Administrator's Time With the Public
by Jeremy Watt
April 08, 2008
We played our home opener baseball game last night in the rain! The game went back and forth, and even went to an extra inning before Novinger outscored us by one point.
We were scheduled to play at Novinger, but they called mid-morning and asked if we could host it because their field was wetter than ours. Both teams were glad to get a game in, and the crowd was one of the best I’ve seen for a cold rainy day.
If you’ve never been to a Putnam County home baseball game, you’re missing out on the tenderloins! Thanks to Janice and Robert Robinson, Margaret Minear, Amy Turpin, and Athena Heidenwith for a great job! I tried waiting until the line dwindled, but there was a steady stream of hungry fans for quite awhile.
For the first time in the past four years, we were able to play “The Star Spangled Banner” at the beginning of the game. Thanks to Mr. Halley and Scott Schoonover for making it possible. Mr. Halley worked to get us a new speaker, and Scott agreed to let us use his flagpole since the one at the ball field broke some time back. I’m planning to work with the American Legion to put up a new one.
We’ve had lots of wet weather this spring so I’ll list some activity updates.
The baseball game this Thursday at Linn County is cancelled.
Make-up games include baseball at home vs. LaPlata on 4-16-08, baseball at home vs. Knox County on 4-21-08, baseball at home vs. Atlanta on 4-22-08, and baseball at Green City on 4-23-08.
High school spring sports pictures have been rescheduled for next Tuesday, 4-15-08. We also have the Evening With the Arts scheduled this Saturday evening in the high school gym and commons beginning at 6:00 p.m.
The Marcus Hounsom Relays are Tuesday, 4-29-08, and we will dismiss school at 12:45 p.m. on that day. Please note the change! This will enable us to properly staff the meet and manage it in a respectable manner. Students in the elementary school will bring home reminders in their Friday folders for the next two weeks.
The Parent-Teacher Organization will be selling Dippin’ Dots at the track meet this year so please come support our students if you can.
Several band and vocal music students have qualified for state competition.
Kelli Summers will compete in the National DECA competition in Atlanta, GA.
As you probably saw in last week’s paper, we had a student earn an area FFA officer position. Congratulations! We truly have some outstanding achievers in our school district.
We are in the midst of MAP testing in the high school this week. This year the sophomores tested in math, and the juniors tested in science and communication arts. The seniors participated in the ethical decision-making workshop on Tuesday. Freshmen completed the Stanford test, and also celebrated their win in the attendance race for this school year.
This is the end of high school MAP testing. As directed by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), we will conduct field tests May 5-8 for end-of-course tests in Algebra I, biology, and Language Arts II. This is the method by which DESE makes sure their tests are valid. Students will only take end-of-course tests if they are enrolled in the selected classes.
Next year’s freshmen and sophomores will be required to take end-of-course tests in those three subjects prior to graduation.
Additional end of course tests will be added the following (2009-2010) school year, and freshmen that year will be required to take two end-of-course tests in each of the four core content areas (math, science, social studies, and communication arts) prior to graduation.
The state strongly recommends that student scores on end-of-course tests should have a local value of 10-25% of students’ grades for each respective class.
Have a great week!
Jeremy Watt
