Mustang Families,
Although academics are important, nature has given us an exceptional weather forecast this weekend! So get outside and take advantage of nature’s gift. Research shows that unstructured outdoor physical activity improves physical health and mental health. It also increases concentration and mood while decreases technology use and screen time (Lockwood, 2020). So as you begin your weekend activities, find some time to get outside and enjoy fall!
In partnership,
Alexandria Rios Taylor
Principal
847-949-2200 x1230
D120 Quarterly Newsletter
Read our D120 quarterly newsletter featuring the latest news and updates about Mundelein High School. You can view it here.
Important Information
October is…
Red Ribbon Week
Red Ribbon week is observed 23-31 All students and staff are encouraged to wear RED!
Halloween
Halloween will be observed on Monday, 10/31. Although costumes are permitted, please keep in mind that the following will not be allowed:
Full face paintings or face-masks (all student and staff must be identifiable)
Weapons nor their look-alikes
Fake blood and/or gore
Costumes that disrespect other cultures, genders, races, or religions
Hoodie Drive
HallowSTEAM
Hispanic Heritage Panel
Thank you to our teachers and students who had the opportunity to participate in our 2022 Hispanic Heritage Panel, on Friday. Conversations were meaningful, relevant, and inspiring. Students had great questions and were engaged.
Below is our list of participating panelists.
Esteban Montes De Oca- Multiple business owner
Norma De La Rosa-Golden Apple Foundation- Manager of Recruitment
Itzel Montes De Oca- Business Owner
Martin Atilano-American Dream Realty-Owner
Anthony Vega- Government-Running for Lake County Clerk
Manny Realivasquez- Cisco Systems-Technology Program Manager
Dr. Rasgado-Flores- Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine- Associate Professor Chicago Medical School
Jesus Ruiz- College of Lake County Lake Shore-Dean
Art Gonzalez – National Lewis University-Student Success Coach
Jaqueline Galindo- Chicago Kent- Law Student
Mini Portfolio Day @ Lake Zurich HS
Mini Portfolio Day was developed by art teachers as a way to give the top art schools, colleges and universities access to over 250 art students from over 13 public and private high schools in the state of Illinois. Each college will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with students throughout the day to conduct art portfolio reviews, talk about art majors, and engage deeper about post-secondary creative careers. Students from various grade levels will come prepared with about 5-15 art works to present to college reps for review, as well as questions for the individual schools about admissions, scholarships, etc. Students will be able to utilize the feedback they receive to strengthen their portfolios before they officially apply to art school and learn more about their particular school through presentations that will be offered throughout the day.
Veterans Day
Calling all Mundelein Veterans
Please join us on Friday, November 11 for our annual Veterans Day Celebration and breakfast. We ask you arrive no later than 8:30 a.m., and please park in the West District Parking Lot at 1500 West Hawley St., upon arrival. This is the free-standing building adjacent to the high school off Hawley St. You must RSVP for this event by completing this Google form or by calling Sylvia Torres or Barb Tegtmeier at Mundelein High School. The main line is 847-949-2200. Then use extensions 1488 (Sylvia) or 1129 (Barb). The last day to register for this event is Friday, October 28, 2022.
Veterans Day Honor Walk
On Friday (11/11/22), we have a late start day and we will also have an adjusted bell schedule (see below) in honor of Veterans Day. More information about this event will be shared in the coming weeks, but we wanted to make sure we informed you about the change in schedule for this day in as much advance as possible.
Athletics
Winter sports starting
All students interested in joining any winter sport must register. 22-23 Winter sports registration
Here is 1st day information regarding sports offered, start dates, times and locations
22-23 1st day winter sports information
Girls Swim/Dive - Coaches Corner Rahul Sethna
The Girls Swimming and Diving team finished the regular season last night defeating Warren and securing a 3rd place finish in the NSC in the regular season. The team also celebrated their 4 graduating seniors: Lizzy Allore, Nadia Emso, Riley Routledge, and Hayley Williams during and after the meet. Besides that, the team had a couple of great weeks in which they had multiple medal stand recipients at the Highland Park Invite and Hersey Jamboree “Rob Lindgren” Invite. At the Hersey Jamboree, the ladies showed off their dance skills and choreography as they repeated as the champions for the Best Dance award! The team next enters the post-season with the NSC Championships the 28-29th and IHSA Sectionals the week after.
Boys Soccer - Coaches Corner Sebastian Falinski
Congrats to the Sophomore Boys Soccer Team that won a Regular Season Conference Championship completing a 7-0-0 NSC campaign! Phenomenal season overcoming a ton of adversity and working extremely hard through it all to end with the NSC Sophomore Tournament 2nd place finish. Great Job and Roll Mustangs!
Boys Cross Country - Coaches Corner Kurt Rutz
RECAP OF THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 10th
Friday the 7th we competed at the Lakes Sunset Series, a meet with a unique "flight" format. The first flight featured each team's 1-5 runners. The second flight featured each team's 6-10 runners. The points from both races were added up to get the team total. This makes team depth extremely important. We finished the night in 2nd place overall, only 10 points out of 1st. Javier Mata led the way by being the individual champion of the entire meet from the topflight race. An open race also allowed for all team members to participate and gain race experience.
Another indicator of our improved depth is that we had runners finish in the top 3 of each flight. Nick Schwenk took 3rd in the second flighted race, and Andrew Weaver took 2nd in the Open Race. Lots of PRs over the course of the meet.
Less than 15 hours later, the team ran the Loch Lomond Time Trial. This tradition dates to the 1970's, with records going back nearly as far. Running this after a meet was a true test of toughness, and our guys really pushed themselves. Javy Mata again led the way, with a spectacular effort. Javy ran 15:06, placing him 6th on the All-Time list.
Great job, Mustangs!
Next Meets: The team travels to the NSC Conference Championship hosted by Lake Forest on Saturday, October 15th. Held at their West campus, we invite you to come on over and cheer our teams on!
Middle School and Alumni Update: A number of middle school runners from our feeder schools will be competing at the state meet this coming weekend while our college runners are heading into their important, postseason races. We congratulate all these runners on their efforts so far and wish them the best!
This young team continues to find ways to surprise and impress me. At our North Suburban Conference meet, our Varsity team exceeded all expectations by taking 2nd in the meet behind perennial powerhouse Lake Zurich. Javier Mata led the way by taking 3rd overall, as our Mustangs had 5 medalists in the race. Joining Javy was Alberto Diaz in 10th, followed closely by Tom Russ 11th (in his best race of the year), Logan Ramirez in 21st, and Nick Schwenk, who had the race of his life, in 22nd.
The Open race saw all 3 of our competitors medal, as Ethan Moy took 7th, senior Logan Green, running in his last HS race, took 9th, and Mariano Rodriguez took 22nd.
In the F/S race, Nikita Vovkiv narrowly missed medaling in 26th. A number of our other runners in this race had PRs, as did several in the other 2 races.
Next Meets: The team travels to the Regional Championships hosted by Grant HS on Saturday, October 22nd. Held at their athletic campus, come on over and cheer our team on!
Middle School and Alumni Weekend Update: Congratulations to our future Mustangs as they competed in the IESA Cross Country State Championship Meet in Bloomington. Izic Miller took 36th in the Boys' race, while Paige Robertson took 177th, and Jaina Bartusch took 196th in the Girls' Race. Way to represent! Can't wait for you to join us at MHS!
Meanwhile, our college athletes continue to represent and be ambassadors for the MHS program. Kaleb Carlson led his team at Greenville University to a win at their own invite by taking 4th overall in 26:37. Michael Keegan helped his Milwaukee School of Engineering team to a 12th place finish (out of 28 teams) as their 4th man, taking 122nd place overall in 27:01. Robert St. Clair continues to shine for Case Western Reserve University, as their team finished a close 2nd to the 8th ranked Carnegie Mellon team. CWRU was nationally ranked 22nd going into this race and we expect that to change. Robert placed 2nd for his team, and 4th overall in a PR of 25:06. All races mentioned were at the 8k college distance.
Girls Cross Country - Coaches Corner Carsyn Rodriguez
Great sunset meet at Lakes last Friday! We continued to see HUGE time drops with 9 lifetime bests, 1 season best, and 2 additional course bests! Such a great confidence booster heading into Conference on Saturday! Also shout-out to former XC teammate and alum Jocelyn Gomez! Thank you for coming! We loved seeing you and appreciate the support!
These 3 went all out for Dress Like a Coach Day!
Last week’s Runner of the Week: FR Vanessa Dirzo! Vanessa has made huge strides (pun intended) both physically and mentally this season! She shows true care and grit, is a great teammate, and continues to drop time and PR each and every week
Last week’s Runner of the Week: JR Ashley Rodriguez Gamboa! Ashley’s bravery this season— to join a new sport after only being here for 2 months (moving from Columbia)—is nothing short of inspirational! And on top of that, she is so positive & hard-working! Què increíble!
Saw some great racing & resilience at Conference on Saturday! Praise & Molly earned All-Conference honors, Praise leading the way placing 7th for Varsity! Chloe & Brooklyn also placed in the top 22 in the F/S race, & Jeni took 8th at the JV level! We also had 5 Lifetime, 2 Season & 9 Course bests!
Our NSC Sportsmanship Award Winner for Mundelein Girls XC this year: Julia Soto! Julia’s growth as a runner, leader, and person over these last 4 years make her more than deserving of this recognition!
Girls Volleyball - Coaches Corner Calaeb Haire & Beth Willis
Over the extended weekend, Varsity took first in their preliminary pool at the Lake Forest Tournament defeating both Carmel and DePaul College Prep. Unfortunately, the tournament was shut down after the third match, so the girls were not able to test their strength in the semi-final and final matches. We are still so proud of the work they did in those first matches! Varsity has another 5-match tournament at Grayslake North on Saturday. Finally, please mark your calendar for our final home game against Lake Forest on Wednesday, October 19th where we will also be honoring our senior athletes. This event will take place at approximately 6:00pm. We would love to pack the gym in support of our seniors!
October 19
This week was the last week of regular season play for the Varsity volleyball team and the last week of the season for all under levels. We celebrated our senior volleyball athletes on Wednesday at our last home game against Lake Forest. We are so proud of their hard work and dedication to our school and program the last four years. Congratulations to Bella Feijoo, Syd Cox, Olivia Benjamin, Addy Irwin, Ciara West, Selena Servin, Elizabeth Strelecki, and Sara Sanz! You will be missed! We would also like to congratulate senior libero Bella Feijoo for being selected as the 2022 NSC Girls Volleyball Sportsmanship winner! Good luck in the post-season, Mustangs!
Dance
College & Career Resource Center
College Week was a success! Thank you to all of our students and staff members who participated!
Here are some highlights from our week:
TUESDAY: Essay Workshop
Mrs. Rusk reviewed the college essay writing process and our school counselors read essays and offered suggestions to our students.
WEDNESDAY: FAFSA Presentations
Our ISAC representative, Emily, explained FAFSA and Financial Aid to our students.
In the evening we held a FAFSA workshop for students and their families. Thank you to our staff members and ISAC representatives who helped our families apply for FAFSA! Parents of Juniors, don’t miss this event next year!
THURSDAY: FREE College Application Day!
Students of MHS had the opportunity to meet with 29 college representatives and apply to college for free!
FRIDAY: Finish Your Application Workshop
Our counselors helped students with college applications, college essays, and filling out the FAFSA form.
Previous Reminders
Attendance
Regular school attendance is required and necessary to develop the academic and intrapersonal skills needed for success. Students are expected to attend each class and be on time. Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance. If your student is going to be absent from school, please call the Attendance Line 847-949-2200 ext. 1998 (Spanish) ext. 1999 (English) by 10:00 am.
What is Good Attendance?
Our MHS Attendance Committee felt it was important to create a simple and clear visual that students and families can reference to understand our expectations surrounding what good attendance looks like. See below for more information.
Bus Notifications
Would you like to know when your student’s bus is going to be late? For Mundelein bus routes, Lakeside Transportation is using the Bus Bulletin notification system to notify parents and students when there are bus delays and schedule changes. For more information, or to sign-up and start receiving notifications, please visit:
www.busbulletin.com/parents (Find Mundelein Area Schools when prompted for a district) *Note - This is managed by Lakeside Bus Company and not MHS.
Technology Use
Students will utilize technology to support their learning in class. Students are reminded to use their Chromebooks and cell phones appropriately at all times. For further information about technology use, please refer to the student handbook located on the District web page - 2022-2023 Student/Parent Handbook
Go Mustangs!
The Principal's Blog: Mustang News is available weekly at
http://mundypride.blogspot.com/