Proud
to be a Mustang… Choosing Excellence in All that We Do!
November
26, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving! We hope that you have a restful break with
family and friends. Please be safe out
there…we want to see everyone back here next Monday.
Some of our recent blessings ….
· We served over 900 ice cream sundaes
during our First Quarter Academic Celebration last week. Take a look at these statistics … in the past
three years, the percentage of students on the First Quarter Honor Roll has
increased from 64 to 75% while the percentage of students who were academically
ineligible has dropped from almost 9 to 5%.
Comparing the first quarter last year to this one, the number of
disciplinary referrals dropped from 336 to 112 and suspensions went from 17 to
12. Finally, attendance remains at the
top of the county high schools at over 97%.
Congratulations to students, families, and our staff members for an
outstanding start to the 2008-9 school year … thanks to Boosters and PTSA for
helping us sponsor our ice cream social and other academic incentives
throughout the year … your support is greatly appreciated!
· Our Spanish 4 Honors classes, under the
direction of Ms. Erika Rhodeside, hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner and Play
for almost 200 people from across
· Amazing!
The acting, the costumes, the set … what a fantastic play! The Importance of Being Earnest
continued the tradition of outstanding theatrical productions at Marriotts
Ridge. Congratulations to Ms. Sally Livingston and the Cast and Crew on another
wonderful show … just amazing how much dialogue had to be memorized!
· Mr. Reg Hahne and our students involved in
Stang Software Solutions have been hard at work this year. They recently completed the MRHS Fall Sports
Program (available for purchase at next week’s Fall Sports Awards) and
currently are working on 10 production jobs in either web design or graphic
products. Students involved include Nick
Gradone, Mary McDowell, Nathan Smith, John Habibi, Eric Krokos, Tim D’Amato,
· Have you had a chance to check out The
Stallion or The Ridgeline? The most recent edition of our newspaper, The
Stallion, was excellent … great articles ranging from national to community
news … congrats to Ms. Amanda Olsen and her staff! The Ridgeline, our weekly TV show,
just gets better and better. We commend
Mr. John McDonald and the TV crew on their efforts … you can view both
productions on our school website … www.marriottsridge.net.
· The Mustang Math Team, under the
direction of Coach Eric Ebersole and Coach Melissa Barbieri, placed second in a
county wide competition on November 12.
According to Coach Ebersole, success was achieved because of an
excellent team round and some notable individual performances. Alex Lee is the second highest overall scorer
in the county this year and Alex Alberg is among the Top 15!
· The MRHS Chapter of the National Art
Honor Society inducted 22 students last week … the students organized the
entire ceremony and our new Art teacher, Ms. Jocelyn Bocchino, was the featured
speaker. NAHS also hosted an Afternoon
Tea for over 60 people before the Sunday performance of the play. Everyone ate snacks and sipped tea from
student made tea cups that they were able to take home afterwards…sounds like a
great event to put on your schedule next year.
We also hope that you had a chance to also check out all of the artwork
exhibited in The Commons … I see something new every day … what a treat! Congratulations to Ms. LaVerne Miers-Bond,
Ms. Jaye Ayres, Ms. Bocchino, and all of their students!!!
· We just heard from a community member
about a marvelous performance by the MRHS Brass Quintet at a local event
… always nice to hear such good news. We
commend Gary Townsend, Leslie Decker, Clara Kim, Brian Warsaw, and Alex Surdu
on their beautiful music … thanks also to our Band Director, Mr. Nick Ellis!
· In a county wide program on December 1,
the following freshmen will be recognized by the Howard County Black Student
Achievement Program Council of Elders for their outstanding performance on
the MSA tests last year: Nana
Abercrombie, Kadeem Anderson, Joshua Dillon, Bernard Durham, Irenosen Okojie,
Kyle Robbins, and Mohapi Semala. We
congratulate these students and wish them the best for successful high school
careers!
· Our Drama students continue to
shine! As part of The Cappies
program, Hayley Fremuth and Mondana McCann will have their reviews of plays at
other schools included in local publications.
These accomplishments are a tribute to the hard work and efforts of our
students, our ace Drama Teacher, Ms. Liv, and the best English Department
around!
· Congratulations to Shuna Gao on being
selected as the First Place winner at the High School Level in the Howard
County Human Rights Commission’s 2008 Fair Housing Calendar Poster Contest!
· Our Environmental Club continues to
lead the way with environmental initiatives … they are selling organic
t-shirts($12) and sponsoring a collection drive for used electronics (cell
phones, ipods, mp3 players, GPS devices, laptops, inkjet and laser cartridges) …
if you can help out or have any questions,
contact Ms. Stacie Gado.
· We always enjoy visiting different
classrooms to see what is going on … I had the pleasure of judging projects in Ms.
Stephanie Doodigian’s Biology class this past week. Her students were very creative in producing
3-D eukaryote cell (plant and animal) models.
I enjoyed listening to students explain the parts of the cell and the
materials that they chose to build their projects.
· A community partner, Electric Sun Boutique
in the Waverly Shopping Center, has designated two days next week as “Give
Back to MRHS” days … a percentage of all sales will be given to Marriotts
Ridge to support various student initiatives.
A MRHS parent contacted me with a concern about the school endorsing artificial
tanning. We did not mean to imply any
endorsement of underage tanning through our partnership with this local
business. This boutique offers many
different products for the upcoming holidays and the owner makes presentations
in area middle schools about the possible effects of tanning so that young
people can make informed decisions in the future.
· We really enjoyed seeing many of you
during American Education Week and Conferences.
We look forward to seeing many families at our Fall Sports Award
Ceremony and the upcoming Fine Arts concerts.
In addition, we are hosting our Annual Gifted and Talented Information
Night on December 10. This meeting
allows you to learn more about our Independent Research and Intern/Mentor
programs. Even though we know that
December is a busy, busy time for everyone, try to put these events on your
calendar … well worth it!
Once again, enjoy your Thanksgiving
Break! If we can ever be of assistance
to you, please feel free to email us at patrick_saunderson@hcpss.org.
We will try to get back to you as soon as we can.
Go Mustangs!
Pat Saunderson, James LeMon, Cara Moulds, Rosalie Bowen, and Gene Brown