Excerpts from The Hall Weekly Bulletin - January 7, 2008

Principal's Message & School News

Welcome back from Winter Break!  I hope you were able to spend some time together as a family and are ready for a wonderful 2008.   Academic Excellence Recognition for academic accomplishment is a delicate matter. Our intention is to provide recognition for students who have performed to exceptionally high standards.  In drawing attention to these students, we run the risk of adversely affecting the students who did not achieve to the same standard.  It is a difficult challenge. Our society does a good job publicly honoring athletic accomplishment, starting at a very young age.  One need only pick up the IJ to see which youth scored a goal or hit a homerun. But no such acknowledgement of academic accomplishment exists.  Therefore I feel our recognition is an important way of communicating that we do value exceptional achievement.   This year we will continue to honor students who improve their grades along with the honor roll and principal’s list students.  We feel it is important to recognize growth and continual improvement.  We will continue to do this each quarter of the year so students are reminded that it is important to always try your best and always try to improve.   As a school we are studying our academic recognition program to determine ways in which we can effectively honor academic excellence and growth in a way that is a positive experience for all students.  This month we will be discussing program changes this month at our faculty meeting.   Congratulations to the students who earned Honor Roll, Principal’s List or Academic Improvement for the first quarter of the school year.  I am proud of you and of all of the students who continue to work hard to do their best.   - Daniel Norbutas - Hall Principal