Monday, 25 October 2010
Greetings Upper School Parents:
This e.mail comes to you following the exciting 1-0 win tonight by the boys varsity soccer team over the Bodkins Trojans. Our boys will next play this Thursday at Bellbrook, details soon to follow from Kathy Kissinger. Stay hungry, Rams!
With the approach of fall exams and other autumnal activities in the Upper School, here are some reminders for the coming weeks.
If you were unable to attend last Friday’s parent meeting to review the revised Physical Education, CreditFlex, and outside athletic participation policies, the guidelines and procedures we discussed are all available on the documents section of the upper school homepage of the MVS website. Physical Education class will be available during the academic day beginning with the Winter Term. Student CreditFlex applications for Winter Term outside PE proposals need to be completed and submitted for review to the upper school office by Wednesday, 3 November. As I mentioned during Friday’s meeting, since this is a revised policy, students can also submit applications that reflect their robust athletic participation completed during the Fall Term. The requirements, expectations, and review process for appropriate CreditFlex applications are clarified in detail in documents posted on-line.
Fall Trimester exams run Tuesday-Thursday, 2-4 November. The exam schedule can also be viewed on the above mentioned documents section of the upper school homepage. Although students are not required to be on campus until 15 minutes before a scheduled exam, most students arrange to study in groups here at MVS during the day. Additionally, the Library will remain open until 6:PM through Thursday, 4 November.
Since Freshmen and Sophomores (as well as upper classmen without such privileges) do not have open campus privileges, if they wish to depart from campus between exams (to go out to lunch or study at a friend’s house), written parent permission must be submitted to the upper school office the day of such a request. Due to obvious safety concerns, permission cannot be phoned in or sent via e.mail.
Tuesday, 2 November is Election Day, so we will again share the Lofino Atrium with voters in the local precinct, since MVS is an official polling location.
Friday, 5 November is designated as College Visitation Weekend, providing an excellent opportunity for students to visit, tour, and perhaps interview at a college or university as part of their college selection process. Friday is also a faculty assessment day, allowing teachers the opportunity to grade exams, compose end-of-term comments, and plan for the start of the Winter Trimester.
Next week, I will be away from MVS on Wednesday through Friday, presenting at the Annual Conference of Independent School Association of the Central States, better known as ISACS. ISACS, the largest regional organization within the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), is also the accrediting body for MVS. The annual conference, this year held in Chicago, always provides excellent opportunities for professional growth, collegial networking, and discussing topical school matters.
We are fortunate to welcome Jeff Wolfsberg back to MVS in starting the Winter Trimester. Jeff Wolfsberg, drug education and wellness specialist, will return during the week of 16-19 November, including a special evening parent meeting on Thursday, 18 November in the Alumni Theatre. The event will begin at 7:00PM with a brief Parents’ Association Meeting. Part of Mr. Wolfsberg’s presentation this year will be in addressing the findings from the student survey we conducted in late September. To that goal, Christie Kemper (School Counselor) has begun providing “Data of the Month” prompts as part of the discussion topics for Advisory Groups. The topic for this week addresses student sleep patterns and adolescent wellness, fitting topics as upper school students determine their study schedules heading into exams next week.
Placements for 2011 Immersion Programs were posted on Friday, with some preliminary organizational meetings between students and facilitators beginning this week. Official group meetings, including parent information sessions, will likely begin in mid-November. Great appreciation goes to the Immersion Task Force, led by Rachel Moulton, which led the way in improving the timeliness, processes, and over-all attentiveness to this keystone of MVS experiential learning.
By means of heads-up, I am in the process of confirming an up-coming evening Parent Education Meeting addressing the topics of cyber bullying, cyber stalking, and Internet safety. I will let you know when details have been confirmed.
As part of MVS’ emergency preparedness program, we will test our “One Call” phone notification system in mid-November. Please take the time to check and confirm your contact phone numbers listed on MyBackpack. The phone numbers you provide will be those we contact for sharing relevant notifications of future snow delays, school closings, and related emergency notices. Although current weather outside has felt down-right balmy, mid-western winter weather cannot be far away.
With sincere regards,
Sam Wagner
Head of Upper School
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