MHS is the Best - Principal Dave Adney
Posted by Steve Frazier
Oue Meeting on August 17th featured a talk by David Adney, the principal at Minnetonka High School. He spoke about some of the changes at the school.
There are a number of physical changes to the buildings and grounds, among them moving the tennis courts to behind the Pagel Center and increasing the parking area by about 120 spaces. The staff and student population on the campus is over 3,000 people each school day. 10% of the students attending MHS are from outside the school district under the state's open enrollment program. But he was more interested in talking about some recent curriculum changes.
Minnetonka is a pioneer in planning and presenting Better Health Education to the students. Instead of clumping all of the health issues into a one semester class for sophomores (the old traditional delivery), the curriculum now includes a number of blocks of time throughout the high school experience. David pointed out that this type of schedule allows the school to present the health-related subjects at the best time for each age group. It allows the school to react to incidents that occur with a proper and a timely response. A couple of examples he gave: when a student committed suicide, the staff could offer grief and anti-depression information to the students without delay; drug and alcohol information when appropriate; and assault and other crime information shortly after an incident has affected the students. No other school has a program like this, and many districts throughout the country are studying the program to begin implementing it.
Another new program is called Personal International Studies. Students who participate in the program are paired with a student in a foreign country with similar interests, and they communicate and work together on projects during the year. Ideally, the two students would have the opportunity to visit each other in their homes, and develop what could be a lifelong friendship.
In closing, he invited those who had not visited the school in the past few years to come and see the difference. All of the alumni who toured the school during the reunion were impressed by the huge steps forward taken by MHS recently. (Story by Tad Shaw and posting and photo by Steve Frazier)
There are a number of physical changes to the buildings and grounds, among them moving the tennis courts to behind the Pagel Center and increasing the parking area by about 120 spaces. The staff and student population on the campus is over 3,000 people each school day. 10% of the students attending MHS are from outside the school district under the state's open enrollment program. But he was more interested in talking about some recent curriculum changes.
Minnetonka is a pioneer in planning and presenting Better Health Education to the students. Instead of clumping all of the health issues into a one semester class for sophomores (the old traditional delivery), the curriculum now includes a number of blocks of time throughout the high school experience. David pointed out that this type of schedule allows the school to present the health-related subjects at the best time for each age group. It allows the school to react to incidents that occur with a proper and a timely response. A couple of examples he gave: when a student committed suicide, the staff could offer grief and anti-depression information to the students without delay; drug and alcohol information when appropriate; and assault and other crime information shortly after an incident has affected the students. No other school has a program like this, and many districts throughout the country are studying the program to begin implementing it.
Another new program is called Personal International Studies. Students who participate in the program are paired with a student in a foreign country with similar interests, and they communicate and work together on projects during the year. Ideally, the two students would have the opportunity to visit each other in their homes, and develop what could be a lifelong friendship.
In closing, he invited those who had not visited the school in the past few years to come and see the difference. All of the alumni who toured the school during the reunion were impressed by the huge steps forward taken by MHS recently. (Story by Tad Shaw and posting and photo by Steve Frazier)