(continued from page 21- SThe Story of Mountainside High School) the effects that the school shutdown had on our students, we have also implemented the Leader in Me program, which is designed to use Covey’s 7 Habits to address students’ social, emotional, and academic requirements. Through Leader in Me, students are taught leadership skills that help develop a culture of student empowerment, resulting in a system that drives academic results. To help further and support these gains, we have included our students in decision-making processes, everything from determining our school identity, to developing opportunities to set school traditions. Though the majority of our students opted for in-person blended learning, we as a school also work to keep connected with our online students. We do so through frequent communication as well as by surveying their interests and wants to include their voice in our decision-making and planning processes. Our goal is to ensure that when and if our online students chose to attend in-person that they will make a smooth transition to the school that they helped to design. Whether students chose to learn in-person or online, they are all MHS students and we collectively hold a high honor in being chosen by them to serve their educational needs. It is a responsibility that we look forward to meeting. We also look forward to all of the possibilities that the future holds for MHS as we work together with our students, staff, parents, and community to create the best high school experience. As Nadaburg Unified School District’s (NUSD) first high school, MHS has been a longtime in the making and marks an important milestone, not just for the district, but also for the community. Though NUSD resides in what most consider to be a rural town, the Wittmann community is growing with several planned communities to develop into one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Though COVID-19 posed unique challenges to opening MHS, it also presented the opportunity for us to reimagine and redefine what a 21st century education looks like, keeping the goal of doing what’s best for students front and center. As we look to the future, we have many more milestones to reach, from developing all of MHS’ high school traditions to the building of our comprehensive high school site. In doing so, we are excited at all the opportunities that will be afforded to our students along the way and how their voice will shape MHS. After 100 years since NUSD’s first school (the Little Red School House was built in 1920), to the opening of the first high school this past fall, MHS represents possibility in impossible circumstances. MHS exists because it overcame many obstacles, from legislation to bond passage to a global pandemic. It is this spirit of resilience and determination that we see in many of our students and epitomizes our campus, district, staff, and community that makes MHS such a success. Ribbon-cutting: A historic day! “Stronger Together!” Page 24
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