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!