In an editorial outlining its Editorial Platform for 2016, the Monroe News cited the work going on at Monroe High School as an example of the kinds of strides that need to continue in education.
The News wrote, “Educators at all levels have increased options for lifelong learning. High school-college enrollment is expanding, a “college-going” culture has taken root at Monroe High School, more work skills courses are available. Virtual academies and on-line courses help non-traditional students earn diplomas and early childhood learning continues to grow. Especially important in 2016 will be the renewal of the countywide technology millage that has been a model for other places around the state.”
The highly successful Career and Technical Education program at Monroe High School will be on full display this Thursday at the CTE Expo at the Monroe County Intermediate School facility at 1101 S. Raisinville Rd. The program runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and is geared toward students in grades 8 through 11 and their parents. The 13 different CTE disciplines taught at Monroe High School all will have representatives and students available to chat with visiting parent and students. See the attached poster for more information.
Although there is no school for Monroe Public Schools' students until Monday, January 4, 2016, the Monroe Public Schools Administration Building, 1275 N. Macomb St., is open three days this week for persons who need to do business with the school district. The building will be open for business from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The following piece was writen at the request of the Monroe News which was preparing its annual look at what the area's schools and students were doing around Christmas time. Thanks to the principals who respnded with information to help compile this story.
By Bobb Vergiels
Collecting cans of food, adopting families, writing letters from home to soldiers in faraway lands, taking to the neighborhoods to deliver Christmas cards and sing carols, and entertaining in dozens of places in our community. Those were the efforts put forth by Monroe Public Schools students, staff and families as they cared about their neighbors and shared with them as the Christmas holiday approached.
Singers and instrumentalists from Monroe Public Schools – from the youngest second and third graders to high school seniors – performed nearly 40 times in public as the holiday season approached. In fact, the groups – performing many of their shows on the weekends – averaged about a show a day somewhere in the community from early November until just before Christmas’
Each school was active, too. Here by building is a compilation of the holiday-related activities leading up to the holidays.
Arborwood Elementary Campus – Students and staff sponsored a Giving Tree which benefitted 16 local families, including 47 Arborwood students. Wrapped gifts were donated and money donations were collected for hygiene products for the sponsored families.
Custer Elementary Schools – Enlisting the help of students, staff and parents, the Custer Student Council collected 38 boxes of food and household items to help the community, donating the goods to the Monroe County Opportunity Program
A number of Custer students designed Christmas cards and sent them to local military personnel serving in the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.
Two Custer families were “adopted” and members of the school family filled their wish list for them.
The Custer Choir spread some joy in the adjoining neighborhoods when the singers performed Christmas carols for the neighbors.
Manor Elementary School – The school “adopted” three families, providing them with gifts of toys and clothes.
Students made holiday cards to send to soldiers serving overseas.
Students also donated items to the Humane Society to make sure their furry friends also has a dog-gone good holiday. Manor and the nearby shelter have had a close relationship for many years.
Raisinville Elemetnary School --
Raisinville was very active in working with the community. First, items were collected for The Department of Human Services to serve adults in need. There school also hosted a food drive to serve the less fortunate in Monroe.
Four-footed friends of Raisinville also benefitted. A dog and cat food drive was held to benefit the Humane Society’s animals. To compliment this drive, the Raisinville Positive Behavior Intervention System Committee and the Raisinville Critter Club, created a school-wide cat and dog toy craft activity. More than 150 blankets and 200 toys for the animals were made and donated along with the dog and cat food.
Waterloo Elementary School – The school PTO organized a giving tree for a Waterloo family, providing them with toys, clothes and household items donated by various members of the Waterloo family, including staff, students and PTO members.
Prior to the school’s Christmas break, as is a familiar tradition at the school, Waterloo students went door-to-door delivering Christmas cards to the school’s neighbors.
Monroe Middle School – MMS decided to have some good-natured competition to help the less fortunate over the holidays. For instance, a certain numbers of points were “earned” for various activities which produced some tasty prizes for the winning rooms before the Christmas break.
The school held a very successful canned food drive. Several classes also wrote handmade Christmas cards to service men and women.
Several groups held a “Penny War” in the cafeteria. Every penny was worth positive points and any other coins were negative points. But the real winner was the Monroe Public Schools Promise Fund, which provides boots, coats and other wearables and sometime lodging to needy MPS families.
Throughout December, teachers also could pay money to wear jeans for the whole month, with the money being split between the Promise Fund, the National Junior Honor Society for its community projects or the Trojan Pride Project and Needy Student Fund.
Orchard Center High School – The school held an America Red Cross blood drive to help re-stock depleted blood inventories in the community.
Monroe High School – MHS had so many holiday-related activities going on that even Santa Claus might had gotten tired.
Nearly 35 classes decided to do something during the holiday season. For instance, three classrooms “adopted” families from Raisinville, Waterloo and Manor schools. Two classes “adopted” families identified by the Salvation Army.
Eight classrooms did activities on behalf of the Humane Society shelter. For instance, one class made fleece blankets and several collected food and other items for the animals at the shelter
Hundreds of cans of non-perishable food were collected by the sophomore class to be provided to local food banks.
Several groups, including the MHS student council, made fleece blankets for those less fortunate and those living in shelters. Holiday cards also were made and delivered to the residents of the Lutheran Home. The student council members also helped out at a recent GodWorks! Dinner.
More than 800 Christmas cards were signed and delivered to the American Red Cross to distribute to members of the military serving overseas during the holidays.
Monroe-area homeless shelters were well taken care of. One class knit scarves for homeless shelter residents and another group donated blankets, clothing and toys for the children living at the Oaks or Righteousness Center.
Two classrooms collected new books to provide to C.S. Mott’s Children’s Hospital for pediatric cancer patients so they have something to read as they go through their treatment regimen.
And MHS students and staff did not forget their own at Christmas, either. Several groups collected money and donations for Hope’s Closet, which is a room at Monroe High School, where various articles of clothing and toiletries are housed so MHS students who are in need can go there and get what they need in a not-threatening setting.
Administration Building – The central staff collected underwear, socks, toiletries and school supplies for the district’s Promise Fund. Money also was collected for the Promise Fund to provide food, shelter, gas cards and such for distrirct families living in transition.
Your son or daughter brought home a very important document this week. It is your child’s individual results on the M-STEP (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) tests which were taken last spring. We recently received this information from the State of Michigan. Your child’s teacher passed this informational document on to your child directly at school, and we wanted you to know to look for it. After you have looked over the information, if you have questions, please feel free to contact your child’s teacher.
Parents – Just a reminder, in case your children may have forgotten to tell you. Tuesday will be the last day of classes for Monroe Public Schools prior to the Christmas Holiday Break. There will be no school for Monroe Public Schools from December 23 through January 3. Classes resume on Monday, January 4, 2016. Have a wonderful holiday break.
Forty-eight Monroe High School students have successfully reached their first trimester academic goals under the school’s Allies in Monroe (AIM) mentoring program, meaning they each have earned $200 scholarships for their successful efforts. They were honored at a banquet on December 17.
AIM – now in its second year – is an academic incentive and mentoring program for all MHS students. The program is designed to enhance student achievement, increase the number of students furthering their education after high school, and improve student-staff-community relationships. It also aims to enhance the overall Monroe High School career- and college-ready culture. MHS’ AIM is the only program of its kind in Monroe County.
“We are very proud of these students, many of whom earned similar academic awards last year,” said Monroe High School Teacher David Henry, who coordinates the school’s AIM program. “These students know that someone believes in them. They have shown tremendous persistence and have learned through AIM that hard work does pay off. This is another way that we help our students to succeed.”
In the program, students are paired with an adult mentor – called an ally -- to help motivate and encourage them to reach at least a 15-percent increase in their grade-point-average or some other agreed-upon stretch target. In the program’s first four trimesters, about 150 students have earned the $200 scholarship rewards, meaning the program has awarded about $30,000 to deserving MHS students.
“We are thankful for the sponsors we have who have stepped up to support this program. They make it work for our students,” Mr. Henry said. At Thursday’s recognition banquet, these sponsors, called Angels, were recognized: Mike and Wendy Gaynier, Bruce and Kim Diven, Ryan and Dory Philbeck – Patriot Group, Elevate Church, Tim and Margie Lake, Monroe High School Alumni Association and GROW Monroe. Monroe Bank & Trust, La-Z-Boy and DTE Energy were thanked.
Although AIM is a Monroe High School program, no district money can be used to support it so AIM is governed by a board which oversees the securing of funds to support the program. Potential supporters can contact Mr. Henry at 265-3612.
Here are the students who earned first trimester recognition through AIM:
Seniors – Aja Alamo, Caitlin Daniels, Adrian Finney, Jaleene Frayer, Kara Graff, Isziah Harris-Madison, Kylee Heringhausen, Jacob LaBeau, Kyle Lange, Tevin Nickols, Jordyn Raymo,Brendan Russeau, Bandon Scheffler, Frederick Shipp, Julie Siech, Lauren VanKlingeren, Cinnamin Warren and Jalen Wilkerson.
Juniors – Austin Amolsch, Angelina Blake, Tyreke Hood, Derek Kennedy, Skylar Sortor, and Mariah Wilkes.
Sophomores – Dekayla Adams, Jina Alley, Kristen Bolster, Lauren Brooks, Precious Dafney-Burciaga, Tatum Dusseau-Johnson, Dante Holliday, Alexandria Leone, Andi Martin, Johnathan McNamee, Catherine Noble, Harlan Pfefferle, Andrew Pruchnic, Elliah Redden, Lauren Steve and Natalie Trout.
Freshmen – Deysha Ambert, Elizabeth Bray, Ashley Harris, Anthony Levesque, Sydnee Martin, Daniel Robertson, Jaccob Short, and Anna Traver.
Monroe Public Schools has received its aggregate results for students on the 2014-2015 statewide assessment known as M-STEP (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress.)
Last spring, students were assessed in their proficiencies in English Language Arts (ELA), Math, Science and Social Studies. As predicted by state education officials when the tests were being taken during the last school year, student scores across Michigan showed that the tests were more challenging than what students experienced under the previous state-sponsored tests, the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) tests.
“We expected proficiency levels to be different than before, just as they were across the state, and these results set a new baseline for measuring student progress on these challenging tests,” said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent, Monroe Public Schools. “These results are important for understanding student learning going forward.
“Like most years, there are certain groups of our students who performed at or above state averages. For us, it was third grade where both reading (ELA) and math proficiencies were on a par with state averages,” Dr. Martin said.
“There is much work we will continue to do to help our Monroe students to increase their proficiencies across the board. Our commitment as a district is to work with our students in the years they are with us to help them succeed by preparing them for careers and/or college,” Dr. Martin said.
The Monroe High School Student Prevention Team is “setting up shop: in the school cafeteria this week to convince their fellow students the seriousness of drug abuse, both for illegal substances and with improperly used prescription drugs.
The 12-member Student Prevention Leadership Team recently attended the third annual Monroe County Prescription Abuse and Heroin Summit December 1 at Monroe County Community College. The goal of the team is to show fellow students how they can avoid starting the drug abuse in the first place. They also want to stress the seriousness of the situation and how innocently it can start.
Starting Monday (Dec. 14) the team isl hosting a table in the cafeteria during all lunches. Students will have a chance to have their pictures taken and record how they can make good choices that will help when negative pressures come their way. The top comments will be used by the Monroe County Substance Abuse Coalition as tweets and as a future billboard in Monroe.M
The Detroit Tigers may not be playing baseball in Detroit for another few months but Monroe-area Tigers’ fans can start getting ready for the season when Mario Impemba, Fox Sports Detroit play-by-play broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers, comes to Monroe on Wednesday, January 20, to speak at a fundraiser benefitting the Education Foundation of Monroe Public Schools.
The two-hour event will begin at 6 p.m., January 20, at the Monroe Bank & Trust headquarters’ community room, 10 Washington St. Tickets are $25 each and include light refreshments and a chance to hear the veteran Tigers broadcaster talk about the upcoming season and take audience questions. Tickets are limited and only will be available via pre-sale. Tickets will not be available at the door.
Check out the attached flyer.
“We are making tickets available now because we believe they will make great stocking stuffers and Christmas presents for the Tigers fans on anyone’s gift list,” said Deb Thornton, president, Education Foundation of Monroe Public Schools. “Hearing the man who talks about Tigers baseball all summer long talk about Tigers baseball in Monroe is a great way to chase away the mid-winter blahs and yell ‘Play Ball.’”
Tickets are available during regular business hours at the Monroe Public Schools Administration Building, 1275 N. Macomb St., or from any Foundation Board member.
Mario Impemba has been the play-by-play voice of Tigers baseball on Fox Sports Detroit since 2002. He also announced basketball for the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies and formerly broadcast California Angels baseball prior to coming to Detroit. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.M