Strange Morning.

Well, today's power outage was not on my radar when I got out of bed this morning. Our kids and staff handled it very smoothly. Mr. Shoufler's staff assisted us with some well-lit classrooms (lots of windows) for test taking purposes. After organizing the students, explaining the plans, and sending them to their finals, the power came back on and all was well. I am sure that AMEREN disappointed more than a few students when they restored power after about a half an hour :)
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Impressed.

Last night the JH and HS bands put on a very entertaining concert. The choral groups were also very good. The Winter Concert had a nice Christmas theme. Every time I go to a music concert I am amazed. I am impressed by things I can't or won't do. Singing in front of someone is one of those things. When you stand up and belt out a solo or duet in front of 10 or 10,000 - it is just you. If you mess it up - it is just you. To me, that takes courage and that is impressive. So I wanted to mention the efforts of Amanda, Emily, and Taylor. Everyone else did a great job as well! Have a great weekend.
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Saturday Morning

Just spent a fun morning watching the frosh boys basketball team play Illini Central @ AHS. Coach Smith's boys won by 1pt. It was well played, well coached, & well officiated. It was a nice way to spend a cold morning.
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What A Finish!

Warrior Basketball - $3
Popcorn $0.50
Beating a top-5 team in class A - PRICELESS!!

Tuesday night's basketball finale was the best game in that gym in 4 years. It had drama, passion, excitement, and energy. The crowd was loud from the minute our first three-ball was centered home until the final horn. The first quarter showcased 2 teams that filled the bucket almost every time down the floor. The game had sharpshooters, banging inside, dunks, steals, great passing and great coaching. Coach Gordon had a great game plan and the boys came out with great energy and beat the Saints. I would venture to guess that if you have to lose the trophy - it is better to give it to someone you just BEAT. The boys, coaches, students, former students, parents and other fans should be very happy with a great showing in the 2010 Warrior Classic. This is the first time since '04 the Warriors have brought home some hardware. Congrats to David Hankins for his selection to the All-Tournament Team. Let's hope this is the beginning of a great basketball season.
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Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. I hope all of my staff and students are able to enjoy the day off and time with family. Thanksgiving for a those of us with ties to high school students often means three things: family, food, and basketball. Our boys will be @ home Friday and Saturday. Our girls will be @ Litchfield Friday and Saturday. I hope to see all of you back on Monday (or sooner if you attend the Warrior Classic). Good luck to our boys and our girls this weekend. Also, if you had a chance to watch the Macy's parade this morning, you may have seen Celynn, Hillary and Erin marching. I heard they had a 4:30 AM wake-up! Congrats to the girls for partaking in the holiday classic in the Big Apple. Have a great day!

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Another Outstanding Veterans Day Program.

Mr Tobias and the Athens Leadership Committee put on another great day and evening for local veterans. Unfortunately, I was at an IHSA meeting Wednesday morning and had to miss the yearly morning ceremony. When I returned, I was met with many compliments regarding the morning's activities. It sounds like Janelle, Lindi, Alex and Nate gave great speeches. The HS and 6th grade bands played and the HS and CIS chorus performed as well. Wednesday evening, the veterans who were honored at the assembly were treated to a great meal. Todd Lawson prepared a pulled-pork meal for the 100 or so guests. The speaker was a Korean War Veteran who is very active in the Illinois Chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association. I believe that everyone had a great evening. As the guests of honor exited the building at the end of the night, each one of them thanked us for having such a wonderful event for the local veterans. They also wanted to make sure I knew how great the students involved the activities were. I said "thanks" and added that we do have "great kids and staff here." It is true! We have kids and staff doing things like this all of the time. For the record, we have two veterans on staff at the high school- Jim VonLehmden(US Army) and Chuck Walbert(US Marine Corps). Rick Small - Jr. High science teacher- also served in the military. So, I say "thanks" to the veterans who attended, to all vets, to all those serving currently, and to Mr. Tobias and the kids who worked to make yesterday a great day. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thursday off. I also hope that we all took a minute or more to think about why we had the honor of having such a day off.
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Honor Roll Numbers for 1st Quarter 2010-2011

The Honor Roll became public today and I thought I would share a few statistics with you. The numbers are very positive. We have almost 50% of our students earning a 3.0 or better. We would always like to see the numbers higher – but 50% is a very respectable percent of students earning no grades lower than a C and carrying at least a 3.0 for the 1st quarter.
1st Quarter Honor Roll Statistics:
Currently we have 334 students in the high school.
93 - Frosh
80 - Sophomores
83 - Juniors
77 - Seniors
163 students earned Honor Roll or better status. 49% of our student body
51/93 - Frosh 55%
31/80 - Sophomores 39%
46/83 - Juniors 55%
35/77 - Seniors 46%
33 students earned all A’s. 10% of our student body
Have a great day!