Good morning!!! Wednesday your students will receive their repor t cards. Information for scheduling conferences is found below. Congratulations to all of you who had students make the honor roll. They could not have done it without your support.

I will be holding my Principal’s Coffee this coming Thursday, January 31st, at 8:00 a.m. in the Student Dining Center. Please join me for great conversation.

The following information is being provided to help keep you informed. Have a great week.

· Congratulations

Congratulations to Ms. Hobbs for being selected as the Teacher of the Year by the Senior Class!!!

Bravo to the Girls’ Indoor Track Team for winning the County meet on Saturday!!! Boys also did well, coming in 3rd!!! Go Hawks!!

Kudos to the River Hill JV Cheerleaders who won 1st place in the JV division at the Howard County Invitational this past Saturday evening. Go Hawks!!!

Wow!! Our Poms won again!! They took first place in the Short Pom and Jazz Competition and second in the Hip Hop competition!!

Today, Howard County’s Executive Ken Ulman and Baltimore County’s Executive Jim Smith taught a Leadership/Government class and had lunch with our State Championship Football team. This was all part of a challenge made between the Executives prior to the big game. Go Hawks!!!

Congratulations to these students as winners not only at our school, but now at the Howard County level. Their entries will be continuing on at Maryland State Reflections level. These winners are invited with their families to the Howard County Reflection Awards night on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008 at 7 pm at Faulkner Ridge Center, 10598 Marble Faun Ct. Columbia. The entries are available for viewing at 7 pm with the awards being given at 7:30. Again, congratulations from the Reflection Committee.

Literature: Max Cowan

Visual Arts: Stephanie He, Brooks Gabel

Photography: Erin Hanrahan

Music: Cassandra Winkert, Tina Meng

Film/Video: Jefferson Freeman, Scott Mantua

· Science Olympiad

The Science Olympiad is a National organization that provides invitational, regional, state, and national tournaments. The rigorous academic interscholastic competitions consist of a series of individual and team events between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, and technology.

The purpose of a Science Olympiad team is to motivate students to expand th eir knowledge and competence in science and technology and increase their insight into the investigative process by enabling them to "do" science through hands-on and inquiry-based exploration.

The River Hill High School Science Olympiad Team competed in their first Invitational Tournament January 26, 2008 at the George Washington University and placed in eight events. The 25 team members competed for over eight hours against thirty schools.

In preparation for their events they have been working closely with their teachers. Math teachers like Mr. Demaree, science teachers like Ms. Jewett, Ms. Chamness, Ms. Martin, Mr. Dibler and the engineering teacher, Mr. Ryan are just some of the teachers helping the team members at lunch, before and after school.

The Olympiad team competes in another Invitational in Virginia in February and then competes at States at John Hopkins University on April 5, 2008. If they qualify at States they then will return to The George Washington University May 30 and 31 to compete at the National level.

Congratulations to the entire River Hill Science Olympiad Team and the ind ividual team medal winners:

1st Place in Disease Detective: Matthew Beck & Emily Gerry

2nd Place in Protein Folding: Wande Osoba & Merina Elahi

3rd Place in Chemistry Lab: Steven Qian & Stephen Zhu

3rd Place in Herpetology: Tyler Hannan

4th Place in Cellular Biology: Matthew Beck & Wande Osoba

4th Place in Junkyard Challenge: Richard Li & Harish Lall

5th Place in Write it Do it: Xrene Xue & Stephanie He

6th Place in Physics Lab: Jing Wang & Melissa Byun

· Obtaining a Maryland Learner’s Permit

Maryland law now requires all applicants under the age of 16 for a driver learner’s permit to show a minimum level of school attendance. The student obtains an original form DL-300 from the MVA and completes the top portion of form before submitting to the Attendance Clerk for verification of the accuracy of information and certification of attendance. The Attendance Clerk will certify the attendance on the form and sign her name and title and have the form stamped with the official school stamp. The form is placed in a sealed envelope with the school stamp over the flap before being given to the student. This envelope cannot be opened by anyone but the MVA. Allow 3-5 days for processing at River Hill. Note that if you open the envelope, the processing time will begin again.

· Children’s Cancer Bowl-a-Thon

Attention NHS students and parents: The Cancer Bowl-a-Thon has been rescheduled for February 7th from 1 - 3 p.m. Bowling will take place at Brunswick Zone Normandy on Route 40. If your child has signed up, but not yet paid to bowl, please have them see Mrs. Shannon in room 145 with their $5 fee as soon as possible.

· GUIDANCE UPDATE

Parent Conference Information

River Hill will hold conferences Wednesday, 2/6 and Thursday 2/7 from 5-8pm. They will also be held all day Friday, 2/8. We will be using the internet based program Pick-A-Time to schedule conferences with our teachers. Conference schedules vary teacher by teacher. The program will be turned on 1/29 at 12:00 noon and turned off 2/4 at 12:00 noon. In order to access this program, please go to www.hcpss.org/rhhs and look on the opening page for the link. Instructions for using this program can also be found on the website.

Attention Seniors: The Guidance Office has received applications for the Maryland Higher Education Commission Guaranteed Access Grants. To receive one of these grants students must complete the FAFSA form by March 1, 2008. Students also must have a 2.5 grade point average and financial need. The financial need is based on the following table:

Family size Total Family Income

1 $13,273

2 17, 797

3 22, 321

4 26,845

5 31,369

6 35,893

7 40,471

8 44,941

SAT Subject Tests

Who should take the SAT Subject Tests? Students who are planning to apply to a most competitive college that requires them, i.e. Cornell, JHU, Georgetown, Duke, Stanford. Students currently enrolled in Algebra 2 G/T, Precalculus G/T, Biology G/T, Chemistry G/T, Physics G/T, United States History G/T, World History AP/G/T, English 11 G/T, and the 3rd or 4th year of a World Language should consider taking an SAT Subject Test. Please contact your child’s counselor for the specific exam your child should take.Regitration for the SAT Subject Tests is through www.CollegeBoard.com