FamiLEE Focus

#WeAreFamiLEE

2023-24 Week 21 - January 12, 2023

The Weekly Newsletter of Lee High School…

Where Great Things Are Happening!

Website: https://www.huntsvillecityschools.org/o/lhs
Phone: 256-428-8150
Facebook: facebook.com/leehighhsv
Twitter: @leehighhsv

Principal's Corner

Hello FamiLEE,

I hope everyone had a safe and peaceful day. Remember, we have the MLK Holiday on Monday, January 15, 2024.

I want to celebrate our students and teachers for a productive week. They have been working hard to master the necessary class skills. We will be ready for the ACT on April 9, 2024. Our goal is to grow a letter grade on our State Report Card.

Let's celebrate Ms. Kristy Thompson, LHS Teacher of the Year, and Ms. Brazola Smartt, LHS Support Staff of the Year, for all of their dedication and hard work to the FamiLEE. We love and appreciate you! Congratulations to our administrative assistant, Ms. Brazola Smartt!!! She won the Huntsville City Schools Secondary Support Staff of the Year. Thank you for representing our school well!

Please continue to help us increase our attendance daily percentage. We are still around 93%. We need to increase to 95%. It is very important for our students to be in class daily. We are really working on helping support our students so they will be successful on the ACT and for next steps in life.

Just a reminder that it is very important that students leave campus right after school everyday. Students should not be in the building after-school unless they have an after school activity. Club and activity sponsors will communicate all after-school activities with you.

If you need to send in absence excuses, please email lee.attendance@hsv-k12.org.

Have a great weekend!!!

Sincerely,

Kitrise Torain

LHS Principal

#GreatThingsHappeningAtLee

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Upcoming Events

Monday, January 15

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School

Tuesday, January 16

Wednesday, January 17

Assembly Schedule, No Zero Period
Basketball Pep Rally in the Gym, 3:00pm

Thursday, January 18

Meet The New Theatre Teacher / Theatre Parent Meeting in the Theatre: 6:30pm

Friday, January 19

JV Boys Basketball vs. Mae Jemison @ Mae Jemison: 4:30pm
JV Girls Basketball vs. Mae Jemison @ Mae Jemison: 4:30pm
Freshmen Boys Basketball vs. Mae Jemison @ Mae Jemison: 6:00pm
Varsity Girls Basketball vs. Mae Jemison @ Mae Jemison: 6:00pm
Varsity Boys Basketball vs. Mae Jemison @ Mae Jemison: 7:30pm

Next Week

Monday, 1/22

Tuesday, 1/23

Wednesday, 1/24

Thursday, 1/25

JV Girls Basketball vs. Guntersville @ Lee: 4:30pm
Varsity Girls Basketball vs. Guntersville @ Lee: 6:00pm

Friday, 1/26

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Attendance

Attention FamiLEE! One of our 2023-24 goals is to keep our overall attendance rate at 95% or higher for the entire school year. We were at 92.56% last week are currently at 93.46% for the year. We need your help to continue to improve and reach our goal! Attendance is one of the most important factors that influences how students do in school, and we need each student with us at school every day!!!

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Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the following students who have birthdays this week!

Monday, 1/15 - Kayden Martz-Kushnaw and Hunter Wooten
Tuesday, 1/16 - William Dabney, Killian Hopper, and Deonquay Walton.

Wednesday, 1/17 - Khaleyah Jones-Odeh

Thursday, 1/18 - Philip McCrimon, Solomon Powell, Logan Pryor
Saturday, 1/20 - Emily Tegantvoort and Ezekiel McFarland-Dillard
Sunday, 1/21 - Alyse McCall

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Weekly Announcements & Updates

*Due to the threat of winter weather on Monday, our annual MLK Challenge Day of Service has been cancelled.

*Attention Seniors! Senior Portraits need to be taken at Prestige if you have not already had them done. Please call 855-918-2930 to make an appointment or click this link.

*Yearbooks are on sale now! Now - January 10th the price is $40 for standard and $45 for Personalized. January 11th -March 30th the cost is $45 for standard and $50 for personalized

The deadline to order is March 30th. Order online only on MySchoolFees.

*Check student fees online! LHS student fees can be viewed and paid online anytime by visiting https://secure3.myschoolfees.com select AL-HUNTSVILLE CITY-LEE HIGH, and register as a New User. You will need your student’s PowerSchool ID Number. You may also pay by cash or check at the school. Remember to check fees periodically for any changes that may occur. If you need help or have any questions, please contact our Bookkeeper at 256-428-8150 or by email at tamala.swopes@hsv-k12.org.

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Shout-Outs

Lee High School would like to congratulate our administrative assistant, Ms. Risha Smartt, for being recognized as the Huntsville City Schools secondary support person of the year. She was recognized along with our teacher of the year, Ms. Kristy Thompson, at Thursday‘s Huntsville City Schools award ceremony. We also want to shout-out our SGA vice president, Jael Michaels, for opening the ceremony, our choir teacher, Ashley Daniel, and her students for singing the national anthem, our JROTC students for presenting the colors, and our assistant band director, Mr. I’Endai Minor from Morris Middle School, for receiving the HCS middle school teacher of the year!
Shout-out to our Teachers of the Week from last week, Ms. Pippin and Mr. Mitchell!

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Magnet Corner

Upcoming Events

Little Mermaid and Antigone Now Open Design Workshop

Tues Jan 16th 3:40 - 6:00
Thur Jan 18th 3:40 - 6:00

Little Mermaid Rehearsal Calendar: Little Mermaid Rehearsal Schedule
Antigone Rehearsal Start Jan. 22nd. Rehearsal Calendar: Antigone Now Rehearsal Calendar.pdf

Parent Volunteer Opportunities

Parents! If your student has been cast in Little Mermaid or Antigone Now, please join our show-only Group Me to get the latest information on rehearsal, promotion, and volunteer needs!
GroupMe Antigone Now- All Cast & Crew, Parents welcome. Click here to join: https://groupme.com/join_group/98362408/PtyCjXmW

GroupMe Little Mermaid- All Cast & Crew, Parents welcome. Click here to join: https://groupme.com/join_group/98362424/dA1Tb22O

From the Desk of the Magnet Directors

Vocal Magnet Director- Ms. Daniel

The year has started off in full speed. Students are spread out between Show Choir, Musical Theatre, and our Music Theory/Composition Class.

In Class (Musical Theatre/Show Choir)

Students have written monologues
Created mini musicals in groups
Learned choreography as a class
Introduction to “Under the Sea”
Discussed the Spring performance calendar and the Spring Musical Calendar

In Class (Music Theory/ Composition)

Introduced/Reviewing Key Signatures
Introduced Noteflight and discussed programs such as Band Lab
Connecting Chord Progressions to Everyday popular songs
Intro to Piano- Students are learning their scales. We discuss both Major and Minor Scales the differences and similarities and how to make both.
Students are learning the chord progressions to one of their favorite songs. Chord Inversions and how are used in composing songs.

Other Updates:

Wishing Good Luck to our students auditioning for All State Show Choir on Thursday!
Excited for our ensemble that will perform the National Anthem at The District Awards Ceremony.
We also have 8 wonderful students that will perform for the State Honor Choir for our Alabama Music Educators Association Conference!
CONGRATULATIONS TO LEEYA SHOULDERS FOR BEING ACCEPTED INTO AMDA COLLEGE OF PERFORMING ARTS! SHE ALSO RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP OFFER! CONGRATULATIONS MS. SHOULDERS!

Instrumental Director- Mr. Pearson

Greetings and Happy New Year! As we entered Winter Break, members of the String Ensemble participated with other string students from around the area to form the Urban Strings. They performed a short recital at the Maitland Music Conservatory Winter Recital. It was a PACKED house!
Now moving forward into the new year, our magnet students are gearing up for All-State auditions which will be held Friday, January 26 at Sparkman High School. As we prepare, we are blessed to have former band director Mr. Bob Baccus (1971-84) volunteering with our French Horns and Mrs. Ariel Owens volunteering with our trombones and baritone.

Director of Technical Theatre- Ms. Campolongo

Hello! This past week we have been focusing on preparing our spaces for our upcoming shows. We’ve reclaimed some storage and repainted the stage. This week, we are focusing on advancing our drafting and building skills, and advanced design students are learning how to use the CAD program Vectorworks. We will be designing for Little Mermaid and Antigone now. After school workshops will happen this upcoming Tuesday and Thursday from 3:40 - 6:00. Students wanting to get a head start on hours can further help with maintenance and inventory work. Please know that syllabus packets have gone home with 4 separate documents that needed to be signed by students and parents. They are the syllabus, Personal Electronics Policy, Extra Curricular hours, and Tool Waiver. Excited for the week!!

Dance Magnet Director- Mrs. Hunkapillar

2024 has started off wonderfully!!! I am very proud and excited about the kids and the things they are working on! We have started with new choreography for performances this semester. Major company will be performing in a Black History Celebration program at Trinity United Methodist Church in February. More details will be given closer to time.
DME auditions for new students will be January 18 and make-up day is January 23.
Dates for our spring concert are April 25 and 26 so you can put these in your calendar. Tech week will begin Monday, April 22.
The form for extra curricular magnet hours is still located in their DME schoology group (not course). The dancers will need to start keeping track of these hours for this semester. All seniors will need to have a choreography section in their dance journals/notebooks for their student projects. This is part of their final exam and it is very important to keep up with all aspects of their choreography process.
Also, The Little Mermaid has started in full force with rehearsals this week. I wanted to congratulate all the students that will be performing in the musical. We have several DME Dancers that have lead roles in the performance and several other DME dancers will perform with the ensemble as well!!! Congratulations to our talented FamiLee!
Let’s have a great semester! As always, if you have any questions, please reach out-email, DM, or phone call!

Creative Writing Magnet Director- Ms. Sisson

We have started our second semester off with a bang! Tuesday, 1/9/24, was our Lee and New Century Poetry Out Loud Competition in the Black Box Theater! Fourteen of the authors participated in three different categories: Anthology, Original, and Social Justice. Each author had to memorize and recite two poems in front of the judges. The first, second, and third place winners will advance to the regional competition in Decatur on 2/9/24. They are also invited to attend a workshop on 1/26/24 to work with professional poets in preparation for the regional competition. All fourteen students performed beautifully! The eight who are advancing to regionals are:
ANTHOLOGY: 1st – Louise Block, 2nd – Raymond Kendrick, 3rd – Sam Copeland
ORIGINAL: 1st - Aliyah Potter, 2nd – Anna Rhea McCombs, 3rd – Bella Smith
SOCIAL JUSTICE: 1st – Destini Appleton. 2nd – Max Beck
On 1/11/24, we got the news that we won Superior from the National Council of Teachers of English for HarmoniousLee Vol. IX! The authors worked so very hard, and I could not be any more proud of them!
We are now in the HarmoniousLee Literary Magazine Vol. X submission voting process. We received many submissions from students throughout the building, and we could not be more excited! Stay tuned for updates and pictures on the process!

Film and Video Director/Theatre Magnet (Interim)- Mr. Lee

With a new semester comes new opportunities! For the month of January, Intermedia Design II is teaming up with our Theatre Management Magnet classes to design Live Performance pieces with a Multimedia Element. This is an exciting new trend in theatre and performance art and has been the standard for big touring shows and concerts for years. It is also frequently being used in Museums and touring interactive shows. We want to stay as current and relevant to industry expectations as possible. Students are still in the planning phase but are excited for a new and very different challenge. Sequential Images I and II will be running their own youtube channels for the next 8 weeks focusing on a variety of topics and styles as well as practicing collaboration and marketing. Essentials in Filmmaking and Acting for the Camera will begin planning and producing a conversational scene. This 9 weeks, we will focus on storytelling exercises and editing skills to prepare for our short film project next 9 weeks. The second semester is an exciting time as we start work on our big stage productions and cumulative projects! We always hit the ground running. Watch this space for updates and previews of the content we are creating.