April Newsletter

It’s hard to believe, but school is almost out.  With that comes a rush of busy nights.  We have track meets, state FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, soccer games, baseball games, golf meets, honors night, and many other events.  That all leads up to graduation!  The school never seems to sleep during the spring!  

A while back you were emailed a survey regarding different aspects of school ranging from safety to curriculum.  We took a good look at the survey results and are going to take some action based on the information we gathered from you.  First, we want to be more transparent and give you a better understanding of what we do during our PLC (professional learning community) time.  Three Wednesday’s a month each department meets when school is out (2:23) to discuss a variety of things.  They go over assessment data, discuss teaching strategies, build blended learning opportunities together, record and discuss data on their checks for understanding, and much more.  The teachers have come up with some great ideas on how to better communicate what they are doing with their time.  Starting next year, we will be showcasing different departments each Wednesday and give you an inside look at what they are doing during PLC time.  We have other ideas in mind as well and will keep you posted as we develop some other ideas.  

The other topic that I would like to discuss from the survey is our campus security.  We have high resolution security cameras that cover both the inside and outside of our campus.  These cameras are also accessible by the police from wherever they are if need be.  In the past couple of years our district has invested money into a locking system.  All of our exterior doors are locked during the school day.  Students and guests now have to ring a doorbell at the main entrance in order to be let into the school.  These are just a few of the security measures that we have in place at the high school.  We also conduct drills each semester in case of an emergency.  

I just want to remind you all that Honors Night is Wednesday, April 26 in the auditorium.  The 9th and 10th grade honors program will start at 5:30, while the 11th and 12th grade program will begin at 7 PM.  Before the 7 PM program, a slide show showing scholarships that each of our seniors have earned will be running on the screen.  Only local scholarships along with scholarships from the school they will be attending will be shown.  Many seniors haven’t told the counselors where they are attending or given their scholarship information to the counselors yet.  Please encourage them to get this taken care of ASAP.  If they don’t provide this information, we can’t prepare a slide for them.  

Finally, we have so many great things to celebrate.  Our students did very well at state FBLA, FFA, and FCCLA.  We have students competing at state SKILLS USA.  We were conference quiz bowl champions.  Our track, golf, baseball, and soccer teams are all doing great things.  We do a great job of keeping you informed on our social media accounts.  I would encourage you to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  Many of the posts you see are from our student led class intercom team!  

It’s A Great Day To Be A Viking!

PJ Smith  

Principal