Friday, October 7, 2016

When You Make Something a Priority...

What a beautiful week we had. It was great to see the elementary students in full-blown outdoor recess mode and to not have to wear a jacket yet has been fantastic!

Celebrating Marching Band Seniors: We have many "senior nights" for various sports and performing groups, but we wanted to give the Marching Band a special senior night congratulations because theirs did not happen on Saturday as planned at the end of a very long Tournament of Bands day.

The Tournament of Bands is a huge undertaking for the staff, students, and parents, and the capstone each year is for the band to perform in front of approximately two thousand people, followed by their senior recognition ceremony. All was going according to plan on Saturday until a big flash of lightening and a huge rainstorm caused everyone to scatter.

Luckily, last night was absolutely gorgeous and a perfect backdrop for their recognition!

Attendance Goal Update: At the beginning of the school year I mentioned that one of our goals was to improve upon our already solid average daily attendance at the high school. The high school administration, faculty, and staff have been working toward this goal, and I wanted to share with you that our average daily attendance is already up 1.78% from last year (a small number on paper, but huge statistically) and truancies (late to class) are down 3.32%.

What has been helping is our increased attention to school spirit, sense of family, increased communication with parents, and students not wanting to miss anything by being out or late. Kudos to all. When students attend school, they have a MUCH greater chance at success.

With the long weekend ahead, I will not be posting my usual blog on Monday. Enjoy the long weekend, and I will write to you again on the flip side.

Take care and thanks for your support.

Chris