By Staff
What an outstanding beginning of the year we have had here at Ross Beatty Junior Senior High School. The students quickly settled into the routine of the new trimester schedule and seem to be enjoying the menu variations that have come in with our new Food Service Director, Robyn Bright.
I have ridden on more than half of the buses already and will complete that exercise before too long.
On top of that, our football team has been unstoppable. The whispers of "State" have started already, and I am certainly not going to disagree.
Our girl's basketball is remarkable, and I greatly enjoyed watching as they played with skill and grace. I have also been impressed with our cheerleading squads, whose cheers overwhelm me with the level of choreography and execution. The golf team continues to play much better than I can ever hope to, and soccer improves with every game.
Our marching band looked terrific on the 25th of August, tight and polished, and that was after only one week of band camp. I am really looking forward to seeing them at Homecoming on Friday, the 22nd of September, and expect a performance to rival that of the team.
Speaking of Homecoming, we will be having the parade at the regular time this year, starting from the fair grounds at 12:15 p.m. and traveling the traditional route.
I flirted briefly with changing it to an evening parade, right before the game so more people could enjoy it after work. However, members of the student senate approached me. They expressed concern about all the changes this year and asked if they could maintain the tradition. I agreed for this year, but I am hoping to get some help from the community and parents for these kinds of decisions in the future.
To this end, we are setting up a school improvement committee. The committee will meet at least monthly and everyone on it will be part of subcommittees that will meet more often than that. It is a huge commitment of time.
The good news is that the members of the team will have a say in how we run our educational community and any broad changes we make. If you want more details on this or you are interested in being a member of this group, contact me no later than Sept. 29 at (269) 445-0541. We need one parent and one community member.
Finally, other fun things we have done this year include the Ranger t-shirts we gave to all the seventh grade students as a welcoming gift to Ross Beatty, a longstanding tradition we were happy to maintain.
We also had a pizza party in the lunchroom for those seniors who passed all four sections of the MEAP test this year and will be receiving the Merit Scholarship. This was a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the high academic achievement being built in the classrooms everyday.
The first few weeks have been great, and I expect nothing but improvement.
We appreciate every phone call, every contact, and every opportunity to strengthen our learning community.