Paula Callan Appointed as MHS Principal

Congratulations to Ms. Callan – the new Principal at MHS!

RSU 18 Messenger

Last night the RSU 18 School Board unanimously voted to approve Paula Callan’s nomination as the new principal of Messalonskee High School.  With a fourteen year tenure as assistant principal at MHS on top of numerous other qualifications, Ms Callan’s appointment offers the school community strong leadership and consistency in direction.

Ms. Callan holds a B.S. in Special Education from University of Maine at Farmington and a M.S. in Educational Administration from the University of Maine. She worked as a resource room instructor in the Augusta School Department for 10 years prior to becoming an administrator, and has worked as assistant principal at Cony High School, Morse High School and Lincoln Academy. She is also currently an active member of the Maine Principals’ Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and Kennebec Consortium for School Administrators.   

Named 2016 Maine Assistant Principal of the year, Callan is frequently praised for…

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WES Custodian Receives Excellence Award

  Williams Elementary custodian Donnie Sheets was recently honored at the Educational Plant Maintenance Association of Maine Conference. Mr. Sheets was awarded the A. Burleigh Oxton Award for …

Source: WES Custodian Receives Excellence Award

Outstanding Leadership

Congratulations to Mr. Smith!!!

Source: Outstanding Leadership

A Fond Farewell for Mr. Moody.

RSU 18 Messenger

A principal’s job is often a thankless one.  The task– to juggle the needs of parents, students, and staff while adhering to policy at the state and local level–can be compared to doing postmodern ballet, on a tightrope, without a net.  And yet for the last five years at MHS we’ve had a leader who has managed to do this, for the most part graciously, with a smile, and a joke.  Always a joke.

For those who have not heard, this week we say goodbye to Principal Jon Moody as he moves into his new position of Assistant Superintendent in MSAD 54.  His positive leadership has helped MHS move forward through 5 years marked by great changes and challenges.  

“He brought a unifying spirit to the school community,” said Laurel Hanson, MHS English teacher.  Fellow department member Margaux DePue echoed the sentiment and praised Mr. Moody’s commitment to honoring…

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MHS June Students of the Month

The student of the month assembly, the brainchild of Mr. Forster and Mrs. Fisher, and a monthly occurrence sponsored by our school’s faculty through the “Culture Club”, has become an important way Messalonskee shines a spotlight on the important impact students have on our building.  The SOM assemblies have also become a way that we build and grow our school community and commitment to excellence as we create a culture that honors the positive things happening in our school.

The June SOM assembly is a fun one, as it honors both the efforts of individual students but also our school throughout the year.  At the June assembly, which included academic awards for many of our underclassmen, we also had the opportunity to honor our foreign exchange students who spent the year with us.

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Cameron, John-Luke, and Colby joined Senior Riley Field (Who was presented her award a day earlier, at the Senior Last Assembly) in receiving the 2016 June Student of the Month award!

Colby, the junior and therefore incoming “Senior” award winner, took home the coveted Parking spot for the month of August and much of September.  In this case though, I believe Riley may have gotten the best award on her own when she and her Eagles Lacrosse teammates finished a storybook season by winning the MPA Girls Lacrosse State Championship this past weekend!  (Pic below – way to go ladies)

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Summer Counselor’s Corner: Advice for Students!

Messalonskee’s Counselor’s Corner is out!  This includes links to important documents for next year, summer AP work, as well as the guidance webpage which has a great deal of useful information for students and parents.

Enjoy your summer!!!

A World Without Safe Havens

Originally posted on Atwood Principal's Blog:
A World Without Safe Havens Submitted by: Jennifer McGee, Principal of Atwood Primary School June 12, 2016 Yesterday, when I woke up, I saw the news. There on the television screen, along the…

MHS Graduates go out in Style

We at Messalonskee couldn’t be more proud of our student body and the way they have embraced the motto to “Be the change”.  They have risen time and again to show us that by including them in the decisions of their school, by honoring their voice while still setting a high bar for them to reach – they nearly always “Shine”.

Although graduation is traditionally a time for celebration of the accomplishments of the graduates, the class of 2016 chose to pay it back to their younger peers in RSU18 by Marching through the halls of two of our elementary schools and our Middle School.  After a long 3 hour marching practice our MHS Graduates took time out of their pre-celebration days to enjoy and give back…

The scene was amazing.  Next year we are in hopes of having our graduates march through the Bean and Belgrade schools as well!

Congratulations to the families, friends, and faculty who have helped usher these young men and women reach their graduation!  And of course, congratulations to our graduates from the class of 2016.  You will be missed!!!

Link to Centralmaine.com’s graduation story.

Senior Beach

I couldn’t have said it better… A wonderful class of seniors who have helped make MHS the amazing place that it is. They will be missed!

RSU 18 Messenger

The senior prank has long been an MHS tradition.  They are not always well thought out, and have often been somewhat ill advised and a real pain for the staff to clean up.

Enter the seniors of 2016.  On Wednesday, June 2nd, seniors started arriving at MHS as early as 4:45 am to reinvent a designated area of the student parking lot.  With the help of a few truck loads of sand, a volleyball net, lounge chairs and kiddie pools, they created their own beach day without leaving campus.

The prank was creative, collaborative, and just plain fun.  And to add to the charm of their hijinks, they actually cleaned up after themselves!  “I bet they spent an hour and a half afterwards returning the parking lot to its prior state,” school resource officer, Detective Tracey Frost said in a post concerning the event. “This class is special.”

Well done…

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RSU 18: A Standard for Excellence in Maine Public Education.

Great article on why we all should consider the positive return on investment we get for each educational dollar spent in RSU18.

RSU 18 Messenger

In tough economic times there are always reasons to tighten the belt, but as Dr. Cook mentioned at a recent budget meeting, sometimes the more important step is to look at what you are getting with the money you are currently spending.

This year’s budget is up by only 0.65% over last year. Not many school districts can say that, and certainly few districts have accomplished as much with as little.  Here is just a short list of some of the benefits the district has to offer:

• A significant increase in district NWEA scores.
• A rapidly growing Farm to School program that teaches students valuable skills.   
• Robotics teams that help students learn technology in a hands on way that also fosters problem solving, curiosity, collaboration, and communication.
• A performing arts program that has seen a large number of alumni go on to have a career in that field.
• A…

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