Dear Pickerington Tiger Community - Letter #6

Greetings Pickerington Tiger Community:

It was a good, but rainy week at PHSC.  It was a tough week for the athletic programs at Central.  Our Boys Golf and Girls Tennis teams were the only teams to secure a victory in the past week.  Our Girls Tennis team in particular continued their dominance in the OCC by having an undefeated week beating Newark, Worthington Kilbourne and Dublin Scioto high schools.  Both of our Soccer programs did manage ties and our Cross Country programs competed well in their invitationals.  Our Tiger Football team dropped a close and exciting game at Lancaster.  That loss snapped a school-record 28 game regular season win streak that extended back to the 2006 season.  Great job boys!  All of our student/athletes will continue to work hard and fight hard for their PHSC teams!

This Friday is our big annual cross-town rivalry game with Pickerington High School North at Crew Stadium.  We have no doubt that this will be a highly intense and competitive game from two outstanding football programs.  PHS North Principal Cindi Goldhaber and I recorded a video message to the Pickerington students and community members reminding them that although our teams are battling for the win, we are all one community and should represent ourselves in a positive and united way.  This is a great opportunity for our community to come together to proudly showcase the fine students and athletes at both our excellent schools.  If you would like to view our message, you may do so by going to this site: http://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/districtNewsArticle.aspx?artID=759

PHS Central stepped up this week with activities and opportunities for our students to give back to, and help support important causes in our community.  Our National Honor Society, in conjunction with the Red Cross, sponsored our annual Blood Drive this week to do our part to ensure there is a supply of blood for those in need.  Our Girls Volleyball team boosters sold Volley for the Cure t-shirts this week during our lunch periods for our annual game with PHS North to be played on September 29.  Students wearing a shirt enter the game free, and all proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for cancer research.  These are outstanding examples of our students not only excelling in the classroom, but also learning valuable lessons of responsible citizenship.

As I shared in my last letter, PHSC was in the Cool School of the Week contest sponsored by Fox 28 TV.  Unfortunately, we lost in the voting tabulations to Grove City High School.  We congratulate Grove City because this is a wonderful opportunity for their students, who because of the elimination of all sports and activities, don’t have the opportunity that our students have.  We wish them well.

This Thursday was an early dismissal so that our teachers could have an in-service professional development opportunity.  We continued the work from our Waiver Days last August by meeting in grade-level focus groups to collaborate on our desired student learning goals for each grade, discuss our data and talk about the impact of our classroom instruction and needed professional development to meet our goals.  As always, our very talented staff had great discussion and ideas to consider.  I will share more as those ideas begin to materialize into practice.

Finally, next week marks the halfway point of the first grading period.  Interims will be given on Wednesday, September 30.  Please review your student’s progress as the first grading period sets the academic tone for the rest of the year.  The regular deadline for the upcoming October 24 ACT administration has passed, however registration for that test with a late fee is open until Friday, October 2.  If your student is a Junior or Senior, I highly recommend that they attempt the ACT multiple times for the best possible results.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you at Crew Stadium!

Go Tigers!

M. Scott Reeves

Principal, Pickerington High School Central

Dear Pickerington Tiger Community - Letter #5

Dear Pickerington Tiger Community – Letter #5

Finally we have completed a full five-day week and have settled nicely into our routines.  This was a very busy week that included several exciting events and the planning for more great events on the horizon.

The State of the Tiger address for the senior class was originally slated for last week, but was postponed until this week due to a very special planned activity.  I met with the “sen10r” class Wednesday morning during 2^nd period.  While I addressed the class in our Performing Arts Center, the rest of the school secretly mobilized to honor them in the gymnasium.  Study hall students from 2^nd period frantically moved 400 chairs from the Commons into neat rows on the gym floor.  Band, chorale and cheerleaders prepared for the rally, and then the rest of the school was called to the gym for the assembly.  At the conclusion of my senior class meeting, I led them single file from the PAC to the gym.  Upon entering the gym, the band played the graduation song, “Pomp & Circumstance” as the seniors marched to their seats to the loud cheers of the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th graders.  The seniors had no idea this was planned for them and the look on their faces showed complete surprise.  We wanted the seniors to feel what graduation was like and to sit among their classmates and hear “Pomp & Circumstance” as they sat.  We wanted the seniors to hear the cheers of encouragement of the younger students to motivated them and launch them to their June 5, 2010 graduation.  In addition, we wanted the younger grades to see what they are working for.  After the chorale honored the seniors with the singing of the PHSC Alma Mater, the students received a motivational speech from Jostens representative, Mike Dillon.  From then, the gymnasium filled with songs, chants and cheers as the seniors affixed their signatures to an enlarged diploma entitled “Ticket to the Future.”  That diploma will hang proudly in the trophy case until graduation day!  Next time you visit PHSC, please take a look at the pledge of all of our incredible seniors.  The assembly ended with choir members from the senior class singing a traditional favorite at PHSC, “Friends.”

We work very hard at PHSC to maintain our Excellent rating with the State of Ohio, mainly due to our achievements on the Ohio Graduation Test.  However, we believe there are assessments in the upper grades that also have an impact on the future of our students – namely the ACT.  In the last few years, we have really encouraged our students to take a rigorous course load to better prepare them for college.  Statistics are pretty consistent that approximately 75% of our students will apply to a 4-year college or university annually.  In the years 2005-2007, an average of 65% of our students took college-ready core courses as defined by ACT.  Since we’ve been pushing rigor, in 2008, 82% of our students were in those core classes and 89% in 2009.  That’s outstanding!  As a result, our school’s 2009 ACT Composite average of 22.9 is as high as it’s been in 5 years!

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has spent billions of dollars funding education initiatives and research, is quoted as saying, “It is actually more important to get your student assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.”  Nothing has the impact on your student’s education than the quality of instruction they are getting from their teachers.  With that thought, the staff at PHSC believes it is vital that we continually strengthen our instructional skills.  This year, in collaboration with PHS North, we have instituted what we call Wide Open Wednesday’s.  During the school day on those days, teachers are encouraged to visit other colleague’s classrooms and attend a one-hour session of professional development after school.  We aim to create a culture of collaboration and an atmosphere where teachers are always striving to improve their craft.  This past Wednesday was our first WOW of the year as we begin our journey on this professional endeavor.

Beginning today, Friday, September 18 at 9AM, we officially began our competition with Grove City High School to be Fox 28’s Cool School of the Week.  Voting for the schools will take place today until next Wednesday when the winner will be announced.  Fox 28 will spend the morning of Friday, September 25 highlighting the winning school.  You can go to their website www.myfox28columbus.com click on the Cool Schools icon and vote for PHSC.  If you recall, at the beginning of the school year last year, PHSC was the first ever Fox 28 Cool School of the Week!  Go Tigers.

Lastly, something we stress to our students is the way they conduct and represent themselves, PHSC, and the entire Pickerington community when they are at events.  I’d like to share the words from an email I received this week regarding the conduct of our students at the Westerville North football game last Friday:

“Principal Reeves, I would like to compliment the Pickerington students at the game last Friday night on their behavior during the minute of silence for the victims of 911.  When the announcer asked for a minute of silence, I was impressed with how quiet the students were, you could have heard a pin drop.  And they were quiet the entire minute, not a sound.  I was a seated a couple of rows over from the student section.  Pickerington students are awesome. “

Have a great weekend.

Go Tigers!

M. Scott Reeves

Principal, Pickerington High School Central

Dear Pickerington Tiger Community - Letter #4

Dear Pickerington Tiger Community:

Greetings subscribers!  We’ve had two great weeks of school, in what a staff member shared with me “…this is by far the best opening of school we’ve had in my 12 years at Pickerington High School.”  The custodians have kept Central sparkling, the teachers are doing great things in the classrooms, and the students have been outstanding.

Despite the shortened week due to Labor Day, this past week was a busy week at PHSC.  All of our fall sports teams were in action this week with our boys and girls Soccer teams having epic clashes with our sister school Pickerington High School North.  Our girls fell a little short on the scoreboard and the boys battled to a 3-3 tie.  Our boys Golf team won the Pine Hill Invitational, our boys and girls Cross Country teams both had top 10 finishes at the Running Warrior Invitational, our girls Soccer and Tennis teams had key league victories, our girls golf and volleyball teams continue to battle hard for victories and our football team won an extremely competitive game against Springfield in their Tiger Stadium opener.

The second week of school also marks the time when I have grade-level meetings in our Performing Arts Center.  I met this week with the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th grade classes to clearly outline our expectations of them both academically and behaviorally.  I also get to share all of the wonderful aspects of PHSC that they can become involved in and many of the accomplishments of our clubs, groups and activities.  We call those meetings the State of the Tiger address.  I will meet with the senior class next Wednesday followed by a special whole-school Pep Assembly.  We will reconvene for our next State of the Tiger at the start of the second semester.

Wednesday night was our Open House and it is always encouraging to greet the mass of parents that come out to meet their student’s teachers and get information on their classes.  I enjoyed meeting several parents for the first time and always look forward to seeing those I’ve gotten to know.  Now that a personal contact with the teachers has been established, I strongly encourage parents and teachers to maintain that communication in the best interest of the student.

Lastly, our week ended on September 11, a day of remembrance for one of the worse tragedies in our countries history.  All flags at PHSC were flown at half-mast, and I began the day with a PA address to the entire school to recognize the 8^th anniversary of 9/11, and that we should honor those who sadly lost their lives that day. I then shared in my announcement that the best way for students to honor the lives of those we’ve lost is to make the best of their life while they have the opportunity.  Have a great weekend.

Go Tigers!

M. Scott Reeves

Principal, Pickerington High School Central

Dear Pickerington Tiger Community - Letter #3

Dear Pickerington Tiger Community:

Greetings subscribers.  Finally school has started and the halls of PHS Central came alive with the sounds of eager students ready to begin a new year full of possibilities.  Our enrollment is up from the end of last year and I sincerely thank all for their patience as the PHSC Guidance Counselors are working diligently to meet the hundreds of schedule needs.

All of our sports teams have now begun their fall seasons and are full steam ahead in their quests for OCC titles.  The Pickerington community displayed incredible spirit for the Football, Cheerleading and Marching Tigers during our season opener in the Kirk Herbsreit Varsity Football Classic against Orange (CA) Lutheran in front of a nationally televised ESPNU audience.  Despite the enormous size of historic Ohio Stadium, Pickerington Purple filled in the Scarlet and Gray backdrop behind our team and loudly cheered the Tigers on to an improbable upset of our nationally ranked opponents.  Improbable upset refers only to those who don’t know Tiger football.  Also fitting for a venue known for its famous marching band and Script Ohio was the rousing “Script TIGERS” performed expertly by the PHSC Marching Tigers.

Next week, I will be meeting with each grade level in our Performing Arts Center, in what we call the “State of the Tiger Address,” to welcome students back and reiterate to them our expectations for all students attending PHSC.  We believe that PHSC can, should and WILL reach excellence in each area that I call the All “A’s” of High School:  Academics, Athletics, Arts, Activities and Atomosphere. 

We will also have a special assembly next Thursday that I will share in greater detail in my next letter.

Please remember that ACT and SAT deadlines for the October administration are quickly approaching, all schedule change requests must be submitted to the counselors by the end of next week, and I hope to see all of you at our Open House next Wednesday, September 9^th at 7 PM.  Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and the school day will return to our normal schedule on Tuesday.

Go Tigers!

M. Scott Reeves

Principal, Pickerington High School Central