Last week, the Plymouth Speech and Debate Team held its Novice Awards program.  Over 50 Plymouth High School students competed during the novice season prior to Christmas.  All who attended were recognized during the program and were sworn in as members of the National Forensic League.  All were asked to uphold the core values of the NFL - values which include "integrity, humility, respect, leadership, and service in the pursuit of excellence."  Many of these same students are competing as members of the Spring Travel Squad.

Pictured above are the novices who were able to attend the program.  Row 1:  Gio Garcia, Lucas Vervynckt, Clayton Lenig, Jake Lenburg, Brandon Mohammed, Curtis Smith, George Stults, Austin Dixon  Row 2:  Gabby Garver, Emily McKenzie, Lauren Deisch, Kiara Meadors, Grace Cupka, Kaylie Barden, Yailin Rodriguez, Amber Gonzalez, Gloria Garcia, Elizabeth Polstra, Miriah Bowen  Row 3:  Olivia Wendel, Maddy Deisch, Isabelle Miller, Breanna Morrow, Meghan Egierski, Jillian Smith, Melanie Cooper, Sara Smith, Danielle Erickson, Haley Mills

Pictured are the 15 Past Becomes the Future trophy winners.  This is an award for the top novice freshman throughout the season.  Row 1:  Curtis Smith, Kaylie Barden, Yailin Rodriguez, Elizabeth Polstra, Haley Mills, Melanie Cooper, Gio Garcia  Row 2:  Gabby Garver, Grace Cupka, Emily McKenzie, Maddy Deisch, Lauren Deisch, Jillian Smith, Meghan Egierski, Sara Smith

Pictured are the TEAM award trophy winners for students who were sophomore, junior or senior novices, or freshman who were solid members.  Row 1:  Clayton Lenig, Austin Dixon, George Stults  Row 2:  Olivia Wendel, Isabelle Miller, Gloria Garcia, Danielle Erickson, Breanna Morrow

Pictured are Emily McKenzie and Meghan Egierski who are the novice leaders in NFL points and Sweepstakes points.

This past Saturday, the PHS band students competed in the ISSMA District level Solo and Ensemble competition.   PHS had an amazing showing at the contest. 
From the high school bands there were 50 Gold Medals and 4 Silver Medals awarded to our students!  Of the 50 gold medals - 33 of them were state qualifications!   PHS had numerous students that qualified for state finals in more than one event.   This is the best showing our students have had at this event in several years. 

Congratulations to the band members for an outstanding weekend!

Photo:  The PHS Wind Ensemble Percussion Section advanced to state finals with their performance of "The William Tell Overture."

We received a letter from the Marshall County Neighborhood Center thanking Plymouth Schools for their amazing generosity over the holiday season.

Students and staff competed in food drive competitions at their buildings and our bus drivers rallied behind the “Stuff a Bus” food drive, which provided over three weeks of groceries to the families in need.

Marshall County Neighborhood Center expressed their appreciation for the contributions, kind support, and the commitment to their community services.

Great job PCSC staff and students!!

The Lincoln Jr. High 8th grade boys basketball team won the NELMSC conference championship this past Saturday.

1st Row:  Michael Johnson, Dyllon Pavey, Dalton Briles, Doug Overmeyer, Alex Hoover, Nick Felke, David Bacon, Ryan Carmichael, Hudson Hoover, Grant Clady

2nd Row:  Coach Winrotte, Josh Carmichael, Travis Owen, Jake Young, Caleb Koss
Not pictured:  John Gerard

The Lincoln Jr. High Broadcasting group (PTv2) continues to grow in their outreach of school news to our community.  In addition to their daily news program and daily news broadcast on Plymouth's radio WTCA, they now have introduced a blog and webpage to keep the public updated on Lincoln's happenings. 

Check out the new webpage at ptv2.weebly.com, or access it through the PTv2 link on Lincoln's homepage. 

This past weekend in Fort Wayne, three PHS students performed in the All State Choir Concert.  Auditions were held last spring.  Senior, Blake Miller, along with juniors, Amanda Wolford and Joseph Brennan were selected to participate along with approximately 300 other Indiana high school students in a large concert.  They had been rehearsing monthly in Logansport and then rehearsed all day last Friday and Saturday for the concert. 

Pictured with the students is Mrs. Mary Pat Glaub, PHS Choir Director.  it was an amazing concert.  Congrats to our PHS students!

Two hundred schools and districts across the country were recognized for incorporating feedback from their students and teachers as they develop strategic plans, make budgeting decisions, enhance their curriculum and determine professional development needs.  Project Tomorrow ®, a national education nonprofit, announced this year's Speak Up 200, a collection of the top K-12 schools in the country that encourage and involve authentic student, parent and educator ideas and view in education planning and decision making.
CONGRATULATIONS TO PLYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL AND LINCOLN JR HIGH for being selected for this national distinction from the 30,000 schools nationwide!

Plymouth Lady Pilgrims Basketball Winter League - where Jets, Magic, Warriors, Wildcats, and Crusaders learn to become Pilgrims.  This is for any girls in grades K-4 who reside in the Plymouth Community School Corporation.  Please see flier below for registration.

The School Board of Trustees will meet on Tuesday, January 8, 2013.  There is an Executive Session at 6:30 p.m., the regular meeting starts at 7:00 p.m., and immediately following the regular meeting, there will be a Board of Finance Meeting (approx. 7:45 p.m.).

Executive Session
During the year it is often necessary to meet in executive session because of the nature of the business.  Statute limits the reasons that Boards can meet like this. Personally, I try to keep the number of these sessions at a minimum.  This month we will meet on pending litigation, which is one of the legal reasons the board can meet like this.

Board Meeting
At this month’s meeting, we will welcome Gary Cook to the Board.  Gary comes to the Board with experience in the Indiana House of Representatives and as the former Mayor of Plymouth.  This wealth of experience will help make Gary an excellent Board member.

3.1 The first agenda item is Focus on Learning:  Two Plymouth High School students will give a demonstration of their award winning robot.  The two sophomores have been competing independently the last two years and hopefully will be the start of a high school program next year that will be available to other students.

3.2 The next item is to Permission to Seek Bids for Renovations.  Recently, the Board authorized refinancing the 2004 bonds.  That action resulted in reducing the interest rates from 4.6% to 1.35%.  Ultimately, the action also reduced the last 7 years payments by $99,000.00 a year.  It also created a construction fund of 1.7 million dollars.  The proposed renovations will be 1) to create large group learning rooms at Lincoln and Riverside, 2) to turn the old auto shop area into classrooms, and 3) to remodel the Service Center.  Renovations are proposed to begin in May of 2013 and conclude in August of 2014.

3.3 The third item is a yearly requirement to have the Board and Administrators sign Conflict of Interest Statements.  By statute this has to be done each year. Specifically, the reason for these forms would be issued because of a workplace or a family member who works at the school.

3.4 The Board will consider January 21, 2013 as a snow make-up day for the day we missed in November due to fog.  It has been past practice to make up days in the order in which they are scheduled.  Since January 21st is the first make-up day listed, I will recommend that this will be the make-up day.

3.5 For this item, I will ask the Board’s Permission to Seek a Contract with a Security Consultant.  After the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, I feel compelled to bring in an outside consultant to examine our safety plans and make recommendations for increased security.  While I will try to bring someone in as soon as possible, I will probably wait until the end of the legislative sessions to make any major changes.  The safety committee will meet this week and will make recommendations for minor changes to the safety plan or identify areas of the safety plan that are not being followed with fidelity.

3.6 Mrs. Kandi Tinkey will ask the Board to approve the Temporary Warrants that were advertised in December.  If you remember from December, temporary warrants allow us to borrow money so that we have the cash flow to meet payroll and pay vendors.  Cash flow is an issue at the school because we only get money from the state once a month and from the county twice a year.

3.7 The last business item will be to Consider the 2013 Classified Conditions of Employment and Pay Raises.  The conditions of employment for classified staff are approved every year at the first meeting.  A pay raise of $.40 per hour for 9-month employees and $.50 per hour for 12-month employees will also be considered.  In order to qualify for this raise, an employee must have worked 120 days from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.

Board of Finance Meeting
During the Board of Finance Meeting, the Board will receive reports on investments, consider a resolution to make payments, and approve the current corporation credit cards. 

Please join me in congratulating the following PHS students on attaining the Microsoft Technology Associate: Networking Fundamentals certification.  Cole Anderson, Miguel Baca, Daniel Johnson, Kendall Fosler, Tanner Swartz, and Nolan Wright have all earned this certification, which also gives them the title of Microsoft Certified Professional.  They have all taken the Microsoft 98-366 test and have passed on their first try over these past couple of weeks.  Furthermore, their test vouchers were paid for by the money that this class earned last year renovating and refurbishing computers and reselling them.  That idea came from Ken Olson and allowed us to have the highest percentage of kids that we have ever had take and pass the certification test in 12 years of teaching the course.  This was truly a team effort by all and a great start to some very promising IT careers.

They are now working toward their second certification, which is the Microsoft Technology Associate: Server Administration Fundamentals.  They should be ready to take their tests for this certification sometime in April.

If you see them in the halls, please congratulate them.  Just don’t ask them to show you the secret Microsoft MCP handshake!