McKinley Senior

Last year the staff of McKinley High School spent a lot of time preparing for this year. We anticipated that it would be a difficult year as the needs of our students grew over the pandemic. As this year begins, we are confident that some of this planning has allowed us to create programs that intentionally help our students in three key areas: academics, engagement and community. Over the last 18 months, we at McKinley have faced unprecedented challenges that have required us to think about our practices in innovative ways to meet the needs of our students. And while we anticipate the effects of the pandemic will continue to impact our students, we will continue to respond to those needs with creativity and intentional planning. We are confident the programs and opportunities we’ve designed for the 2021-2022 school year will support our students academically, increase their engagement in many of our extracurricular opportunities and ensure we all stay connected as a community. As a school, we always start with academics. McKinley now boasts dedicated time to allow students to be tutored at any time of day in both math and English by content specialists. Along with our writing and math labs, we have equipped every student with a support period we call Academic Assist. In Academic Assist, teachers will support students both academically and check in on them for their attendance and credit needs. On top of this, we have also assigned teachers to small groups of students, asking them to check in with those students’ parents about what academic and social/emotional needs their students may have. As we move forward, we will also be offering a variety of after-school programming including tutoring, credit recovery and athletic study tables. Academics is not our only focus. We also want to engage our students in all things McKinley. Outside of all the athletic programs we proudly support, McKinley High School boasts some of the best programs available in Stark County, such as our nationally recognized speech and debate team. Students can also participate in our Pep Club, National Honors Society, SAFE Zone, Chess Club, International Club, Band, Choir, and our brand new Interact Club, just to name a few. We have purposely developed a host of engagement activities to reconnect our students to our proud history. Speaking of reconnecting, on 13 Wednesdays throughout the year, we have organized a special day when students can connect with their school and teachers in a different way by signing up for an array of opportunities throughout the day. Students who would like to participate in our clubs during the traditional school day, or may be interested in pursuing a personal passion, will certainly welcome Reconnect Wednesdays! Over the course of 13 Reconnect Wednesdays, McKinley students will have an opportunity to take a deeper dive into their personal interests and connect with their teachers in a unique way. Every quarter, students will be encouraged to register for two personal interest courses (or clubs) taught by none other than our CCS teachers during Reconnect Wednesdays. Finally, and at the heart of everything we do, we want to connect with our community. As stated above, we are planning to be purposeful about connecting with our families with our mentorship program, connecting with the community through our Reconnect days, and connect with our community through our Family and Support specialist. We have already raised money and school supplies with our Stuff the Bus program and we intend to do much more. Our goal... be an answer in a very difficult time. In addition, we are excited to welcome many guest speakers like Rodney Dennis, a local barber and Barber College Owner, who will be visiting us for a program called Cuts and Conversation. Our guest teacher, Andrea McCormick of Cleveland, is a professional artist-in-residency that will be joining us two days per week throughout the year, an opportunity provided through the Teach Arts Ohio Grant - A Year in the Life - Musical Theatre! In a few short weeks, our CTE students will be resuming their on-site work experiences and we can’t wait to welcome our community guests back to the All-City Grille in November when we open. We don’t mind saying it’s still the best smokehouse burger in town! At McKinley, we are ready to help our students not only get back to some sense of normalcy, but more importantly, to rise above the challenges we’ve faced over the last year and a half. We are the McKinley Bulldogs! We are prepared and we are #ReadytoRise.

Stuff the Bus