It Is Great To Be An Ardmore Tiger

Hello, this is Tommy Hunter, principal at Ardmore High School. After today you will not be getting a phone call that begins with this message. I am blessed to have been named the Executive Director of Human Resources and Operations for Limestone County Schools. I am humbled and excited about this new opportunity to serve our students but a little sad about not being the principal at Ardmore. I have great memories of my time here and will continue to be around because I will still have children attending Ardmore and Cedar Hill. I have made lasting friends at Ardmore and it is still “Great to Be an Ardmore Tiger.”

Ardmore High School: Latest News - Parent Survey-Please Participate!

Ardmore High School: Latest News - Parent Survey-Please Participate!

Public Education Funding

Reading, writing and arithmetic have been taught in this country for hundreds of years. Most adults have learned these skills in school at some point. The days of students never attending school is pretty much a thing of the past. Gone are the days that students worked on the family farm and were so isolated they never got the opportunity to attend school. Schools have changed tremendously over the past 100 years and will continue to change as we move through this decade.

The standards and concepts students are taught continue to evolve but some things have remained more constant. Students learn many social and emotional lessons at school in addition to the content standards they are taught. Students learn to get along with peers and to work collaboratively. Students learn to control their emotions or at least manage them to respond in a socially acceptable manner. Just like math standards, some students learn these emotional skills better than others. Obviously home life also has a tremendous impact on student learning.

Public school continue to engage in a balancing act that tries to stress academic goals while teaching life lessons that will impact the students for the remainder of their lives. Life lessons are very difficult to quantify and many times get overlooked during the discussion of public education. We must continue to remember that a person has many dimensions to their life and as a society we must try to help parents as they instill the values that will help our young people become citizens of a well adjusted society. Many issues such as bullying have been plaguing mankind for centuries are still around to day. While diseases such as polio may have been basically eradicated from the human population, conflict between human beings continues to plague us today. While we will never totally eradicate social problems, we must continue to try and teach students to cope with conflict in a constructive manner.

Each year when state legislatures meet across the nation and education budgets are debated I hope legislators will stop and see the big picture and realize that schools are crucial for the fabric of our society to remain intact. While reading, writing, and arithmetic are crucial and are at the center of what public schools offer, they are not all that schools offer society. 

Snow Days

The term “Snow Day” conjures up a variety of emotions. To some this term is one of pure elation because it means a day out of school. The fact that a warmer day out of school was lost does not dampen the excitement of seeing your county on the television scroll or receiving a phone call or text from the school. Teachers and students alike have been known to wait anxiously for the announcement that school is canceled.

Many parents on the other hand cringe at the thought of having to find something to do with their young children. Many will lose a day of vacation, others will have to pay for a sitter and some are fortunate enough to have family that is retired that would love to keep the kids for a day. Snow days many times brings on anxiety trying to find alternate plans for their children.

There is no perfect decision when it comes to making a call on weather related closures and delays. For the most part, crystal ball companies have gone out of business and short of a crystal ball reading there is no way to definitively know what is going to happen and when. School systems get tagged alarmist or lazy if they call off school too much or early and labeled as uncaring and cold if they do not dismiss school soon enough.  Thoughts of children being stranded at school away from their parents cause parents and school officials both to feel great anxiety. Even worse is the thought of a bus losing control on an icy hill and causing harm to precious children.

The people that have to make this call most assuredly take all scenarios into account when making these laborious decisions. I am not one of these people so I am not justifying my actions but I do know how much thought and investigation goes into these decisions. Most school systems will rightly error on the side of caution. The worse scenario is to do anything that increases the likelihood of harm coming to students. Delays and cancellations are never easy for anyone and will continue to stir emotions, but at the end of the day, safety tops everything. 

Chamber Meeting

Here is a portion of what I shared with a recent meeting of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce. We are fortunate to have such a wonderful business community that supports our school. We want to help our students reach their full potential and we need the help of everyone in our community.

Research has shown over and over that POVERTY is the number one enemy in schools. Throughout the country, low income areas consistently struggle with test scores. This is not an excuse, but it is a fact that must be dealt with in order to overcome it. Over the last eight years our number of students on free and reduced lunch has increased 5-10 percentage points. It is not that poor parents do not want their children to learn, but they are occupied with trying to make a living and many times do not have the time to follow up with their children’s education. Poor students many times do not have the life experiences that other students have that can make learning more real. Schools have an obligation and duty to help meet the needs of all of our students. We are blessed to have organizations and individuals that help to provide food for our students over the weekends. Many of our students do not eat very well when they are not at school. They look forward to the breakfast and lunch served at school for their main sources of nourishment.

Drugs and the poverty they cause is also a huge problem for schools. It is a sad fact that we have students who do drugs, but many of our students who do drugs have parents who do drugs. If parents are high or looking for ways to get high, they are not able to properly take care of their children and education is not a big priority. As we know drug use and poverty sometimes go hand in hand. 

It is really a sad paradigm, education is perhaps the best way to break the cycle of poverty, but poverty is the most prohibitive factor to getting a quality education. Cycles are difficult to break and every year we have graduates that are the first in their family to graduate high school. Regrettably, each year we also have students drop out and continue the cycle. We are working hard to break that cycle and will continue to do everything in our power to break the cycle.

Schools can NOT overcome the poverty of their students without parental and community support. Great teachers are crucial and certainly cannot be overlooked, but the school as a whole must find a way to engage the parents and enlist their help. This is where the community is a crucial factor. We must all find ways to encourage education and look for ways to help parents meet the needs of their students. 

Phone Message on Feb. 10

Limestone county students will attend school for a half day on Wednesday February 11 to allow teachers to attend professional development training. Periods 4, 5, 6, and 7 will meet on Wednesday and afternoon tech students will attend tech. school. Lunch will be served and school will be dismissed at 11:30. 

Technology Message February 6

The faculty at Ardmore is excited about the “Bring Your Own Device” program, and we are finding more and more classroom uses for student-owned digital devices. Please be aware that students will continue to be held accountable for appropriate device usage during school hours, and devices should be put away during class time except for teacher-approved activities. Parents are also encouraged to monitor device usage to discourage inappropriate online behavior at home or at school.

Message to be Sent Thursday, February 5

Last Spring our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders participated in the new Alabama State Assessment, known as the ACT Aspire.  Students in these grades were tested in the core areas of Reading and Math.  Recently, the state department of education released the student score reports.  If you have a student that participated in this Assessment, their score report will be coming on with them on Friday, February 6th.  Attached to this score report you will find a letter from Mrs. Betterton, our Middle School Counselor, explaining how to interpret the score reports.  If you have any questions regarding your child's score report, please contact Mrs. Betterton.  Thank you.

Stained Glass Windows

Our art classes are making stained glass windows. Well, they are not actual stained glass windows but they look great. The windows help block out some sun while making the room look wonderful. Mrs. deGraffenried does a wonderful job with our art classes and we are fortunate to have such talented students.

Volunteers

Without volunteers school could not function. Volunteers come in many shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. We have employees that are many times volunteers. For example, when the school is hosting a major event they are there working behind the scenes to make it happen. They are not required to be there and truly it isn’t related to their job other than the fact they work at the school and support everything that takes place related to the school.

Parent volunteers are also vital to schools. Many parents work tirelessly to help provide opportunities for their child to participate in a top notch program. Anytime they are called upon they respond selflessly. These are the parents that allow schools to have the extras that would not be possible with just normal efforts.

Then you have people who just love the community and the school and really have no current ties. Maybe at one time they had students that attended and may have grandkids one day, but they just love the school and the community and want to be a part of something positive for their town.

There are always naysayers that claim these people have hidden agendas and are only out to promote themselves or their kids. Maybe there occasionally is the person that fits this category, but in small towns like ours thank goodness there are those that do not pursue a personal agenda, but truly just care about their community and school and want to make sure things are done in a first class manner. 

New Year

The end of a year is always a good time to reflect on the previous year and plan for the upcoming year. Every year has great moments and low moments. In school, we typically think about a new year starting in the fall, but the end of a calendar year is also a great time to reflect.

We all should ask ourselves if we have accomplished the goals we set for ourselves the previous year. If we have not accomplished our goals we should ask ourselves why. If we did accomplish our goals we should set new goals to accomplish the upcoming year.

Personal goals may relate to our health, our spirit, our family, our education, or any other aspect of our lives. We should never limit our goals to just one area of our lives, but consider ourselves as a whole. I hope each of us has a little time to reflect on the previous year and honestly analyze what we have done right and what we can improve.

A new year is an exciting time and there is never a wrong time to set new goals for ourselves. There is also never a wrong time to begin the improvements we want to see in ourselves. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step so we should never feel overwhelmed; but rather take the initiative to begin working on our goals, regardless of how daunting they may seem.

What is Most Important?

Any person, group, or organization can easily lose focus and forget the things that are most important. We are all extremely busy and “busyness” can get in the way of personal relationships, and business. Our main purpose in public education is to provide students with learning opportunities they will need for the remainder of their lives. Providing this education is a multifaceted endeavor and requires a multitude of people and resources.

Core classes are the most obvious venues to help provide this education, but elective classes, vocational classes, and extracurricular activities supplement the core curriculum. While all of these components are important, we must constantly be vigilant to ensure one area does not take undue preeminence over the others. There are trends in education just like any other aspect of our society and we must try and make sure the curricula and strategies we use are sound, and not just the latest, greatest idea.

Student safety never goes out of style and making sure our students’ needs are met is a big part of what we do. We have students that are hungry, tired, and abused which makes it very difficult to lead them to focus on their academic tasks. While schools were not created to address such issues our most important concern is our students because we know that unless physical and emotional needs are met the students will not receive the best education possible.  The job of the school is also to make sure we provide a safe haven for our students to grow, mature and learn. When human beings are placed together in large numbers there will invariably be conflict. Administrators must sometimes punish those that break rules, but we must also try and teach the desired behavior.

Sports, and other extracurricular are a very important part of school for sure, but they must not replace the academic instruction as the most important thing we do. During this semester break I hope we will all have time to reflect and refocus ourselves on our main job as students, parents, teachers and administrators to make sure we are spending our time wisely on what is most important. As the old saying goes, “Keep the main thing the main thing.”

New Crest on Tower

The front of Ardmore High School recently received a renovation during the construction of our new gym. The tower in front of the school now contains a copy of the school crest. The crest is a good addition to our school and helps top off the renovations. 

Thoughts on Public Education

Horace Mann is quoted as saying, “The public school is the greatest discovery made by man.” I don’t know if this is true or not, but I certainly believe public education is vitally important to the history, and future, of mankind.  A plaque in the Library of Congress reads, “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”  Public education plays a vital role in a community, state, and a nation. The older I grow the more I believe in the importance of public education.  I have witnessed countless people’s lives enhanced by public education. Many people who have disdain for public education owe a debt of gratitude for their education although they do not recognize the impact of their education on their lives.

I have seen people succeed without an education, but I have never heard someone say they wish they had quit school, or had less education. I have heard adults cry while telling a child who is about to quit school that they didn't want them to make the same mistake they made by quitting school. I have witnessed parents beg their child not to quit school, but I have never witnessed a parent tell a child they quit school and were glad.

I have witnessed numerous people have productive and happy lives without a good education. They persevered by hard work, intelligence, and a never quit attitude despite a formal education. I think educators do a disservice and frankly are dishonest if we ever imply that an education guarantees wealth or happiness. There are no guarantees in life, but most civilized societies value an education and most tyrants fear an educated society.

I am not saying that public education is perfect and private schools and/or home schools certainly have their place.  However, in my opinion, in order to effectively educate society as a whole I truly believe in the value of public education. One of the wisest men I have ever known (my grandfather) only finished seventh grade. He quit to work on the family farm and his education served him well for his chosen lifestyle. He gave his first grandson to attend college some great advice as he was going off to college, “Son if you take a smart man and educate him you have a great thing, but if you take a fool and educate him you have an educated fool.” I have never forgotten that advice. Certainly an education will not make one wise but wisdom with knowledge is a powerful combination. 

As a school community we must constantly remind others the importance of public education. We must be our own advocates and we should not expect others to value what we do if we do not tout its value. In my opinion, public education is at a crossroads and without strong voices it could soon become a relic of a bygone time. Like everything, public education has changed through the years and the change has grown increasingly swift in the last few years. Some of the changes are exciting and hold great potential, but we must all work to ensure positive changes for the institution that has such a dramatic impact on something as precious as the lives of our children. 

Hunter's Highlights

Ardmore High School is always proud to help the Melissa George Foundation which supports the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Huntsville Hospital. Playing for Preemies was started by Mr. Rusty Bates, when he was assistant principal and athletic director at Ardmore. Rusty and his wife Kristen had their daughter Lauren at Huntsville Hospital. Lauren was born prematurely and spent several weeks in the NICU at Huntsville Hospital. Rusty and Kristen noticed the beds were furnished by the Melissa George foundation and vowed to help raise money. Every year t-shirts are sold and students at Johnson, Cedar Hill and Ardmore buy chances to Pie the Principal to help raise money. This year the students at the three schools will have raised over $20,000 in a five year period.

Our 6^th and 7^th grade students attended the Storytelling Festival in Athens. I heard from everyone that the performers didn’t disappoint and our students seemed to have a good time. It is important for our students to be exposed to as many experiences as possible to enhance their education. We are very fortunate our students have the opportunity to attend the event and we hope we are able to do this in the future.

Our chemistry students celebrated Mole Day this week. No we are not talking about the ugly, little, furry creatures that burrow in your yard. What is a mole you ask, well it is defined as, ” The quantity of anything that has the same number of particles found in 12.000 grams of carbon-12..” The exact definition may not make a lot of sense to most of us but think of a mole as simply a unit of measurement used when other units such as grams would be more difficult to use. A mole is also known as Avogadro’s number but Mole sounds better. Enough chemistry for the day, our students had a party to celebrate mole day and funny (or corny) jokes were place over the school to celebrate Mole Day. What is a mole joke you may ask, well here is an example, “Where did Avogadro stay on is vacation? A mole-tel. I told you they were corny but we want to extend a special thanks to Mrs. Tolen for teaching our chemistry classes and making Mole Day a great learning experience for our students.

Mrs. Hobbs’s classes took a Field trip to Redstone Arsenal this week. Students were given an opportunity to hear about many different types of careers. These classes have taken a couple of trips and others are planned. It is great for students to hear from as many people as possible the careers they have the opportunity to pursue. Alabama is trying to make sure every graduate is college and career ready and this is one way Ardmore High School tries to make sure our students are ready for the world after school. 

Perspective

Most things in life are seen through the prism of one’s experiences. Most situations we encounter we judge based upon our own perspective. In schools, students, parents, teachers, bus drivers, custodians, and administrators have their own perspective on school issues. Every issue may seem very clear cut to one person and another person may see them very different based upon their own perspective.

The key to helping each other is to understand the perspective of the other person. Sometimes we may still disagree, but it helps to understand why the other person views a particular situation differently than we do. One example that many people have differing opinions and perspectives concerns homework. Many teachers, especially math teachers, see homework as a crucial component of the students’ education. Spending time studying and trying to complete problems on their own allows teachers to see where students struggle, therefore allowing them to help the students more effectively. However, many parents see homework as an additional burden in an already busy schedule. Many parents believe school work should be done at school and work assigned outside school is cutting in on their family time. While it is true that the two sides may not agree on the homework issue, understanding the perspective of each other may establish some common ground. Both parents and teachers want the student to receive a quality education, but opinions may differ as to the best way to accomplish this outcome.  The ways to achieve the goal may be different but if we are both striving for the same goals we may be more tolerant of the other view point.

The homework example is just one example of how perspective skews our way of thinking. For people such as me that have worked their entire lives in a school, things that seem very normal may seem very strange to those who have not worked in a school. Just like any job, we do not truly understand how things work behind the scenes until we do the job. We all have friends and family that work in institutions with which we have regular dealings. Sometimes after having things explained to us, many things make much more sense than they did on the surface. The only answer to solving many of the world’s problems is effective communication.

Our school has many tools to communicate with parents such as Twitter, e-mail, Remind, and the website just to name a few. Unfortunately, many of these methods are one way communication which do not allow parents to speak back with us. We sometimes administer surveys which a very small percentage of parents decide to take but the surveys do give us some feedback. Many times we are asked questions at school functions and despite what many people believe, we do not hate questions. Actually we had rather answer a question than for rumors to spread that are grossly inaccurate. I recently heard of a rumor that the principal decides which classification our school is in terms of athletics. For example the principal decided to move us to 5A from 4A. Of course nothing could be further from the truth, but somehow this rumor had started. I only heard about this rumor after a grandparent asked a board member about the issue at a ball game. This is an example of miscommunication and the school having no idea of the misinformation that existed.

Our school officials, we rely on parents and community members to be our ears when it comes to school matters. We truly want questions from the parents and community because we want our supporters to know the truth and not false information. Any organization struggles with public misinformation and perception and schools are no exception. We will continue to try and make ourselves more accessible and hopefully working together we can improve the communication between home and school.

We constantly look for ways to improve parental input, but we know everyone is very busy and attending formal activities may be difficult. We have tried things such as “Breakfast with the Principal” but only two parents signed up so we discontinued the program. I know that parents have a perspective that school workers do not have. We want to listen to our parents but are constantly looking for a method to make it convenient for parents to provide the feedback. We encourage our parents to call, e-mail, or come by and see us when you have an idea that you may think could improve our school.

Hunter's HIghlights

The past several weeks have shown the generosity of the students and staff of Ardmore High School. Our administrators and coaches participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in order to raise money for ALS research. We have some very generous individuals give large donations and our students donated money as well. All total Ardmore High School will be sending nearly $1700 dollars to help with this worthy cause.

Childhood cancer is a horrible disease and several students in Limestone County have been affected. Limestone County participated in Childhood Cancer Awareness Day by dressing like super heros. Students at Ardmore actually dressed in their favorite super hero t-shirt at the pep rally and at the game Friday night. Ardmore students are always willing to help a good cause.

Our fall sports teams continue to work hard as they represent Ardmore High School. Our cross country team, football team, volleyball team, band and cheerleaders display excellence in their respective activities. I always leave a game or event knowing that it is great to be an Ardmore Tiger.

Mrs. Williams, our FACS teacher, has students involved in a variety of interesting activities. Her parenting class recently celebrated their “children” they are taking care of like new parents. Of course the “children” are really dolls, but students must keep the children with them or arrange for sitters like real parents. The activity is intended to give students some idea of the responsibility required to raise children. This is an excellent learning opportunity for our students.

September is school attendance month in the state of Alabama. We encourage all parents to make school attendance a priority in their households. Sickness and other unavoidable reasons for absences are certainly going to occur during a school year so it is crucial to be here on days when it is possible. It doesn't take long for even the best of students to fall behind in their studies. We want everyone to be in attendance at school on every possible day.

Hunter's Highlights

Activities are beginning to pick up at Ardmore High School. Teachers are busy making a difference in the lives of our students and making sure our students have outstanding educational opportunities.

One of our new teachers is Mrs. Lacy Williams who teaches Family and Consumer Sciences. We are very fortunate to have Mrs. Williams here to help our students and are extremely excited about the direction our FACS program is heading. Working with Mrs. Graham, our Agriculture teacher, we know our vocational department will soar to new heights.

Our Yearbook Staff is encouraging our students and faculty to “Dress for Success” this year in our school pictures. They have begun a clever marketing plan and have posters all over campus. They thought it would be good for students to dress up and make Picture Day a special occasion. We are excited to see how great our students look when they dress for success on September 4.

Our new gym is coming along very nicely and we will be announcing the grand opening in a matter of days. We are currently thinking that it will be toward the end of September, but we anticipate a specific date to be announced very soon. I believe the gym will be something the community of Ardmore will be proud to call their own.

Our fall sports teams are in full swing. We have teams playing multiple times during the week and we invite you to come out and support our band and athletes as they compete this fall. We are very proud of our students and the things they are able to accomplish. Students who participate in extracurricular activities typically perform better in school and have a more positive school experience. They need our help and support in order to achieve their goals.

Picture Day

Picture Day is September 4, 2014. No parent's scrapbook would be complete without a school picture from each year.

Do Not Publish List

In order to establish your child as a student that cannot be published in any capacity, the procedure has changed from last year. A parent/guardian must send an email to ferpa@lcsk12.org to make this request. The deadline is end of day August 26, 2014 to be added to this list.