Notes from the Principal -- April
Hello Milan families -- the third quarter has officially ended. We now have eight weeks remaining! Make sure to check the webpage calendar for exam and event dates.
Looking for Grade Level news? Go to the side column and click on the link!
Milan High Teaching Academy -- Milan High is hosting an academy on some of the innovative programs and initiatives offered here. Click here for more information!
Seniors Prepare for the Finish! Seniors: For our seniors, exit information and graduation preparation are on the plate as you read this letter. It really is an exciting time for the Class of '08 – and they have been a wonderful group. I look forward to celebrating with them in the final weeks. There are three big days that are still on the schedule for seniors:
· May 28th – Senior Portfolio Night, 6-8 pm (students in senior government only). The event begins at 6 p.m. (Participating seniors have been scheduled for a time and location: Students on intern should arrive at 5 p.m.)
· June 5th – Last day of school for seniors – including graduation practice. Plan on being at school the entire day as your child needs to be here in order to participate in graduation! Later that day, we host Senior Honors Night at 6:30 pm in the Performing Arts Center.
· June 8th - Graduation in the main gym -- Ceremony starts at 3 pm.
Milan students win Consortium Awards: Milan High had two students earn outstanding student honors at our consortium program. Congrats to Mark Smith for earning the South & West Consortium Building Trades Outstanding Student Award. Congrats to Merchell Hunt for earning Consortium Early Childhood Education award.
Milan High School Offers Physicals: Milan High School is offering $15 physicals for students planning on participating in sports next fall. Physicals will be held in the gym on Wednesday, June 11th, starting at 1:30 pm and going to 6 pm at Milan High School. Come with $15 and completed forms. Forms can be picked up at high school and middle school offices. *NO ONE WILL BE SEEN WITHOUT SIGNED PARENT CONSENT FORM. *Any questions please call senior student intern Jordan Smith at (734)-439-5387. Special thanks to: Milan Family Practice, Milan Urgent Care, and Fountain Optometry!
Art News: The Michigan Youth Arts Festival featured the top high school artists in the state, chosen by three adjudications. Andrew Bellers represented Milan High School in the exhibit there May 9-11. Pottery and art work from MHS classes is on display at the Milan Public Library for two weeks. Senior art students are busy preparing for their comprehensive senior exhibit, to be held May 28 in the evening.
Spring & Summer Clothing Requirements: At some point, the warm weather is going to return to Michigan! Just a reminder that students still need to attend school appropriately dressed and prepared to learn! Make sure your child is leaving with appropriate clothing choices and shoes. Our building does have air condition – so dress accordingly!
Underclassmen Prepare for Exams: Exams for underclassmen will begin on Tuesday, June 3rd with A day exams. (Students will have 3 exams and SRT/Advisory). On Wednesday, students will be taking their 5th and 6th block exams. Finally, Thursday will be the last day of school – a half day for students, with exams for 7th and 8th block.
Congrats to Track Program! Both the boys’ and girls’ track programs won the Huron League Meet on May 20th! Congrats to Coach Pellegrini and his team for their 3rd straight HLC! Likewise, congrats to Coach Porter and his team for their first title in 20 years!
Genyk-Joplin Golf Outing set for June 14th: You still have time to participate in the athletic department’s golf outing – as a player, donator or sponsor. If your child is involved in athletics, then we need your help! Contact Roberta Myyra at 439-5056 or myyra@milan.k12.mi.us to step up and make a positive contribution to your child’s teams!
Milan High Holiday Assembly: Our students had some great fun at the Holiday Assembly! Click here to see some of the acts!
Milan High Survey Results: Last year, parents and students participated in a survey on Milan High's building. Those results are now posted here! Fanning Howey Survey.
Essential Skills Survey: Click on this survey to voice your thoughts on what students need into today's world. Click here: http://www.leadered.com/nesswelcome.shtml
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!
Freshmen is a Top 100 Disney Dreamer! Freshmen Tevyn Cole is not your ordinary freshmen. He already owns his own business in clothing (visit schoolmeclothing.com to see his work) and was recently selected for 100 Dreamers Program hosted at Walt Disney World. These 100 dreamers were selected by Steve Harvey and his panel of judges to participate in the fist ever Disney’s Dreamers Academy taking place Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend at the Walt Disney World® Resort. They were nominated and endorsed by friends, parents, guardians, church members, and people who can recognize extra special qualities and the power to dream when they see it. He was one of 100 people selected from across the nation! Congrats to Tevyn!
Milan High Staff Chosen for NASA honor: Wendy Benya, Brad Baden, Alana O'Neal and Cindy Hasselbring have all been selected to participate in a weightless flight NASA program. Their task was to design an experiment that could be used in all of the classrooms. With the focus of NASA was going back to the moon and Mars, there was a high interest in plant growth in reduced gravity. Because of this, the team decided to focus an experiment on capillary action. All teachers have come up with very good ways to incorporate activities that will be meaningful in all of the classrooms. While staff members will attend the experience at NASA in Houston, our students will be involved with the project before the flight and after the flight. The four staff members will go to Houston from March 5 to 16, 2008. NASA covers costs of the training while there and the actual flight. However, NASA is not going to pay for travel expenses, flight physicals (required for all four of teachers and not your typcial physical), meals, equipment costs, etc. The estimate is that this could cost close to $5,000. MHS is looking for donations for this project as this is a huge cost and one that cannot be covered with just school dollars. We will welcome any amount of donation to this project. If anyone has any questions about it, feel free to contact Cindy Hasselbring at 734-439-5066 or hasselbr@milan.k12.mi.us. If anyone would like to be involved in the project, we will also welcome volunteers. We will need to design and assemble our experiment after Christmas. Here is the website with more information about the opportunity. Milan is listed at the bottom of the page.
http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/NEAT/ .
Meghan Donahue signs with University of Indianapolis! Congrats to Meghan for signing and continuing our tradition of excellence in athletics and academics!
WXYZ and McDonalds honors Megan Donahue! Megan Donahue was honored as High School Scholar Athlete of the Week. She was interviewed by Don Shane of Channel 7 and receive her award at that time! She also earned $250 award for her school with this honor! Click here to see the event: Congrats!
Milan Drag Race Club participates in Fall HS Nationals! Congrats to the team on participating in this fall's nationals! Check out Jack Clark in the Burnout competition! Click here...
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!
National Merit Scholarship Honors Three Milan High School Students
Milan High School had three students recognized from their performance on the PSAT last fall. Nicholas Mitchell and Paul Lovelace were both named National Merit Semi-Finalists. Nicholas and Paul are apart of 16,000 students in the nation (1.4 million students took the test) being recognized and scored better than 99% of all seniors in our country. Katie Borema was also honored with Commended Student Status. She is a part of 34,000 students being recognized in this nation out of the 1.4 million test-takers. MHS is very proud of all three of these students! I want to congratulate these students on their fine achievement!
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 hopes to expand the Senior Internship program! Milan High had 30 seniors serve in an internship last spring to add relevance and rigor to the senior year. Click here to see one of the projects...a video on the Senior Internship!
The Merit Award Scholarship
As expected, the governor signed into law a new scholarship - Michigan's Promise - that replaces the current Merit Award. This law and scholarship will affect our current seniors. The basic points to the law is that all graduates can earn $4000 total for use at any in-state school/college. Those graduates passing the MEAP or Merit Test will earn $1000 prior to their freshmen year, a second $1000 for their sophomore year and a final $2000 at the completion of their sophomore year as long as they maintain a 2.5 GPA. Graduates not passing the MEAP/Merit can still earn the entire $4000 if they complete two years of college with a 2.5. A list of approved colleges and schools is not out at this time. You may want to contact the Department of Education if your child is planning to attend a non-traditional college or school.
New State Graduation Requirements for the class of 2011! Here is a link to a powerpoint from the meeting...State Graduation Requirements. You can also go to: www.michigan.gov/highschool for more information. Check on this video as well! MME Video.
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.
Parent E-mail List
MHS has created a parent e-mail list to provide more communication with parents on the happenings and events here at Milan High! If you would like to be on the e-mail list, please contact me at rreed@milan.k12.mi.us and include the e-mail address you want added to the group e-mail. You may also call at 439-5000.
RYP needs Community mentors to help students
Milan High is beginning a new support program for students struggling in three or more of their classes called RYP – Reach Your Potential. These students show potential and motivation, but seem to need extra assistance to be successful. Students enrolled in RYP will be required to attend after-school support sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. Students will set short-term and long-term goals, be provided extra academic support, and literacy skills support. This program officially begins on January 18th.
Another component of the program is to provide each student with a community mentor. MHS is looking for positive adults in the community to serve as mentors for these students. Mentors would be expected to attend once a week and help their mentee with goal-setting. The goal is to provide the student with a positive adult role-model to help provide guidance and life skills. Initial training will be provided for the mentors regarding the mentor relationship. This is a great opportunity to help a student succeed. If you are interested in mentoring, please contact Ron Reed at 439-5000 or by e-mail at rreed@milan.k12.mi.us.
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!