September 11, 2006

Welcome MTHS Parents!

We had over 50 parents attending our first Parent Meeting of the year and lots of great information was shared. Thank you all so much for coming!

Parking Auction: This takes place Wed. 9/13, from 7:00-9:00 pm at MTHS.

(Note: it was mentioned and noted on the website that it would run from 5-9pm, which is not correct. The website has been updated) Parking spaces will be auctioned off for $40-$150. All proceeds go directly into the ASB fund to support the students in their activities. Checks should be made payable to Edmonds School District #15.

David Tadlock was introduced, he is our new vice-principal overseeing AOS, building maintenance and many other duties. Welcome David!

Our MTHS volunteer coordinator, Laura Munson, was introduced. She is always looking for parent volunteers to help. You can help in many ways by tutoring a child, going on field trips, helping with study club, office help, or other school activities or athletics. Call Laura Munson at 425-670-7311ext.1378 or e-mail her at: munsonl@edmonds.wednet.edu.

Skyward Family Access: You may access the Skyward Family Access Database from the MTHS homepage. Here is where you can look at your student’s attendance, schedule, fees/finds. First semester grades will be posted there as well. Starting the second semester of this year, teachers will begin updating grades in the database every two weeks minimum. This will allow your student and yourself to access grades in an on-going basis. Teachers are currently being trained on how to use the system in preparation.

Note: Letters will be sent out soon with User Names and Passwords in case you have lost yours or never had one. If you add your e-mail address to Skyward as well, if in the future you forget or lose your password, you may request it via e-mail.

The Advisory Schedule, will take place about every 10 days throughout the school year, allowing students to meet with their Advisory teacher or to get help from one of their other teachers when they need help with class work.

Mountlake Terrace High School enrollment this year is 1,627, which is lower than past years in which it housed as many as 1,800 students. Our building was built for 1,600 students.

New Schedule: MTHS has initiated a new daily schedule this year that creates one daily schedule for the whole school. There had been two separate schedules prior to this, with different small schools start times and different period classes. The new daily schedule allows for a later start time (the majority of classes begin with second period at 7:55am), and allows students much easier access to classes within other small schools. There are 6-7 classes offered during first period starting at 7:00am. One problem the school was not able to fix this year, but hopes to fix in the future, is changing the bus schedules. The District Bus Transportation Department said they could adjust to a later schedule, but it would cost $90,000, which we don’t have. Principal Schwab will continue to work toward a solution. The clear expectation for those students arriving via the buses, is that they need to be in a classroom, in the HUB or in the library between 7:00 – 7:50 am. Teachers are in the building during this period and available for Tutorial from 7:30-7:55am.

Curriculum Night! Wednesday, October 4th, 6:30pm. It is a great opportunity for parents to meet with their student’s teachers. As in the past, parents will meet in the gym first, within their child’s small school, to hear from their small schools officials. Then parents will be able to go from classroom to classroom in 15-20 min intervals. Don’t miss it!

Lack of Information for in-coming freshman and their parents. This is an on-going issue and was raised by several freshman parents. The ways in which information is currently sent out is via the “Hawk Talk” (the newsletter mailed home to parents), the “HawkEye” (student paper, also available on-line), the MTHS reader board out front, the MTHS website or other letters sent directly home to parents.

Summer WASL results will be sent out next week. For any students that missed the summer WASL that needed to take it, will take it at the regular WASL time in March or April.

WASL results: :MTHS results were in the high 80% for reading/writing, math was up 9%, still need improvement at 57%. We have two staff members dedicated to teaching juniors the state curriculum to help them pass the WASL in the spring. It was recommended that freshmen hold off taking the WASL this year, unless they are really, really ready.

PSAT space is limited (200), so be sure to sign up early, last day to sign up is Oct. 10th.

To find out everything you need to know about the SAT, go to www.collegeboard.com

Senior Project Presentation dates are January 18, 2007 for students enrolled in the first semester class and June 8, 2007 for students enrolled in the second semester class. How senior projects are done next year will be changing with a focus on career orientation rather than on many general topics.

If your student is taking an AP course and plans to take the AP test they need to pay for the test now.

Next Parent Club Meeting: Monday, Oct 2nd, MTHS Library. Principal Schwab will share the first available statistics on how well the Small School Project is working. Beyond statistics he will share information gathered from Student Focus Groups. Great information, don’t miss it!

Robin Downie

robindo@msn.com