December is now here and it is a short "school" month. There is no school on Friday because it is a grade day for teachers. Parents will see the 12-week progress reports the week of December 9th-13th. Please look carefully at your son/daughters progress report because there are only 6 more weeks of classes before these grades become final. This time will go quickly with two weeks before the Holiday Break and then another three weeks when we return, to end the semester. Earning passing grades in all assigned classes is important in order to move forward and on time towards graduation. We want to make sure that all students graduate from high school and having passing grades at the semester is a critical junction for demonstrating progress towards that goal. Included in the progress report mailing will be the Banks High School State Report Card. The report card has very good information about the high school including test score and attendance data as well as historical data in both areas as well. It also has comparisons of results from Banks High School with other similar high schools. It is worth noting that some of the high schools in our comparison group are; Riverdale, Lake Oswego, Union and Sherwood. The high school staff have been spending late start times looking at refining grading practices to move towards a building policy for grading. We have been using the book "A Repair Kit For Grading" written by Ken O'Connor as our guide for this discussion.

We are entering the last week before a long Thanksgiving week of "no school". During the week of November 25-29 there will be three furlough days, November 25,26 and 27. We then have Thanksgiving on the 28th and a non-contract day on the 29th. This makes for a week where families of students and of staff can spend some quality time together. We return to school on Monday December 2nd. There will be another "no school" day on Friday December 6th. This will be a grading day for staff. Our winter sports teams will kick off their seasons starting with the return to school on December 2nd. I hope that each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving break this year!

The fall sports season has just wrapped up. Both football and volleyball participated in the state tournament. Volleyball finished in 6th place and football was knocked out in the first round by a tough Henley team. Our girls soccer team lost last weekend in the play-in round. It was a great fall sports season with some great weather, lots of wins and wonderful fan support. We now move on to the winter sports season where we will have basketball, wrestling and dance and drill. Contests for these teams will start after the Thanksgiving break. The time between now and that break will go quickly and before we know it the Christmas break will be here. The next progress reports will be December 6th and that marks the 12-week point of this first semester.

Parent conferences are this week. We begin on Thursday evening and conclude on Friday morning. The times are from 5-8 PM on Thursday and then again from 8 AM-12 noon on Friday morning. Conferences are in a "drop in" format with no scheduled times for meetings with teachers. This can make for some lines as parents wait to meet with teachers. We ask that parents and teachers work to keep conference times to approximately 5-10 minutes each. If parents feel that more time is needed for a conference with a teacher please schedule another time to meet with the teacher during the school week. Teachers will provide current grades to share with parents. It is always the case that Thursday night is a busy time. It is recommended to visit the high school for conferencing on Friday morning if at all possible. Congratulations to the girls volleyball team after defeating Sutherlin High School in the first round of the State 4A playoffs on Saturday afternoon. The team now moves on to Eugene for a Friday morning 8 AM match with Sisters High School. All matches from this point will be held at Lane Community College in Eugene. Good luck to the team as they move on in State competition! Also just a reminder that Monday November 11th there will be no school due to the observance of Veteran's Day.