This Week at MHS
Here's what's happening January 10th - 14th!
Dear MHS Parents and Students,
What a strange weather week we just survived! We hope that everyone remained safe last week and enjoyed the extra day of fun. It looks like this week is guaranteed to be five full days of school. Monday will be an A day.
We are offering a Spring Open house on Monday, January 10th. This will be a different format than in the past with no set schedule to attend each class. Feel free to drop in at any time between 6 and 8pm to visit any teacher's classroom. Teachers will also be posting an Open House video on their Canvas page for the Spring Classes.
This Thursday we will also host a parent meeting for rising Sophomores in our auditorium at 7pm. A digital format will also be sent through email to provide an additional format for hearing the information. This information is for parents only, as our counselors will be visiting all current 9th graders at MJHS the week of January 17th. The auditorium is located on the opposite side of the school from the gym, across from the large parking lot and near Central Office.
The district procedures for illness are also listed below for your easy access. Thank you for taking care of yourself and each other during these unique times.
Wishing everyone a great week at MHS!
January 10th - A Day
5:30pm School Board Meeting CGIS
6-8pm Spring Open House
January 11th - B Day
Regular Bell Schedule
5-9pm MHS Wrestling vs. Heritage MHS Gym
6pm Basketball @Farragut HS
January 12th - A Day
Regular Bell Schedule
January 13th - B Day
7am Athletic Booster Meeting - Culinary
7:30am NHS Meeting in Ed Harmon Room
4:30pm-9 Basketball vs. Sevier CO. MHS gym
6-9pm Wrestling at Anderson County
7pm Rising 10th grade parent Meeting - Auditorium
January 14th - A Day
Regular Bell Schedule
MHS Indoor Track at ETSU
4:30pm MHS Basketball vs. Heritage at MHS
Saturday, January 15th
MHS Indoor Track at ETSU
Boys Wrestling @ Halls InvitationalCOUNSELOR'S CORNER
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) will be given at MHS during the school day on January 18, 2022 to juniors and seniors who wish to participate. Students can choose whether or not they want their scores reported to the military. Participation in the ASVAB does not obligate a student to talk with a military recruiter or consider a military career. ASVAB results offer access to excellent career exploration information that can assist students in finding a career that matches their strengths. The deadline to sign up is January 14, 2022. Follow this link to sign up: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MZUbU75HG0aS8l-mEweKggcNua5qsDBEuVQqhZjg7n9UQzhSTUdZUDcwUEc2VkhEWDU4R01GT0RNQS4u
Class of 2022 parents: do you need help completing the FAFSA form? Our MHS TSAC representative, Erika Adams, will be at MHS on Tuesday, January 12 and Wednesday, January 13 to help your child start the FAFSA. In addition, Ms. Adams will be at MHS after hours on January 13 from 4-6 pm. If you are interested in making an appointment with Ms. Adams on January 13, please contact Mrs. Mary Beth Martin in the guidance office at mary.martin@maryville-schools.org or call 977-7970. Please note: if your child starts the FAFSA during the school day, the form will NOT be completed. As the parent, you must still review and sign it. FAFSA forms must be completed by February 1, 2022 to remain eligible for the TN Promise Scholarship.
Attention parents of the Class of 2022! In order to remain eligible for TN Promise, your child will be required to view a short, TN Promise virtual webinar. This webinar will include all the important information pertaining to his/her TN Promise scholarship eligibility. Students must view the webinar by February 1, 2022 to remain eligible for TN Promise. Viewing the webinar is a two-step process as they must first create their tnAchieves CONNECT account. tnAchieves CONNECT is an online platform that participants will use to communicate with their volunteer mentor and the tnAchieves team. CONNECT also houses the mandatory meeting webinar. To get started go to: https://tnachieves.org/high-school-class-of-2022/mandatory-webinar/
Upcoming scholarships of interest:
Ron Brown Scholar Program (1/9/22)
JFK Profiles in Courage Essay Contest (1/14/22)
ILLNESS PROTOCOL - UPDATED
As noted in our District Update before the break, we no longer have the authority to isolate for a positive Covid test alone. Therefore, our focus will be on symptoms. The guidelines below should help explain how student illnesses will now be managed.
While we expect quite an increase in symptomatic illnesses over the next several weeks, we will be following revised guidance on how we respond to symptoms that may or may not be COVID-related. Most importantly, we need the support of our families to help keep schools open.
- The district schools and clinics will respond to symptoms as we have historically responded to sick individuals prior to COVID. If a student or teacher is presenting a temperature or gastrointestinal symptoms, the individual will be sent home from school. The nurse will use their medical judgment to make a recommendation to send home a sick student.
- Neither the schools nor the clinics will diagnose COVID or suggest a preponderance of COVID symptoms. In addition, they will not suggest or recommend testing. It will be the personal decision of the family to seek testing.
- The outcome of a COVID test does not impact the district in any way as we are no longer allowed to send home positive COVID letters or quarantine letters of any kind. The COVID decision tree and all letters will be removed from our websites today. We are only authorized to respond to symptoms and can enforce keeping a person away from school when presenting symptoms.
- If a family requests a COVID test through our school clinics, the nurse will only provide that option if the symptoms and/or the condition of the family (other members positive; elderly and fragile family members) warrant a complimentary test. Our nurses will be busy this winter taking care of sick individuals, so we do not want to provide “curiosity” or unnecessary testing in the coming months. Again, the outcome of a test does not change any of the procedures we are expected to follow.
- COVID marking of absences will only occur in PowerSchool for families who provide a positive COVID test or families who provide information of electing to take a Household Contact Quarantine. All other illnesses with symptoms will be marked in PowerSchool as an Absence and excused with parent notes, just as we have followed in the past. Of course, when it raises to the level of truancy, school officials will use sound judgment to make determinations to explore or drop.
- Parents/Custodians are not required to have their child tested to receive an excused absence. Absences will be excused with a parent note. Individual cases and concerns of truancy will be explored with the school teams.
- The district will honor all self-selecting quarantines of 5 days for positive cases and household contacts. These will be marked as COVID in PowerSchool.
MHS Regular Bell Schedule
8:25—9:55 | First Period
9:55—10:10 | Break
10:10—11:40 | Second Period
11:47—1:40 | Third Period & Lunch
A Lunch
11:40—12:10 | Lunch
12:17—1:40 | Class
B Lunch
11:47—12:10 | Class
12:10—12:40 | Lunch
12:40—1:40 | Class
C Lunch
11:47—12:40 | Class
12:40—1:10 | Lunch
1:10—1:40 | Class
D Lunch
11:47—1:10 | Class
1:10—1:40 | Lunch
1:47—3:25 | Fourth Period