Letters | Look back on Mount Si, Principal Taylor’s accomplishments
Published 8:34 am Wednesday, June 22, 2011
As Mount Si High School prepares to welcome a new principal, a look back at its many successes seems particularly appropriate.
Advancement Placement and Honors classes are now available for everyone to enroll in at MSHS. Our high school students are eligible to receive college credit for over 206 courses based on their AP exam scores.
The ACT standardized test scores have risen steadily over the past six years, far outstripping the rise in the state as a whole. In 2010, MSHS scores averaged 25.2 compared to 23.0 for the State and 21.0 for the nation. Our 2010 average SAT score was 1654, up about 50 points from 2006, and well above the state average of 1564 and the nNational average of 1059. Most importantly, the percentage of MSHS students enrolled in college the fall immediately following graduation has increased from a low of 43 percent in 2005 to a high of 69 percent in 2010.
As my third child prepares to graduate from Mount Si High School, we are celebrating her successes which mirror so many of the students there. She has completed five AP classes, including AP Japanese. We have hosted three Japanese exchange students, travelled to Japan and India, sung with the Honors Choirs at Disneyworld, and participated in field trips and many other enrichment opportunities too numerous to list. Each May, the PTSA hosts the Festival of the Arts to recognize and celebrate the artistic talents of the students at Mount Si for photography, horticulture design, painting, ceramics, music, and culinary arts.
At Mount Si, there are opportunities for everyone who chooses to embrace them. Randy Taylor and the MSHS Staff should be commended for their hard work during the past six years. Let’s start noticing the good things happening there. There is always room for improvement, but, as every principal candidate commented, MSHS is already a good school, and thanks to Mr. Taylor and the staff, it’s ready to move to the next level and become a great one.
Liz Piekarczyk
Snoqualmie
