Community Pulse: Morris High School’s year ends strong, fall planning underway.

The 2022-23 school year was a successful one for students at Morris Community High School! Our seniors earned more than $865,000 in scholarships for their post-high school education, and that number still is growing as additional awards are announced.

Many individuals and organizations in the Morris community contribute annually to these scholarships. Some scholarships are awarded by companies to students who are pursuing a degree in a certain field, while others are broader in their appeal. Many awards are in honor or memory of certain individuals. This list grows each year, and several of these awards are presented at our Honors Day program each May. We are truly fortunate to have so many generous donors in our community.

I occasionally hear from people who are interested in establishing such a scholarship. If this is something you would like to explore, we can help you create the application process and advise you on the criteria to use. Sometimes a scholarship has criteria that is too restrictive and therefore does not attract many applicants. This, of course, is up to the donor, but we can help you prioritize certain criteria while allowing for a broader pool of applicants. You can select the recipients yourself, or you can ask our internal scholarship committee to handle that process for you.

Several of our juniors and seniors are beginning internships with local businesses through the GEDC Summer Internship program. This successful program has become a model that other counties try to emulate. Not only do these internships allow our students to earn money, but they also introduce students to career opportunities available right here in Grundy County. Students are often invited back to continue their internship the following year or are even offered a permanent position. We are grateful to the organizations that participate in this program.

Our students’ level of involvement continues to be extraordinary, and this year was no exception. Students in many sports and organizations at MCHS have won dozens of invitational, conference, sectional, regional, and state awards. Even more important to me than the awards won is the feedback I receive from coaches, directors, and administrators in other districts who consistently praise our students’ character and behavior. We even hear this from other states when our students travel for contests or events.

With this school year complete, our attention now shifts to the fall, when we will welcome at least a dozen new faculty members in eight different departments. Seven of these positions are new or expanded positions. These teachers are very eager to get started, as several of them have been in recently to pick up materials and start planning. This bodes well for the future of our faculty, particularly during such an extreme nationwide shortage of educators.

I wish all of you an enjoyable and restful summer, and thank you for your support of MCHS!

Dr. Craig R. Ortiz

Superintendent of Morris Community High School District 101