STMA High School Growing and Achieving

STMA High School Growing and Achieving

Steve Scherber

STMA High School is off to a tremendous start to the 2012-2013 school year as it welcomes our largest freshmen class of 441 students, bringing the total enrollment to 1,548 students.  In addition, the high school welcomed eight new licensed teachers to the staff.  The staff of ninety-five (95) certified members is focused on creating a rigorous curriculum delivered in a positive and safe learning environment.  Teachers meet bi-weekly in department meetings to review common assessment results that monitor student achievement on state standards and improve teaching and learning.

STMA has 190 junior and senior students enrolled in one or more Advanced Placement (AP) courses while another 85 students are enrolled in College in the School (CIS) courses.  Both of these opportunities enable high school students to earn college credit while simultaneously earning high school credit.  STMA High School was recently recognized by the College Board as one of only 14 districts in the state to increase participation in AP classes, while maintaining or improving the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher.  In addition, the high school students scored exceptionally well on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in Reading, Math, Science, and Writing averaging 10.7% higher than the state average.

STMA High School is proud to announce that high school English teacher, Charlie Bakker, has been selected by his colleagues as the Leadership in Educational Excellence Award (LEEA) recipient for the 2012-2013 school year.  Charlie and a guest are invited to attend the awards banquet in St. Cloud later this month.  Congratulations Mr. Bakker!  In addition, our Technology Education & Engineering Department (formerly called Industrial Tech) received the Minnesota Technology and Engineering Educators Association “Program of Excellence Award” for their exceptional work with the Project Lead the Way program, as well as, the vast array of other course offerings.  Congratulations to Roger Bovee, Scott Danielson, and Kris Rue for their hard work and visionary leadership!

During our Fall sports season STMA has over 450 students participating in extra-curricular activities, with girls’ tennis, girls’ soccer, and boys’ soccer already clinching Mississippi 8 Conference championships.  Other teams are still pursuing conference titles. 

Our fall musical rehearsals for, “Wizard of Oz” are well under way with 58 high school students and numerous little munchkins preparing for three public viewings November 15, 16, & 17 at 7:00 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. 

And finally, congratulations to Maddie Sjelin and Thor Holstad for being crowned homecoming queen and king respectively during coronation on Monday, September 24^th.