Sunday Weekly Update 11-17-24
Happy Sunday!
This is Rick Parker, Principal of Indian Land High School calling with a Sunday Weekly Update. Last week our JROTC unit honored our veterans on Wednesday with their Veterans Celebration packing the auditorium with our student body and guests. Thank you to Colonel Joye and his cadets for leading this event. It was a very moving ceremony that displayed a “thankfulness environment” for all our present and past veterans for what they have done to give us our freedom. On Thursday, Ms. Dillard’s theater class debuted Radium Girls! This historical drama play was about the young women hired to paint watch dials with radioactive material back in the 1920s -- and died as a result. The whole story is a true story and the court case that the girls ultimately mounted against the company is a notorious case that is still used today in arguing cases of toxic chemical litigation.” The cast did an amazing job! I was so proud of their performance. We ended the week with our football team playing in the first round of the state playoffs. Congrats to Coach Hastings and his team winning their game against Eastside High School 34-7! Our football team advances to the second round this coming Friday, 11/22 against Northwestern High School. We wish them the best of luck!
Tomorrow, 11/18, our third grading period for first semester ends. This serves as a third grading period check before the fourth grading period begins and ends in December. Please take time to review your child grades in PowerSchool to do a check in of where they are. The fourth grading period will go by extremely fast due to Thanksgiving Break and holiday break. It is critical for all students to stay up on their grades and turn all work in on time. My goal this year has been to instill in our students the W.A.R.R.I.O.R. Mindset. Being OTOT On-Time On-Target is not just about attendance, but also grades. I began last week meeting with our Seniors have failing grades. I encourage you to look into what’s going on with their grades as this could affect their graduation in May and walking across the stage.
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Testing announcements
EOC Testing has been announced for this semester.
• English II Writing is December 2
• Algebra I is December 9
• Biology is December 10
• English II Reading is December 11
• U. S. History is December 12
Students enrolled in Dual Enrollment U.S. History will be scheduled to take the EOC test that is in line with the required South Carolina EOC for U. S. History high school credit. EOC for Dual Enrollment students who have completed both HIS 111 and 112 will be on the same day as other EOC testing for U. S. History.
Start having conversations: Beginning second semester, 1/7/25, Lancaster County School District will enforce the state mandate of no cell phones allowed to be used during the school day. Students may bring a phone and keep on their person, but will only be allowed to use it before school or after school. No cell phones will be allowed to be used in class, during class transitions or lunchtime as we do now. Having these conversations now to prepare for this change will help with the new district policy. Consequences on the Behavioral Student Matrix will begin with warnings and lead to Refuse to Obey. Please review the behavioral matrix to familiarize yourself with Refuse to Obey.
Here is What’s Important Now for next week:
Upcoming Events:
Monday, November 18th @ 6 pm - Beta and NHS induction ceremony, which will be held Monday, November 18th at 6pm.
Thursday, 11/21 - ILHS Powder Puff Football @ 6 pm. See attached flyer.
W.A.R.R.I.O.R. University Update:
11/20 - Flex- the National Guard will be here during Flex for students to sign up to get information about careers and help paying for college
11/18- Warrior University is honored to present A Night with Representative Brandon Guffey.
Monday, November 18th at 6 p.m., Mr. Guffey will share his family's story about how sextortion devastated his family leading to Gavin's Law. He will give all of us tips about how to prevent another tragedy. (see attached flyer)
December Update:
12/2-6pm- Special Programs Information Night (learn about IEP, 504's, MLL, homebound, Proximity, etc.)
12/2-12/6- Erin’s & Gavin’s Law Videos shared with students- all 5 days during first 10 minutes of Flex as a Google Meet presentation
12/4 & 12/18- Flex-National Guard- students can sign up to meet with SSG Kane
And lastly, I leave with this quote for the week: “Without commitment, you will never start, without consistency, you will never finish.” Denzel Washington
Let’s push our students through to finish this semester strong!
Have a great week!