Progress report grades will be mailed home this week. This marks the 12-week point in the semester. This semester ends on January 22nd. At that point, all grades are final. Please make sure that your son/daughter are working hard on their academics in the next 6-weeks. Along with the progress report 11th grade parents will receive information about state testing for this year. One of the things districts are required to do is mail home information about how parents may opt-out their child from state testing. While we hope that your student will test in science, English language arts and math the fact is that there are other ways of demonstrating competency in these areas. There are due dates for returning these forms, please be aware of those dates. The next two weeks will fly by now that we are in to the Holiday season. Enjoy the time, the school activities and the season!

School resumes this week after a long Thanksgiving break. We have a grade Dy on Friday December 4th. This is will mark the 12-week point in this first semester. Students will not be in school on December 4th. The National Honor Society induction will be coming up in December. This will be a morning event held in the gymnasium. Students and parents will be notified of who is being inducted prior to the event so all may attend. We are working on possibly altering our bell schedule starting next fall. The reason for a possible change is to be able to allocate some time during the school day for students to be able to access any teacher for roughly 30 minutes twice a week. This is so that students can take re-tests, or get additional help from teachers. There will be more to. One on this after the first of the year. Winter sports contests start this week.

This is the last week of school prior to a one week break. There will be no school from November 23rd-27th. Four of the days that week are non-contract and non-paid days for all school staff. When we return from the Thanksgiving break there will be three weeks of school and the longer Holiday break of two weeks. 12-week progress reports will be mailed home the second week in December. Congratulations to our football team as they defeated Mazama 28-21 yesterday afternoon. It was a hard fought game between two very good teams. Banks will play next on Saturday November 12st at 3:30 PM at Hillsboro Stadium. We will be playing Cascade.

This past week was College Application Week at the high school. All week long senior students had the opportunity to attend presentations that helped theM look into their future and what they might do after high school. There were sessions on college, trades and the work force and the military. Students signed up for what they wanted to attend. Whitney Scott, our new counselor organized the event. It was very well received and students and parents voiced their appreciation for having it. Congratulations to the volleyball team. They won the state 4A volleyball title on Saturday night. They defeated Sisters in three close games. This is their first state title. The football team defeated Baker on Saturday. They will now play Mazama next Saturday. Time and location have not been set yet.

Parent conferences will be November 4th and 5th from 4:30-8 PM. Parents are encouraged to come to the high school to meet with teachers and discuss their students progress in courses. Teachers will be available during this time to meet. The front office will have copies of transcripts, current grades and a map for parents who need them. Hope to see you this week. There is no school on Friday November 6th. We also have College Application Week November 2nd-5th. This is the week when our seniors can attend sessions on applying to college, applying to trade schools, military options, being informed about sports in college etc. We will have sessions throughout the four days that seniors can attend if interested. The focus is on getting students started on their next step after graduation from high school. It's our first time doing this and Whitney Scott, our new counselor, has brought this program to the high school. It is a great opportunity for our students!

At the high school, we are moving towards a standards based education approach to instruction. In a standards based system teachers identify course standards from either the common core or from the Oregon Department of Education content standards and teach to those standards in each course. They identify the "priority standards", those that are most critical to know and develop lessons around those standards. Students will be expected to demonstrate that they know and understand identified standards, usually by some form of a classroom assessment. In this system, students are typically allowed multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and so re-testing is allowed. The key piece before their is a re-test is that the student will need to increase their understanding of the content. Additional time spent on learning content will be necessary for students wanting to take a re-take. Tests will typically represent 60-70% of the course grade, with homework representing a much smaller portion of the grade. Extra credit is no longer an option in SBE classrooms. In addition, students may receive two grades in each course, an academic grade (tests, quizzes, homework) and a behavior grade (attendance, behavior in class, tardiness with submitting work etc.). We are working, as a staff on implementing this system, a common one in many high schools across the state and nation. In short, we move from a system of accumulating points in a course for extra-credit, tests taken once, homework etc to one where tests become the primary indicator of learning.

The weather has turned and it feels more like fall now. In some ways the rain and clouds bring familiarity to the time of year. The upcoming week at the high school will be busy with classes and sporting events. There are a few issues looming on the horizon for schools in Oregon. One is the new ruling on instructional hours. The state passed some legislation that will require schools to offer a minimum number of instructional hours at different grade levels. For the high school the number of hours is 990. We must look at this closely for next year, which is when it begins to impact us. The other issue is the mascot issue. We are working with ODE and local tribal councils to see if it might be possible to keep our mascot. We need to know definitively very soon as changing the mascot is a process and it brings with it financial costs in making the change. I have been very impressed with our students through the fall. We have a wonderful group of young people in the school now and they all seem to be working towards meeting graduation requirements, which have increased in difficulty in the last few years. Our sports teams are doing very well, as they have in each of the past three years that I have been serving as the principal. We are closing in on the time of year where playoffs and state competitions begin. I believe that there may be a number of our teams moving on to post season play, a great accomplishment! Please do not hesitate to contact me either by email or phone should you have any questions about anything here or outside of this post. Have a great week!

These are the last few days of high school for our senior students who are graduating. It's a busy time spent with friends and family as they prepare for graduation on Friday. The weather for Friday looks good so we are planning an outside graduation on the football field. It will begin at 7 PM that evening. Students will need to be present at 6:00 PM that night. Baccalaureate will be on Wednesday night at 7 PM at the Dayspring church in Banks. Family, friends and staff are welcome at this event. And then of course seniors last school day is Wednesday. What a fun and exciting week ahead!

For seniors, we are in the last few days of the school year. Although that is true it's important to remind your senior student that they need to finish all aspects of their senior years. This includes attending classes, completing final exams and projects and attending to other things like making sure fees are paid prior to graduation. A reminder that Diplomas will be held for any student who still owes fees at graduation time. Diplomas will be released once all fees are paid. Seniors will be given their check out sheets for teachers and office staff to sign later this week. Any junior who has not completed the Smarter Balanced State Math test will need to do so before the end of the school year, June 10th. We will be contacting them to complete it during a period of their school day. The year is winding down now, and it will go quickly.

There is quite a bit going on this week at the high school. It is We Care Week. That means a week of doing nice things for each other during the school day. Some examples are; students opening doors and greeting other students and staff as they enter the school, providing water and a snack bar to students on one day, raising student awareness to safety issues like not texting while driving etc. There will be events each day of the week. We also have Prom on Saturday night at the Hillsboro Cultural Center from 8-11 PM. This is the week that we begin AP testing as well. It's a busy week ahead, but a fun one!

This is the week that all 11th grade students will be completing state testing in reading and writing. Testing will take place on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. All 11th graders will need to be present to begin testing at 9:05 AM on Wednesday and 8:25 AM on Thursday. Students with late arrivals have been contacted and have been informed that they will need to be at school at these times both days. In addition a letter was mailed home to parents indicating this as well. Students who have classes during the first two periods of each day will be excused from them to complete testing. The test is called Smarter Balanced and passing either the test or local work samples is a requirement to receive a high school diploma in the state of Oregon. State testing in math will take place May 18th and 19th and will follow the same format of testing during the first two periods of each day.

Students in grades 8-11 are scheduling for classes for next year, this week. Students will submit their class requests by entering them on the computer using their synergy account. This will be done in their science classes. Teachers, counselor and technology staff will be on hand to assist them in selecting courses. Once all requests are submitted, the computer schedules the students into classes. Once that is done we run reports to see that all students have full schedules and that class sizes are acceptable. When this is complete, we print and mail schedules home. We hope to mail them home in June with the report cards. At the latest, they would be mailed home in August with the back-to-school mailing.

This week students will be testing in science. All sophomores and juniors who either have not tested or those who have not met will have an opportunity to take the test. They will take the test during their science classes. In addition to science testing we will also be handing out scheduling materials for next year to 8th-11th graders. Curriculum guides will be provided to each student in the above grades. During the week of April 20-24 students will select their courses for next year by logging into their synergy account and selecting them. Parents should plan to review course selections with their student this week.

Welcome back, in just over a day, to the last 12-weeks of the school year. Upcoming events include the following; state testing in science the week of April 13th, scheduling for classes for next year also is the week of April 13th, state testing in reading and writing will be the weeks of April 20-23 and 27-30. It will be a busy month with sports events and the garage sale fundraiser also.

The 6-week progress reports will be mailed home this week. There are now 12-weeks left in this school year. Even though, it will be a very busy time. When we return from spring break, March 23-27, there will be scheduling for next year, state testing, senior meetings and spring sports. The year doesn't slow down, it actually speeds up. Spring will be busy for everyone. Congratulations to our girls basketball team. They finished 6th in the state at the state tournament just completed yesterday. I hope that each of you have a great spring break!

We have a big week ahead in sports. We host a league basketball playoff game for our girls team on Tuesday night. We also host a boys (not Banks) league playoff game on Tuesday so two games Tuesday night. If our girls win on Tuesday night they will have a state play-in game either Friday or Saturday night. If they win Tuesday it will be at home. A loss Tuesday puts them on the road. We have 7 wrestlers going to the state wrestling meet at the memorial coliseum in Portland. The meet starts Friday morning and concludes Saturday night. Spring sports are just around the corner and start in a week.

Senior students who are seeking the Honors Diploma need to submit a community service verification form in order to ensure that they have fulfilled all of the requirements for the Honors Diploma. These forms are in the main office. A minimum of 60 hours of community service must be completed prior to receiving an Honors Diploma. In addition all of the other requirements must also be met, verifying community service hours is generally the last step in the process. Freshman, sophomore and junior students who plan to receive an Honors Diploma at graduation should make sure that they are on track to recieve one. A 3.5 GPA or above, 3 AP or Honors classes, 60 hours of community service and 4 years or math and science are required. Plan now to fulfill the requirements.

Semester report cards and transcripts should have arrived. We mailed them out late last week. For most seniors this is the next to the last report card they will receive. Also for seniors this is the report card and transcript that will be used for selection of valedictorians and salutatorians. Any senior student with a GPA 4.0 and over and having met all the requirements for the Honors Diploma will be a valedictorian. The salutatorian is the student with the next highest GPA having also met the Honors Diploma requirements. For juniors, sophomores and freshman students it will soon be time to select classes for next year. As we do that a reminder that if the Honors Diploma is a goal students must have met the following requirements; 3.5 GPA or above, 26 credits (4 math, 4 science), passed all state tests (math, science, reading and writing) and 60 hours of community service. It is not too early to start thinking about what classes to take next year although the curriculum guide won't be distributed until the end of the month.

Semester report cards should be arriving at homes this week. I recognize that they are late being mailed out. This is because we have had an issue with the grade reporting system we use. When we inspected some report cards, transcripts and class ranking we noted that they did not all match. We must have GPA on report cards and transcripts, and class ranking match. we are working on this issue and should have it resolved early in the week.

Semester grades will be mailed home this week. Any student who receives an incomplete (I) grade in a class will have two weeks to complete work for a letter grade in the course. Students may receive an incomplete because they have not submitted all coursework due to absences that have been excused absences. We are working on the curriculum guide for the 2015-16 school year which will outline what courses will be offered next year. It will be distributed to students in March and we will start the process of selecting courses for next year.

It's the last week of the first semester. Course grades become final on Monday January 26th. These grades then are added to each students transcript. The transcript is the permanent record that is used for numerous occasions ie. college entrance, military, work force etc. Please remind your student of the importance of doing their best to ensure their transcript reflects their commitment to their academic studies. Schedules for next semester will be distributed to students this week. Second semester courses start on Tuesday January 27th.

The end of the semester is two weeks away. It's critical that students focus on successfully completing their course work in the next two weeks. For any student who intends to participate in spring sports at the high school level, they must pass 5 classes this first semester. If they do not pass 5 classes they will be ineligible under that requirement. There are also other eligibility requirements. For seniors, failing any class that is needed for graduation puts them in a position to have to recover that credit in the last semester of their senior year. This may mean re-taking a course or doing it on line. The same is true for students who are 9th thru 11th but there is a bit more time to recover the credit. In addition, grades at the semester will be added to transcripts affecting GPA for all students. It's an important two weeks and I hope that students focus on their studies during this time.

Welcome to 2015! As we turn the clock to the new year we begin to think about the last half of this school year and there is lots yet to do. We will begin state testing later this month. State testing will take place for seniors who have not yet met the state requirements in the areas of reading, writing and math. Passing in all of these areas is a graduation requirement. Seniors will take the OAKs test. All juniors will be tested in the same areas. They will be tested beginning in March. They will take the new, and more rigorous Smarter Balanced tests. Semester grades become final on Monday January 26th. The semester grade will be added to each students transcript on that date and grades will be mailed home later that week. These grades are permanent and will remain on each students transcript. Please remind your student to continue their hard work until the end of the semester so that they pass all classes and recieve credit towards graduation and a diploma from Banks High School.