As some of you may have heard, Diane Coughlin will be leaving the high school at the start of the Holiday break. Diane has taught Language Arts at the high school for over six years. She will be leaving in order to attend to family issues. Diane's replacement will be Becky Hundley. Becky is a retired and long time Language Arts teacher at the high school. Becky will begin on January 6th and will continue until the end of the school year. Those students seeking college credit for Honors 12 Language Arts will be able to obtain it through successful completion of the class. We are all sad to see Diane leave and thank her tremendously for her service to the district. I hope that each of you have a restful and relaxing Holiday break!

Thank goodness for the bond upgrades to the high school. With the very low temperatures this past week we have needed the new heating system more than ever. It has been comfortable and warm throughout the high school. There are still "pockets" of chilly spaces, my office included but the improved heating systems in the classrooms are wonderful. A couple of holiday events are coming up. The first is Santa's breakfast on Saturday December 14th from 8:30-11:00 AM at the elementary school. The other is the 7-12 band/choir concert held on Thursday December 19th at 7 PM in the high school cafeteria. It is hard to believe but when we return from the holiday break we will begin looking to next year. This will mean looking at course offerings, staffing, scheduling and revision or implementation of policies to list a few. There are many changes in public education. Some of the changes are mandated, teacher/administrator evaluation (SB 290), standards based grading (HB 2220), implementation of the Common Core and new Smarter Balanced state assessments. Others, while not mandated, are meant to improve education for students. This might include a revised grading policy, a look at proficiency based education, attempting to increase elective and honors course offerings and improving technology for all students. The one thing that remains constant through all of this is the fact that Banks School District students are outstanding young people who are invested in their education. I appreciate this fact every day as we work towards providing the best education that we can for this community. I wish all of you the best during this Holiday Season!