Notes from the Principal -- November, 2009!
Hello Milan families,
New MHS Office Hours: Milan High's Guidance Office is open from 7 am to 2:30 pm. Our High School Office is open 7:15 am to 3:15 pm. Please make sure to conduct any school business during these hours during the school week!
No D's at Milan High! Milan High's junior team instituted a "No D" policy last year -- and the results were clear: failure dropped in the junior level and our ACT scores improved! After seeing those results, several teachers and teams are going with the policy, including the sophomore and senior teams! While the bar has been raised for proficiency, there will be more in-the-class support and assistance during SRT and after-school (See ZAP! below). Our staff has realized that there are certain standards of curriculum that all students need to be proficient on, and to a high level of excellence. Just as you and I would want a surgeon or plumber that scored higher that 62% on their exam, our staff knows the key ACT standards, and wants our students to learn these standards to a higher degree! Contact me if you have any questions or concerns!
MME & Merit Scholarship Changes Made at State Level: The state has made a few changes to the Michigan Merit Exam and Merit Scholarship. First, there will only be one writing prompt (ACT Writing test) for the year. The Social Studies writing prompt was dropped due to costs to the state. A new WorkKeys test, the Locating Information test, has been added. With this addition, all students have the chance to earn the National Career Readiness certificate. This certificate is starting to be used at work sites for entry level positions...including Dow Chemical. Finally, seniors needing to re-take to earn the upfront money in the Merit Scholarship only need to re-take the ACT. This can be done on any of the nationally scheduled Saturday test dates. Re-takes will no longer be funded by the state -- so its the child/family's obligation to pay for the re-take ACT test. For more information, contact me at rreed@milan.k12.mi.us.
Looking for a graduation gift? Milan High School Athletic Development Office is offering some great gifts for your senior, current student, or favorite alumni! What could be better than purchasing a seat with your child's name on it, or your favorite alum? Maybe a brick with your family's name? How about a mini-helmet to remember the football season? All of these items are available just by clicking here... And it helps Milan High on its fund drive for the continued development of our facilities!
Student Council/Academic Boosters introduces GoodSearch!
Student Council members have been working to bring more funds into the Academic Booster account – which supports academic clubs in the building.
The latest endeavor was to register MHS with GoodSearch.com. It's really an easy way for MHS to earn some funds without any costs to you. Milan High School will earn a penny every time you search the Internet! GoodSearch.com is a new search engine that donates half its revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. You use it just as you would any search engine, and it's powered by Yahoo!, so you get great results. It also has an on line shopping program that will benefit MHS as well. GoodShop.com is a new on line shopping mall which donates a percentage of each purchase to your favorite cause. More than 100 great stores including The Gap, Best Buy and Barnes and Nobel have teamed up with GoodSearch and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your child's school!
Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter Milan High School as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!
A Note on MHSAA Events, Parking Fees and Athletics Funding
MHS athletic department appreciates you paying $2 per vehicle for parking fee. While it doesn't seem like a lot, the parking revenue will help us sustain a JV, freshmen or junior high team for next year! So it does mean a lot to those 20-30 students! MHSAA allows for parking to be charged to offset losses in ticket gate revenue for home teams. Friday night's ticket gate is split three ways – with a third of the ticket revenue – instead of 100% -- going to Milan High School's athletic department. (Note: Only 10% of concessions profit goes to Milan High School athletics) While our primary goal on Friday is to start our successful quest to the state championship, financial health is also fundamental to our athletic department and teams, and the playoff experience will help us towards that goal.
Milan High's athletic department is sustained by ticket gate, key fundraisers, and revenue from hosting MHSAA events. This revenue covers all costs to our teams with the exception of transportation and 90% of coaching stipends. Our goal is for more Milan students to be actively involved in healthy activities - and last year we had 50% of our student body involved in a sport. The state average is below 25%. To keep our students involved, the department solely supports 4 varsity programs (Bowling, tennis, golf) and 8 sub-varsity teams – coaches and all. Your $2 parking fee and a third of your ticket is money well spent - as it will provide a child in your community an avenue to demonstrate his or her unique talents! And, research is clear: students involved in extra-curricular activities do better in their academics and as citizens in their community!
Also through these funds, the department has been able to provide facility improvements - to our softball field (new bleachers), our football field (new home bleachers - department contributed 10% of costs ), and improvements in our baseball facilities. Most recently, MHS has partnered with our community soccer club to build a new soccer facility (behind our new home stands). The facility should be available next spring ('09). Last fall, MHS could not play its final three home games due to the poor field conditions - so our soccer community and school thank you!
Volunteers needed: This past year, the state Department of Education eliminated the role of student assistants in the office areas. In the past, schools have used office assistants to help in clerical activities such as delivering notes, answering phones, sorting mail and making copies. These tasks now fall back on our clerical and teaching staff – so it will make our goal of efficiency more problematic! In the attached packet, there is information about volunteering at Milan High. This year, we are really hoping to get some volunteers to help us in the office, copy center, hallways and media center. These roles would be mainly clerical and supervision. If you are available during the day – whether its once a week for an hour, or everyday, give Leanna Soltis a call at 439-5016 to see how you can help. Not only can you help your school, but you can also be more involved with your child at school – which I think you will really enjoy!
Milan High introduces MAPs testing for our sophomore and freshmen students! MAPs is a computer-based testing program that will give our staff feedback on how students are progressing on the state's curriculum. Students will generally test twice a year in four areas: reading, English, math and science. These tests are aligned to the state standards AND are adaptive to the ability of the students. Go to this link to see a powerpoint on the topic MAPs testing.
Students can save their work! Go to: http://student.milan.k12.mi.us/
This web page is designed for our students to save their work. All students have an account and can save their computer work on this web page. Students can access this web page from any internet site in the world!
Open Office Software available -- In a move that saved our district thousands of dollars, our school committed to using a free software product called Open Office instead of the Microsoft products. The Open Office software, including their word processing program call Open Office Writer, is available to you to use on your home computer. Contact Mr. Reed for more information at 439-5017.
Go Big Reds!