by following these steps:

1. Go to http://www.monsonschools.com/
2. Click on Monson High in the left column
3. Click on Handbook

Feel free to comment or contact me with questions and/or concerns. Take care!

Welcome Back!

Today marks our first school day of 2011-2012! I am very excited to get the year kicked off on the right foot. I want to focus this blog entry on our new faces amongst the staff and faculty. I'm thrilled with the new additions this year and am confident we'll have a wonderful and successful year.

To begin, I want to introduce Mrs. Toole. Mrs. Toole is our 1/2 time Spanish teacher. She'll be with us this entire first semester teaching Spanish I. Mrs. Toole brings a varied background including teaching at Pathfinder and North Carolina.

Next, I'd like to welcome Mr. Rost. Mr. Rost recently moved to Massachusetts after a strong teaching background in Iowa. Mr. Rost will be teaching Algebra III, Honors Algebra I and Algebra IA this first semester.

The last teacher new to MHS is not new to Monson. Mr. Sitnik has made the transition from Granite Valley Middle School and will be teaching Algebra I and Geometry this first semester. His experience within the district will be a great asset for us as we move forward.

Finally, I have great excitement to introduce our new Assistant Principal, Mr. Siciliano. Mr. Siciliano has a wealth of teaching and administrative experience that will truly make MHS a better and stronger institution of learning. He brings a firm, but fair approach to the position and I'm sure before long he'll get to know all the students here at MHS.

In the near future I'll share some important dates and events on the horizon. I hope to see many parents and community members at our various events this year in hopes of building a strong relationship between school, home and community.

Until next time...take care!

Welcome!

As we continue moving into the 21st century and gain access to a myriad of social media resources I have decided to start this blog for a few reasons. Most importantly, I recognize the power of social media and want to tap into this resource as a means of communicating with our students, parents, faculty, and larger community. I will update the blog with current events within Monson High School and thus will discontinue the traditional Principal Newsletter. This change will ensure pertinent information is shared on a more timely basis and hopefully minimize the gap in information sharing between the school and home. When vital information is shared via the blog I will also follow up with a Connect-Ed message to ensure parents are aware of the posting. For those families who cannot access the blog, feel free to contact the MHS Office at 413.267.4589 and a hard copy of the information can be provided.

Through networking with other Principals across the state it is becoming apparent social media and networking is here to stay. Rather than hiding from this fact, lets rejoice it and use it to our advantage! I look forward to your comments and continued collaboration as Monson High School strives to take the lead in the educational frontier!