MVHS Principal Rob Reetz was our featured speaker today. Rob has been honored for his effective leadership of the school which continues to be rated in the Top 10 in our state. He was recently nominated for Principal of The Year. He has been a leader in coming up with an effective cell phone policy, which schools everywhere are grappling with. He acknowledges that the high performance standards at MVHS create a challenging environment for students and he has made it a recent priority to focus on improving the high school experience for 9th graders - to help ensure a successful high school experience. This initiative has included a revised grading system to clarify what it takes to demonstrate proficiency. There was marked improvement in student passing rates this year with the new system in place.
We also heard from the two students we sponsored for this year's Rotary Camp RYLA. Both students shared their initial hesitancy about attending due to fears of not knowing other attendees and not being sure what the weekend would be like. But both raved about the experience and the insights it provided for their future endeavors. We have heard reports such as this many times in the past when we have sponsored students to both Camp RYLA and Camp Enterprise, but it is always reassuring to hear how worthwhile these experiences are.