Dear Bulldog Students, Families, and Friends,

We are busy with learning and activities every day here at Sandpoint High School!

Our focus is to cultivate a positive climate and create the best learning environment possible. High quality instruction and student learning are our utmost priorities. Everything that we do at SHS is designed to help students learn in all areas and be successful well beyond their time in high school. Once again, that partnership between school and home is a key ingredient for student success. With that said, this is a reminder that semester one report cards were emailed last week. Please talk with your child about what is going well and goal setting to move forward. Your child’s teachers are an important resource. They provide information for coursework and academic progress in Schoology, work with students beyond class time at afterschool Access, and are available to dialogue with you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Here we are at the halfway point of the year. Senior parents, it’s going to go quickly from here! Next Wednesday the counseling department will hold an informational scholarship assembly with seniors to learn more about the application process. Registration for next year with juniors, sophomores, and freshmen will also begin this month. This is a fantastic time to plan with your child about required courses as well as college and career readiness in order to facilitate the best possible schedule choices. Please check the SHS website for more events and opportunities.

A reminder about attendance: It is imperative for students to be at school on time and ready to learn. Please support your student to do their best in this area. If your child is absent, you will receive a call informing you. Students must be present for 90% or more of the school year to avoid loss of credit.

We’re fortunate to work with your students every day. Thank you for allowing us to play a role in their development.

Sincerely,

Principal Jacki Crossingham

February is notoriously know for the month of LOVE, but at SHS we are celebrating KINDNESS! Several studies show that it takes FIVE or more compliments to outweigh just ONE negative comment. Five to one! That is a harsh ratio to overcome! Brain studies also indicate that our human brains are naturally wired to focus more on criticism rather than praise. Our brains are constantly tyring to keep our bodies safe and register threat and avoid danger. While the “negativity effect” can be a lifesaving device it can wreak havoc in your personal life. Teenagers, potentially more than any other age group, are most likely to fixate on negative interactions even if a majority of their day has been positive. I love this quote by an unknown genius, “So, you have $86,400 in your account and someone stole $10 from you. Would you be upset and throw the reamaining $86,390 away in hopes of getting back at the person that took your $10? Or do you move on and live? Right, move on and live! See, we have 86,400 seconds in every day so don’t let someone’s negative 10 seconds ruin the rest of the 86,390. Don’t sweat the small stuff, life is bigger than that.”

What can we do? At SHS, our goal is for 100% of our students to be able to identify at least one trusted adult in our building. We track it and look for ways to increase that number every day! Ask your student who that “trusted adult” might be at SHS? Hopefully you hear a name right away! If they say “no one”…dig deeper! Maybe it’s Mr. Watkins in the morning, or Christy in the office? Or maybe Officer Little? We want every student to feel connected and have at least one person they can count on to give that boost of positive support. Let’s work together to combat this 5:1 ratio and please reach out if we can help connect your student to an awesome adult here at SHS. GO DOGS!

Kari Granier

SHS Assistant Principal

• Mr. Yarno deserves staff of the month because he always motivates his students in the best way and gives the best advice.
• Best teacher ever, awesome teacher, he helps me push through obstacles.
• He is the best at pushing you to get better!
• Yarno’s class is my favorite, I look forward to it everyday. As a teacher and coach, he pushes me to be better for myself and work harder. I feel and do better after his class.

Atticus is working toward finishing an AP portfolio consisting of 15 personal investigations art pieces. AP students are almost halfway done with their AP Art portfolio pieces.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we'd like to remind our families that Sandpoint High has a NO Delivery Policy for students.

While we understand that families and friends get excited to show their students a little extra love on this special day, we ask that you allow this celebration to occur outside of the school day. We have made this decision for the safety and well-being of our students and staff. Due to the many interruptions to our front office this impacts the the academic day. Also, this could cause potential safety hazards on our school buses. ~ Thank you, we appreciate you!

Not An Athletic PE Class

The COED PE classes at SHS showed massive improvements on their pre and post tests for

the first semester. These classes focus on the basic levels of weight lifting and core

improvement. Out of the 172 students who tested for the Bench Post Test, 162 of the students

improved greatly over their pretest scores. That is a 96% improvement rate!

Some standout examples of the Bench Post Test: (3 rep maximum weight)

Emmett Lowman pretest 85 lbs, post test 115 lbs

Riley Doko pretest 65 lbs, post test 100 lbs

Jessica Wright pretest 75 lbs, post test 100 lbs

The classes also test on core strength with a situps test, a push ups test and a conditioning test

called the Pacer Test. The Pacer Test is a running test where students run side to side in the

gym having to beat a “beep”. The “beep” sound increases around every 8 lengths of the gym.

The improvement rate on the Pacer Test was at 97% for all tested.

Some standout examples of the Pacer Test:

Marlee Korsten pretest 16, post test 32

James Sturgeon pretest 36, post test 50

Landon Winslow pretest 26, post test 48

Maverick Broehl pretest 42, post test 62

Some standout examples for the Sit Ups Test: (how many completed in 1 minute)

Improvement rate on the Sit Ups test 98%

Maverick Broehl 28 pretest, 59 post test

Riley Lopez 25 pretest, 42 post test

Nathan Sorenson 20 pretest, 42 post test

Ben Wolf 38 pretest, 50 post test

Sunny Barber 22 pretest, 35 post test

Coach Karen Alsager is very proud of Semester 1 results and is excited to see continued

improvement for Semester 2.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket and supported Sandpoint High School! We could not do it without you. With your help, over $38, 000 was raised!

Thank you to Parker Subaru for giving 100% back to the community!

On Saturday, January 28, the SHS Academic Decathlon teams competed against the

Priest River Lamanna High School team, and the main team won first place at the Idaho

Academic Decathlon Regional Meet for North Idaho. The main SHS team is currently

the number one ranked team in the state. The five SHS teams won a combined 35 gold

medals, 31 silver medals, and 36 bronze medals. Three students truly stood out at the

competition: junior Keane Haesle, a second-year decathlete and team captain, who won

the overall gold in the honors division with a score of 7056 (out of 10,000); junior Kody

Bocksch, a third-year decathlete, who won the overall silver in the honors division with

6220; and sophomore Jenna Hughes, a second-year decathlete, who won the overall

bronze in the honors division with 6199. A highlight of the competition was when senior

Kyla LaFountain, a fourth-year decathlete, earned a perfect score of 1000 in the

interview event. The SHS second team won the Super Quiz Team Relay portion of the

competition. The students are now making the final push towards the IAD State

Championship, which will be held at Marsing High School March 17-18, and are

studying as hard as they can in the hopes that they will win their fifth consecutive state

championship and move on to the National Finals in Frisco, Texas at the end of April.

Student Leadership and National Honor Society volunteered at Ready for Kindergarten on Saturday January 28th.

A RESEARCH-BASED PROVEN PROGRAM

• READY! for Kindergarten is a national, research-based early childhood literacy education program for parents, grandparents and other primary caregivers of infants, toddlers and pre-school children (birth to age 5, before kindergarten).
• The Sandpoint READY! Program is funded by the local nonprofit, Panhandle Alliance for Education. That's why the workshops and parent/child toys and materials, "toolkits" are FREE!
• The workshops are divided into five classes based on birthdate and kindergarten start date: Birth – 1 year; 1 – 2 years; 2 – 3 years; 3 – 4 years; and 4 – 5 years.
• The READY! "toolkits" are created specifically for each age-group workshop. They include fun, educational, research-based and age-appropriate toys, games, books, and activities which parents learn how to use then take home to "play with a purpose" with their child.
• READY! for Kindergarten's workshops focus on three crucial areas of child development. Language & Literacy in the Fall session; Math & Reasoning in the Winter session; Social & Emotional Development in the Spring session.
• Pre-registration is required for every workshop.
• Since the workshops are for adults only, free on-site childcare is available for children from 13 months to 11 years. If your baby is under 12 months, you are welcome to bring him/her with you to your workshop.
• In the case that in-person workshops cannot be held, READY! for Kindergarten offers an E-workshop version of each age specific workshop.
• The Lake Pend Oreille School District endorses the READY! for Kindergarten Program.

READY! for Kindergarten in Sandpoint is an early childhood education program that provides free parent workshops and take-home materials and toys. Our mission is to help parents, grandparents and caregivers learn the important pre-literacy, pre-math and social emotional skills their child will need to be successful, happy learners who are prepared for school.

Cheer placed:

1st All girl show

2nd All girl stunt

2nd Sideline

3rd Pom

We will be taking All Girl Show, Pom and Sideline to state Feb. 10th.

On January 14th, dance won Grand Champions for 4A and took 1st in their kick and hip hop routines, and 2nd in dance. Madison Coon took 2nd in solo, Mikah Little took 3rd in solo and Haleigh Knowles took 3rd in leaps.

Counseling Department Mission: We will ensure and empower every student at Sandpoint High School to achieve academic success, strengthen personal and social growth, and develop achievable post-secondary plans.

Students are assigned to counselors by their last name:

A-G: Shannon Kerrigan; 11-12 A-F

H-O: Sara Gosling

P-Z: Tavi Brandenburg; 11-12 G

Post Secondary Transitions Counselor: Jeralyn Mire

College and Career Mentor: Angie Dail

Counseling Office Coordinator/Registrar: Amanda Skinner

Counseling Office Coordinator: Erricka Brownell

This month the College and Career team held it's very first Pizza with Professionals. Juniors and Seniors were able to sign up for a spot to sit and talk with area wildland firefighters. Pizza with Professionals will continue each month and allow students to meet with local professionals from various career paths. Please reach out to angela.dail@lposd.org with questions.

Local Scholarships: February 15th counselors will be holding an assembly for seniors on how to complete local scholarships. Please ask your student when the local scholarship deadline is and what scholarships will be a good fit for them. Information can also be found on the SHS Counseling Center website, Schoology and Senior Newsletters.

Welcome to the second semester from the Counseling and Career Department! Be on the lookout for information about four-year planning and class forecasting for NEXT school year. We begin this process in March and will send information home with students at that time so families can work together to help students select interesting courses that not only fulfill graduation requirements, but also help students prepare for career and college goals.

February 1st was Change Your Password Day. This day was said to have been created by an individual who was hacked twice and felt it would be a good idea to have an annual reminder to change your passwords. Many individuals like to use a password manager such as LastPass, 1Password, or BitWarden. These are nice because they offer password generation for you and will keep them stored in an easy-to-use manner, however this ease comes with a risk, the "all-of-your-eggs-in-one-basket" risk. Should any of these companies have a data breach then all of your passwords could potentially be compromised. The other common form of password is using the same password for multiple accounts, this again has an all in one basket feel to it and is generally frowned upon. So what makes a good password?

1. At least 12 characters using lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and symbols

2. Not a dictionary word

3. Make it unique, one idea is by changing your favorite phrase into an acronym. Example: "You should change your password regularly in order to improve security digitally" could change to "YsCyprIotisd" or to use numbers and characters "Y$Cypr1otid"

Being password secure helps protect you, your family, your company, and the community from various cyber threats.

Thank you,

Dalton Hawkins

Computer Science Teacher - SHS

Technology Integration Instructional Coach - LPOSD

Having trouble getting information from your student? Then this is the guide for you! Schoology for parents will provide you with important information. You will be able to see grades, course information and assignments. Please click the link below for complete instructions. If you need assistance with the password, please call the front office. 208-263-3034

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gCpclQoooqUVM0prJeWJazB9Df5gs7lTfu_mdHkJH7Y/edit?usp=sharing

Safety Update

• In January SHS conducted a lockdown drill during a passing period.
• During the month of February we will be conducting a safety hold drlll.
• Staff will attend a Move Secure Defend Staff Training in Building.
• The controlled access entry is in effect. You will need to push a buzzer and let the receptionist know what business you will be conducting with SHS at the time of entry. Be prepared to show ID.
• ALL visitors must check in at the front office.
  
• The Raptor technology system is currently in effect. Visitors may be asked to sign in with an identification card. Parents/guardians who are checking students in and out, or dropping off items will not be checked in/out through this system.