ALCS March 2023 newsletter

Spring is on its way. Daylight Saving Time is this weekend. Winter sports are wrapping up, and Spring sport athletes are lacing up their spikes or cleats in anticipation of their seasons. Orchestra, Band and Choir competitions and concerts are starting and the Avon Lake High School Drama Club performers are back in the Performing Arts Center preparing for the Spring musical, "Legally Blonde".

Congratulations to the Avon Lake High School Dance Team: OASSA (Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators) State Champions in the Game Day Small Group category, and State Runner-Up in the Pom Small Group category! We are very proud of our dancers, coaches and advisors.

Our Winter sports teams had tremendous success this year with SWC Championships in Wrestling, Boys Basketball, and Boys Swimming. Many athletes are having great individual success in the State Tournaments in Bowling (team), Swimming, Diving, Indoor Track and Field, and Wrestling (boys and girls). I am unbelievably proud of the student athletes and their coaches. Their success shows that all are willing to put in the time and effort needed to compete successfully today.

March is busy, busy, busy, busy inside and outside the classroom. There is an old saying about “The Dog Days of Summer.” From now until the start of Spring Break on April 7th are the dog days of the school year. We have had a great school year up to this point. The students and staff continue to work hard. Even though the next few weeks are going to be a “slog,” working together we can battle through this busy, busy, busy, busy time by working together. That work will pay off as we return from Spring Break and make that final sprint to the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

One of the “silver linings” of a busy, busy, busy, busy time are all of the opportunities to watch and support our performers and student athletes. Please catch a concert, stop by a sports meet or buy a ticket to "Legally Blonde" and enjoy the experience. I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Sincerely,

Bob Scott

Superintendent

#ALCS100

March 14: Board of Education meeting at 6:30 p.m. L.A.K.E. Center at ALHS

March 16: Superintendent search finalists interviews (email was sent to families)

March 24: End of the 3rd Quarter

April 7-14: Spring Break

April 17: Classes resume

If you missed the Community Forum last month regarding our Building A Legacy facilities initiative, all of the information is posted on the district website including the slide presentation, recorded link, and FAQ.

Please take the time to review the information. Also please share the information with your friends and neighbors.

To view the slide presentation and/or watch the forum recording, click here.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback on the project, please email them to feedback@avonlakecityschools.org.

Operation Lorax is a social vocational program, co-run by Michelle Hill and Vickie Tomlin at ALHS, that allows students to practice job skills such as problem solving, attention to detail, and engaging in conversation with many different audiences. The students follow a schedule and manage their caretaking duties throughout the school every day. Currently, they are responsible for 75 plants in the school and district offices.

Four Avon Lake High School seniors, Coryn Cummings, Ryan Jung, Annelise Klenz, and Camille Rasch, are among the 15,000 finalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. The nationwide pool of finalists represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official had to submit a detailed scholarship application with information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, as well as honors and awards received.

Advanced Placement (AP) Physics students at Avon Lake High School have been working on a multi-year project to construct a giant Foucault pendulum, which visually demonstrates the Earth’s rotation on its axis.

The ball, weighing several hundred pounds, will hang on a 32-foot-long cable from the ceiling in the high school media center’s (L.A.K.E.) atrium. The base will be approximately 12-feet in diameter. French physicist Jean Bernard Leon Foucault, invented the Foucault pendulum.

Over the years the students have made several presentations regarding the progress of the project, as well as raising funds for the project. An event is planned for the public to attend to support the project (flyer below).

John Gill, physics teacher, is available to contact via email for further information. John.Gill@avonlakecityschools.org

All four Avon Lake City Schools elementary schools recently kicked off the One District, One Book (ODOB) community reading initiative with assemblies at each school. Drama students from Avon Lake High School visited each elementary school in the district and performed a special skit with clues before the big reveal of the book title. Avon Lake High School video production students also worked with district staff members to create guest recordings for each chapter of the book so students can read along at home if they don’t have someone to read aloud to them.

Every student and staff member in grades K-4 received their own copy (nearly 1,600) of, "Gooseberry Park", by Cynthia Rylant, along with an activity pack with a two-week reading calendar, trivia questions and community scavenger hunt game card. The students are to read the book each night as a family, turn in trivia questions to school according to the calendar and as a family, visit the local businesses on a scavenger hunt to try to find Stumpy, the squirrel.

In addition, each building will be taking up a collection of dog items for Love-a-Stray since Kona, the dog, is the hero of the book.

ODOB was also made possible through generous donations from the Avon Lake City Schools Foundation and the following local businesses: Avon Lake Public Library, Ace Hardware, Coffee and Chaos Boutique, Dairy Queen, Earthwise Pet, Marco’s Pizza, Old School Pizza and Wings, Salad Kraze, Sherwin Williams, and UR Decor and More.

The Avon Lake High School National English Honor Society, along with the Avon Lake Public Library, will be hosting national author Thrity Umigar on March 30. She will speak at 1 p.m. at the Dr. Daniel B. Ross Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Avon Lake High School and then host a book signing at 2 p.m. in the PAC lobby.

Umigar will also speak at 7 p.m. at the library. Community members may also come to the 1 p.m. talk. She will discuss her book, 'Honor'. For more information about this entire community read event, including how to reserve your free ticket for the book discussions, click here.

We invite you to subscribe and follow Avon Lake Productions on YouTube and Facebook. Under the direction of Scott Herrick at Avon Lake High School, Avon Lake Productions features videos and live streams produced by Avon Lake High School students. Past videos include concerts, sporting events, and general school news.