|
Notes from
the Principal
~
Welcome to the 2008-09 school year!
I hope
that this school year is off to a fantastic start for all GHS
families.
I thank you for your support and partnership at GHS. You send us
your kids each day, and you work with us as we do our best to meet
the needs of every student.
I am proud of the staff that we have here at GHS -- from the
custodians and maintenance personnel who work to keep our school in
top shape -- to the kitchen staff serving two meals each day -- to
our secretarial staff that keeps the offices running smoothly -- to
the teachers, counselors and parapros who work day in and day out
doing whatever it takes to get to know our GHS students as
individual people and learners -- to Ms. Boughner and Deputy
Alexander who work to help students make better choices and keep GHS
safe.
I hope that parents are pleased to see that GHS teachers are posting
grades to Edline every Friday this year in an effort to keep lines
of communications as open as possible.
We all appreciate
your faith and trust in us as we continue to FOCUS ON LEARNING
at GHS!
Be sure to pick up the phone and give me a call any time you need to
talk to me about your student.
Sincerely,
K. Doniel Pummell, Principal
344-3532 ~
kpummell@casdk12.net
"Let us be the
change we want in the world." -Gandhi
~~~
2008-09
Master Schedule
Our counselors spent
hundreds of hours creating the master schedule and then scheduling
students into classes. Every attempt was made to honor student
requests; however, the master schedule cannot accommodate all
requests, and schedule changes will be limited.
Excuse Your
Student's Absences
Please help
us be more effective by contacting the GHS Main office within 24
hours of your student's absence at 989-344-3508 or 989-344-3528.
Also, I would like to thank the parents who are excusing their
students on the day of their absence. This really helps us in
tracking unexcused absences.
Planning Ahead with Messages
Parents,
you can help us by
encouraging your students to bring notes to the Main Office prior to
the start of the school day in order to get passes for early-release
appointments. You can also help by calling before school starts if
an early student pick-up will take place sometime during the day. We
do have a system in place for getting urgent and emergency messages
to students, but anything that parents can do ahead of time really
helps.
Last Minute Messages
Due to the large volume of last-minute messages for students,
we cannot accept or deliver student messages after 2:40 p.m. If you need to
get a message to your child, you must call the school prior to 2:40 p.m. We
apologize for any inconvenience. Without student aides,
we don't have the staff to deliver the messages. Thank you for
your understanding and cooperation.
Senior Absences
Please note
the Senior Attendance Policy. (Click on menu above to read it.)
Seniors with more than 2 No Credits in the second and third
trimesters COMBINED will not participate in the graduation ceremony.
If you have attendance questions, please call Donna Boughner at
989-344-3502.
Career Exploration
Any time is a great time to
do some exploring and planning for the future. Our career websites --
www.careercruising.com
and www.access.bridges.com
-- are available to students year-round. In addition check out
www.act.org and
www.collegeboard.org for
great college prep tips. College visits are always a good idea too.
Make an appointment with the admissions office of any college you
are considering, and check it out. The Counseling Office section of
our GHS web page offers suggestions for making the most of your
campus visits.
Curriculum
Be sure to call or e-mail teachers if and when you have questions
about your student's progress. You can access e-mail by going to
casdk12.net, then to the GHS tab, then to the Staff Page.
Crisis Plan
GHS will practice several lockdown drills throughout the year.
We have worked diligently to refine our crisis plans to consider
structured as well as non-structured times, such as hall passing and
lunch. The revisions that we have made are solid improvements, and
we will be practicing them throughout the school year.
Senior Absence Policy
GHS has implemented a Senior
Absence Policy to ensure that students are taking full advantage of
their senior year. Often times excessive absences lead to the
student earning NC (No Credit) and missing valuable class room
instruction:
1. Students with more than two NC's at the end of the winter
trimester and thereafter due to attendance will not
participate in Commencement exercises.
OR
2. Beginning after the second official
count day of the school year, students who excuse themselves, have
unexcused absences or whose parent excuses the student
excessively for one or more classes for reasons not covered in the
Attendance Policy (usually because the student does not need that
class to graduate) will face the following:
A. After a referral to the Office, the student will
meet with his or her counselor to review the policy and the
procedures that will be followed if the absences continue.
B. The next
referral, the student will meet with administration, and parent will
be notified of the consequences of a reoccurrence.
C. After the third referral for the class, the student
will meet with parent and administration, and the student will be
dropped from the course subject/class.
D. Once the student is dropped from the course
subject/class, a NC will be given, which is figured into the
student's GPA as an E.
E. Once this
happens for more than two course subjects/classes, the student will
NOT participate in Commencement exercises.
F. Dropping a
CTE class at Kirtland Community College equals three No Credits
(NC).
Special Note: An excused absence
is when the student signs out in the Office and leaves with parental
permission or as according to the sign-out policy for 18-year-olds.
"Skipping" is an unexcused absence. It occurs when the
student is out of any class or lunch period and is not excused. The
consequences for skipping will be in addition to the Senior Absence
Policy and are listed in the handbook.
Back to the top
Home
18-Year Olds' Sign-Out
Policy
iAll
students must meet with administration to learn the rights
associated with signing themselves out of school.
iStudents
who are 18 must follow the same guidelines as parents when it comes
to providing doctor slips, etc.
Back to the top
Home
Early Graduation Option
The CASD advises caution in
pursuing an early departure from high school. The purpose of the
four-year high school program is to provide students with a
combination of academic, vocational and social experiences that will
prepare them for entry into the world of work, further training or
post-secondary education. Most students graduating from high school
exceed minimum requirements because the requirements are just that
-- a minimum.
A student who, for education and vocational reasons, wishes to
graduate from high school in less than the normal four-year, 9-12
sequence, may request permission. Examples of reasons to be given
consideration are hardship circumstances, vocational opportunities,
enlistment in the military, pursuit of a continuous specialized
education objective and college entrance.
The following MUST be agreed to by the student and his/her parent
or legal guardian for permission to be granted:
1. The request for early graduation must be made in writing five
weeks before the end of the trimester within which graduation will
take place.
2. Upon early graduation, the applicant
will not be enrolled as a student of GHS. He/She will no longer be
eligible for participation in co-curricular activities or or any
class or school activities that require full-time or legal student
status.
3. The student will not be eligible to
participate in graduation ceremonies or associated events such as
Project graduation or Senior Honors Night.
4. The student who graduates early will
not be eligible for local or other scholarships that are
administered through the GHS Counseling Office.
5. The student's GPA will be computed
with his/her final trimester grades; he/she will not be ranked with
the class. It is important to note that the official transcript will
not reflect twelve trimesters of coursework. The diploma will reflect
the student's actual date of graduation.
6. GHS will not allow students to
"double up" on English or other department credits for the sole
purpose of graduating early.
7. No summer school, correspondence or
independent study courses will be accepted for early graduation.
8. Students who qualify for federal
special education programming would need to be released from their
respective programs. With graduation, legal obligation to provide
any further educational services by the CASD would cease.
Final approval for early graduation rests with the high school
principal.
Back to the top
Home
Guiding Principles
~ Adopted Fall 2006
GHS has adopted what we like to
call our Guiding Principles -- ideas that guide us in our
decision-making. They are:
1) At GHS, student achievement is the number one
priority.
2) All students can learn, and learning is the most important reason
for school.
3) We must identify barriers to student academic success and do what
we can to address these barriers, and -- in doing so -- we must not
enable our students but empower them to be more responsible for
their own academic success and prove it.
4) Teachers must know and embrace the content to be taught and at
any given moment be able to answer the following question: "How can
I prove that I am teaching the curriculum and that my students are
learning it?"
5) Students and teachers who are happy and safe will be more
productive.
Trimester System
At the end of the fall 2007 trimester, credits were issued for
students who earned passing grades. Some students will not take the
B (second half) of a one-credit class until the spring trimester. In
other words, they may have a gap during the winter and pick up the
second half of the class in the spring. Other students will continue
with the B (second half) of the class in the winter trimester.
Another important item is core class failures, especially for
freshmen. Freshmen who failed any math, science, social studies or
English classes will, in as many cases as possible, be put right
back into those classes in an attempt to keep them on track for
graduation. Remember, it is a combination of credits and specific
classes that lead to a diploma. Therefore, when required classes are
failed, elective classes cannot be taken because there is no room
for them in students' schedules.
Attendance is reset at the start of winter semester. Remember the
magic numbers: Students can miss 8 days in a class over the course
of the 12 weeks. If they miss 9-12 days, they must earn a C- or
better on the final exam to have their grade averaged in the class.
If they miss 13 or more days in the 12-week trimester, they will
earn a NO CREDIT in that class. In addition, we remind families to
call the school to validate any absence, or it will be considered a
SKIP.
Items of Interest
Attendance Secretary Message-Only Phone Number
You can contact the high school more conveniently
with the addition
of a message only line for the attendance secretary. The new
phone number for parents to call and leave a message for Sheri
Mitchell to excuse their child's attendance is 344-3528. You may
still call 344-3508 when you need to speak to Mrs. Mitchell
directly.
Work
Experience
State of Michigan laws have made it impossible for GHS to offer work
experience to our students for the 2007-2008 school year. This law
requires that any work experience job be 100% tied to a student’s
career ambitions. This means that the job connects to the student’s
post high school education, as well as to his or her GHS schedule.
Additionally, before the student could begin his or her work
experience job, he or she must complete a nine-week safety class
that must be taught at GHS. The explanation above is just the tip
of the iceberg, so to speak, when it comes to these new mandates. However, we will be taking this year to see what we can do to use
our community work opportunities to offer work experience again in
the future.
KCC/CTE
Students
KCC/CTE students are REQUIRED to ride the bus. Attending these programs is a privilege. The cost to the district
is over $1,600.00 per student and well worth the cost. If a student
ever needs to drive for a good reason, he or she must come to the
main office to get proper approval. It is also important to stress
that behavior problems either at KCC or on the bus will NOT be
tolerated and may result in removal from the program which may
result in loss of credit and lack of a complete schedule.
School Delays and Closings
The following radio and TV stations are used to broadcast any delays
and/or school closings: FOX, 9/10, 7/4, 29/8, WQON, the BEAR, WKLT,
WUPS, WSRT, 101.5 The Oldies, WTCM, WCCW, and 90.5 Christian Radio.
They are also put on the school district's phone system as soon as
possible.
Snowmobiles
In order to ride snowmobiles to school, students must have taken snowmobile safety, ride on registered sleds
and wear all the right protective gear. Special Note: Any
rule violations will result in a student's snowmobile privileges
being taken away.
Snowmobiling Club Update (2/24/07)
The club has been a success. All those who have registered and
ridden their sleds to school have done so with great driving
etiquette and have followed all established rules. Way to go!
|
