Welcome back, IHS Students! I hope you had a relaxing summer and are ready for an exciting year. As many of you know already, Independence High is my alma mater. I am extremely proud to be a lifelong “Tiger” fan and want to bring that same “Tiger” pride back to our school. I am thrilled to be your Principal, your leader. I want to be at Independence High School; this school is my first choice-you are my first choice!

We have some amazing things planned for you this year. The Faculty and Staff have been working very hard to pep things up. It is our goal to provide you with a positive learning environment coupled with numerous leadership opportunities. For starters, your classrooms will look different. The desks will be arranged to promote both cooperative and collaborative work with your peers, which is an important twenty-first century skill. Another positive change we’re making is the opportunity to become a student ambassador as a member of the Assistant Principal’s Ambassadors or APA Club. This is a very prestigious leadership position within the school. In order to become a student leader, you must complete an application and be chosen by the staff. You will lead activities at our school and represent us in the community. A third positive change you will see this year is our new BYOD or Bring Your Own Device policy. Technology is here, not likely to ever go away, and quite frankly, a staple in your lives. Therefore, we are going to embrace it, with conditions of course, and use this twenty-first century technology to enhance the learning environment in the school. With the teacher’s discretion, you will be using technology on your own device to complete assignments in class. This is a very progressive move and we are ready to bring Independence High School into the digital world!

Certainly school would not be school without rules. However, I’d like you to take a more positive approach to rules. Rules are necessary to promote a positive learning environment. I want you to feel safe at school and to be given the best opportunity to learn so that you can pass all of the rigorous requirements in order to graduate on time. We want you to succeed; that’s our selling point! When you leave Independence High School, you will enter the workforce and there will be rules again…rules about how to dress, how to conduct yourself, where you can park, when you can text, and so on. Rules are not limited to school and we want you to be prepared to be competitive in the job market.

As we embark on this journey together, I want you to know that YOU MATTER. Although you might not always like the decisions I make in your best interest, I will make decisions to improve our school, to improve the academic program at our school so that you will have more opportunities for success as adults. YOU MATTER will be one of my slogans this year. My whole purpose for being is so that YOU GRADUATE because YOU MATTER. Let’s begin this journey to your graduation together.

I’m looking forward to a fabulous year!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Collier

Principal

Independence High School

“Leaders serve others, not themselves.”