The Learning Bank of Monroe County will offer a one-of-a-kind new program starting this fall which will allow adults who left school a few credits shy of graduating a chance to meet the Michigan Merit Curriculum standards and earn their high school diploma.
The diploma program will be available to any adult learner in Monroe County, regardless of which public school district they live in.
The program was approved recently by the Monroe Public Schools’ Board of Education. Prior to this, the Learning Bank provided programs for adults to earn their General Education Diploma (GED) but not a high school diploma.
“The Learning Bank has done a great job of helping adult learners to earn their GEDs. However, some students prefer to earn a high school diploma, especially if they are only a few credits short of that diploma,” said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent, Monroe Public Schools.
Before now, adult students wanting to earn a high school diploma would have had to earn it from a high school outside of Monroe County.
“By expanding our services at the Learning Bank, it now will be possible to provide learning opportunities necessary for many of our local adults without a high school diploma to earn a Monroe Adult Diploma,” said Vuncia Council, Learning Bank coordinator.
Persons interested in registering or learning more about the program should contact the Learning Bank at 734-265-4200.Ad
Ryan Walentowski, who started his full-time teaching career at Orchard Center High School, has been appointed principal of the school. His appointment was affirmed by the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education at a recent meeting. Since last February, Mr. Walentowski has served as the interim principal of OCHS.
Mr. Walentowski holds a bachelors degree in Kinesiology and Athletic Training from Michigan State University and has his master of arts and education in Secondary Teacher Education from the University of Phoenix.
“I have enjoyed the time I have spent with Monroe Public Schools, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to become an administrator and further contributing member of the district,” Mr. Walentowski said.
After three years of being a substitute teacher in various Monroe County schools, Mr. Walentowski joined the teaching staff at Orchard Center as a physical education teacher in 2009. During his teaching time at OCHS, Mr. Walentowski also has taught lifetime wellness, GED prep and on-line courses in health, mathematics, social studies, sciences and other elective courses to regular, at-risk, and expelled students.
A native of the Ida area, Mr. Walentowski student taught at Dundee High School and is an assistant football coach at Ida High School.
Monday through Thursday, through August 4, the Monroe Public Schools Summer Reading Outreach Program will be coming to a neighborhood near you. Sessions are held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Listen to a read aloud, read with a younger student or friend and choose free books to take home.
Here are the daily locations. Pick yours and stop in.
Monday
Monroe County Library System – Navarre Library
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Ravenwood Homeowners Park
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Willow Green Park
Tuesday
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Meadowbrook Park
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Monroe Charter Township Park
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Oakridge Estates
Wednesday
Monroe County Library System – Dorsch Library
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Willow Green Park
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – South Monroe Townsite Homeowners Park
Thursday
Monroe County Library System – Ellis Library
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Oakridge Estates
Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot – Meadowbrook Park
Congratulations to Monroe High School senior-to-be Katelyn Tayler, who will participate in the Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders in Lowell, Massachusetts, starting Wednesday and running through Friday of this week.
The Congress is an honors-only program for high school students who are passionate about science, technology, engineering or mathematics. The event is to honor, inspire, motivate and direct the country’s top students who aspire to be scientists and technologists, to stay true to their dreams and, after the event, to provide a path, plan and resources to help them reach their goals.
Katey was nominated by the winner of the first Google Science Fair, Shree Bose, academic director of the National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists, to represent Monroe based on her academic achievement, leadership potential and passion for science and technology.
During the three-day Congress, Katy will join students from across the country and hear Nobel Laureates and National Medal of Science winners talk about leading scientific research, be given advice from deans of the world’s top tech universities, be inspired by fellow teen science prodigies, and learn about cutting-edge advances and the future of science and technology.
Katey is only the second high school student from Monroe County to be invited to the Congress. Last year her MHS Class of 2017 classmate, Sven Woelschlaeger, participated in the same event.
Floreine Mentel, a member of the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education, was honored recently by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners for her many years of service to the community. Congratulations to Mrs. Mentel -- and a special mention to her husband, Bill, who gets her to all of her appointments -- for the many years she has been active in Monroe County. Check out the link below to read the full story.
http://www.monroenews.com/news/20160626/floreine-mentel-honored-for-her-long-time-leadership-and-public-service
To make it easier for people who are registering their children at Monroe Public Schools for the first time, all MPS enrollment forms are now available on-line.
“Parents can now print and complete the documents in advance,” said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent, Monroe Public Schools. “This is a great opportunity for our parents so when they come to register their child for school, their paperwork – which can be time-consuming -- is already complete.”
By completing the registration form at home, parents also are much more likely to have quick access to various important documents that they can refer to for pertinent information.
The form can be accessed on the welcome page of the Monroe Public Schools website, www.monroe.k12.mi.us. It also can be accessed on the home pages of each of the Monroe Public Schools educational facilities.
Today is day one of the Monroe Public Schools’ Summer Reading Outreach program and we have teams of teachers out in the community starting today helping kids to find just right books that they love to read.
The Summer Reading Outreach program runs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and today it will be at the Navarre Library of the Monroe County Library System, The Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot at Ravenwood Homeowners Park and the Monroe Charter Township Tot Lot at Willow Green Mobile Home Park.
On Tuesday, June 28, the Outreach Program moves to the Monroe Charter Township Tot Lots at Meadowbrook Estates Park, Monroe Charter Township Park and Oakridge Estates. Activities run from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Scholarship honors continue to pour in for recent graduates of Monroe High School.
Here is a compilation of the latest round of accolades for the MHS Class of 2016.
Presidential Scholarship, Monroe County Community College – Madeline Gerweck and Halley Sellers.
American Association of University Woman – Sloane Lynch, University of Michigan.
Monroe Thrift Shop Association – Kristine Castellese, Oakland University; Cassie Complo, Grand Valley State University; Noah Dawn, Oakland University; Cameron Delben, Bowling Green State University; Madyson Farris, Bowling Green State University; Natalie Maas, University of Michigan; Stone Oley, Michigan Technological University; Eryka Pancone, University of Kentucky; Travis Turner, University of Toledo.
Monroe High School and Monroe Public Schools are proud of you and all of your accomplishments.
New spots are open for free summer reading and math tutoring for elementary school students in Monroe Public Schools starting next week. The tutoring will be for 45 minutes a day, Monday through Thursday, in each of the five district elementary schools. Students will participate in the school they attend during the regular school year.
The program begins this coming Monday, June 27, and runs until August 4. Please call 265-3100 today to sign up. Spots will fill fast.
They have names such as “The Fighting Pi,” “ThunderChickens” “Robostangs” and EngiNERDS” and together they will descend on Monroe High School this weekend, Friday, June 24, and Saturday, June 25, with roughly 40 other high school teams to compete in Michigan’s Advanced Robotics Competition (MARC.)
Monroe High School, 901 Herr Rd., has hosted the MARC the last several years, transforming the gymnasium into a huge robotics competition arena. Robotics is one of the most colorful competitions offered to students.
Qualifying matches run from 11:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Friday (June 24) and 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday (June 25.) Championship matches are scheduled from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, with an awards ceremony to follow. Admission to the competition is free and the public is invited. Participants range from middle school to high school students.
The event makes Monroe the center of the state’s robotics universe for the weekend. Among the Monroe County teams scheduled to participate are TEMPEST, Dundee Vi-Borgs, Cow Town from Carleton and Monroe Trojan Robotics.
However, the other teams come from practically every corner of the state. Teams are expected from Ann Arbor, Armada, Auburn Hills, Belmont, Bloomfield Hills, Fremont, Goodrich, Grand Blanc, Lake Orion, Livonia, Madison Heights, Northville, Novi, Okemos, Pontiac, Redford, Rochester Hills, South Lyon, Sterling Heights and Troy.