February 23, 2007

Congratulations!

High School Boys’ Basketball Team

At the District Tournament on Friday and Saturday, February 16 & 17, our team played two good games, easily winning the first game and losing the second close game by two points to become our leagues 3^rd seed in the state playoffs.

Quick plans were made for a Monday  through Wednesday bus trip to northeastern Oregon to play Spray on Tuesday night.  Spray is a good team which has lost only one game all season.  Our good season came to an end with Spray coming out ahead at the end, 48 to 40.

School Closures/Delays

Wow!  More closures than in all my previous 30 years of teaching combined.  We still seek to follow the Three Rivers School District pattern.  This year, some of their decisions have been made and announced after their normal 6:00 a.m. announcement times – this morning’s was first noted by us at about 6:30 a.m.  Therefore, our delay in announcing the same, except on Friday’s they have already delayed one hour. 

Playground Installation

 A BIG THANKS to those who made much visible progress with play equipment installation last Saturday!

In three or four weeks we should be able to announce another work day to install additional play equipment.

High School Track Practice Starts

NHCS will start high school practice tonight.  The basketball tournament and weather caused a delay from the previously announced date.

• Practice is 3:25 to about 5:00 p.m.
• Still needed are field event coaches who can even assist only one day per week.

Middle School Track

Practice is planned to start on Monday, March 12^th.  We have several parents who will be helping with this program, but additional parents who can help, even on a part-time basis, will be appreciated.

 Salary & Fee Increases

It is a hard financial balance to make the best school possible….  Charging enough to have a good school, yet not charging so much that you force families out of school.  To gain and retain the quality of teachers needed, we must raise salaries.  However, to do such necessitates raising tuition. 

Then, how do we help families in need of assistance?

1. Actively seek donations toward student assistance, as we have started soliciting.
2. Host a summer on-line and on-site auction with some of the proceeds going toward student-need scholarships.  (This has tremendous potential to help if we have a number of you who want to tackle such a challenge – two have already indicated interest)
3. Parents and other volunteers to develop our Scrip program potential with ½ of the proceeds going toward tuition assistance.  (Start using Scrip; see advertisement on the back.)
4. Other ideas?

Re-enrollment Materials

Congratulations!  Freshmen &

Sophomore Brain Bowl Teams

Each of the past three years our Brain Bowl Teams have done extremely well.  This year the first round of the state basketball playoffs in eastern Oregon basketball greatly depleted our participant numbers, but we were still able to produce two teams.  One team placed 4^th!  Schools participating were Ashland (6A), South Medford (6A), North Medford (6A), Phoenix (4A), Mazama (3A), Cascade Christian (2A), St. Mary’s (2A), Glendale (2A), and New Hope (1A).  Again, NHCS was the only small school participating very well in this annual event hosted by Southern Oregon State University. 

New Hope Basketball Team

Earns OSAA GPA Award

With a team grade point average of 3.76, the NHCS boys’ basketball team won the Dairy Farmers of Oregon Academic All-State Award for the winter season.  The Warriors’ team GPA was the highest in the state in boys’ basketball, edging Ione at 3.74.  

Bailey Bars Takes Fifth At Elks Hoop Competition in McMinnville

Master’s Brain Bowl

This Saturday is the Master’s Brain Bowl at Southern Oregon State University.  These teams consist of Juniors and Seniors as well as select Freshmen and Sophomores.  We will place two teams into Saturday’s competition:

Sophomores - John Bayley, Jacob Bowdoin

Juniors - Ryan Garcia, Andrew Kostrana, Bethany Matthews, Tiffany Schmidt, Lauran Woodruff, Amber Willingham

Seniors – Ben Bowdoin, John Cunningham, Matt Hillier