Mustang News: Mustang News - January 31, 2020

Friday Focus

Announcements

LAST WEEK TO RESPOND! 5Essentials Parent Survey is open!
Mundelein school districts 75 and 120 will join the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) in the eighth statewide survey of school climate and learning conditions. The survey provides a unique opportunity for students, teachers and parents to have a voice in improving their schools. All district schools are required to participate in a school learning conditions survey each year. It was deemed an important component to balanced accountability under the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan by stakeholders.

The parent surveys are now available to the public while the student and teacher surveys will be available beginning Dec. 10 through Feb. 14.

“We encourage parents in both our districts to complete the survey so that your voices are heard,” said Kevin Myers, districts 75 and 120 superintendent. “We will take all of your input seriously and use it to continually review and update our current educational practices.”

We guarantee that survey responses will never be connected to you or your child. No individual will be identified in the school reports; school principals or teachers will never see any individual responses. School reports will only present summary information of how parents feel as a whole, such as the percent of parents agreeing that they feel comfortable raising concerns to their child’s teacher.

The survey provides a comprehensive picture of a school’s organizational culture in an individualized report measuring the five “essentials” critical for school success. Those include:

Effective Leaders
Collaborative Teachers
Involved Families
Supportive Environment
Ambitious Instruction

Principals and superintendents will receive their 5Essentials Reports in April 2020. Survey results will also be reported publicly on the 5Essentials reporting site in Spring 2020 and on the State School Report Card website in the Fall of 2020.

“Thank you in advance for taking part in this important survey,” Myers said. “We really appreciate your time and input.”

Click HERE to begin completing the parent survey.

Common Ground- Mundelein High School’s Cultural Fair
Friday, February 7th from 7:45 AM to 8:30 PM
More than 16 booths will be set-up to represent the diverse cultures and identities here at Mundelein High School. This student-led event will be open to the community this year from 4PM to 8:30 PM with a variety of activities:

5 PM- A cultural buffet will open in the cafeteria, tickets will be available for purchase, 50 cents per ticket.
6 PM- Workshops will open in classrooms where anyone can learn a skill based on a certain culture.
7 PM- Performances will begin in the Auditorium with guest performers: Culture in Motion, an Indian dance group, and Korean Drum performers.

We welcome the community to come and support our fair and learn more about the diverse backgrounds here at Mundelein High School.

BPAC hosts workshops in Spanish for area residents
Mundelein High School hosted the first Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC) Summit in collaboration with its feeder school districts including Mundelein Elementary District 75, Diamond Lake School District 76, and Hawthorn Elementary District 73 on Saturday, January 18t. Despite the poor weather, the event drew a strong crowd.

Parents of students enjoyed breakfast in the morning and had the opportunity to visit booths with community organizations like Mano a Mano, Latino Police Academy, College of Lake County, Pastoral Migratorio, and the Mexican Consulate.

After breakfast, parents visited three of the four available workshops to hear presentations on various topics:

Jesus Ruiz, Dean of CLC, gave a presentation about Community Involvement
Sandra Gomez, Health Educator at the Lake County Health Department spoke about Mental Health
Ferney Ramirez, psychologist and speaker presented on Perseverance and Resilience
Jeffrey Middlesworth, Attorney at Zuma Law, provided an update on immigration policies followed by questions and answers

All presentations were in Spanish and childcare was provided.

“We are proud to serve our community and we are already looking forward to next year,” said Sol Cabachuela, MHS Parent Liaison and host of the event.

Special Olympics athletes take on MHS staff in basketball
Mundelein High School’s Special Olympic athletes took on members of the MHS staff on Wednesday, January 29th in a Special Olympics Basketball game to help the team celebrate the close of their inaugural season. Congratulations to the Special Olympics team for defeating the staff 46-24!

The Special Olympics athletes were given the opportunity to hand pick the staff team. The Special Olympics team has invited the following staff members to play in the game: Morgan Spitz, special education; Heather Ryan, special education; David Mork, art; Ernie Billittier, English; Andrew Rochon, special education; Todd Parola, wellness; Reed Christensen, wellness; Paul Thatcher, dean; Andrew Hood; social studies; Jennifer Taylor, special education; Cathy Schmidt, head of security; Alex Miramontes, special education; Brett Wilhelm, wellness; Brian Goodell, special education; and Steve Balogh, school resource officer.

Eric Billittier is the head coach along with assistant coaches Krissy Pawlicki and John Pauley.

Recognition

Music groups steal the show in opening competition
Mundelein High School’s show choirs started its competition season with a bang and they piled up a number of awards at Sauk Prairie High School in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin Jan. 25.
Lights, the all-female group, were named Grand Champions in their division while SoundFX, the all-male group, earned Runner-Up status. Noise, the show choir band, was awarded Best Instrumental Ensemble.

Sound, the mixed gender show choir was named first runner-up in the Open Class division.
Two show choir members received top honors as well. Matthew Callas was named Best Male Soloist within a show while Kira Buckner received the Best Female Soloist within a show award.
The groups will next compete at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin event Saturday, Feb. 8.
Cory Thompson and Stevee Bellas direct the vocal groups while Andy Sturgeon directs the Noise Band.

FBLA students earn awards at area conference
Mundelein High School’s chapter of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competed at the Illinois Northern Area Conference held at The College of Lake County on Friday, January 17.
While at the area competition members took part in various events that tested their business leadership skills. Members were accompanied by advisers Chris Hoster and Sarah Wilson, while the competition was presided over by senior Sofia Feijoo as Area Vice President for the Northern Illinois FBLA region.

Forty-four Mundelein FBLA students competed well enough and qualified, either as an individual or a team, to continue on to the State Leadership Conference, which will be held in Springfield, Illinois on April 3 and 4.

“We’re proud and excited for these students to compete at the State level,” Wilson said. “It’ll be a wonderful experience for them.”

The FBLA members took home the following awards for competitive events:

First Place:

American Enterprise Project: Sofia Feijoo, Ilya Vynnyk, MacKenzie Stewart Journalism: Ashley Cline. Management Decision Making: Sahil Patel, MacKenzie Stewart
Sports & Entertainment Management: Cristian Santiago, Cale Sethna, Jeffrey Weiss

Second Place:

E-Business: Kavana Belagur, Taneesha Tavkar
Client Service: Alexis Martinez

Third Place:

Global Business: Flavio Diaz, Sofia Feijoo, Ilya Vynnyk
Job Interview: Hannah Earich
Personal Finance: Nickie Figueroa

Fourth Place:

Cyber Security: Christopher Hill
Journalism: Tress Dorfler
Management Decision Making: Angelica Hernandez, Polina Rubin

Fifth Place:

Business Calculations: Nathan Clapp
Personal Finance: Aaron Anastos
Securities and Investments: Caitlyn Mathews

Sixth Place:

Public Service Announcement: Lauren Geary, Ellianna Pearson, Nathan Miller

Activities

Timeless Comedy Comes to MHS
The Curious Savage, by John Patrick, is being presented as the winter play by Mundelein Theatre. The show runs on January 30, 31, and February 1 at 7:30 p.m. There will also be a 3:45 p.m. matinee on January 31. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. The matinee performance on Friday is only $1 for MHS students. Additionally, there will be a performance on February 1 at 2 pm which will feature the understudy cast of The Curious Savage. Tickets can be purchased at the box office 30 minutes prior to each performance. Seating is general admission, and the theatre will open 20 minutes prior to each performance. Additional information can be found at mundeleintheatre.org.
The Curious Savage is a warm comedy where an eccentric widow, Ethel Savage, is left 10 million dollars by her late husband. Her wish is to use that money to help others realize their dreams, but her grown stepchildren will do anything to keep her from squandering away "their" money in such a manner. “It is a very funny and engaging comedy,” said Jonathan Meier, the show’s director. “It has a wonderful message about kindness and acceptance.”

Senior Katie Staroszczyk plays the central character of Ethel Savage. “Mrs. Savage is a very spirited soul,” Staroszczyk explained. “She learns a great deal about herself throughout the course of the play, which makes her a fun character to play.”

Other seniors in the cast are Sierra Bouchard, Miriam Mitry, Brandon Neyzelman, Ander Nutall, Paige Steiner and Steven Weiss. Rounding out the cast are Rosy Castro, Roy Dumblauskas, Mary McMurray and Chris Nacion. The understudy cast consists of Bella Buono, Madeline Demuth, Will Gonzalez, Dean Hahn, Saedy Kugler, Sarah Larson, Katie Myrant, Hadyn Nutall, Megan Saunders, Eli Walter and Kessler Young.

MHS staff member Jeff Harding is the associate director and technical director. The assistant directors are Matthew Callas and Marta Sikora. The stage managers are Ellie Mellen and Marley Wilkins. The student set designer is Becca Panos and the student lighting designer is Joslyn Gange.

Isle of Martinique students visit MHS to meet their Pen Pals
Twenty-one students from the Isle of Martinique visited Mundelein High School Jan. 23 to meet MHS students with whom they have been corresponding as pen pals. The event was coordinated by Marty Ambrey, French instructor at MHS.

The day’s activities included both formal and informal opportunities for the visiting students to spend time with their MHS counterparts. It began with the visitors “shadowing” their pen pals during one of the class periods. They all had lunch together as they got to know each other better and then shadowed a second student. They closed the school day meeting with the French 4 class and then headed for after school activities including the Robotics Club, theatre, gymnastics and the Academic Team.

“This was definitely a cultural exchange in many ways,” Ambrey explained. “The kids from La Martinique speak French, are of African ancestry and also have their own Creole culture. I think was a great opportunity for my kids to show them what a great school MHS is and that we support equity in many ways,” she concluded.

United States Navy classroom speakers
The Navy career talk arranged by Science Teacher Chris Michalides was a great success. Approximately 250 students discovered that the Navy offers a wide range of careers, including dolphin trainer. It provides full tuition to any college a student is accepted, and cash bonuses for completing additional training.The speakers talked about careers in the USN and also about the uses of nuclear energy in powering its fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines. Those topics align with the physical science course that Michalides designed in response to student input.

College & Career Center

MHS Foundation Scholarships Are Open!
The Mundelein High School Foundation’s scholarship application packet (google form) for 2020 graduates is now open! These scholarships offer students the opportunity to win up to $1,000 to help pay for their education and there are many types of scholarships available. Students may choose to apply for singular scholarships within the packet or for all scholarships which they are eligible by checking the appropriate boxes on the application.
Access a list of our most up-to-date scholarships through the Scholarship Link found under Colleges Home in Naviance. http://bit.ly/2RKBeES
Additionally, we strongly encourage students to continue checking the MHS Specific Scholarships document to view which additional scholarships that are guaranteed to go to MHS graduates may be opening soon and begin preparing for these.

If there are any questions, please contact the MHS Foundation via Ms. Lisa Johnson (johnson.lj@comcast.net) or stop by the CCRC.

College Planning Night: Focus on Juniors
Please join us for our annual College Planning Night for Juniors! This event provides information that will help our junior students and families prepare to finalize their search for the best fit colleges and discuss the steps leading up to the fall application process. Though this event specifically targets juniors, families of students of all grade levels are welcome to attend!
En Español
When: Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 7pm
Where: MHS DMR

In English
When: Wednesday, Feb 12th at 7pm
Where: MHS Auditorium

MHS College Planning Guide
The MHS College Planning Guide is a comprehensive guide through the college planning process. It covers where to get started, financial aid options, timelines, college athletics, summer opportunities, the college planning workbook, and more! Check it out at: http://www.livebinders.com/b/2151227#
Connect with us!
Website: https://www.d120.org/resources/student-success-resources/ccrc/
Instagram: mhsccrc
Twitter: @mundycollege

Athletics

Post season dates
Dance - IHSA State 1/31/20
Cheer - IHSA Sectional 2/1/20
Gymnastics - IHSA Regional - 2/5/20
Wrestling - IHSA Regional - 2/8/20
G-Bowling - IHSA Regional 2/8/20
B-Swim/Dive - IHSA Sectional 2/22/20
G-Basketball - IHSA Regional 2/17/20
B-Basketball - IHSA Regional 3/2/20

Click HERE to view times and locations.