Dear North Harrison Students & Families:

Welcome to North Harrison High School for the 2009-2010 school year! This promises to be an exciting time in the life of our school, and you will be playing a vital role as our school family continues to change in important ways.

Privilege with Responsibility – “The Shamrock Way”

Throughout this school year you will hear a lot about “The Shamrock Way,” a philosophy based on the Boys Town Model www.bovstown.org. The Shamrock Way supports and rewards positive behavior, sets clear expectations, and helps students be successful in the classroom and in any setting. This philosophy is based on the premise of privilege with responsibility. Those students who take personal responsibility for maintaining a safe, positive, and respectful environment will enjoy a wide range of privileges and recognition. As in life, however, privilege comes with responsibility. Our goal is to help students learn to make good decisions, to take responsibility for those decisions, and ultimately to become good citizens within our community.

Ensuring a safe, positive, and respectful atmosphere is a major goal of our school district. We believe every student and staff member is entitled to safety in a school with a tone of decency and respect. We pride ourselves at North Harrison in our great reputation for excellence, which begins with taking personal responsibility for our decisions and our actions.

Throughout this school year we will focus on teaching and reinforcing a set of key life skills, including:

* Following Instructions

* Accepting Feedback/Redirection/Consequences

* Accepting 'No' for an Answer

* Getting the Teacher's Attention

* Disagreeing Appropriately

* Making an Apology

These simple skills comprise the foundation of the safe, positive, and respectful atmosphere that will set the tone for our school year. If students, teachers, administrators, staff, and community patrons practice these skills, we will all enjoy a wonderful school year.

In addition, as a small school, we are confident that we can better personalize learning for all students. We also know that becoming a responsible citizen includes becoming a self-advocate—that is, for a student to speak up respectfully and take appropriate action in support of himself or herself. It also means getting involved in school activities by participating in and attending school events. Involvement in school is an important factor in student success, as we know that it will help you feel part of our community and experience more pride in being a North Harrison Shamrock.

As we head into this new school year, I also want to emphasize the importance of open communication. If we are to continue to improve as a school and as a community, it is important for North Harrison to share information and for us to listen to the concerns of students, parents, and community members. This handbook communicates many important guidelines and procedures for how we work together as well as some of the philosophical beliefs in which those guidelines and procedures are grounded. Please take the time to read through this handbook and become familiar with its contents. Please also be sure to contact us at North Harrison if you ever have questions or comments. We are here for you... We are here to educate our students to become responsible citizens and lifelong learners in a changing world!

Best wishes for a wonderful 2009-2010... your best school year yet!