Herdrich's High School Headlines
I was in AP statistics class awhile back, and the class has a countdown on the board with the number of days until their AP test. It was a reminder of the short time between now and testing day, with students hoping to score well enough to earn college placement credit. The countdown was 71 days. Students in the class felt a sense of urgency in their practice and preparation for the big test. I, too, feel the same sense of urgency as we approach the spring season. There are many activities scheduled for the coming months, including graduation, and keeping students academically on track is vitally important for participation in these events and opportunities.
Thirty-four students in grades 9-12 represent Central Lee High School on the Student SOAR leadership team. This team meets weekly to plan and prepare monthly activities for the student body that both incentivize and reinforce students to do the right thing, both in and out of school. In February alone, the student SOAR team participated in a leadership retreat, planned and hosted the 80s dance, sold Valentine treats, and wrote special sticky notes for each student’s locker for Random Acts of Kindness Day. We want every student at Central Lee to know that they have a place here—and that they have a genius that makes them a leader.
Not only do we want students to leave Central Lee with confidence and leadership skills, we have also committed to all students graduating with a clear path and plan for life after high school. Career and college readiness is our overarching goal. We have implemented several new classes, including college concurrent enrollment classes around the topics of employability skills, job shadowing, career awareness, exploration, and preparation. You can find out more about our new Career and College framework at https://www.centrallee.org/page/career-college-readiness.
In helping students explore and prepare for life after school, it is important to get input from parents and keep them informed of their students’ interests and plans. Each student has completed their fall 2022-23 class schedule and career plan. New to spring conferences this school year, all parents reviewed their students’ course and career plan with an assigned SOAR teacher, discussed any questions or thoughts, and approved the plan.
Teachers are encouraged to share the strengths and areas of improvement for your student in their respective classes. Our goal was that you left conferences knowing just what your student needs to do to improve his or her grade and end the second semester successfully.
In an attempt to improve final semester grades and hold students more accountable to their academic performance, we have implemented a new system on Monday through Thursday after school. The Study Hour takes place from 3:30 to 4:40 p.m. Every Thursday, the office will review grades. Any student who has multiple failing grades for two or more weeks will be expected to stay at least one hour after school on one of the Study Hour days. The office or the School Success Coordinator will inform the students who are required to stay, giving each of them an informational slip to be signed by a parent and returned to school. It is the student’s responsibility to come prepared with a charged iPad and assignments that need to be completed.
While this is a lot of information to digest, it’s not nearly everything I could share about what’s happening at Central Lee High School!
In addition to Herdrich’s High School Headlines, please take a minute to read our additional section: the Published Media class’s student-written and published Central Lee Hawk Talk Newsletter. It is just another way we are leading our students in applying their skills to become career and college ready!