We are fortunate to secure an excellent educator as the replacement for Mrs. Coughlin, who will be taking a leave of absence for the remainder of this school year.  Mrs. Hundley will be replacing Mrs. Coughlin.  Mrs. Hundley retired from teaching after having taught at Banks High School for many years.  Mrs. Hundley taught language arts at the high school, including the Honors English 12 course.  She will assume Mrs. Coughlin's teaching assignment beginning with the first day of the second semester.  Mrs. Hundley is an outstanding educator and we are thrilled to have her return to the high school and teaching for the remainder of this school year.

There has been some vandalism at the high school.  Some of the doors at the entrances to the high school have been vandalized with the locking mechanism being either removed or tampered with.  It is our belief that this is a result of the recent change of locking more doors for security reasons.  While we understand that the locking of the doors requires students to walk around the building to enter, we can not have vandalism take place.  We will follow the student code of conduct for any instance of vandalism to the doors.  This could include suspension and restitution for any act of vandalism.      

At the high school, we will be taking some new measures to increase student safety within the building. We will be locking some exterior doors and they will remained locked both during the school day and after the school day.  We are taking this action as a way of reducing unsupervised entrance into the building.  We will post notices of this change on and around the high school early this week.  We will also notify students of this change, during the school day.  This will mean that some students, parents, visitors and staff will be required to walk a further distance than they do now in order to enter the building.  This will no doubt create some inconvenience for individuals but in weighing student safety against inconvenience we feel that safety is most important. 

A reminder for parents to please excuse student absences immediately when they occur.  In our efforts to increase our student attendance we are finding that we spend considerable time and resources in addressing absences that are for valid reasons but have not been communicated to the school by the parent.  Please call the school the day of the absence to excuse.  In doing this, you will be helping us tremendously in making sure our attendance records are correct and that our resources are being used in the best possible way.  Thank you parents, in advance!

Welcome to a new year!

Students and staff will return to school on Monday morning.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, student and staff safety is of the utmost concern.  The police investigation regarding a potential threat made December 20th was investigated with the determination that there was no credible threat.  The school closure on December 21st was a way for us to be sure that we kept students and staff safe during the police investigation.  Very similar situations occurred at numerous schools in and around the Salem/Portland area with similar results.

I mention again that it is the close personal connections that we have as a school community that helps us to feel safe and also respond quickly to any situations where safety might be at issue.  In these times it is also the case where we will not hesitate to utilize local police agencies as a resource in any instance of serious threat to the school community.

The end of the semester is approaching quickly.  In three weeks all grades in courses will be final and these will be recorded on students transcripts.  It is critically important that your student be diligent about their schoolwork between now and the end of the semester in order to receive the highest grades in all of their courses and to progress towards graduation.  These grades are permanent and transcripts will be required in many instances after high school ie. colleges, military, trade schools etc.

Homework Club runs each week Tuesday-Thursday from 3-4 PM in the library.  This provides students an opportunity to remain after school to meet with teachers and have a quiet supervised area for completing school work.  It is open to all.

Thank you parents for taking time to complete the survey.  We will share the results in the coming months.

All the best to you in the new year...