Hunter's New Year Highlights

The year of 2010 has been a great year for Ardmore High School. The end of the year is a time to reflect on the previous year and fondly remember the great things that happened and closely examine those things which went wrong. I hate to single out major events because I am afraid I will leave something out, but I will try to list a few of our accomplishments as a school, quickly pointing out that this is by no means an exhaustive list. Many of the accomplishments of our students and faculty will not be listed but they are still much appreciated by the Ardmore Community.

As always there were some staff changes during the year of 2010. We had some teachers retire, some left for other areas of endeavor and while they will be missed, we have had some staff additions that have become a part of the Ardmore family. The following are a list of new staff members for the year 2010: Lauren Graham, Beth McCaleb, Leigh Ann Brown, Janet Roop, Clint Legg, Michelle Richardson, Morgan Cornelison, Dianne Reed, Jerry Fulks, and Andrew Smith. Some of our new staff members replaced those that retired or left for other places while some were additions to our staff.

One new position that was filled was that of assistant principal. Mr. Brad Lewis has been teaching at Ardmore for several years and has earned everyone’s respect in that role, now he has become an assistant principal at Ardmore. Mr. Lewis is doing a wonderful job in his new role and hopefully will continue in his new role for several years to come.

Ardmore High School was fortunate enough to win the Limestone County Schools Academic Trophy once again this year. The trophy has been awarded to AHS nine out of the past eleven years. This award is based on test scores from the PRE-AHSGE, ACT, SAT-10, Jr. Scholars' Bowl, and Sr. Scholars' Bowl Competitions. Our students and teachers work very hard through the year and it is nice to get recognized for their hard work.

We had several athletic accomplishments during the year of 2010 and I don’t want to start listing them, but we had only one state championship team. Our softball team won the 4A state championship in softball in its third consecutive appearance in the state tournament. Ardmore has a long tradition of softball excellence and will no doubt continue this trend. We want to congratulate Coach Thomas and all the softball team for the wonderful achievement of a state championship. We must never forget what an outstanding accomplishment it is to win a state championship because some schools go years without having a state champion.

Even though we are ending a calendar year, we still have a semester left in the school year. While it is good to take a moment to reflect we must continue to press on for the upcoming year. We must never cease continuing to improve because, “When we cease getting better we stop being good.” We must never get complacent because complacency is the forerunner to mediocrity and being mediocre is not what Ardmore High School is about. We want to wish everyone a successful and prosperous new year.

Basketball

Basketball game Tuesday, December 21, 2010 beginning at 4:00 at the Ardmore High School Gym. Please come out and support our Tigers.

Merry Christmas

Hunter's Highlights

It is hard to believe the semester is over and the Christmas Holidays have begun. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and come back to school refreshed and ready to start a great 2nd half of the school year.

Our basketball teams will not be having the entire break off, but will be practicing and preparing for Christmas Tournaments. Please check the website for dates and time of the games. Our teams continue to improve and look forward to a great season.

We continue to have a lot of wonderful things taking place in the classrooms. We have students and teachers working hard to make sure each student receives the quality education we all want for them. We know that the economy is still down and everyone is feeling the budget crunch. If you currently have students enrolled in school, you know how budgets have been cut due to the economy and next year isn’t looking any better. Please continue to be advocates for public education and school funding.

The faculty and staff at Ardmore High School would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

School Closing

Limestone County Schools are closed on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010. I want to make you aware of our procedure for exemptions. The exemption procedure will be the same for everyone EXCEPT those students who exempt ALL of their exams. These students should have their signed form at home and will NOT need to come to school on Thursday and Friday. They may turn in their forms in when we return after the Christmas break. All other students will follow the same procedures. If you have any questions, check the website or call the school. Thank you and stay safe.

Hunter's Highlights

We are a week away from a very important time in the lives of our students and teachers. No, I am not talking about Christmas, but rather semester exams which count 20% of the entire grade. We will be giving exams December 16, and December 17 and all the details are posted on the Ardmore High School website. This is a very important time and I hope everyone prepares properly for these very important tests.

Semester exams also coincide with the Christmas break which last until January 5th for students. When students return on January 5th the second semester will have begun and half of the school year will be in the books. It is hard to believe this school year has passed so quickly and for seniors and their parents I am sure it is hard to believe their time with us at Ardmore High School is nearly complete.

The Award Winning Ardmore High School Tiger Band will perform their annual Christmas concert Monday, December 13, 2010 in the new gym. This is a great time for everyone if you love great Christmas music. Mr. Nelson and our band always do a wonderful job and anyone attending is sure to have a great time and enjoy great music. Please come out and support our excellent band program.

Ms. Martin's sixth grade students had the opportunity to model fossil excavation. The students worked in pairs to identify each fossil they were able to locate. They found fossils such as Crinoid stem, Coral, Brachiopod, Shark teeth, and Dinosaur Bones. Our students are fortunate to have this hands-on experiment provided to AMSTI to aide in their learning process. AMSTI is a great program provided for the state of Alabama to provide Alabama students with learning opportunities otherwise unavailable to them.

Ardmore High School’s 2010-2011 winner of the Scholar Athlete Award is Mr. Landon Boggs and the winner of the Achievement Award is Ms. Brittany Brown. Landon and Brittany will now be eligible for the area nominee which is the first step towards winning the scholarship to be awarded at a banquet in Birmingham. The Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Program was created in 1986 by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in conjunction with the Alabama High School Athletic Association. It is supervised by the Board of Directors of the Bryant-Jordan Foundation. The initial scholarship offered by the Bryant-Jordan Program was the scholar athlete scholarship. In 1989 the Achievement Award was created. This award is designed to reward the student-athlete who achieves beyond his/her ability both academically and athletically or who may have overcome some obstacle or hardship to achieve success.

Some Ardmore students are working to help with the nationwide problem of child obesity. Ana Lombard, Jackson Cornelison, Shelby Goldsmith, Brittanie Glover, and Brandi Howard produced a video posted on Youtube in conjunction with a school program they organized to help bring awareness to the serious health concerns. These students are to be congratulated on their initiative and drive demonstrated by producing the program and video.

Hunter's Highlights

The leaves have fallen, the cold air has settled in and Christmas is right around the corner. This is the most wonderful time of the year, but it is also a very busy time of year. We have many things taking place at Ardmore High School and the semester exams will be on us before we know it. Exams are December 16, and 17 which end the first semester and students return to school on January 5, 2011.

The Ardmore Chapter of Future Farmers of America has been busy this year with its annual fruit/meat sale. This is a big fundraiser for the FFA and Ms. Graham and the club members have worked extremely hard selling and distributing the fruit. The FFA is serving chicken stew to all of its members on Friday, December 03, 2010 which will be a good reward for all of their hard work.

Basketball season is in full swing and our teams are working hard to have another great season. There are games most every night of the week except Wednesday for your viewing pleasure. Our middle school teams play on Mondays and Thursdays and our varsity teams play on Tuesdays and Fridays so please come out and support our basketball programs.

The Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Program was created in 1986 by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in conjunction with the Alabama High School Athletic Association. It is supervised by the Board of Directors of the Bryant-Jordan Foundation. The initial scholarship offered by the Bryant-Jordan Program was the scholar athlete scholarship. In 1989 the Achievement Award was created. This award is designed to reward the student-athlete who achieves beyond his/her ability both academically and athletically or who may have overcome some obstacle or hardship to achieve success. Ardmore High School winner of the Scholar Athlete Award is Mr. Landon Boggs and the winner of the Achievement Award is Ms. Brittany Brown. Landon and Brittany will now be eligible for the area nominee which is the first step towards winning the scholarship to be awarded at a banquet in Birmingham.

Christmas season is also parade season for our marching band. Our band typically marches in the Athens Christmas Parade and the Ardmore Christmas Parade. The band entertains the crowd with traditional Christmas songs as it moves along the parade route. Our band excels in everything they do so we are always excited to get to hear the Ardmore Marching Band and we look forward to the Ardmore Christmas Parade, Saturday, December 4, 2010.

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to thank each of you that read this blog from time to time and wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. We have a great school and I am very thankful to be a part of such a wonderful community and school. I hope that you enjoy some time with your family and focus on the truly important things in life.

Hunter's Highlights

Ardmore High School has once again won the Limestone County Schools Academic Trophy. Ardmore High School has been fortunate enough to win the trophy nine out of the past eleven years. This criteria for the award is based on test scores from the PRE-AHSGE, ACT, SAT-10, Jr. Scholars' Bowl, and Sr. Scholars' Bowl Competitions. A special congratulation goes to all the students, teachers, and administration for maintaining the academic excellence that has become a standard at AHS!

The Fall Sports Banquet is scheduled for Monday, November 22nd at 6:00. We will celebrate Football, Volleyball, and Cross Country. We outgrew the lunchroom so we moved the banquet to the new gym so hopefully everyone will have plenty of room. We want to recognize all of our athletes for the hard work and dedication they exhibit throughout the school year.

I would like to encourage all of you to take advantage of the communication tools available to Ardmore High School parents. We have our awesome website, staff e-mail addresses, blog, Twitter account, Notify Me e-mail system and Alert Now automated calling system. We truly want to keep everyone informed about everything happening at the school.

The Diamond Club is sponsoring its annual Drawdown Dinner to help raise money for the baseball program. The dinner is Saturday, November 20, 2010 in the new gym. The dinner is a great meal and a great time, and by the way, a chance to win some pretty cool prizes. Tickets are $100 and all proceeds go to help the Ardmore High School baseball program.

Basketball season is in full swing and we are looking forward to a great year. Our teams are playing hard and seem to be improving every game. Our varsity plays Elkmont, Friday, November 19, 2010 at Elkmont. We hope everyone can come out and support our basketball teams. Ardmore High School always has a great following and we know this year will be no exception.

Pro sports and big-time college athletics tend to get all the headlines and many times the news is filled with controversy, contract negotiations, taunting, jealousy, and other negative behavior. Sportsmanship is not demonstrated nearly as often as it once was and taunting the other team is more in vogue than cheering on one’s own team. High school sports may still be the purest form of sport remaining because it is truly amateur sports and hopefully still being played for the right reason. Team is hopefully still more important that individual contracts or recognition. We must be careful that the attitude exhibited by a handful of selfish athletes at higher levels of competition doesn’t find its way into high school athletics and the integrity of the game is protected. We hope our fans, students and athletes display the highest level of class and sportsmanship as the school year continues.

Hunter's Highlights

Great things are happening at Ardmore High School. The fall season is so full of activity, coupled with the beautiful fall weather makes this time of year very enjoyable. We have students involved with many different types of activities as the school year proceeds. Ardmore is blessed to have several leadership opportunities available to our students. The Ardmore Chamber of Commerce sponsors a group called the “Chamber Ambassadors” which are exposed to several leadership opportunities and given the opportunity to learn about the business world. First National Bank also sponsors a group called the First National Bank Advisory Board which emphasizes community service and introduces our students to issues associated with business and finance. We are fortunate to have such a wonderful community to help our students.

Our students are also involved with raising money for charities during the upcoming holiday season. Our students have recently been involved in “SolesforSouls” which collects shoes to send to students needing shoes because their families are unable to purchase the shoes they need. Many of our groups help local charities and groups during the entire year, but especially during the holidays.

We will be celebrating the accomplishments of our fall athletes at the Fall Sports Banquet on November 22, 2010 at 6:00 pm in the school gym. We are using the gym this year because we have out grown our cafeteria. Hopefully we will be able to accommodate everyone comfortably as we honor our students for the hard work and dedication.

I know some of you may get annoyed with hearing; “Hello, this is Tommy Hunter, principal at Ardmore High School” which means you are receiving an automated call from the school. This is an excellent communication tool and we try hard not to over-use the service but we do want to make sure parents are informed about things happening at the school. I try to announce major events at school and I send messages when school personnel ask me to make a call to announce their event. We try to set up some groups to not send everyone every call, but sometimes people miss the announcement. We do seem to still be having a few technical difficulties with parents not receiving calls and we continue to try and work out the details.

Basketball season is now in full swing. Our first varsity game is against Clements Friday, November 12, 2010 at Clements. Our middle school, junior varsity, and varsity teams are looking forward to a wonderful year this year. Expectations are high and we know our coaches and players will represent Ardmore in an exemplary manner. Coach Sanderson and Coach Walker always do a wonderful job leading our basketball programs.

Great things are happening every day at Ardmore High School and across Limestone County Schools. Unfortunately, in society bad news is the focus of most of the media and the gossip. We are very fortunate to live in such a great community and have such a great school system filled with outstanding young people. Just remember when you hear bad reports of one student there are thousands that are doing what they are supposed to do and representing their community and parents admirably.

Meet the Tigers

Come out and meet the Tigers Tuesday night, November 9, 2010 at 6:00 in the new gym. First National Bank sponsors this event every year and it is great for our players and coaches to get ready for the upcoming season. Hope to see you there!

Hunter's Highlights

The autumn horizon displays its magnificent fall foliage as the brisk air quietly invades the Ardmore community. The autumn air was the perfect setting for the 2010 version of Parenting Day was held recently giving parents and teachers an opportunity to talk with each other and find a way to better meet the needs of the students of Ardmore High School. Ardmore was host to over 400 parent conferences while students enjoyed their day off from school.

Basketball season has begun and the West Limestone Tip-Off Tournament in full swing. We are looking forward to a great basketball season because we know our players and coaches have been working extremely hard to prepare for the season. Fans are waiting with anticipation for the noise of the buzzer and the swoosh of the ball through the net as the Tigers fill up the basket. We encourage each of you to come out and support our teams.

The Award Winning Ardmore Tiger Marching band displayed their usual excellence as the recently performed in the marching contest at Gordo. The sounds of the band “Chicago” reverberated through the evening sky as our excellent musicians played their parts flawlessly. The band received all superior ratings and was awarded “Best in Class”. Mr. Nelson, Ms. Rhinehart and all the band members are to be congratulated for their hard work and excellence.

Coach Jackson and Ms. Roop recently carried a group of science students to visit the Space and Rocket Center located in Huntsville. Our students learned first hand of the historic role this area played in the space race. We are fortunate to live in an area that has such a strong impact on the endeavor to increase human knowledge through space exploration. Our students were well behaved and showed once again that Ardmore students are well behaved and represent their parents, school and community with class. A special thanks to Coach Jackson for coordinating this trip as he has done for so many years. Ardmore is very fortunate to have a man like Coach Jackson teaching the young people that come through our doors.

Ardmore high school is proud to announce Ms. Pam Emerson as its 2010 Teacher of the Year. Mrs. Emerson teaches Geometry, Advanced Geometry, and Algebra IA and is an Ardmore High School Graduate. She did her Undergraduate Studies at Athens State College and her Graduate Studies at The University of West Alabama. Emerson's teaching career began at Hazel Green High School spending 5 1/2 years there before returning to Ardmore in January of 2002.

Parenting Day

Great turn out today for Parenting Day at Ardmore High School. We want to thank all the parents that came by the school to see us today. We hope we were able to answer your questions and as always if you have anything you would like to discuss please give us a call.

Parenting Day

We invite all of our parents to come and see us on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. We look forward to hearing from you and remember we will also be issuing parent passwords to access your child's information.

Hunter's Highlights

Things are in full swing at Ardmore High School. The fall sports season officially ended with our varsity football game against Tanner. Our guys played hard, but came up a little short. We are very proud of how our team performed winning four games in a row in the second half of the season. Of course winter sports begin the very next Monday with our MS basketball teams playing in the West Limestone Tip-Off tournament. As always please check our website for more information.

On Tuesday, November 2, 2010 Limestone County Schools will conduct a Parenting Day to encourage parent/teacher conferences. Students will not be in school; instead, the faculty will be at school from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. to meet with parents. You should have received forms from your child, if not please contact your child’s teacher to set up a time to visit. We look forward to meeting you and working together we can help ensure you child will reach his/her fullest potential.

First National Bank's Meet the Tigers for the 2010-11 Winter Sports will be Tuesday, November 9th at 6:00 in the new gym. Come and enjoy the food, fellowship, and support the Tigers. We invite everyone out to this wonderful event which is sponsored by First National Bank. This gives us an opportunity to recognize our athletes and show them our support for the upcoming season.

Our English classes and our History classes go to the computer lab to “Moodle”. Now if you aren’t familiar with Moodle, it is a website application our teachers use in order to give our students an “on-line experience” as required by the state of Alabama for graduation. Teachers post assignments on a website called “Moodle” and the students visit the website and submit the completed assignment. Our world is certainly moving toward more things being completed on-line and we want to give our students every opportunity to succeed in the global economy.

Hunter's Highlights

Ardmore students are compassionate and always willing to help people in need. Our Jr. Beta Club is helping raise money for the Soles4Souls program which provides shoes for underprivileged people around the world that are unable to buy shoes. If you would like to participate, please see one of the Jr. Beta Club members or keep an eye on the website for more details.

Governor Bob Riley has proclaimed October 18-22 as Alabama School Bus Safety Week. Alabama School Bus Safety Week which is an active, continuing public education program designed to promote school bus safety. We truly appreciate everything our bus drivers do to safely transport our students every day.

Every season is full of activity and fall is no exception! Fall sports are finishing up and winter sports are on the horizon. Football and volleyball are both on a hot streak and we thank everyone for your support. Our volleyball team plays Thursday, October 21, in the Sub-State game at 4:30 in Jacksonville. Our girls have had a great season and we are hoping to continue to the state tournament in Pelham. Football has won their last four games and is looking forward to playing Central of Florence on Friday, October 22, 2010.


Parents may come and pick up your passwords for the Parent Portal of I-Now. This will allow you to view your child's information concerning grades, discipline, and attendance. On Monday, October 18, 2010 passwords will be available for students in grades 10-12. On Tuesday, October 19, 2010 passwords will be available for students in grades 6-8. Passwords may be picked up in the front office during school hours. After these two days passwords will be available daily in the front office. Due to the confidential nature of the information parents must personally pick up the information. If you can't come during school hours please call and set up a time to come and pick up your password. Thanks for your continued patience in this matter.

The state of Alabama has begun a new program to help students struggling with grades. The national program known as Response to Intervention will be known as Response to Instruction (RTI) in the state of Alabama. Ardmore High School is a pilot school for Limestone County and is currently implementing the RTI program. RTI identifies students needing help and attempts to intervene in order to help the struggling student. Some of you may have received a letter in the mail stating your student would be receiving interventions. If you have more questions please give us a call.

Parent I-Now

Parents may come and pick up your passwords for the Parent Portal of I-Now. This will allow you to view your child's information concerning grades, discipline, and attendance. On Monday, October 18, 2010 passwords will be available for students in grades 10-12. On Tuesday, October 19, 2010 passwords will be available for students in grades 6-8. Passwords may be picked up in the front office during school hours. Due to the confidential nature of the information parents must personally pick up the information. If you can't come during school hours please call and set up a time to come and pick up your password. Thanks for your continued patience.

JV Game

Richland cancelled the JV football game scheduled for Monday, October 11, 2010.

Hunter's Highlights

Fall Break is quickly approaching and everyone seems to be ready for a little rest and relaxation. However, nine weeks tests must be completed before the vacation begins and Ardmore students and faculty have been working very hard to prepare for the exams.

Sixth grade students have been busy making cereal boxes. Sixth grade English teachers are asking students to use their creativity and to design their very own brand of cereals boxes based upon a book they read. Of course the students are having so much fun, they may not realize the amount of content they are learning. These kinds of creative, education activities are becoming more and more common as we look for ways to improve the quality and relevance of the education students are receiving.

English and history teachers are using Moodle to improve their instruction. Moodle is a internet site that allows teachers to post instructional activities on a secure site that will only allow their students access. The students complete the assignments and correspond electronically with their teacher. Teachers use Moodle for assessments as well as instruction which prepares students for the 21st Century.

Our volleyball team will host the Area Volleyball Tournament on October 12, 2010. Our girls have had a great season and we are looking forward to seeing how our girls do in the tournament and beyond. Our football team is on a winning streak and the hard work of the coaches and players is beginning to pay dividends in the “win” column. Our cross country team is also competing like champions. Cross country is a relatively new sport and all of us are learning about the sport. Coach Morrow is to be congratulated for doing such a good job with the runners. Basketball season is just around the corner and we are looking forward to another great year.

We want to congratulate Brittany Brown for being crowned the 2010-2011 Homecoming Queen. Brittany Brown is the daughter of Katrina Brown and the late Anthony Brown. She is the granddaughter of Wesley and Brenda Brown and Wayne and Linda McCurry. She is a member of the Spanish Club, FCA and Ardmore Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors. She plays on the AHS volleyball team and is a member of the 4A state championship softball team.

We hope everyone has a great fall break and takes the time to enjoy life. We must never forget the things in life that are truly important. Have a great time off and come back Wednesday, October 13, 2010 ready to finish strong!

JV Football Game is Canceled

Priceville called and canceled the JV football game scheduled for Monday, October 4.

Hunter's Highlights

Homecoming is always a fun time for students and alumni and this week has been no exception. Students have participated in various dress up days and the floats in the parade were wonderful. The homecoming court has been announced and Friday night at half-time the new Homecoming Queen will be introduced. Ardmore is bringing back an old tradition of having a homecoming dance for students in grades 9-12. Our football team has worked extremely hard and we are hoping to give the home crowd something to cheer about so please come out and support your Tigers.

It is difficult to believe that the school year is a quarter of the way complete. Students will take nine weeks exams the week of October 4. Parents please remind your students to study and prepare for the exams because they count 20% of the grade for the nine weeks. We wish all of our students luck on their exams and wish them luck for the remainder of the school year.

There is a song that says, “Soon and very soon” and this is my sentiment as it relates to the Parent Portal of I-Now being open. Preparations are currently underway to print and distribute passwords to parents. Please bear with us for just a little while longer and hopefully you will have the passwords. Hopefully it will be worth the wait because you will be able to see the grades, attendance, and discipline for your students. We truly appreciate the hard work of the staff of the central office and Ardmore High School in implementing a new computer program. Equally, we appreciate the patience of the parents because we know it has caused you great inconvenience.

The volleyball County Tournament is upon us and the Area Tournament is right around the corner. Our team has had a great year and they are all to be congratulated with Coach Martin. Our awesome seniors were recently honored at Senior Night and we have truly enjoyed watching these young ladies as they have represented Ardmore for several years on our sports teams. Our footballs teams are continuing to play hard and we are all encouraged by their performance and hard work. We are looking for a very strong finish to the football season so please come out and support the Tigers.

I want to encourage you to visit our informative website to keep current on all things related to Ardmore High School. We truly see our website as a way to reach out to our parents and community. We strive to have the best website available for all to enjoy. Thank you for taking time to read these Highlight’s and I hope you find them informative.

Parade

The Annual Ardmore High School Homecoming Parade will take place Thursday afternoon at 4:00 pm. Classes have been working hard on the floats and many groups from around the community have parade entries. Come out and enjoy the parade.

MS Cancellation

MS football has been cancelled for Monday night. MS is tentatively rescheduled for Tuesday night at 5:30. Stay tuned for more details.

Hunter's Highlights

Halls have been barricaded, students stressed, bells cut off, desks moved, teachers nervous, and administrators on edge this week at Ardmore High School. Nothing bad, just another administration of the Alabama High School Graduation Exam. The graduation exam is given several times during the school year and it does pose a scheduling dilemma, but at the end of the day our students always perform wonderfully thanks to their hard work and excellent preparation provided by their teachers.

Friday night, September 24, 2010 at the Clements football game a very special fundraiser will take place. Lauren Elizabeth Bates who was born prematurely and spent weeks in the Huntsville Hospital NICU, will be the guest of honor. Lauren is the daughter of Asst. Principal/Athletic Director Rusty Bates and Kristen Bates, who is a teacher at Cedar Hill Elementary School. Lauren is doing wonderfully thanks to the grace of God and the skill and dedication of the doctors and nurses at the NICU. “Playing for Premies” is a fundraiser designed to raise money and awareness in support of Huntsville Hospital NICU. Please come out to the game and support our football team, cheerleaders, band and lend your support to a wonderful cause.

The week of September 27 is Homecoming Week for Ardmore High School. Many school spirit building activities will take place during the week culminating with the football game versus Priceville. Students will dress up in a different fashion every day and the annual parade will take place on Thursday afternoon at 4:00. Please check our school website for all the details associated with homecoming.

The Ardmore High School Graduating Class of 1985 recently held their class reunion and toured our school. Although it hasn’t been that long ago, many changes to Ardmore High School have taken place since that time. Our own Ms. Rhinehart was a member of the class and during the tour many stories were shared about what happened in a particular spot back in 1985. Many may not know that the new gym wasn’t used until the next year and the members of the Class of 1985 never got the opportunity to use the gym. We always look forward to hearing about the days of old (or not so old) here at Ardmore.

Hunter's Highlights

Ardmore students are taking the AHSGE during the week of September 20. We have several different groups of students taking the exam depending on their grade level and whether or not they have previously passed the test. We encourage everyone taking the test to get a good night’s sleep and give their best effort.

The fall sports season is moving right along. Many of you may not know that Ardmore now has a Cross Country Team. This is the second year for the team and they are coached by Coach Brenda Morrow. We have been to several meets and continue to improve as we gain more experience. The runners have worked extremely hard and we are very proud of their effort.

Volleyball and football continue their seasons and it is hard to believe but the seasons are very close to being half-way over. Homecoming is October 1st this year and we are looking forward to all the fun activities associated with this exciting week. We encourage everyone to come out and support all of our sports teams as they represent Ardmore High School.

Our band recently participated in the Band Exhibition hosted by East Limestone High School. As usual our band did a wonderful job and we are very proud of the band and Mr. Nelson for their hard work and dedication. The band will be traveling to Gordo for a competition in the near future so visit the website for more details.

We encourage everyone to stay in touch with Ardmore High School by using all the tools at your disposal. We have the website, “Notify Me” e-mail system, Ardmore High School Blog, and Twitter to help parents stay in touch with the school. We also have an automated calling system that we used in order to notify parents of current events. We are having issues with our computer system so if the call isn’t going to the correct person please be patient.

New Look

I hope everyone enjoys our "New Look". If you have any suggestions or ideas that would improve the blog please don't hesitate to let me know.

Sunglasses

In order to try and encourage people to view the blog and to see if anyone is actually looking at the log, I am offering a free pair of Ardmore sunglasses for the first three people that send me an e-mail mentioning this article. I realize this is a little silly, but it is Friday and I would like to know if anyone acutally reads this.

Hunter's Highlights

The school year continues to move along very quickly. Our students have many activities to choose from during this time of year. Our juniors and seniors recently visited a Career Fair at Athens State University in order to help them make wise decisions concerning their future. Our students, once again, represented the school admirably. Bus drivers and chaperones all reported our students behaved and showed everyone what great students we have at Ardmore.

Our sports teams continue to represent our community and school in a wonderful manner. Our volleyball team is on a winning streak and is having a great season so far. The varsity volleyball team recently placed second in the Elkmont Tournament. Our JV and MS teams are also having a great season so the present and future looks good for our volleyball team. Our football teams are also doing great. Our varsity team has played two very talented teams, but has played hard and we know their hard work will pay off and we are looking forward to a great season. Our JV and MS teams have played hard and our MS team is currently undefeated. We hope everyone will continue to support all of our teams as they work hard to represent the school and community.

Our band has also thrilled the crowds with their half-time performances. Our band will perform at the East Limestone Band Exhibition next week on September 16. We hope everyone will come out and watch our wonderful band as they show how much their hard work has paid off. Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Rhinehart have once again done a great job preparing the students for this season. Our cheerleaders are also doing their usual wonderful job exciting the crowd and supporting our teams.
Progress reports recently were issued to students. We continue to have computer glitches with the new data program the state has mandated called I-Now. Our central office staff and our local school staff have worked tremendously hard to iron out all the issues with the new computer system. We are hoping that very soon we will be able to issue parent passwords which will allow parents to keep up with the progress of their students. We ask for your continuous patience as we work through the computer issues.

Our school clubs will have their first meetings Wednesday, September 15, 2010. Our students have several clubs from which to choose because we know that the more “connected” our students are to the school the better our students will enjoy school. We continue to encourage our students to attend school every day because we know that student achievement is strongly linked to student attendance. When you child is sick or has a doctor’s excuse please remember to send a note and encourage your child to bring the note to the appropriate office in order to have the excuse entered into the computer. Board policy dictates that students have three days to bring in the appropriate excuse.

The support from the Ardmore community continues to be the best anywhere. We truly appreciate how this community comes together to support our school. We truly feel that the whole Ardmore community is one big family!

Progress Reports

Due to computer issues, progress reports will go out Thursday, September 9 instead of Wednesday, September 8. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Youth Football Night

The youth football players and cheerleaders will be recognized before Friday night's game vs. Brooks. Players should wear their jerseys and cheerleaders their uniforms in order to be recognized by the gatekeepers. Players and cheerleaders should be accompanied by an adult. We are looking forward to seeing all the future Tigers at the game.

Hunter's Highlights

Students and staff of Ardmore High School are working hard to make this another banner year. The first progress reports of the year will be issued September 8, 2010 for Ardmore students. Parent passwords are on hold until some glitches with the new computer system are worked out. The staff at our central office in addition to the Ardmore staff have been working extremely hard to get everything up and running. Thank you for your continued patience!

The homecoming court for this year has been announced and we want to congratulate all of our homecoming attendants. Every homecoming is very special at Ardmore and this year looks to be no exception. For the first time in several years, Ardmore High School will be having a homecoming dance for students in grades 9-12. Homecoming week is several weeks away, but time flies and it will be here before we can turn around. Please check out the website for more homecoming details in the next few weeks.

I want to encourage everyone to frequently visit our website. Our staff does a wonderful job keeping the most current information available for the Ardmore family. I also want to encourage anyone not currently signed up for the "Notify Me" link to please sign up so you can receive e-mail notifications of major events. We also have a Twitter account and a school blog which can both be accessed by using the home page on our website.

Fall sports season continues to move along. Volleyball has recently had some big wins will be playing in a tournament at Elkmont on September 4. We hope everyone can come out and support our volleyball team. Football plays Brooks at home on September 10, 2010 at 7:00 pm and we hope everyone can come out and support our football team, band, and cheerleaders.

We hope everyone had a very happy Labor Day and enjoyed your well deserved rest!

Student Information Sheets

Please make sure and return the student information sheets as soon as possible. We must have accurate data in order to be able to issue student passwords. Progress reports are issued next week and we want to issue passwords so parents can keep an eye on student progress.

Band Exhibition

The Annual Limestone County Band Exhibition is Thursday night September 16 at East Limestone High School beginning at 6:30. Everyone is invited to come out and watch our Award Winning Band!

Hunter's Highlights

Ardmore High School has had a rough week with the passing of two of its students. John McCown and Jordan Young were tragically killed in an automobile accident. Students and staff have mourned the loss of these students and with help from the community; we will get through this rough time. The Ardmore family once again showed its compassion and love during this difficult time. Countless people have offered their help and local ministers volunteered their time to help our students. The Ardmore community always reaches out when one of its own is in trouble and speaking on behalf of the school, we are extremely grateful. Continue to keep us and the families in your prayers.

Fall sports season is in full swing. Our volleyball, cross country, and football teams are working hard and looking forward to a great season. Please come out and support all of our sports teams as they continue to strive for excellence.

Our band is also working hard and we are looking forward to another great marching season. Our band will be performing at East Limestone as well as performing at half time of the football games. We are looking forward to their “Hits of Chicago” show.

We are selling spirit gear through the first period classes as well as sunglasses to help provide more technology for our school. I know it seems like we are always selling something and this is because we are always selling something. Unfortunately, school budgets are strained due to the economy and fundraising is a necessary evil. The Ardmore community always supports the school and we are certainly appreciative of the support.

Tragedy

Ardmore High School and the Ardmore community mourn the loss of two of its students. John McCown and Jordan Young, were tragically killed in a traffic accident Tuesday night. The school will have counselors from other county schools coming to help our students along with local Youth Ministers and Pastors.

This will be a tough time for our school, but we have the most caring faculty and community anywhere and we will get through this difficult time. Keep all of our students and especially the families of Jordan and John in your prayers.

Funeral arrangements for John McCown:
Visitation at Ardmore Funeral Home Wednesday night from 5 - 8.
Funeral will be Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at Gatlin Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements for Jordan Young:
Visitation at Ardmore Funeral Home Thursday from 11 - 12:30.
Funeral will be Thursday at 1:00 p.m. at Gatlin Cemetery.

Hunter's Highlights

Things are moving fast at Ardmore High School. The school year is off to a good start and we are full speed ahead. This week marked the first week our athletic teams are allowed to play other schools. Our volleyball teams got off to a good start by defeating Tanner and East Limestone while our football team defeated Butler. We are looking forward to another great year in sports and are very proud of our players and coaches.

The Alabama State Department of Education is in the middle of a three year process to change the computer data base programs used by schools from the STI system to a new system called I-Now. As a result new parent access numbers will need to be issued in order to keep track of you child's progress on the computer. We are working through several glitches and as soon as we have them ironed out we will be issuing the new numbers. Our central office staff and our local school staff have been working diligently to get the computer system up and going. We appreciate your patience!

We have several new faces her at Ardmore this year and some of our teachers that have been here are in different rooms and teaching new subjects. I won't list all of them, but I encourage you to check out our website and become familiar with our staff. Our website contains tons of useful information about our school and we encourage you to check it frequently for the latest updates. Also, please check us out on Twitter and our school blog.

Picture Day was this week and you should be receiving proofs very soon so be on the look out for them. We encourage everyone wanting these pictures to please purchase the package that fits the needs of your family. We know school pictures are a major way of documenting your child's progress through school and we try to provide quality pictures at a reasonable price. Please let us know if you have any questions about pictures.

Kohl's

Kohls is having a contest to win half a million dollars.Here is the link
so that Ardmore can get votes.
http://apps.facebook.com/KohlsCares/school/19601/ardmore-high-sch

Hunter's Highlights

This has been a great opening week at Ardmore High School. Every year starts with some glitches in the schedule and this year a new computer system increased the number of glitches and the time it takes to clear them out. Everyone has been patient and everyone should have the correct schedule very soon. Our new counselor, Ms. Brown, is working very hard along with Ms. Minor, and Ms. Albro to get these situations taken care of as soon as possible.

The second week of school looks to be a very busy week. Picture Day is Tuesday, August 17 so we want everyone to come dressed in what they would like their picture taken in. These pictures will also go in the yearbook so please come prepared for picture day. Tuesday night will also be “Meet the Tigers” at First National Bank of Ardmore beginning at 6:00 pm. Everyone is invited and we look forward to seeing everyone.

Fall sports will be in full swing very soon. Our volleyball plays their first game Thursday versus Tanner. Please come out and support our volleyball team as they look forward to a great season. Football begins Thursday night against Butler in a pre-season game with the first regular season game against Elkmont on August 27, 2010.

We encourage everyone to please keep an eye on our website for the latest updates concerning Ardmore High School. We are very excited about the 2010-2011 school year!

Reserved Seats

It is football season again and reserved seats are on sale now in the front office. Tickets are $35 and previous seat owners have until August 23, to renew their seats. Beginning the morning of August 24, the seats will go on sale to the general public. We look forward to seeing everyone at all of our sporting events this year.

Welcome Back

We are excited about another school year beginning. The great thing about a new year is that the slate is clean. No grades have been assigned and everyone has a fresh chance to achieve their potential. We hope you are as excited as we are that another year is about to begin.

Our staff has worked extremely hard this summer to prepare for the start of school. Unfortunately we have some scheduling issues due to our new computer system mandated by the state. All the components of the system are not in place and due to the system being new there are some operating issues. For example, due to some updates the state hasn't made, we are unable to enter new students that have enrolled recently therefore their schedules must be done by hand and entered into the computer when the state has the update compelete. We know this is aggravating and we assure you we wish everything was up and running, but this is just a small challenge we will overcome.

Every school year, there are scheduling issues that must be handled the first week of school. As mentioned earlier this year's issues have been compounded by the new computer system. We are asking all students to please follow the schedule they are given until we have time to complete their new schedule. If a student doesn't know their first period class, it is posted in several locations, inside and outside the school. Once a student is in first period, a schedule will be given to them.

This is an extremely exciting time of year and we are looking forward to taking care of the thing you value most, your children!

Parent Meeting

I want to thank everyone who turned out tonight for the parent meeting. Once again Ardmore has proven that we have a wonderful community! We have a few glitches with HS schedules due to the new computer system but we will get those taken care of on Monday. Ardmore is a great school and we are looking forward to another banner year! Go Tigers!

Parent Meeting

We will have our annual parent meeting August 5, 2010 at 6:00 pm in the new gym. This year's meeting will focus on attendance, but other topics will also be discussed. This is a very important meeting and we encourage everyone to attend. Students will be able to pick up schedules immediately following the meeting.

An extra 6th grade orientation will be conducted after the initial parent meeting. All parents will meet at 6:00, but sixth grade parents will stay a little longer for more information. For some of you this is your first child to attend Ardmore High School and we know you have questions and concerns. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Hunter's Highlights

It hardly seems possible, but another school year has ended at Ardmore High School. Parents, students, and teachers all have different views on the end of school year, but hopefully we all can agree that this has been a good year. Graduation went wonderfully on the football field and although it was still crowded, it was nothing like last year in the gym. Ms. Rachel Bridges was our speaker and she did a wonderful job! Several staff members worked hard to make graduation possible. I hate to start listing them because I might leave someone out, but the Ardmore staff is always ready to pitch in and help whenever it is needed.

Report cards will be mailed out very soon and parents that did not send an envelope may pick up report cards during the summer from 7:00 am to 11:00 am and then from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm Monday through Thursday’s in the summer. If you plan on coming another time, please call ahead to make sure someone will be in the office.


We hope everyone has a great summer vacation and we look forward to seeing everyone again in the fall. Please check the website to know when fall meetings will be held. We will have the before school parent meeting this year as we have in the past and we will do a call to let everyone know the details. Have a safe, relaxing, wonderful summer!

Hunter's Highlights

Honors, awards, banquets, concerts, and celebrations have marked this week at Ardmore High School. Nearly every day we had the good fortune to honor young people for their accomplishments. We have a ton of great kids at Ardmore and we enjoy honoring them anytime we get the chance.

Spring sports were honored at the annual Spring Sports Banquet. Our spring sports teams had a great season and we were able to honor all the spring athletes and coaches. Our golf teams, soccer teams, baseball and softball teams were honored for their accomplishments. We are very grateful to our coaches for all of their hard work with the athletes of Ardmore High School.

Tuesday and Thursday nights were in honor of the Award Winning Ardmore Tiger Band. We have one of the best band programs anywhere and are always glad to honor these students. Mr. Nelson, and Ms. Rhinehart are to be congratulated on helping our students have such a wonderful experience as the entertain us all. Our band has won too many awards to mention and they continue to strive for excellence and not rest on their past accomplishments.

Friday we honored our seniors and their academic achievements at our annual Award's Day. Our seniors earned over 1 million dollars in scholarships this year and have done a wonderful job of leading Ardmore High School. We have great students and it is a joy to honor our students for their academic achievements. We also honored our underclassmen for their academic achievements. We are truly blessed to have a wonderful school with awesome academic opportunities for our students.

On Friday, we also honored our 4A State Champion Softball team at a Trophy Presentation Ceremony. Our softball team has been recognized as a perennial power for several years, but nothing compares to the title "STATE CHAMPIONS". This is a huge accomplishment and Ms. Wanda Gilliand from the Alabama High School Athletic Association was on hand to officially present the blue trophy to our team and school.

Hunter's Highlights

Honors, awards, banquets, concerts, and celebrations have marked this week at Ardmore High School. Nearly every day we had the good fortune to honor young people for their accomplishments. We have a ton of great kids at Ardmore and we enjoy honoring them anytime we get the chance.

Spring sports were honored at the annual Spring Sports Banquet. Our spring sports teams had a great season and we were able to honor all the spring athletes and coaches. Our golf teams, soccer teams, baseball and softball teams were honored for their accomplishments. We are very grateful to our coaches for all of their hard work with the athletes of Ardmore High School.

Tuesday and Thursday nights were in honor of the Award Winning Ardmore Tiger Band. We have one of the best band programs anywhere and are always glad to honor these students. Mr. Nelson, and Ms. Rhinehart are to be congratulated on helping our students have such a wonderful experience as the entertain us all. Our band has won too many awards to mention and they continue to strive for excellence and not rest on their past accomplishments.

Friday we honored our seniors and their academic achievements at our annual Award's Day. Our seniors earned over 1 million dollars in scholarships this year and have done a wonderful job of leading Ardmore High School. We have great students and it is a joy to honor our students for their academic achievements. We also honored our underclassmen for their academic achievements. We are truly blessed to have a wonderful school with awesome academic opportunities for our students.

On Friday, we also honored our 4A State Champion Softball team at a Trophy Presentation Ceremony. Our softball team has been recognized as a perennial power for several years, but nothing compares to the title "STATE CHAMPIONS". This is a huge accomplishment and Ms. Wanda Gilliand from the Alabama High School Athletic Association was on hand to officially present the blue trophy to our team and school.

STATE CHAMPIONS

Our Lady Tiger Softball team won the 4A State Championship. Our team was undefeated in the state tournament and showed a tremendous amount of heart and determination. Coach Thomas, Coach Graviet, and Coach Jones are to be congratulated for leading an awesome team to the school's first fast pitch state championship. Our girls faced all challenges with the same grit they displayed throughout the season. Even when things got a little scary, our girls did what it took to bring home the blue trophy. Congratulations to our team on this huge accomplishment!

We are preparing for Award's Day to honor our seniors and our other academic achievements through the year. Ardmore High School is blessed to have a great student body and faculty that are committed to excellence in everything they undertake. This will be a busy week, and we have a lot of very important events coming up in the next two weeks.

We know that everyone will finish strong!!!!

Cool Shades

Get your "COOL" Ardmore Tiger Sunglasses today while supplies last. These glasses are custom made and will surely go fast. Shades may be purchased for $15 in the front office and students may purchase them on their way to lunch. Proceeds from the sale of the shades go to provide additional technology for our teachers and students.

Black and Gold Game

The Ardmore High School Football team will have its annual Black and Gold game Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 2:00 pm. Admission will be $2.00. The concession stand will be open and we are looking for a great day as the football team gives us a preview for the 2010-2011 Season.

Hunter's Highlights

This has been another great week here at Ardmore High School. We are just a few weeks away from ending another school year. Our students and teachers have worked extremely hard this year and will soon see the fruits of their labor. We have several very important events taking place this month and we look forward to seeing everyone!

Our softball team is still competing in the Regional Tournament in Huntsville and won their first game. Our softball team is always a perennial power in class 4A and we wish our girls good luck in the tournament. Coach Thomas, Coach Graviet, and Coach Jones are to be congratulated for their hard work with these girls.

Ashlee Beck is having another great year in golf and has qualified for the state tournament as an individual. Ashlee has shot some incredible rounds all year and has been able to shoot them when it counted most to qualify for state. Congratulations to Ashlee and Coach South for this great accomplishment.

Our FFA and FCCLA held their annual field day event and fed everyone a lot of rib eye sandwiches. Mr. McKay and Ms. Miller put a lot of work into this event and it is a great experience for our students. This is the last field day for Mr. McKay because he is retiring this year. Mr. McKay has taught the students of Ardmore High for many years and will be missed.

When you come by the school you will see a larger American flag flying in front of our school thanks to Mr. James Shannon and the Woodman of the World. The flag was presented to the school this week and we are very appreciative for the Woodman of the World organization for providing this patriotic symbol for our school.

Softball Regional Tournament

We are very proud of our softball team for making the Regional Tournament and we want to make it convenient for students to support our team. However, we must also know who is at the games and who is at school. We also want parents to know if their child is absent. Therefore we are asking that students adhere to the following rules in order to attend the tournament.

If a student would like to attend the Softball Regional Tournament in Huntsville on Friday May 7, 2010 they must do two things in order for it not to count as an absence. First, the student must bring a note from a parent to the front office by Thursday giving them permission to miss school on Friday. Second, the student must bring a ticket stub to the front office on Monday when they return. Failure to gain prior approval and bring back a ticket stub will result in an unexcused absence.

DeltaPalooza

The DeltaPalooza ended a little pre-maturely due to impending bad weather, but the event was a success. A special thanks to all the student volunteers and Mr. Kirk for all of their hard work to make this event what it is.

Hunter's Highlights

Things are really “hopping” around Ardmore High School these days. I want to first thank everyone for making our first ever AMSTI Night a huge success. About 10 minutes before the event began there weren’t many people here and I began to sweat a little, but in typical Ardmore fashion the community came out and supported the school. We are blessed to have such wonderful parent and community support for our school. Our teachers have worked very hard this year and I think a lot of people got to see some of the awesome things happening here at the school. I heard several comments like, “Wow, I wish they had these things when I was in school”, so I believe some of you were as impressed as I have been. I was the most proud of our students that were doing the presentations. They obviously knew their stuff, and did a wonderful job presenting the activities. Coach Sawyer may have had the most interest in his “Make Your Own GAK” lab, but many other classes had some wonderful labs as well.

Along those same lines our Science Club is hosting the second annual DeltaPalooza which is a science fair, battle of the bands, craft show extravaganza. We may have the only event of this kind in the country. If you attended last year you know it was a great event and we are always grateful to be able to promote academics while providing our students with a chance to have a little fun in the process. We look forward to seeing everyone Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

With several of our spring sports coming to an end we have many different team and individual honors that I am afraid to mention them because I don’t want to leave anyone out. Please check out our website to see some of the honors our students have honored. Softball and golf are still playing and we wish all of our students success in what ever endeavor they undertake.

The AHS cheerleaders will host the first ever Top Tiger Competition. The competition takes place at 7pm on Thursday, May 6, in the AHS gym and admission will be $5. This is a new fundraiser where 17 high school men compete for total dominance in verbal communication, style, and group performance. It should be quite an event.

Award’s Day will be May 21, 2010 at 8:00 am in the new gym. We will be honoring our seniors and underclassmen for their academic achievements. This is always a big day for our seniors and their parents. We will be expanding our awards this year to recognize more of our top averages. We are constantly looking for ways to recognize and honor our students.

AMSTI Night

Come out and see what all the fuss is about. We are holding our first ever AMSTI Night April 27. Our students and teachers have worked extremely hard and we want to show off what they have been doing! We will meet in the cafeteria at 6:00 and go to the Middle School building to see all the action after a very short presentation about AMSTI. We look forward to seeing everyone here!

Hunter's Highlights

Wow, what a busy week at Ardmore High School. I really don’t know where to begin because we have so many things happening I am afraid I will leave something out, but here we go. This week has been the Limestone County Schools Scholar’s Bowl Competition. Our High School team placed first in the county and John Howard was the overall winner for the county. We are very proud of our Scholar’s Bowl team, Ms. Daly, and Mr. Lewis for the way they represent us at the Scholar’s Bowl competitions. Our Junior High Scholar’s Bowl team and our 6th Grade Team also competed this week and did a great job. Ms. Cornelison and Mr. Defiore do a great job with our younger scholar’s bowl teams.

We also want to congratulate a group of our History students that participated in a Liberal Arts Tournament sponsored by UAH. Our government team placed second and our US History team placed third. Mr. Lewis and our students have worked very hard and their hard work showed by the level at which they were able to compete.

We want to invite everyone to come and join us on AMSTI Night which will be April 27, 2010. We will meet in the lunchroom and they move into the MS building where the actual event will take place. AMSTI Night is an event meant to showcase the activities our students have been doing in math and science this year. Some of our students will be here to be the “teachers” for the night and will be displaying some of the labs and activities they have done this year. This is our first AMSTI Night and we are excited and hoping for a huge turn-out for the event.

The band recently held their annual beauty walk and as usual it was a great event. The winner of the high school competition was Madison Rudolph with Sydney Randall being the first alternate. Dagan Morrow was the second alternate, Tiffany Cornelison the third alternate, and Elizabeth Hodges was selected as Most Photogenic. In the MS division, Miss Savanna Whitt was the overall winner with Katelyn Moore being the first alternate. Kelsey Davis was the second alternate, Lyndsi Peoples the third alternate and Miranda Rogers was the fourth alternate. All of these girls are to be congratulated.

Our baseball team will be playing Deshler in the first round of the state tournament Friday, April 16, 2010. We play a best two out of three series with the finals being played on Saturday if needed. We are hoping our boys “sweep” Deshler so we don’t play on Saturday, but we will keep you posted. You can check the website and on Twitter to find out the latest updates. Softball begins the county tournament this week and we know our girls will be in the hunt for another county championship. All of our spring sports are doing great and we are looking to a strong finish to a great year.

Alert Now Calls

We have had a few reports that the Alert Now Message sent by the school and/or the Central Office cuts off, stops or starts over on cell phones. Basically, when the system hears any noise, it thinks it has gotten an answering machine therefore it will stop and start the message over. If this occurs, hit the number 1 and it will play the message in its entirety.

Hunter's Highlights

The weather indicates that spring is upon us and the activities taking place at Ardmore High School also point to the fact that spring is here. Spring is a time of new beginnings and we have a senior class that is about to begin the journey of life. The next few weeks may be the most important weeks in the academic lives of our senior class. In school, as in life, it is important to finish strong. Attendance, attitude, and academics will hopefully be the focus of not just our seniors, but all of our students over the next few weeks.

Our baseball team recently secured a play-off appearance as a result of our area victories this year. This has been a successful year to this point and we are looking forward to a lengthy play-off run. Our softball team continues its winning ways and we are looking forward to the Area Tournament. Our soccer teams play in an incredibly tough area and may not be making play-off runs, but have still had a good year. We have won several games and have been competitive with some of the best soccer teams in this area. This has also been a great year for our boys and girls golf team. Individually and as a team our golfers have consistently posted low scores and have won several matches. The nature of spring sports puts a strain on the student athletes to keep up their school work, but we have students willing to work hard and teachers willing to help students so we have no doubt they will continue their winning ways in the classroom and on the playing fields.

We have numerous scholarship and leadership opportunities for our juniors and seniors that are applied for and announced during this time of year. I encourage all students and parents to monitor our website to keep up to date on these opportunities. Our high school counselor, Mrs. Kirk, has a blog that has all the information our high school students need in regards to scholarship and leadership opportunities. I encourage parents and students to utilize our school website as a communication tool.

We have recently finished with all of our standardized testing for the year. This is a very hectic and trying time for all schools. We all have a lot riding on these standardized tests and everyone is hoping for another great showing for the students at Ardmore High School. We are facing the home stretch of the school year and we hope to have a strong finish. As someone has said, “Dedication and commitment are what transfer dreams into realities.”

Baseball

Baseball has earned a spot in the play-offs. Congratulations to Coach Walker and the baseball players for their hard work and dedication.

In-School Baseball

We will play East Lawrence Wednesday, April 6th at 2:00 in front of our student body. Admission is $2.

Baseball at East Lawrence

The baseball games scheduled for Monday, April 5, 2010 at East Lawrence have been canelled.

Hunter's Highlights

Flowers are blooming, grass is growing, and temperatures are rising, all of which means spring has sprung at Ardmore High School. SAT’s were administered this week and we have one more week of testing and we will be completed with standardized testing for the year.

As the beautiful weather continues it is very tempting to miss school (or work) to enjoy the beautiful weather. Unfortunately this is also an incredibly important time of the year academically. School attendance is an issue across the nation and will be a point of emphasis for our school next year. School attendance is an excellent indicator of school performance and as the number of absences rise, grades typically fall. We encourage everyone to attend school whenever possible and finish the year strong.

Spring sports are in full swing and our teams are doing wonderfully! Baseball, golf, soccer and softball are all underway so if you would like to watch a ball game there is something for you to watch on a daily basis. Large crowds are really an encouragement to our players to we would like to invite everyone to enjoy a beautiful day outside and come watch some high school athletic events.

Congratulations to Michael Fogg and Jackson Cornelison for being the first selected to represent AHS at the 2010 Alabama Boys State! In addition to these, we also express congratulations to J. Tribble, Landon Boggs and Austin Fogg! A very special thanks to Mr. Yancy Mitchell, an AHS alumni who continues to give back to this school and community, for his efforts in securing additional sponsorship for three additional delegates. Mr. Yancy was a former Boys State Governor and is currently one of the Academic Counselors. He has been on the ALBS staff for 17 years.

We want to invite all of our parents to AMSTI night on April 27, 2010 at 6:00 pm. AMSTI is a math and science initiative Ardmore began participating in this year. Students use hands-on activities in the classrooms to enhance the math and science instruction. We want to show parents the wonderful things happening in our math and science department and we encourage everyone to attend. Students will have booths set up to display the types of activities they have been doing this year. Please check the website for more details in the next couple of weeks.

Ardmore High School continues to grow and if you were at last year’s graduation ceremonies you realize, as I did on that night, that we have outgrown our gym. Therefore, we will be conducting our commencement ceremonies on the football field (weather permitting). Of course if the weather is bad we will be forced to crowd into the gym again, so let’s all pray for good weather. We look forward to seeing all of you there and we are looking for a wonderful ending to a great year.

Hunter's Highlights

It is hard to believe there are only 8 more weeks until the 2009-2010 school year is finished. The final nine weeks of the school year are some of the most important weeks of the year. It has been said, “It is more important how you finish than how you start.” We are encouraging all of our students to finish strong and focus during these very busy final weeks.

One thing that makes the last few weeks of school seem to fly by is the fact that so many activities are taking place during these weeks. There are a variety of activities taking place that provide a multitude of learning activities in which students may engage. We are finishing up standardized testing for the year in the next couple of weeks and we have all confidence in the ability of our students to perform in a way that will make us all proud.

We have a wide variety of sports activities taking place during this time of year. Our spring sports are baseball, golf, soccer, and softball which play multiple games per week so nearly every day there are sporting activities to watch. These activities provide our students with worthwhile activities which enhance their high school learning experience and help them feel better connected with the school. We are constantly looking of ways to help students feel connected with the school and sports are a vital part of the overall school experience.

A group of our physics students recently participated in Space Camp activities in Huntsville. Mr. Kirk and Ms. Chafin accompanied our students to Space Camp and reports are that everyone enjoyed this experience and gained valuable learning opportunities while having a great time. We have a few more field trips coming up which provide a change of pace for our students and give them something to look forward to during the last few weeks of school.

We have a group of our 6th graders with a great opportunity to travel to Huntsville to hear from a group of astronauts. Only a certain number of slots were available so our 6th graders wrote essays to determine the students getting to go. We are looking forward to hearing back from them when they return. We have a lot going on and remember to check the website, blog, and twitter to keep up to date with all the events.

Cancellations

All sports activities have been cancelled for Thursday March 25, 2010.

Hunter's Highlights

What a week this has been at Ardmore High School! The week began with the final administration of the Alabama High School Graduation Exam due to the snow the previous week. Our faculty, staff, and students did a wonderful job of adapting when asked to do so by the weather. Standardized testing places everyone in an unfamiliar setting and requires everyone’s cooperation. I have no doubt our students did wonderfully as they have always done in the past.

Our Award Winning Ardmore High School Band continued its winning ways as they competed in a competition in Tuscaloosa this week. Our band received all superior ratings from each judge and according to people in attendance gave a stirring performance. We are very proud of our band program and everyone that plays a part in its success. Mr. Nelson, the students, and the parents are all to be congratulated on the quality of our band program.

We have a group of physics students, along with Mr. Kirk and Ms. Chafin, attending a space camp event in a couple of weeks. Weeks of preparation and fundraising have taken place in order to make this event possible. Senator Tom Butler and Rep. Henry White helped us secure funding that went a long way in making this trip possible. Mr. Kirk and Ms. Chafin have worked extremely hard to make this excellent educational opportunity available to our students.

Our students took nine weeks tests this week which means other 9-weeks grading period has come to an end. It doesn’t seem possible, but we only have nine more weeks of school remaining in this school year. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun.

Spring Break is upon us and I hope everyone in the Ardmore family has a wonderful break and they have some time to relax and enjoy all the truly good things life has to offer. We are all very fortunate to live and work in such a wonderful, caring community.

Friday Cancellations

MS softball rained out tonight, no decision about Saturday.
JV Tournament is still on for now.
Baseball is cancelled today.