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!