Highland High School Principal April Goff Says Students Are Preparing For State Standards Of Learning Tests

Monterey, VA – At last week’s School Board meeting, High School Principal April Goff reported on recent activities at the school.

“I mentioned at the last meeting that I was going to start a remediation program and I’ve done that,” says Goff. “Every Tuesday and Thursday we operate on our class meeting schedule and the students go to assigned remediation locations or study halls. Prior to the writing SOL [Standards of Learning] test we were focusing with our students on that, and now we will reassign them and shift them to classes where they need some extra assistance.”

“This past month we had our National Honor Society induction ceremony and it was very impressive ceremony; the kids seemed to respond very well. It’s an honor for those five students to be inducted and it was a nice ceremony.”

This year’s five inductees into the national honor society were Julia Billingsley, Paige Fisher, Tabitha Hiner, Mayra Ruiz, and Justin Sprouse. Mrs. Goff continues with a comment on her first Maple Festival weekend.

“I made it through my first weekend of the Maple Festival; it was actually quite enjoyable,” says Goff. “I told someone earlier I’m not just saying that cause I have to or think I’m supposed to, it was quite a bit of fun. But Mr. Canze reminded me that this is my first year; wait three, four or five years from now to see if I still feel the same way.”

Elementary School Principal Teresa Blum gave Board members an update on the recent Destination Imagination team competition.

“Our Destination Imagination teams traveled to the regional tournament and did quite well; we took four teams,” says Blum. “Our Rising Stars are the ones who aren’t actually competing; they’re just showing their problem because they are kindergarten to second grade students. They did quite well and were asked to go on, but the parents elected to stop; they’ve had their fun, they got their ribbon, we’re happy with the regional tournament’.”

She goes on to describe the other three teams’ results.

“We had a team that competed in the solar stage, which was composed of second and third graders; they placed second out of nine and they advanced to the state tournament,” says Blum. “Our Movie Makers’ won first place and a Renaissance award for their scenery, so they obviously advance to the state. Our middle school team placed fifth out of eighteen, so very impressive for them as well. We will competing on March 31st again at Western Albemarle HS.”

Finally, Ms. Blum had a few comments on SOL testing.

“Our fifth grade students participated in the SOL writing test on the 6th and 8th [of March], so we’re good to go,” she says. “We will be completing the fifth grade field writing test. I invite you to the Title One SOL family night celebration on the 29th and there is a free dinner at six o’clock.”

The next meeting of the School Board will be the budget public hearing on Tuesday, March 27 at 7 pm. The next regular meeting of the board will be Tuesday, April 10 at 7 pm. Both meetings are at the High School library.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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