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!