MAVS Newsletter
November
Maverick Newsletter Week 7
Greetings Families,
It's amazing that we are already into week 7 of our 36 week school year! We are almost 20% through our year. The end of the first quarter is coming up on us quickly. Our semester grades are calculated on a cumulative basis (that is, the S1 grade has been calculated from the beginning of year to the end of the semester, rather that averaging two quarter grades). Even so, the quarter grade provides you and your student with a snapshot of their current academic status in each of their classes. We have found that students and families who regularly review student progress in skyward family and student access, often attend to any low grades early and end up completing the term passing everything. To check on your student's attendance, behavior and grades, log into Skyward Family Access. If you do not know your skyward username or password, please call the school main office (509)766.2666 for assistance. If your student or you have any questions or concerns about course grades, the first place to go is to your student's teacher. I encourage your student to reach out to his or her teacher and if low grades remain, I encourage you, as a parent, to also reach out to the teacher. Teacher email contact information is found on the MLHS Staff Directory on our website.
Homecoming:
You are likely aware that we have just concluded a fantastic Homecoming week at MLHS. Our student leaders provided their classmates with lots of opportunities for competitive participation, dress up days, and athletic contest festivities, culminating in a great Homecoming Dance. The sophomore class won the Monday scavenger hunt competition and was awarded extra time for lunch today. However, all classes and all students were "all in" for our MLHS Maverick homecoming activities throughout the week. At MLHS, we believe that if students and staff enjoy being here, they want to be here and their attendance improves. The consequence of that regular attendance is usually academic success, ending with and on-time graduation.
Today, like many others, was a perfect day at MLHS. However, I wanted to share a few items that we've addressed with students so far this year:
Regular Attendance: Students should try to be at school no less than 90% of their school year YTD. If your student needs to be absent from school, please be sure to communicate with the school (Call: 509-793-7900 or email mlhsattendance@mlsd161.org).
College & Career Center: MLHS College & Career Center (in the Library) is open M-F 8:30-3:30pm for all students and their families. This center exists to provide all of our students and their families assistance in their high school and beyond plans and processes. Our staff is there to answer questions, provide resources and assistance in everything associated with a student's future college and career plans. More information about this service is available on this website link.
Bathroom Vaping: We are actively responding to concerns from students that groups of their peers tend to spend time in student-designated restrooms using nicotine and other products. We have asked students to alert us to these situations. Restricting access to these particular restrooms is problematic, as it would result in inconveniencing students who have nothing to do with the concerning behavior. While smoking in school restrooms remains a perennial problem, please know that we are doing all we can to minimize this behavior, which does violate our code of conduct. We hope that students continue to challenge their peers to care about our facilities, their health, and each other. Thank you in advance for also supporting our tobacco free high school environment.
MLHS Student Parking Lot: We have continually dealt with reckless and dangerously fast student driving when exiting the lot at lunch and at day's end. We have been in contact with our SRO and MLPD about this as well. Please reiterate expectations of safe driving with your student if they park in our lot.
Care for the school: We have worked with students this fall to care for our facilities, particularly with their lunch time litter. We are proud to report we are seeing great improvement in that area! Many students are seen picking up after each other.
Get Involved, choose an Activity: Finally, students who are involved in at least one club, extracurricular activity, competitive team, or fine arts activity are more likely to pass their courses and graduate on time. Besides our many athletic teams, MLHS offers numerous ways for students to get involved in things beyond the classroom. ExtraCurricular Offerings and Sports Teams are found on the MLHS Web Site.
MLHS Website Calendar: Our MLHS school website has a public school calendar at the bottom of the page. If you click the "show all events" button, you will see our entire calendar, along with drop down club or activity calendars, like FFA, or Choir/Band. You can also subscribe to those calendars if you wish.
Again, we are pleased with a great start to this 22-23 school year. Thank you for sending your child to Moses Lake High School. It's a great time to be a Mav!
Sheila Kries. Principal
Attendance Matters
Upcoming Events
Thursday October 20: Fall Choir Concert 7-8:30pm MLHS Theatre
Friday October 21: Picture Retake Day (for students who wish to have a retake on their original photo)- Also: this is the final time to get your student ID/yearbook photo taken for the 22-23 school year.
**Picture Packets from Maverick Days Photographs are in the front office for student pick up.
Thursday October 27: Advanced Jazz & Wind Ensemble Concert 7pm MLHS Theatre
Thursday November 3: End of Quarter 1
Sunday November 6: Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 6-9: FFA National Western Rangeland Competition
Thursday November 11: Veterans' Day~ No School