Principal's Message |
The school year is well under way and the 1st marking period officially ends on October 21st. The air temperature at night is a bit cooler and reminds me of what I remember in high school as “football weather.” Being a Florida boy, I have never really seen the changing of the leaves, but some people tell me that it is full swing in more northern latitudes. This time of year signals many changes. Summer has gone and fall has arrived. The hurricane season is ending and the holiday season has begun. The first report cards are coming out, which will hopefully begin a period of praise and celebration. This is what we all hope for our children, success in the classroom. But sometimes our students need a little extra help. Although there have been severe budget cuts we have found funding to provide tutoring for our students two days per week; Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 until 4:00. We also have been able to fund two afterschool buses for these students leaving at 4:15. Please speak to your child and encourage them to take advantage of this free service. We have help for Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Foreign Language, Computer Science, and FCAT. Speaking of tutoring, using software in our computer labs, we will soon offer an after school program for students to prepare for the Scholastic Aptitude Test. We will also soon offer a series of SAT evening classes on Tuesday nights from 6:00 to 8:00 with two of our very best teachers in math and language arts. The dates will be posted on our website soon. Our homecoming football game is November 7th at 7:00 p.m. against Atlantic High School. We will have a pep rally during the last period that day followed by a giant tailgate party before the game. Please join us as the MHS Pirates take on the AHS Sharks! As we wrap up our football season and our first marking period, I want to remind our students that they need to set goals for themselves. Every morning, I read a quote to our students from a publication called from Project Wisdom. One of those goals I hope they set is that of academic excellence. Hal Urba, and American educator , is quoted in this publication as saying, “Living without goals is like going on a trip without a destination. If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll probably end up nowhere, and any road will get you there.” According to Mr. Urban, setting goals can dramatically change any person’s life. Setting goals creates the road map to a happier and more successful future. Setting a goal to attend college is one that we encourage our students to make. This is the time of year that our seniors should be looking into scholarships to help make this goal a reality. Every morning we make announcements to our students about available scholarships. Also, our guidance office has lots of information about admission to and financial aid for college. Please encourage your child to listen carefully to our announcements in the morning and check periodically in our guidance office for this important information. But, the most important thing is to have your child take the time to complete scholarship and financial aid applications. Many a scholarship has been lost because no one applied for it. Don’t let this happen; help your child set a goal of completing 3 to 5 scholarship applications per month. This is a very achievable and will help you and your child reach the ultimate goal of a successful future. Autumn marks the change of our seasons and the beginning of the last year for our seniors. It will be gone before we know it and we will again marvel at how quickly time passes. Let’s help the class of 2009 make the right choices now so that the end of spring finds them ready for their future. Chris Pryor
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