General Comments about Heights High School
This is the site that you can utilize to post general comments or concerns about Heights, our staff or things you'd like to see addressed.
posted by Arch at 12:47 PM
Thursday, October 12, 2006
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93 Comments:
I am a student at Heights and I am not being challenged in many of my classes. I think there should be more advanced and AP classes. I would reccomend having AP Chemistry.
I think for kids or parents with wheelchairs that come Heights in the future that are interested in going to the football games should be offered a better view than just a chain link fence 3 feet below everyone else. The away side has a ramp why shouldn't the home side. At NorthWest, South, and southeast games the ramp is on the home side leaving an away fan with another fence view. It would have been nicer if the ramp would be on the home side of Heights giving a Heights Fan a good view at the home games. The school is fairly accesible, why isn't the football stadium? I think better planning could have made things much better
I appreciate your concern and this is what I've found out for you. A long long time ago when the football stadium was first built, there were no sidewalks to the home side so in an effort to utilize the paved sidewalks the wheelchair section was put on the East side. This is just an explaination of the current situation not an excuse. Most of the people here weren't even around when the stadium was built. I've expressed your concerns to the appropriate personnel, our Athletic Director, the administrator in charge of facilities and the district athletic director.
Yes, I am a concerned student who is wondering why we are not allowed to change our schedules anymore this year. I tried to change mine at enrollment and now i have sat in classes I prefer not even take for over 10 weeks of school! I shall remain nameless but I will be watching for you an answer.
The reason for not being able to allow changes is pretty simple. We are allocated a budget based on the classes you pick in the Spring. We hire or transfer if need be based on what you guys want in the Spring. We take the list of classes you guys sign up for and then we determine how many of each teacher we need and then that information goes to the school board who then votes on our budget and approves what we need then we hire the teachers needed to fill your classes. This process is done once a year. Once the budget is set for the year we cannot make changes to it. If we've hired extra teachers to accommodate the needs and wants of the student body and then they all want to make changes then we either have to fire a teacher we just hired which is unlikely or we cram kids into classes that are full or we hold kids accountable for what they've chosen to the previous semester. We have 4 counselors and 1525 students, what if all the students wanted to make changes to their schedules because they didn't like their teacher, or just didn't know what they were thinking when they signed up for the classes they had chosen? We make the schedule of classes which is called the master schedule based on what you guys sign up for. Sometimes the classes you sign up for will not fit and then the counselors make their best judgment based on what you need for graduation, and they put you into classes that you need not necessarily what you picked but ones that will help you graduate. Our main goal is graduation and we try to make school as fun and interesting as we can but your graduation requirements come first. Just look at it this way: Say you are looking for a date for Prom and you see this hot kid and think I want to go to prom with this person. Then you ask them and they go out and buy all the dress up clothes, make dinner arrangements, get a Hummer Limo reserved, tell all their friends and family members, buy flowers and all the things you do for prom. Then the week of prom you see this other hotter student or you realize what was I thinking (you hadn't had your McDonald's snacker) and you realize I really don't like this person anyways. What do you do? What ramifications does your decision have on the other person, his friends and family and what about all the money that's been allocated for you and now you don't even want to go through with your decision? Just something to think about? Thank you for your question.
I would like to encourage all staff at Heights to be positive with the students. I know that my children have came home on more than one occasion and commented that a certain teacher isnt very positive or polite in general. My child has no complaints about any other teacher. Each of my children have one teacher at least they can make this comment about. My answer to them is that you will always have one teacher every year that is negative and make you feel unimportant and you will just have to suck up and deal with it. I encourage them to learn to respond to this specific teacher in a positive manner hoping that they will change. On the other hand, it is sad that I have to even tell them that. I know that everyone has a bad day from time to time but when you make someone feel bad everyday maybe its time to rethink your profession. PLUS, think of how you are possibly effecting a students education by the way you respond to them and think of how you would like to be treated. I also encourage and accept nothing less than complete respect to all teachers under all circumstances. ON a positive note: HATS OFF! To the majority of the teachers at Heights. You are doing a fine job!
OLI OIL OIL OOOOOOOO
Cell phones should be allowed before and after the 8-3:10 school day. Use of cell phones during the actual school day should be and is prohibited....use of cell phones before 8 am and after 3:10 should be allowed as it is NOT a disruption to class as there is NO class....and as a parent I want them to be able to contact me or I contact them when needed before or after school. Heights staff members get to carry and use theirs before and after...(as well as those who use them during the instructional day)...so should students get to use them before and after the instructional day.
Cell phones are not allowed for a few reasons. Reason #1-We as administrators are charged with following policy not changing it nor making arbitrary rules to bypass what the board has laid out for us to follow. Reason #2 if we were to get the board to allow cell phones and kids had them and your child had theirs in their backpack and off but the student next to them had it on and was texting other students during class, what are we to do? We allow them to have them and much like some of the other attractive nuisances out there if they didn't have them they wouldn't have been tempted to use them. I hate to make the comparison but it is much the same principle, pocket knives are useful and a lot of people have them for various reasons but if someone were to get angry and use it to hurt someone it would be our fault that we didn't ban them when we knew that there was a potential for something bad to happen with it. We have a lot of problems with cell phones and they are banned already. People go the bathrooms to call or text people to pass on bad information or to invite people to fight or come up to school to get someone to fight. Kids have even developed the ability to text without looking at the phone much like typing on the computer. We have had to ward off older kids and kids from other schools from coming to school to beat up some of our kids and they were told via text message or by phone call when to come up here. There is even the potential to have drug deals made by the same means. Safety is our #1 priority and if we allow just one more distraction then we are being negligent. I wish we could trust all kids to not use the cell phones in class but we can’t be faced with the dilemma of who can have one and who can't.
The issue about having staff members using them during the school is being addressed. But comparing adults to students is not comparable. That's like saying to your mother or father...well you do it so that means I can do it. Not even the same issue but we do understand that we need to model the behavior we expect from you and we are taking note of that fact.
Why is there no class on Star Wars? The list of available classes spans a myriad of subjects; pottery, woods, auto-mechanics, but not Star Wars. Society seeks to teach us anything else we want to know, learn us any other skill we consider vital, but it denies us an education in imagination! Imagination is vital to so many things in life, but instead of giving us time to allow our imagination to grow and develop, schools smother us in work that prohibits our imaginations to expand.
But a Star Wars class would be more than a unit of time in which our juvenile imaginations could grow; it would be a tying together of everything else we learn. Such a class would not be blindingly focused on any one type of knowledge; the Star Wars universe is as three-dimensional as our own, not limited to algebra, biology, or American History. Instead of specializing, a Star Wars class could encompass many subjects. By examining the diverse species of the Star Wars universe we could immerse ourselves in biology. Through examinations of Star Wars historical political maneuvers we could find some actual interest in government. By examining the Yuuzhan Vong’s bio-engineered creations we could apply ourselves to genetics. Through calculations of a star ship’s course we could practice Algebra and more advanced math, and develop our ability to work productively with others. In reading the many books written about the subject we would willingly expand our ability to enjoy reading.
We would learn many of the same things we learn in our other classes, but in an interesting way, and we would get to see the actual applications of these things. That’s a large problem with the current method of education, in my opinion. We are taught HOW to do things, but not how those things are useful in real life.
Expand our educational options into the vast wilderness of imagination. Give us a Star Wars class.
why can't students change their schedules anymore?
Read the 4th blogg up from your comment for the answer to your question.
Star Wars lover:
I too love Star Wars and just like everything else in life we cannot always get what we want even though I would imagine I could fill a couple of classes on this subject. What I do with the things I really enjoy is I incorporate those things into the subjects that I am in. For instance, in language you could write your papers around the different things associated with Star Wars. A persuasive paper on why Star Wars is better than Star Trek or a paper that would build off of the 6 movies would be great fun and use your imagination to help you feel more of a connection to the school and increase your love for education. In science the opportunities are endless of how to use Star Wars in there. These are just a few suggestions of how you can incorporate what you love in with something that you may not especially like but would make it more enjoyable.
Why are freshmen being forced to do SAP activities on tuesdays? They don't talk about anything that helps us, and I need to get help in my classes from my teacher, not play icebreaker games every week.
We need a mascot. That would be cool.
I am a senior with a pass card next semester. If I don't have a first hour where do I go to get my green schedule?
If you want to have a mascott I suggest coming up with a plan, where you can get one, what criteria is there for who will wear it, who will be in-charge of them, etc. and present it to Coach Wheeler for approval.
Seniors with pass cards will just need to come into the front office to get your schedules.
Freshmen are in SAP/IT for two reasons one is so that they can meet and get to know their Peer Mentor and Teacher Mentor. The second is so that you can get to know a smaller group of freshmen outside your normal group that you hang with. If you don't have a group that you hand with then it affords you to opportunity to develop some relationships within that group so that you can know others and feel more a part of Heights. The activities are designed to help you get to know others. We as a society are becoming more and more withdrawn more a result of the internet and all the video games. We haven't been forced to interact and form relationships with others for so long that we don't know how to interact appropriately as evidence with all the verbal confrontations, fights and sexual harrassement complaints. The things you do in SAP/IT are the things that you or most other freshmen wouldn't do on your own so we are just merely trying to help you get more acclimated to Heights and to be more social in a positive manner. Thank you for your comment and we are working to improve the SAP/IT curriculum for next semester and next year so any other suggetstions would be greatly appreciated.
I attended Parent Swap day & enjoyed it but was not impressed at all by many students attitudes towards their teachers. They were very disrespectful & continued to carry on conversations after being asked to stop. Parents: please talk to your kids about respecting adults--regardless of their opinion of them. They are only disrupting the students that are there to learn while making the teachers jobs more difficult. Students that read this: please understand the meaning of respect if you do not have good examples set at home. You will regret your attitudes and behavior when you get older & understand what you have put the teachers through... & no, I am not a teacher......yet.
I am a new student and feel as though the school is bigger than the school I transferred from. I think it would be an excellent idea to put a map of the school into the agendas. Some of the others schools in the USD259 district put their maps on the back cover. Would there be any possible way for Heights to do that; even though it is a 2 level school? Also, I have noticed maps around the school but for us newer students it would be difficult to find where we are in the school and where we need to be within the 5 minute time period between classes. I also don't understand the SAP/IT schedule what is it about, what do we do during this time, and where do we go?
I have heard from a source that heights will move to block scheduling next year. What are the reasons for the change. Also, how will students who wish to take dual-credit English at a college be effected?
Dear new student, most of the questions you have can be answered by reading your student planner. You should have recieved a tour of the school when you first recieved your schedule but if you didn't all you have to do is ask in the front office. All you really have to do is ask one of your fellow students or one of the many teachers in the hallway and they will be able to direct you where you need to go. 5 minutes is plenty of time to figure out where you need to go and we always give new students a day or two to figure out their schedule before we start handing out detentions.
Block scheduling for next year is still in the research phase. We are trying to figure out what is best for kids and their success. We have a lot of kids on the D & F List and the list isn't getting any shorter. What we have been doing doesn't seem to be working with the number of kids failing or droppng out of school so we just have to examine all of our options. It should effect any of the college classes.
I know of a parent with a freshman student who is frustrated that his son's science teacher isn't posting grades on the web or returning his e-mails. He is considering changing to a private school. I would hate to see Heights lose another good student and would encourage teachers to be diligent in responding to parent concerns.
I also would like to adress the possibility of having a block schedule next year. I beleive that this is a very bad idea for quite a number of reasons. For 1, the attention spans of students probably will not last for twice the time in each core class. If the reason for doing a block schedule is to improve grades and get people off the D and F list, i think that will be quite unsucessful. Another reason is, we would have a less number of passing periods in a day so students wouldn't be able to get up and around and have a chance to get refocused. Also, the block schedule will affect the time of the electives and possibly have them every other day?? as well as maybe core classes? This isnt a good idea because say some student has a question on their homework; they would have to wait for a whole extra day to get help on it. Not saying they couldn't visit their teacher in between, but the chance would be scarce. There has even been a group formed at school to oppose block scheduling-kids trying hard for something they beleive in keeping. Block scheduling also prompts the oppurtunity for students to forget what they forgot without review for a day. There are many students at heights that get bad grades, BUT there are also many who make very good ones and might be affected by the block schedule. I beleive it all comes down to the work your willing to do. Many teachers I have spoken with also oppose block schedule for similar reasons, adding planning time being affected. I know this comment probably wont have any effect on the decision (if it's even read), but they are my thoughts, as well as many others, and I would like to voice them to someone who might be able to help a decision. Thank you for your time.
i think heights is a good place but i don't think that all the hallways should be opened!!! (team ignited)
we need a automotive class with cars! y work on bikes? only some students like bikes! and almost every student drives a car not a bike.. i love cars! i don't care for bikes.. i'll never ride/own a bike! please bring the cars back!
nic w.
bring the cars back in automotive class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Block schedules are a good thing i totally think we should have them. I came from Pleasant Valley Middle School where we had them and its better because you can have more time to start projects, it sucks when you start a project and then have to put it away so soon
Oh, I don't really have anything important, just wondered around in the magical world of the Internet and found Heights' homesite. I'm a foreign exchange student, senior -03, and these pages brought a lot of good memories into my mind. My year at Heights was awesome, and I have planned several times to come back to see all the teachers over there. Although I'm pretty sure they don't even remember me.:)
Anyhow, to all Heights staff members, have a happy spring and a warm summer.
Nelli B.
The person who wrote the short comment about block scheduling doesn't go to Heights, she/he goes to North High and doesn't care for Heights. If you would please delete that comment I would really appreciate it!
Thank You!
i do not think that we should have the d and f list i am not on that list but i still think that the people that are on it you dont allow them to go cheer on there school i mean there could be something that they dont get in that chapter and because they do not get a chapter in 3 classes or 2 or 1 they are not allowed to go cheer ont there team and honesty i do not think that it even works
you need to open A Hall back up!
there is no room during lunch people always in my bubble no elbow breathing room NEED MORE SPACE!!!!
May you please bring back the spicy chicken sandwich!!!
man whats happened to the lunches?!?! no more ketchup. no more spicy chicken sandwiches! no more chicken strips! every day just the same old hamburgers or pizza. its ridiculous.
I am a parent with two students at Heights. I am concerned that some teachers are not keeping the grade postings current on the pinnacle web site. It's very difficult to make sure your students are doing what they need to unless there is current information to access.
What is the point in making lunches 30min long next year? That does not give students enough time to get off campus and get back on. I dont think that that is fair that the juniors of '09 will not have an equal opportunity to go off campus and experience going off campus the way that the people before us did. PLease reconsider the lunch schedule!
Dear misinformed,
I want to apologize for whoever is giving you such bad information. The real truth of the matter is that you are getting more time for lunch next year 5 minutes to be exact. Lunch will be 45 minutes long which is 5 minutes longer than this year. Lunch on Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri is from 11:55 – 12:40 and on Wednesdays it's from 11:50 to 12:35. So again, I want to apologize for whoever is misguiding you. Please come and talk to those that know instead of relying on bad information. Thank you for posting your concerns and have a great summer.
i might be moving to your school, because of my dads job, i was just wondering how people liked going there
Dear thinking about coming to Heights. Well I know you will think my views are biased but kids love it here at Heights. The teachers and administrators love working at here. Kids and their parents will use other peoples addresses to come to Heights. We have been very successful with academics and meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) and our sports programs are dominant in the city league and in the state. I would highly recommend Heights if you want to have a high quality education and plenty of opportunity to participate with great coaches.
Will the Blog continue with the loss of Arch?
Of course the Blog will continue. I will be taken off in the next few weeks and one of the other asssistant principals will take over. Good bye Falcons I love you all and will miss you terribly. Heights will always be near and dear to my heart. I have truly enjoyed with with the students and staff at Heights and will rememer you all.
See you around.
Daddy!
please get student viewer working again
Student viewer is up and running. Check with the librarian for your access code.
The other day I was at Heights and notices several of the athlets with the waist of their shorts and pants pulled down below their buttocks. I believe it should be addressed that such dress does not promote a professional look for the sports program or the person himself. I do not wish for my daughter to see someone elses underwear and consider obscene.
Unfortunately the "style" of sagging has not faded from our society yet. Some communities have even deemed sagging as a misdemeanor with fines attached. Nevertheless, we do not condone any person to have their underwear showing. The issue has been addressed and hopefully you and your daughter won't be subjected to that scene again.
I'm in all honors and i think it's pretty good so far. I love having SAP/IT everyday except Wed. because i can get any homework done that i need to. I like the weights and conditioning that are offered after school.
I think this school needs more support for the freshman football team.
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There has been some good support for our undefeated freshmen football team. However, they could always use more. If you haven't seen the freshmen in action; you are missing out on an explosive offense and a bone-crushing defense. The future definitely looks bright on the gridiron for Heights---Go Falcons!!!
It takes my daughter 20-25 min. to get her lunch. WHEN are you going to take care of this problem? She barely has time to eat.
I used to buy lunch for $2.75 with no Lunch ID.. Now the cost is $3.50!!! Why is that?
The lines for lunch are a little longer than last year. That is correlated with the increase in our student population. However, the lunch period is forty minutes long. This will allow fifteen to twenty minutes for your daughter to eat which is within the time guidelines.
Joe, If you do not have your school id, then the meal has to be charged per item per federal funding accounting standards. However, if you don't want the extra charge, then you will have to go to the office and get proof of your id#. You only have up to four times to do it that way.
My child says that her classes are so large because teachers are not teaching for 3 hours of the day? Other than lunch and planning period, what other reason is there for not lowering class sizes and teaching kids?
Your daughter is correct in that a good number of our classes are very full. However, she is incorrect in believing that teachers have three hours off. Everyone is entitled to a lunch break. The teachers lunch is the same as the students. The teachers do have a planning period and a duty period. This is not off time at all. They are preparing lessons, grading, mentoring, or monitoring. That time is really inadequate when you look at the number of students that the teachers have on their role and grading those assignments which are turned in. Therefore, work must be done at school or their home after they are "officially" off the clock. If class sizes are to be reduced, more funding is going to be needed. Also, we are very limited in space even if the allocation for more teachers are rendered, there really isn't any room to house them. We already have way too many teachers floating to different rooms now. Nevertheless, quality teaching is going on despite the class sizes. Our faculty is outstanding and our test scores have shown steady improvement.
I would like to know how to check my grades from home. http://wps4.usd259.net/scripts/piv.exe that website doesnt work EVER on my computer for some reason.
My daughter did not mean that they had 3 hours off, I knew she meant that they were not teacher 3 class periods a day. Why do the teachers need a duty period? Shouldn't they use that hour to educate smaller class sizes? I guess that is my concern. I understand the get lunch and a planning period, but for EVERY teacher to have a duty period takes away the number of instructional classes that could be offerred to lower class sizes..dontcha think??
Sue
Not every teacher has a duty period. In fact, the vast majority of our elective teachers do not have a duty period. The duty period has allowed our teachers to receive professional development opportunities during the school day that will allow for growth both for themselves and their students. The workload (grading, planning, etc.) takes hours outside of the teachers contractual hours of 7:50 - 3:20. Teachers would like to spend time with their families in the evenings and on the weekends. Nevertheless, the reality is that grading and planning has to take place at that time because of the more than one-hundred and twenty students on their grading roster. If a teacher just took one minute to grade an assignment per student, that amounts to two hours of grading. Actually, more time is actually spent on grading an assignment than that, but I just wanted to give a simple example of where some of the hours go toward one aspect of teaching--grading.
This is for the person requesting assistance to logging on to the student viewer. Be sure that you have https. The "s" is very important, otherwise you will not be able to log on. Also, you must type in the site in the address box. DO NOT try to enter the site via a search engine. The website is https://wps4.usd259.net/scripts/piv.exe
Will we ever have a girls football team?? i know alot of girls that want one but the guys say that we are not good enough. are girls allowed to try out for the guys team? if not i think we should have a girls team so that everbody can play the sport they want to play. i just think its unfair to us girls and sexist. we should all have the same freedom.
There will most likely not be a girls only football team. However, girls do have the right to go out for football and they have done so at other high schools in our district. There are also young ladies that are wrestling and I witnessed a young lady beat a male opponent last year at a tournament. Therefore, if your desire is to participate, then go for it!
I am a student at heights and some of my teachers are reallyl not interested in me as a student. I realize it is up to me what my grades look like and what I choose to do in school. If I was to never show up or fail all of my classes, the only people that would say something would be my administrator and my mom. Why cant they be a little more personal and care when it comes to grades?
It is unfortunate that you feel that some of your teachers do not feel interested in you as a student. I don't believe that is the case. Our class periods do not allow much time for a teacher to give each student that one-on-one time that either party would like, but the teacher does the best that they can with their 140 plus students that they see everyday. I understand how you may feel like just another number, but each student is highly valued. The intervention time is an excellent opportunity for teachers and students to connect and also for you to get extra help in a subject. Feel free to talk to your administrator directly to help resolve any issues that you have with a class or teacher.
Lately I have seen a lot of students listening to their MP3s/iPods at lunch. Sometimes the headphones/earbuds are not in plain sight unless you actually look and other times they are out and the whole school can see them. Not once have I seen a teacher/administrator confiscate them. Is it OK to listen to music during lunch??
It is NOT okay to listen to MP3 players, iPODS, cell phones, etc. during the school day. If you are a staff member, then you need to ask for the item from the student or if you are a student, then you need to notify an administrator or lunch monitor about the violation.
I used to go to heights. I caused alot of trouble and skipped school constantly. I moved to wyoming and now have graduated and started college. I wish I would have been more serious when I went to heights. Heights is a great school. I was looking for e-mails of a couple teachers and administrators I was close to. I found most of them but did not find mike Archibeck. Is he still at heights? If so does any one know his e-mail. I would do any thing to go back to my heights years and make things better. This is my first year in college and it is HARD.
How do you access the student viewer at home I have the websites that work at school but they do not work at home!! thank you
I am a student at Heights, and recently something has happened to me that involved the school. I think that in my opinion, the school is irresponsible and unorganized. I think that Mr. Deterding should improve how things are running at Heights
I feel that if i person has met the requirements to graduate before their senior year they should then be allowed to graduate. I feel like our lives and decisions are just that OUR lives and decisions. I do not feel that we should be approved by someone who has no real involvement in our lives to decide whether or not we are allowed to graduate if we have met the requirements. Could someone explain to me why this is.
Congratulations on finishing your high school career and matriculating to college despite your past negative deeds. Yes college is more demanding than high school and I hope you stick it out and get the degree. I am happy that you had some staff members who had a positive affect on you. Mr. Archibeque is the principal at Pleasant Valley. However, he was recently deployed to the Middle East. His email address for the district is marchibeque@usd259.net
If you are not able to access the student viewer at home despite having the correct website enteren, then it may be with your system. If you are using the new upgraded version of Internet Explorer (Internet Explorer 7) to access the internet, then this may be the problem.
To the person who stated something happened to them that involved the school and now you want to say that the school is unorganized and irresponsible. What happened? Your accusations are not substantiated and nullified without more information. As for your comments on Mr. Deterding, he has improved things at Heights along with the rest of the staff.
If you wanted to be an early grad, then there were steps that you should have taken during your sophomore and junior year. Just because an individual has 22 credits does not mean they graduate or have met the requirements to graduate. There are specific areas where those 22 credits must have been earned in order to satisfy the district requirements of graduation. A student should graduate from Heights with a total of 28 credits if they passed all their classes and took a full load of classes there entire four year career. Therefore, yes you may have had 24 credits before the school year began by taking Government in the summer. However, the district requires a full year of English unless you took a dual credit English course at WSU and even then, you would be a December grad.
Why do we have separate lunches now? Even if so why aren't they organized by grade level? I understand that lunch periods are overcrowded, but since most juniors and seniors go out to lunch anyway why not have freshmen and juniors in one lunch period and sophomores and seniors in another...
In order to provide adequate serving and consumption time because of our huge growth in the student population, we had to go to two lunches. It is not feasible to just divide lunches by grade level because a large number of our classes have a mixture of different grade levels. Our lunch periods are balanced well and there is room to acommodate the students assigned to each period.
is https://wps4.usd259.net/scripts/piv.exe still the website adress for student viewer?
sophmores should be able to leave campus for lunch.
=]
I am not sure I understand where to make a post? The dates on the blog show 2006. Where are the newest posts supposed to go? I just want to be sure I am posting where I am supposed to? Thank you.
Unfortunately, the new grading system on ESIS does not have a student viewer link. Parents do have a link that they can access the grades. If a parent is willing to share the password and login information; then that is the way for you to view your grades. Otherwise, communicate with your teacher about your grade.
Open lunch is a privilege. That privilege is reserved for those juniors with at least 10 credits and above and our seniors. One more year of maturing and getting more seasoned as a driver is important.
The blog was created in 2006. You posted the comment to the General Comments about Heights blog. There are two other posts: "What do you think about how things are going at Heights" and "Welcome to Heights Student Advocacy Blog".
I think that since the new lunch rules this year dont allow students to leave the lunch room and and staying seated is mostly mandatory that the students should be able to use mp3 players cell phones and the tvs shuld be turned on to make lunch better for the students that cant leave for lunch yet. Also
To the student who complained about space at the lunch table...Make sure you have your parents Vote YES in November for the bond issue!!!
To ttrry: Staying seated during the lunch period is a necessity. Also, cell phones, mp3 players and other electronic devices are to be powered off during the school day. This isn't just a "Heights thing", it is a district standard that just helps maintain a safe, secure and orderly environment. As for the TV's, that is something that may be looked into. What a great opportunity for a class, club, or sports team to show off their talents.
To mags1965:
There are a number of projects that will benefit Heights and this month's parent letter has those items highlighted. We cannot advocate which way to vote, but we would highly encourage individuals to look at what Heights would receive if the bond is approved. We welcome the public to come in and see first hand the needs that we have.
Is there an honor roll listed somewhere?
Because of the FERPA law, the posting of honor roll is limited. We do post the names of students who have made standard of excellence on state tests. Two weeks ago, our ninth graders who received all B's or A's this whole semester were given a free ticket to the game against Derby and a food ticket. We are striving to continue to find ways to recognize the academic accomplishments of our students in a postive way within the bounds of the FERPA law. Our desire is that our students will continue to perform well whether or not recognition is given. Keep of the good work Heights Falcons who are soaring high academically.
I was just looking on the comment about cell phone usage before and after school. It appears that staff feel they are keeping a close eye on cell phone usage during the day. I happen to know kids are texting each other all day long throughout classes. I don't see how this could be happening if the teachers are up walking around during class. I don't see how my student or lots of others are learning much with this behavior. I want my child to have access to a cell phone in case of emergencies but I can't be there all day for her classes. I would like to encourage teachers to be up moving around during class to keep this from happening.
Those students who are texting and haven't got caught are just cheating themselves out of an education. No one is forcing the students or purposely allowing them to break the rules. Therefore, students must take responsibililty for their actions and accept the consequences. I would encourage students to do the right thing at all times. A persons true character is reflected in their actions. If that is to violate rules until one gets caught--then that is a reflection of their character--devious. On the contrary, obeying a rule even if one won't be caught--then that is a reflection of their character--noble.
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