The Monroe County Learning Bank Network will host “Art for Education,” an entertaining and fun evening with a live-art auction fundraiser on Saturday, July 23, at the downtown Monroe Bank & Trust community room, 102 E. Front St.
The live auction “fun-raiser” will benefit the scholarship fund for Monroe County Adult Education Programs, making it possible for people who have graduated from the Learning Bank Network to attend college.
Registration and art preview begin at 6 p.m. with the live auction at 7:15 p.m. More than 150 items and local art will be available for bid for every taste and budget. Tickets are $25 each or two for $40. Ticket price includes savory hors d’oeuvres, a complimentary drink ticket, dessert, refreshments, a cash bar and a door prize ticket. Attendees also will enjoy live music and local artists.
The art, memorabilia and collectibles come from Regency Fine Art in Atlanta, Ga. The pieces come in a variety of media with well-known artists such as Salvador Dali, Thomas Kinkade, Norman Rockwell, Leroy Nieman, Patricia, Marc Chagall, Alvar, Jim Buckels, Walt Disney and many others. Also available will be sports memorabilia, as well as music and movie collectibles from the nostalgic past to present-day celebrities. Everything is custom matted and framed and comes in a variety of sizes and price ranges. In addition, some pieces by local artists and locally donated items from businesses and individuals will be available.
Items will be available in live- and silent-auction formats.
Tickets are available at Monroe Bank & Trust, 10 Washington St., at the Monroe Public Schools Administration Building, 1275 N. Macomb St., and The Learning Bank at 1102 E. First St. For additional ticket sales locations, contact Miranda at 265-4200.
This is an adult event with casual business attire.
The event is supported by the Monroe County Learning Bank Network, Monroe Public Schools, Monroe County Community College and Monroe Bank & Trust.
Three Monroe Public Schools facilities will be open four days of the work week this summer and will be closed on Fridays. The summer schedule is similar to what the district has used for the last several years.
Starting today (June 20), the Monroe Public Schools Administration Building at 1275 N. Macomb St., will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monroe High School will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monroe Middle School will be open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. All three buildings will be open Monday through Thursday over the summer schedule and closed on Fridays.
The Riverside Early Learning Center at. W. Elm Ave. and N. Roessler St., and the district’s maintenance department headquarters on W. Albain Rd. will not be affected by the schedule change. The MHS Athletic Office will be open until 2:30 p.m. through the end of June, closed in July and re-opened on August 1.
The temporary schedule will last throughout the summer and the three buildings will return to their normal five-day work schedules on August 15.
Congratulations to the 161 students from Monroe Middle School who made all A's during the fourth quarter of the school year. Some 73 of the students were seventh graders and 88 were eighth graders. Enjoy your summer, kids, but make sure you keep reading all summer long. Check out the attached list for the full roster of names.
Attention all parents of the Monroe High School Class of 2016 Top 100 students – if you did not get enough Top 100 booklets featuring your son’s/daughter’s picture and biography, we now have more. Stop in at the Administration Building, 1275 N. Macomb St., during summer business hours – 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday – and pick up more copies. In addition, if you are a friend of Monroe Public Schools and want a booklet to commemorate the top students of this wonderful just-graduated class, stop in. Ask for Bobb Vergiels.
Missed the graduation ceremonies for Orchard Center High School and the Learning Bank? No problem. You can catch them on-line, anytime on YouTube. Thanks to Monroe Public Access Cable Television for producing these programs.
You can catch the Orchard Center ceremonies at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJw_zJEUZV8
Or, if you want to want the Learning Bank graduation, check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55KAqqfAYiw
Michaela Foulkrod, who less than two weeks ago graduated from Monroe High School, will direct the upcoming presentation of The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon, at the River Raisin Center for the Arts (RRCA.) It is the first all-student run show in RRCA history. The cast, led by director Miss Foulkrod, is comprised of students aged 11 through 19, with a cast of 18 actors and 40 roles, meaning some of the kids play up to five different roles in the production.
The show will be staged June 24-26 at the RRCA. Curtain is 7 p.m. on June 24 and 25 and 3 p.m. on June 26. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students. They are on sale at various locations.
Check out the attached news release for more information.
Fifth-grade through eighth-grade students in Monroe Public Schools will find something new in their book bags each night when they go home from school next school year – a Dell Chromebook which is theirs to use at school during the day and take home at night.
This “24/7 one-to-one initiative” -- which has been piloted for several years in Monroe Public Schools – will supply the Chromebooks to some 1,900 students and staff in all five of Monroe’s elementary schools and Monroe Middle School. Importantly, there will be no cost to the students’ families for the devices or for insurance.
“Over the past few years, we have had multiple one-to-one classrooms and students in those classrooms have been thriving,” said Julie Everly, deputy superintendent, Monroe Public Schools. “The teachers and students in these classrooms have crafted a 21st century vision of learning that has grown and has been highly requested by others.
“Teacher leaders and administrators have worked hard on the initiative to bring us to this next very exciting step – extending these learning experiences far outside of the school day and the walls of our school buildings.” The rollout of this initiative also will have another benefit, this one at Monroe High School. Since Monroe Middle School students will have their own Chromebooks next school year, 14 carts of Chromebooks which were used this school year at MMS, will be transferred to MHS, increasing by 50 percent the number of Chromebooks available to MHS students during the school day.
The Monroe Public Schools Board of Education recently approved the purchase of 2,100 Dell Chromebooks and protective shells, the corresponding Google Management and GoGuardian licenses, and 200 power adapters.
“Getting 1,900 Chromebooks in the hands of students at the beginning of the school year and making sure everyone is properly trained, including our staff, are significant undertakings, but this is a major stride forward in learning for our children,” said David Payne, director, Technology, for Monroe Public Schools.
“This is just our first year of doing this on this scale. Our plans are to include the incoming fifth graders every year after this which expands the number of grades having the Chromebooks each year of the program. Ultimately, all fifth grade through high school students in Monroe Public Schools will have their own Chromebooks in school and at home,” Mr. Payne added.
Mr. Payne said that the purchase is paid for with a combination of funds from state money and the county’s Technology millage which last month was renewed by county voters for five years.
While the students will be able to use the Chromebooks individually for research and study in their classrooms and at home, teachers also will have the ability in class to change all of the screens in that classroom to the same lesson using a program called GoGuardian.
As part of preparing for the “24-7 one-to-one initiative,” the school board also approved purchasing equipment to expand and upgrade the Monroe Public Schools Data Center.
“This expansion will give our students and staff the infrastructure needed to support our current and future technology demands,” Mr. Payne said.
Included in the project are improvements to email and web filters, firewalls, network storage, phone system upgrades for all district phones, software and servers.
Mr. Payne explained that when the phone portion of the project is complete, the system will be E911 compliant, meaning it will meet the emergency phone requirements of the new Federal law for public buildings of a certain size which goes into effect at the end of 2016. With the new system, if someone in a classroom dials 9-1-1, the building’s top administrator is notified immediately, so in-building actions can take place quickly.
“We cannot thank county voters enough for supporting the millage which helps us put the hardware and software in place to help our students succeed,” Mr. Payne said.
“Thanks to the collective efforts of our community technology millage and our staff, our Monroe students will experience learning in way that no generation before them ever has,” Mrs. Everly said.
For more than 25 years, the Monroe High School Marching Band proudly represented the school and the entire community as it won numerous marching band performance awards wearing these uniforms. This spring the band got new uniforms, meaning the old ones had to go. For $25, you can own your own Monroe High School Marching Band uniform – complete with the coat and cape, pants, hat and plume, a uniform bag and a hat box.
Was dad in the band? Well Father’s Day is coming up and this would REALLY be a unique gift. Or if there is that “person who has everything,” and you need to get them a gift, chances are good they do not have a genuine MHS Marching Band uniform yet.
Persons interested in purchasing a uniform, should mail a check for $25 to the Monroe Instrumental Music Boosters Club to Monroe High School, 901 Herr Rd., Monroe, MI 48161, to the attention of band director Mr. James Nuechterlein. A uniform will be randomly selected (unless otherwise noted) and placed in the MHS office for the purchaser to pick up during regular office hours this summer.
Monroe Public Access Cable Television will present in its entirety the re-broadcast of the Monroe High School graduation ceremonies. Broadcast times this weekend are 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, and 8 p.m., Sunday, June 12. Because channel numbers differ between cable providers, please check your on-screen channel guide for the correct channel number for MPACT..
Summer break time is approaching and you’d sure like to find that great book to read while relaxing in the backyard or maybe on the beach. And not just for you – but for your high-school-aged child, too.
You just might find that great American novel at Monroe High School and it is free.
Starting Monday, June 13 and running through Friday, June 17, MHS is liquidating a large number of books which once were in the school library and is giving them away free to the public. The books will be displayed on large tables in the commons area. The school will be open during what would be regular business hours during the school year so people can come and choose books.
Most books appeal to high school-aged students since they came out of the library, however there many authors who are popular with adults, too. Numerous hard-cover and soft-cover books and some encyclopedias are available. Parents looking for something for their child to read over the summer are urged to stop by.