Changes to Academic Honor Time in May:
We will be tweaking our Academic Honor Time (AHT) schedule to better benefit some of our students. Our goal with AHT is to improve student achievement by supporting those students who need additional time and also offering real extension activities for those students who have C grades and above.
In May, we will be running our AHT study period on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after second period, but before lunchtime. Students who need academic assistance (as a result of a D or F grade) will be assigned to a teacher in a small group in order to have some directed time to work on coursework during their school day. Students who have C’s and above will have a choice of activities, including traditional study hall times.
We want to take advantage of expanding AHT so students have a real opportunity to improve their grades, pass classes, and achieve more. Next year, we are planning on running AHT for essentially the entire year and giving students that much more time during their day to complete their work and get important things done.
This month we are offering students who do have C’s and above a choice of a variety of activities, like Intro to Drawing with Mrs. Gardiner, Intro to Coding with Mr. Lupher, project building with Mr. Martin, and various study hall activities so that students are accountable for their time during AHT, even if they have excellent grades. We also want to explore allowing students who have C’s and above and good behavior to have a slightly longer lunch on specific AHT days.
We are also planning on recognizing all students who have 100% attendance during Academic Honor Time with a long lunch at the end of May. Hopefully students will appreciate the opportunity to both engage in legitimate extension activities and to also have time during their day to work on schoolwork. As a staff we want to support every student to meet their highest possible level of achievement.
We would like to thank all the parents, students, and staff of this great community for the better then excellent graduation rate posted by the class of 2017. That group of students had the highest district graduation rate in the state of Wyoming with a graduation rate of 98.3%. This is quite an honor and one that truly benefits our students and the community. It is also a team effort from everyone associated with our schools to keep students engaged and wanting to graduate. Congratulations and great job.
During the 2017 Legislative session, changes were signed into law related to high school students taking college level coursework and how that coursework would be calculated into students’ Hathaway GPA. Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year all districts are required to use a weighted Hathaway GPA for all +1000 level and above dual and concurrent courses. A student receiving an A in a +1000 level college course will receive a 5.0 for their Hathaway GPA for that course; A B in a +1000 level course will count as a 4.0 for that course, and so on. This weighted GPA will be used to determine a student’s Hathaway scholarship eligibility only, and will NOT be used to determine valedictorian or salutatorian status, or other end of year honors, including class rank.
This year, we will again be using a Remind account for MVHS Students and Parents. If you text @cdkbc to the number 81010, you will get important messages from MVHS regarding important events. I promise I will not be overloading your text message in box. I wanted this to be a chance for me to communicate with parents if we should ever have a late start due to inclement weather, or to remind parents about special events at MVHS. This will not be a "daily" Remind. Be sure to follow MVHS on Twitter; just bang the link below.
Thanks for having your child be a part of what we are doing here at MVHS. I am excited looking forward to our incoming students for the 2017-2018 school year as we continue on our path to be Second to None.
Ben Carr, Principal
PS Click the printed link below to follow the high school principal on Twitter!
Follow @MVHS_Buffs
