That warm, holiday melody you hear wafting through the air throughout this holiday season just might be coming from one of Monroe Public Schools’ musical groups performing throughout the community.
The number of performances averages out to almost one daily from now through the last day of school before the Christmas break. That number also likely will increase because some additional performances are expected to be requested and scheduled between now and Christmas.
Here is a listing of the musical presentations on the schedule now. If a time is listed, the public is cordially invited.
Nov. 12 – 5th/6th grade strings, 7 p.m., Monroe Middle School Auditorium
Nov. 17 – Beginning band concert, 7 p.m., Monroe Middle School
Nov. 21 – Monroe High School Marching Band, 2 p.m., Monroe Holiday Parade, downtown Monroe
Dec. 1 – Custer Elementary School, 7 p.m., vocal concert by two groups of upper elementary grade students, Monroe High School auditorium
Dec. 2 – MHS Expressions, 6 p.m., Lights Before Christmas, Toledo Zoo
Dec. 3 – Custer Elementary School, 7 p.m., vocal concert by two groups of upper elementary grade students, Monroe High School auditorium
Dec. 4 – MHS Generations of Sound, elementary school tour
Dec. 5 – Monroe High School Jazz Band, 12:30 p.m., Matthes Evergreen Farm, Ida
Dec. 5 – 6th grade strings, 3 p.m., Matthes Evergreen Farm, Ida
Dec. 5 – Frenchtown Fiddlers, 3:30 p.m., Matthes Evergreen Farm, Ida
Dec. 5 – MMS Jubilation, 4 p.m., Matthes Evergreen Tree Farm, Ida
Dec. 5 – MHS Chamber Strings, 5 p.m., Christmas in Ida Spaghetti Dinner, St. Joseph Hall, Ida
Dec. 6 – MHS all choirs, 1 p.m., Matthes Evergreen Farm, Ida
Dec. 7 – Middle School Orchestra, 7 p.m., MMS Auditorium
Dec. 9 – MHS Generations of Sound, abbreviated Madrigal concert for MHS Students, MHS Auditorium
Dec. 10 – MHS Orchestra and MHS Chamber Strings, 7 p.m., Candlelight Classics, St. Mary Church, Monroe
Dec. 10 – Manor Elementary School 4th, 5th and 6th grade singers, 7 p.m., “Twelve Days of Christmas,” Monroe High School Auditorium
Dec. 11 – MHS Generations of Sound, 6:30 p.m., 33rd annual Madrigal Dinner, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Dec. 11 – MMS Jubilation, 7 p.m. caroling at the Toledo Walleye game, Huntington Center, Toledo
Dec. 12 – MHS Generations of Sound, 6:30 p.m., 33rd annual Madrigal Dinner, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Dec. 13 – MHS Orchestra and MHS Chamber Strings, 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Monroe Senior Citizen Center
Dec. 13 – MHS Wind Ensemble, Concert Band and Jazz Band, 3 p.m., annual Christmas Concert, MHS Auditorium
Dec. 15 – MMS Choir Concert, 7 p.m., MMS Auditorium
Dec. 16 – MMS Jubilation, performing at the Monroe Kiwanis luncheon
Dec. 17 – 7th and 8th grade band concert, 7 p.m., Monroe Middle School
Dec. 20 – MHS Choirs, including the MHS Orchestra, 3 p.m., annual Christmas concert, MHS Auditorium
Dec. 22 – MMS Music Concert for the MMS student body, MMS Auditorium
Dec. 22 – Generations of Sound, 6 p.m., Village Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village
It’s now even easier for parents of Monroe Public School students to be notified about various activities or cancellations in the district.
With a new program available in the district, Monroe Public Schools families can now receive texts over their mobile phones of any message that is sent out as a phone call or an email.
“In our surveys the people told us they liked getting the messages as quickly as they did, but they wanted to have the opportunity get them via text, since phone calls sometimes were not convenient. We knew the technology existed and this summer we upgraded to a program that offers text right to their phones,” said David Payne, Technology director for Monroe Public Schools.
“Our new delivery system is the latest technology available. It offers us more features, is faster and costs the district less money to operate,” Payne said. “Because it is linked directly to PowerSchool, our district’s student data program, principals and other system administrators can target the message right down to a classroom, or a specified group, like a specific grade, plus it is always relies on the most current contact information provided by parents.”
For parents, it is simple to register to receive text messages. On Friday afternoon (Nov. 6), they will receive a text message from the School Messenger system. It then will then provide recipients with prompts to sign up to receive the messages via text.
Besides the texting, the system also can more easily send emails and make documents more readily available.
“Every day, we strive to help students succeed but with this new communications tool, we can help parents succeed, too, in their needs for fast and accurate information about their child’s school,” Mr. Payne said.
Nine projects in Monroe Public Schools’ classrooms – nearly all of them directly related to reading comprehension and improvement– have received mini-grants funded by the Education Foundation of Monroe Public Schools. It is the largest number of grants at one time since 2008. Together, the grants totaled about $4,000.
They were chosen from among 26 ideas which were submitted by teachers and staff throughout the school system. The 26 nominations is believed to be the most received in at least a decade. The Foundation’s mini-grant program is the only one of its kind at a Monroe County school district.
“The ideas submitted by our teaching staff were outstanding and the selection committee had a very challenging time determining which projects to fund,” said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent, Monroe Public Schools. “The fact that we had so many nominations is a great endorsement of our determination to make Monroe Public Schools the place where your child succeeds.”
Eight of the nine awards were for programs geared to supporting reading and two addressed the popular STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs at Monroe Public Schools.
Here are the Monroe Public Schools programs which received mini-grant funding:
Creating a Culture of Readers, Writers and Thinkers!, Tara Dessauer and Mark Scoles, Monroe High school. A purchase of a variety of books that meet different interests and different reading levels for students during silent, sustained reading time.
The “A” in STEAM, Staci Dreger and Cheryl Bindus, Waterloo Elementary School. Bringing in a traveling troupe to perform the stage play “Rosie the Riveter,” to be performed on the MHS stage for Waterloo students and MHS’ Fine Arts classes. A discussion will follow.
Comics for the Classroom, Scott McCloskey and Travis Trombley, Monroe High School. A substantial number of graphic novels will be purchased and shared in the MHS English Department, aimed mostly at students for whom the habit of reading is not easy, as a way of supporting their efforts to read.
Literacy Initiative, Kristina Watterworth and Katie Worocz, Custer Elementary School. A one-year subscription to an on-line reading website that can be accessed by students in the classroom and by families at home. Students can read books at their instructional level and be tested on their comprehension.
Leveled Literacy Library, Marcie Boyce, Custer Elementary. Aimed at improving students’ reading comprehension by providing them books written on their level. The project allows struggling readers to read and comprehend various types of texts.
Reading Resources to Enrich the Monroe High School STEM Program, Mary Bullard, Monroe High School. This is to purchase a selected book collection including novels, biographies and non-fiction books on current science, technology and math topics, housed for convenient student access.
Storyworks subscription, Kate Dunlap, Custer Elementary School. For 6th grade students, this subscription provides diverse texts to enrich students’ reading and writing skills, making available to them a wider range of reading resources. These also can be shared with other classes.
Rolling TFT (Trojan Family Time) Library, Scott Hoppert, Monroe Middle School. This grant will increase the number of young-adult titles for the rolling libraries at the school. Providing students chances to read books they choose for sustained periods has positively influenced reading improvement.
Reading Resources, Teresa Stewart, Custer 1 Elementary School. A one-year subscription to an on-line reading resource, accessible on iPads, for various weekly and monthly magazines on all reading levels to peak student interest in reading.Foundation awards nine mini-grants
The 33rd annual Madrigal Dinner of the Monroe High School Vocal Music Department will be held at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 201 S. Monroe St., on Friday, Dec. 11, and Saturday, Dec. 12. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. each night.
The event, one of the popular annual highlights of the holiday season in Monroe, features the talents of the Monroe High School Generations of Sound performing familiar carols and songs of the Christmas season. The Royal Court has been summoned for the amusement of the guests and the Court Jester will have his bag of tricks with him, too. The Royal Court Chefs also will prepare a meal fit for a king, and his queen.
The dinner includes salad, rolls, pork roast, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie and a wassail toast. The public is invited to come and share the festive meal in the spirit of the Yuletide season in Merrie Olde England.
Tickets are $25 each and are limited to only 150 guests per night. Early registration is suggested because these programs typically are sold out early.
To order tickets, see the order form which is attached to this posting.
Throughout the months of November and December, students at Monroe Public School’s five elementary schools will get a spelling lesson every day, just by going to their schools’ salad bars at lunch time.
Called the A-Z Salad Bar, Sodexo, food service provider for Monroe Public Schools, will feature a different fruit or vegetable available for students every day. It started with asparagus on November 2, broccolini on November 3, cantaloupe on November 4 and so on.
“We are excited about this program,” said Mark Havericak, Sodexo’s food service manager for Monroe Public Schools. “This is a fun and educational program designed to explain the many benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, while introducing children to some new varieties of produce, too.”
Among the different types of fruits and vegetables to be featured each day are: fennel, jicama, edamame, and papaya. Of course they can enjoy other more traditional fare, such as olives, lima beans, honeydew melon and iceberg lettuce.
“Focusing on our students’ health is something we do throughout the school year. In fact, this program will be beneficial for both our students and their parents or guardians. During A-Z Salad Bar, we at Sodexo also will distribute interesting educational materials on fruits and vegetables for the adults to use and enjoy, while the students will receive special activity sheets with fun games and information created specifically for them,” Mr. Havericak said.
The five elementary schools of Monroe Public Schools – Arborwood, Custer, Manor, Raisinville and Waterloo – are the only Monroe County Schools participating in a healthy eating activity like this in the remaining two months of the calendar year. Having healthy food choices in each school cafeteria is another reason why Monroe Public Schools is where your child succeeds.
WTVG-TV Channel 13 reporter Kristian Brown visited Monroe High School recently to see what was going on at school with Career and College Ready Day. Copy and paste the following link into your browser to see the story she filed.
http://www.13abc.com/video?videoid=3323083
Monroe High School and its first-ever Career and College Ready Day will be featured tonight in a televised report by WTVG-TV news reporter Kristian Brown. The piece is scheduled to be in the 5:30 p.m. segment of the news. Consult your cable operator for the location of WTVG-TV on your cable dial. It is Channel 13 if you have over-the-air television.
WTVG-TV reporter Kristian Brown was at Monroe High School this week and filed this story about the school's successful Trojan Pride Card program. Copy and paste the link below into browser to see more. The MHS piece is preceded by a 15-second lawyer commercial.
http://www.13abc.com/thisishome/brightside
Congratulations to Monroe High School graduate Jonathon Brown who has been elected president of his 1,100-member Class of 2019 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.) He will serve during his freshman year with the next election scheduled for April 2016 for his class’ sophomore year. Jonathon said that he had a number of leadership roles while at Monroe High School but this is the first time he has been elected class president. Jonathon was a summa cum laude graduate and a senior scholar as a member of the MHS Class of 2015. With scholarship offers from eight major universities, he was one of the most sought-after MHS grads in the history of the school. During his years at MHS, he was a member of the student council, National Honor Society president, Upward Bound Student of the Year and captain of the wrestling team. At MIT, he is studying mathematics and astrophysics. Best wishes…Mr. President.