When students returned to THS this fall, the building looked very different. Little new construction was done, but some very needed updating on the paint job was completed. Custodians started to paint last year and got most of the classrooms done. They did get all of the hallways finished this summer, and THS Principal Marty Wood commented that “all but ten classrooms have now been painted.”

Over the summer most of what had taken place was not visible from the outside, but people driving by the high school on the right day could see the new marquee being erected in front of our gym. They may have also noticed that some speed bumps have been installed. “Since I’ve been here, we’ve had about a half a dozen accidents. [The speed bumps should] keep the speed down and to help our kids at the high school, ” Wood said.

This year, some of the teachers are not using the old-fashioned method of “copy the notes off the chalk board.” One of our new teachers, Mike McManaman teaches on computers instead of books, so new and updated computers have been put in his room.

Since Mr. Wood has been here, THS has added 39 college-level classes to our class roster. Home room has also changed. We now have guided reading groups in addition to our regular home rooms. Regular home rooms utilize uninterrupted, silent sustained reading, while guided reading home rooms help introduce students to advanced reading strategies that can be helpful in higher-level reading.

Unfortunately, we also noticed a negative change: no planners. In the past, the planners cost from $3,000 to $5,000. This year, we were unable to use that grant, so students did not get planners. Staff members hope to help get student planners available for next year, though.