Wildcat Press
Sept 20, 2020 Vol. 9
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Principal's Message
Hello Wildcat Pride,
We are super excited that we are finally returning to having all 1220+ Wildcats back on campus together. We want to keep it that way, so please continue to have conversations with your students around appropriate behavior, how to keep themselves and others safe. No matter what you or your students beliefs - to be in school we have to follow the district guidelines.
We are only two weeks from fall break Oct. 5-12th. Grades for the 9 weeks will post before we go on break, please take time to check in and look at your students grades. We are here to help, and are having conversations with on our end with your students about how we can help. We need you to partner with us and make sure your student understands the urgency of getting caught up.
We have been asking your students to take time to take their state mandated benchmark tests in math and english ( these are pre-tests so we can be sure that we are working on the skills our students need). Only about half of our students have completed them, if you could help us by checking in with them. They have a tile on their chromebook called illuminate, if you have them open it and its empty they are good. If it says math or English (ELA) we need them to complete this before Wednesday please.
Thanks again for trusting us to educate and keep your student safe. We pledge to give you our very best every day!
Have a great week, stay safe and be well,
Rod Huston
Principal
Mesquite High School
@MHSAZ_Principal
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MHS Administrative Team!
Mrs. Marguerite Brown
Assistant Principal
Activities and Clubs
Grade Level: Freshman
Juniors Last Name O-Z
Twitter: @MHSWildcat_News
Mr. Rudy Alvarado
Assistant Principal
Athletic Director
Grade Level: Sophomores
Juniors Last Name E-N
@MesquiteAthDept
Mrs. Mitzi Escobar
Assistant Principal
Registration & Academics
Grade Level: Seniors
Juniors Last Name A-D
@Mhsescobar
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Daily Health Assessment
As life becomes more and more back to normal, it is easy to fall into old habits or forget new ones - Please parents check your students, talk with them, we have had a couple of students show up to school and end up at the nurse where we when asked we find out they were sick the night before or had a fever in the morning. It is imperative that if your student is sick you keep them home.
Before attending campus each day your student must complete a student health assessment. Please view the assessment here. Please remember students who are sick or feeling any COVID like symptoms should not attend or be on campus. For more information including health resources and information please visit www.gilbertschools.net/healthservices.
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Paws-itively Proud
Donovan Harp
Hongtao Liu
Ty Thompson
National Hispanic Heritage Month
Ellen Ochoa
Ellen Ochoa made her mark by becoming the first Hispanic American woman to go to space with a nine-day mission in 1993.
Ochoa was born in 1958 in Los Angeles, California, years after her paternal grandparents immigrated from Mexico. She first obtained her physics degree from San Diego State University and later her masters and doctorate from Stanford University’s department of electrical engineering by 1985.
Through her impressive research work, NASA selected Ochoa in 1991 and she became an astronaut in July of that year. Two years later, Ochoa made history on board the Space Shuttle Discovery on a mission to study the Earth’s ozone layer. She later completed three more missions.
Ochoa became the first Hispanic American director of the Johnson Space Center in 2013, only the second woman to take the helm. After retiring with 30 years of service, Ochoa continues to advocate for women in STEM.
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Welcome Back to Full Time and Five Days a Week
Bell Schedule
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Student Council Announcement
Wildcats!
We hope you have had a smooth first few days back in the classroom. It is important that we are following all the necessary steps that are in place to not only keep us safe, but tp work towards being able to do the fun things we all love to do. Speaking of fun things, if you want to stay in the loop with events, spirit weeks, and other things we will be planning soon, give @mhsmaniacs a follow on Twitter and @mesquitestuco on Instagram. We will be posting all updates on those accounts. First full week of school for everyone starts on Monday.
Remember to be respectful and mask up!
-Rylee Holland & Student Council
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Yearbook Picture Information
Students and parents,
It's that time of year again and the photographers will be on campus September 29th and October 1 for school pictures. Senior pictures will be taken on Thursday the 1st so please remind your senior to dress to impress! This year, All Pro will not be bringing ties and coats, so if these are something your senior wants to wear, they must bring them to the photoshoot.
Information will follow about choosing photos and purchasing photo packages next week.
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Dress Code
As we prepare to welcome back all our students to campus, we would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the Gilbert Public Schools Student Dress Policy, JICA. It is our goal to respect the rights of our students and families, while supporting a positive educational environment.
For your convenience here is a link to the Gilbert Public School District High School Handbook which details this policy.
Please see below a list of guidelines for quick reference, which you may find useful:
- Tops should have a 2 inch minimum strap-width on each shoulder. (easy check is the width of an ID card)
- Shirts and tops should be long enough to cover midriff.
- Clothing must modestly cover under arm, back, cleavage, and chest area.
- Clothing must cover the undergarments and entire buttocks.
- Shorts, skirts and dresses must be modest in length.
- Shoes must be worn at all times.
- Pants and shorts must be worn to fit, no bagging or sagging.
- Prohibited items include but are not limited to: clothing identified by school administrator or law enforcement as negative or gang affiliated / clothing that references drugs or alcohol / offensive symbols or inappropriate messaging on clothing, backpacks, binders, jewelry or tattoos, anything that might be identified with violence ( ie guns and knives)
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Nutrition Services Update
This means all students can get free breakfast and lunch, until the end of first semester.
Gilbert Public Schools will provide combo meals at no cost to children 18 and younger for breakfast and lunch. A combo meal includes and entrée, fruit vegetable and milk. Incomplete meals and a la carte items will be sold at regular price.
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Keeping an Eye on Your Students Transition
Seems funny to think that going back to school could cause stress, however it does and it shows in many ways. One of the ways is that we have all been together in our homes for safety now for so long, that heading back to school can lead to some grieving. It might be do to separation or maybe losing their safe place. We do know that this can effect a students success, so here are the stages of grief that you may recognize and want to watch for to have conversations with your students.
Grief:
Everyone is feeling a number of things right now. Is it right to call some of what we are feeling grief? YES! It’s especially important to notice that students may be experiencing grief and not notice because typically grief is talked about in the context of death/dying and loss. The loss of normalcy, the fear of the unknown, the loss of connection, this is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air. Our students may also be feeling anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. Understanding the stages of grief is a start to help students manage but it is important to recognize that the stages of grief aren’t linear and may not happen in order.
Stages of Grief:
-Denial: “This can’t be happening.”
-Anger: “Why is this happening to me, to us?”
-Bargaining: “I will do anything to change this.”
-Depression: “What’s the point of going on in a time like this?”
-Acceptance: “It’s not okay now, but this is temporary and it will be okay.”
Managing Grief:
Everyone deals with grief differently. Some people cry, laugh, busy themselves with distractions/activities, throw up, or even feel numb. Grief is a natural healing process and there is no “right way” to do it. It’s a great time to stock up on compassion! Keep trying. Keep Going. There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what’s inside of us and if students need extra support, let’s remember we are all in this together!
Ms. Mims in our counseling department can help if you need resources for any of this.
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Counseling Department
MHS Counselors
Ms. Erin Harris: Last names A- F
Mr. Joe Domikaitis: Last names G-N
Mr. Larry Cook: Last names O-Z
Mental Health Counselor:
Mrs. Megan Mims
Counseling Secretary:
Mrs. Kaley Farley 480-632-4750 ext 1134
Students will need to submit a Counseling Appointment Request Form to schedule an appointment with their counselor. There will also be signs posted in school with a QR code for students to scan to submit the Counseling Appointment Request Form.
Counseling and Career Center Google Classrooms
Be sure to join your cohort's Google Classroom to receive important counseling, college and career information throughout high school.
- Class of 2024 (Freshmen) - class code: yoeirhl
- Class of 2023 (Sophomores) - class code: td5n5a7
- Class of 2022 (Juniors) - class code: eqt23fb
- Class of 2021 (Seniors) - class code: j4jam3c
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Message from our Athletic Director
This coming week welcomes Girl's Volleyball back to the court. We host Paradise Honors on Tuesday and Youngker on Friday. Games start at 4, 5, and 6:00 for our Fr/So, JV, and varsity teams respectively. We are also having our first swim meet of the year on Thursday as well as boy's golf on the 22nd and 23rd. It's going to be a busy but exciting week in the Athletic Dept!
SPECTATORS
The district is allowing us to sell tickets (up to 25% occupancy) next week as we host volleyball with the hope that we can eventually bump our max occupancy up to 50%. The current plan is to go digital with our ticket sales through GoFan which would allow us to have an easy contactless way to get into our athletic events. As of this afternoon, our site on GoFan has not gone live so I am planning to sell tickets at the door, as usual, for the week of Sept 21 and then move to the digital world by the following week. When we do go live for digital tickets, I will send notice to families through the Wildcat Press as well as on our website and social media.
With football, the plan for digital tickets will give access to tickets first to families of kids in football, cheer, and the band. If you have a student on varsity, you will be able to access up to 4 tickets that will be tied to their individual student ID numbers. Parents will have access first and then I will open it up to our student body. If we have not reached max capacity by game day, then the remaining tickets will be open to the general public. We will ask our visitors to mask up and distance yourself from others as much as possible. We will also allow guests to stand along the fence line to create more areas for social distancing. Details about ticketing will be posted on our athletic website and social media sites as they become available.
Be aware that all tickets are $5 this year and there are no activity passes, due to going contactless with our ticketing.
Click HERE for the athletic website. On the home page, you'll see links to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well.
Thank you!
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Chromebooks & Library Information
If you turned in a Chromebook for repair, please check your emails.
Most of the Chromebooks have been returned from repair and are waiting for their owners. Please bring your loaners and the cords to the library to make the exchange. We are in need of loaners, so we would really appreciate it if you would do this ASAP.
We also have new Chromebooks for all freshmen, so if you haven't exchanged your eighth grade Chromebook for a new one, bring us your CB and cord and we will make the exchange.
Library Books
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Spirit Store
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About MHS
Email: mhsinfo@gilbertschools.net
Website: https://www.gilbertschools.net/mesquitehigh
Location: 500 South McQueen Gilbert, AZ 85233
Phone: 480-632-4750
Twitter: @MHSWildcat_News