On behalf of  our school, and the Meyers family, we are grateful for the outpouring of support  and compassion you have shown us for the loss of our dear friend Valerie Meyers.  She was an exceptional human being, an exceptional employee, and a devoted  advocate of her students. She will be missed. 
      The number one thing I learned about Val in a short period of time is she served our students with PRIDE.  I want to proudly acknowledge this faculty and our student  body for pulling together, supporting each other, and honoring Val in the best  way we know how- by being PRIDE and continuing to be devoted to learning and  growing in this time of loss. I can tell you, the staff and our students are  something we should all be very proud of. I know Val would be! They were stellar  in the midst of loss and grieving. 
      I hope you will join me in celebrating Valerie Meyers on Sunday February 19th at  3pm in the HS auditorium.
 As Val would  say on Friday's.....Go Wildcats.....rrrrrrrr
Sincerely,
Mr. Belcher

Dear Wildcat Family,

We had very sad news to share at Mount Si High School today. One of our staff members, Valerie Meyers, passed away last night, February 9, 2012, due to complications with a heart condition. Ms. Meyers worked in the main MSHS office as the school athletic secretary and receptionist, and is married to teacher Gregg Meyers. She demonstrated PRIDE in all of her actions, and will be irreplaceable. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Meyers family.

This news was shared with staff and students this morning. To offer support, the school implemented its Crisis Response Plan and brought in a team of counselors trained for dealing with grief to supplement our own counseling staff. The auditorium was set up as an optional Drop In room for students to grieve together, write letters of support to the Meyers family and receive guidance from qualified adults, if they chose.

When more details regarding a remembrance event for Valerie become available, we'll provide an update on the school website. In the meantime, people can post tribute messages on a page that's been created in Valerie's honor through the www.CaringBridge.org website.

When a loss like this happens, people have different ways of reacting even if they did not have a close relationship with the person who has died. Feelings such as shock, sadness, fear and anger are common. Those reactions may rise and fall throughout the day, and even for days to come. Below are some ways you can help your child deal with these feelings:

• Be sensitive about whether your son/daughter needs or wants to talk. Bring it up in case he/she is reluctant to do so.
• Resist the temptation to minimize the pain, deny the feelings or give advice. Simply listen!
• Be emotionally available, not judgmental.
• Keep in mind that times of loss may trigger prior experiences with grief or loss.
• Realize that kids move in and out of the grief process at their own pace. It is very intense for them when they're experiencing sadness/anxiety/guilt/anger.
• Encourage them to go out and celebrate life in whatever way they can. Those periods of reprieve are important in coping and sustaining health.

Thanks for your support of your students and Mount Si staff during this difficult time.

Sincerely,
John Belcher
Mount Si High School Principal

Hey Wildcats! Mr. Belcher here! Wanted to catch you up on what we are up to.

• E-Folio Presentations are in progress for our seniors who have completed their culminating project, a State Graduation Requirement. We seek your input on the project, presentations, and the E-Folio System. Talk with your senior, your students senior friend, or your neighbor senior and prepare to share what we can do to improve this experience for our seniors. Keep your ears open for a parent forum to share you insights after we finish this semesters presentations.
•  Mark your calendars for March 1st when we welcome parent visitations to see what your student experiences daily. You can do a morning or afternoon session. We would love to show you what we do daily, and perhaps change any misconceptions you might have since you don't often get a chance to see us in action! Lastly, if there ever was a time to sit your student down and ensure they finish strong, now is the time. Finals are next week-don't fall for they "don't have homework" routine. They certainly do! They should be studying nightly for the high stakes exams that represent 90 days of learning.  Ensure quality sleep, go through notebooks, notes, and final review sheets with them. Let's ensure they finish strong and those 90 hours per class are well represented with high grades.
• Friday's building directed day is devoted to completing our instructional calendars that includes projects, vocabulary, assessments, and sequence of learning for our Level Two course (for example Spanish II, Geometry....anything that sequentially is the next level of course for that content area).
• Lastly, we are working hard at encouraging our community and student fans to support their teams by cheering in a positive manner. We want to support our team, and not degrade or target the other team or student body. Our entire league and student government is concerned about sportsmanship. We have implemented new policy and procedures to help our students remain positive. We will continue to encourage every school to take the steps we have, and do our best to hold them accountable for our league focus. No matter what, we know you support us in what we want our surrounding communities to think about our students and our community-We Are a Class Act!

 

Hey Wildcats- Mr. Belcher here! Wanted to let keep you up to date on what we did this week to raise the bar, increase our PRIDE, and motivate students to help encourage each other to excel! I presented this PowerPoint Presentation to each grade level ( one assembly for freshmen, one for sophomore etc.). Included in the presentation, was a panel of current, and returning alumnus to share with students "hindsight" advice to help increase our student body's focus on excellence, the need to excel, and resist the urge to "dummy down" our expectations. You can get a glimsp of what we discussed through the PowerPoint. I utilized our current college entrance rates, our college dropout rates, and what the top demand careers will be in the future to engage them. The top 20 Careers of the next decade may interest you, or the statistics on King County and Snohomish County career trends. In addition, I was trying to express to our students that saying you are going to college, getting accepted into college, and actually getting a college degree are very different goals. I shared that statically, we have room to grow there, and it begins with strong study habits, doing the work for themselves, and take a full, and rigorous schedule throughout their four years here.  I would like to see more student not see math, science, and rigorous coursework their senior year as optional, but critical for their college success. We also wanted students to know any post HS training is now "college" and they too, need well prepared military, apprentice, and trade school applicants. Feel free to share your thoughts after you read the information and talk it over with your wildcat. Lastly, our students are realizing that formulating a plan for a career, is the first step in actually reaching it and making sense of HS. Keep up the conversation and know our counseling and teaching team is here to support them to their goals . Have a great winter break!

Hey Wildcats! I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what we are up to as a staff on professional development Fridays! We have utilized our staff release Friday's to complete our new School Improvement Plan. Take a look on our website under the Info link, then under documents to see what plans and actions we are taking to improve Mount Si High School. It's transparent to get your input! For the next several months our focus as a staff will be on producing instructional calendars for each of our courses. This will increase our consistency between instructors and lead to common course assessments. Utilizing these assessments and their results will help us collaborate on effective instructional strategies and identify promising practices. I will continue to keep you up to date on how we utilize this valuable time as a staff, we are grateful for your support of this work.  Principal Belcher