Hello Bearcat Families!

As you may remember, we surveyed our students earlier this fall to better understand their views of the climate and culture in our school. Now that we have the results and have taken time to review them, we want to share them with you and outline our goals for improving our students’ sense of belonging at our school this year.

960 students, which is about 67% of our students in grades 9-12, completed the survey during school this fall. You can view our school-specific survey results in their entirety HERE (click on the “9 schools” icon to select our school’s name to view our results).

This year, all schools in the Monroe School District have set goals for improving our students’ sense of belonging. Sense of belonging is “the extent to which students feel that they are valued members of their school’s community.” Belonging includes feelings related to acceptance, respect, value, and connectedness, which we know impacts engagement, behavior, and academic performance. With our Mission being High School PLUS for ALL students, meaning we want ALL students to graduate with the skills they need to take their next steps in life, increasing student sense of belonging is a critical piece in ensuring we are fulfilling our Mission as a school. 

Last spring on this same survey, 32% of our students reported favorably that they felt a sense of belonging at MHS. At MHS this 2023-24 school year, our “sense of belonging” goal is 40%.  

As we work toward achieving this goal, we are implementing several strategies that we believe will help with this goal:

1. Staff Training: We are working toward increasing our skills in being more culturally responsive to our students and the various needs they have. Dr. Sharroky Hollie, a national education consultant, has been working with us this year (in August and in October) on culturally responsive teaching practices and will be here again at MHS on Friday, February 2nd, to continue this professional learning. The better we, as staff, can be at being more culturally responsive to our students in meeting their needs, the more our students will succeed and feel an increased sense of belonging here. 

2. Clubs, Activities and Interest Groups:  We have worked with our club advisors to reboot their clubs and activities this year and we are working to increase the number of students involved in clubs, activities, and interest groups through a clubs, activities, and interest fair during the school day. 

3. Increasing Student Voice: We are committing to increasing student voice this year and actively partnering with students when making improvements and decisions for our school.  We have 6 different student groups currently working on action plans connected to 6 areas of growth that students have identified as important to them.  Consultant Christian Paige and ASB Advisor Jaime Johnson are working closely with these student groups to help them with their action plans.  

4. School Systems: We are building and/or improving some of our school systems so that students feel that the school is more safe, more orderly, and set up to ensure they better learn and grow. The first school-wide system we are working on this year is our Attendance system. This spring we will work with our students to identify which system we want to work on next.

5. Increasing Staff Sense Of Belonging: Increasing sense of belonging is important for our staff as well.  As staff sense of belonging improves, it will positively impact our student sense of belonging because they will be in a better place to take care of student needs. Our administrative team is working on a variety of ways to ensure our staff sense of belonging improves along with our students.  

Our students will take the survey again this spring to help us measure our progress toward our goal. In addition, we will be asking families and staff to take the survey so that we can better understand their views of the climate and culture in our schools … be on the lookout for the family and staff survey this spring!

At MHS, we are dedicated to creating a welcoming environment, where students know that they belong, because of what it means for their success, both academically and personally.  It’s an honor to be on this continual process of improving our school for the amazing students that we serve and we look forward to the positive impact that our work this year will have on everyone here at MHS.  

Sincerely,

Brett Wille
Principal