Magnolia High School

MHS STUDENTS ATTEND EAST CONFERECE 2021 Each spring, more than 3,500 students, teachers, parents, and community and business leaders attend the largest EAST event of the year, EAST Conference. This year’s theme, Homecoming, is about celebrating 25 years of students from various talents coming together to network with other students, share stories and ideas, and showcase projects that inspire change within their communities. Due to Covid-19 guidelines, this year’s conference was held virtually. Brister Baptist Church was gracious enough to allow the students to use their fellowship hall to set up their conference booth and provided wi-fi for the team to attend classes/sessions virtually.

PITTMAN SELECTED MHS TEACHER OF THE YEAR Magnolia High School Spanish instructor, Mercedes Pittman, was selected as the campus 2021 Teacher of the Year. As a young woman born in Chillán, Chile, Mercedes Pittman learned to value education and to this day considers it a privilege. In 1991, with limited English language skills, family friends offered to sponsor her, and Mercedes came to the United States on an adventure that would last a lifetime. Early on, Mercedes sat in classes at Southern Arkansas University just to become a better English speaker. She also worked as a Certified Nurse Assistant at Magnolia Hospital while volunteering in the Magnolia Hispanic community to translate for medical and legal appointments. Through determination and hard work, she later entered Southern Arkansas University on an academic scholarship, eventually graduating with a Spanish major and Social Work minor. She later went through the naturalization process and became a citizen of the United States. Mercedes taught in El Dorado and Camden before coming to Magnolia High School in 2006. She continues to tutor university and high school students in Spanish and helps Hispanic parents who cannot speak English in school-related meetings. At Magnolia High School, Mercedes teaches with passion and loves students as her own, even those who are not in her classes. She tries to motivate students to take advantage of every opportunity to learn things and better themselves. Mercedes frequently says, “Kick-it baby,” and the phrase has become a school-wide euphemism for “do your best!” She shares the culture of Chile and the Spanish-speaking countries of the world in a way she hopes fosters understanding and tolerance of diversity. Mercedes serves as the MHS Foreign Language Department Chair and is an active fan of school sports. She is the Panther Band “mom” to hundreds of musicians and can be seen at every football game, both home and away, holding instruments or pinning up girls’ hair. She also sponsors a student-led Christian group, Chosen Generation Youth Fellowship. Mercedes meets with the group twice a week after school to prepare music and messages for their meetings on Wednesdays at 7:15 a.m. Mercedes is married to Jay Pittman, and together they have two grown children. Both children are graduates of Magnolia High School. Their son Jay has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biophysics, and their daughter Pristine is currently in medical school. Mercedes is a long-time member of the First Baptist Church of Magnolia and serves as a choir member. She is also a member of the Arkansas Foreign Language Teacher’s Association. In her spare time, Mercedes enjoys cooking, singing, entertaining, and ping-pong.

Reminder: 9th and 10th grade students will be taking the ACT Aspire test tomorrow, April 13th, AND next week, April 20th! Students need to bring charged laptops (and chargers) to school tomorrow!

Magnolia School District will host its annual District-wide art show in the Panther Arena May 5-8. This year’s theme is “An Appetite for ART” and the community is cordially invited to attend the exhibition. Art will be included from all district campuses. You do not want to miss it! Come and support the visual arts of Magnolia School District! Students will be visiting May 5-6 during school hours. The art show will be open to the public May 5 and May 6 from 3:30-5 pm, May 7 from 10 am-5 PM, and May 8 from 10 am-2 pm. This year, 2021 Magnolia District Art Show T-shirts will also be sold. Money raised from the T-shirt sales will help support the art students and will go towards the cost of putting on this year’s art show. Anyone wishing to order a T-shirt should print and fill out the order form, then turn it in to a campus art teacher along with cash or check. All orders need to be turned in by April 21. Checks should be made out to Magnolia Art Club. Click below for a T-shirt order form https://5il.co/rfqk

Magnolia School District will host its annual District-wide art show in the Panther Arena May 5-8. This year’s theme is “An Appetite for ART” and the community is cordially invited to attend the exhibition. Art will be included from all district campuses. You do not want to miss it! Come and support the visual arts of Magnolia School District! Students will be visiting May 5-6 during school hours. The art show will be open to the public May 5 and May 6 from 3:30-5 pm, May 7 from 10 am-5 PM, and May 8 from 10 am-2 pm. This year, 2021 Magnolia District Art Show T-shirts will also be sold. Money raised from the T-shirt sales will help support the art students and will go towards the cost of putting on this year’s art show. Anyone wishing to order a T-shirt should print and fill out the order form, then turn it in to a campus art teacher along with cash or check. All orders need to be turned in by April 21. Checks should be made out to Magnolia Art Club Click below for a T-shirt order form https://5il.co/rfqk

Follow the link to PanthersTV to watch the Magnolia Trap Team compete in Panther Shoot on Saturday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl9G59Z4qww

Tristan Malone, MHS Senior and Teacher Cadet, teaches a Math lesson on place value using tens and ones to Mrs. Jarvis’s 1st grade class at Eastside Elementary.

ZACKERY RECEIVES SAU TRACK SCHOLARSHIP Magnolia High School senior, Jakamron Zackery, recently signed a letter of intent from the Southern Arkansas University track program and will be throwing the shot and discus for the Muleriders next school year. Jakamron has earned many accolades while competing for the MHS Panther track team. In 2019, he placed second in the discus at the 4A State Track Meet and placed seventh in the Meet of Champs. During the 2020 season, he placed first in the discus at the SAU Relays, Hog Relays, and Wolf Relays and placed third in the shot put at the Hog Relays. Jakamron was also a member of the 2020 4A state champion team. This year, Jakamron has placed first in the discus at the Hog Relays, Wolf Relays, Oil Belt Relays, and Panther Relays. At the Oil Belt Relays, Jakamron set a personal record in the discus with a throw of 160’ 6”. He also placed second in the shot put at the Oil Belt Relays and Panther Relays and placed third at the Hog Relays.

MHS PLANS COVID-19 VACCINE CLINIC Magnolia High School is planning a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for eligible students at Magnolia High School on April 8, 2021 beginning at 9:00 a.m. in Panther Arena. Students must be 16 or older by April 8, 2021 to receive the vaccine. Eligible students will receive DOSE 1 of the Pfizer vaccine. The second dose will be given at the appropriate time in a future clinic. Consent forms will be sent home with students and must be completed (front and back) and signed by a parent or guardian. The completed forms must be returned to the campus nurse by Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Forms are also available at the high school front office and on the district website. For questions, please call 870 901-2547.

Magnolia READS Kick-off On Monday, April 5, students at East Side and Central Elementary Schools will once again embark on a special project, an all-school book club and financial literacy project. For the past three years, this enterprise has been called One District, One Book. The theme for this year’s event is Magnolia READS. The acronym READS stands for Reading Empowers All District Students. While students at the elementary schools will read the book, middle and high school students will also be involved in this project. Each kindergarten through fifth grade family will receive a copy of the same book—Billy Sure, Kid Entrepreneur by Luke Sharpe. Families are encouraged to make time to participate in this fun and worthwhile family activity. Reading aloud at home with your children is a valuable experience that better prepares your child to be an effective reader. For the second year, Farmers Bank & Trust Co. is collaborating with the District on the Magnolia READS project. Farmers purchased the book Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur for all the students and staff in grades K-5. Economics Arkansas also partnered in the project. They helped supply the students and staff with resources to use while reading Billy Sure. Angie Saldana, a senior at Magnolia High School, designed the Magnolia READS logo. Angie is a student in Advanced Placement 2D Art. She is the daughter of Irma and Damian Saldana. The District extends our deepest appreciation to Farmers Bank & Trust for the donation to purchase the Magnolia READS books and materials, Economics Arkansas for supplying the supplemental resources, and Angie Saldana for designing the Magnolia READS logo.

MHS Teacher Cadets, West Hagaman, James Smith, Zachary Heathman, and Imanol Guzman, participated in Central Elementary’s “Twin Day” to encourage students to “Team Up to Score Big” on the ACT Aspire!

All power back on. All campuses will be open. We apologize for inconvenience.

All power back on. All campuses will be open. We apologize for inconvenience.

Due to large power outage, Central Elementary school and Magnolia Middle school will be closed today. Magnolia High school, East side, kindergarten and Walker will remain open.

BRANTLEY RECEIVES SOUTHARK BASKETBALL SCHOLARSHIP Magnolia High School senior, Keshunti Brantley, recently received and signed a letter-of-intent to play basketball for South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado. The power forward will begin playing for the Southark Stars during the 2021-22 academic year. During Keshunti’s career with the Lady Panthers, she earned All-Conference honors three years and was selected as an All-State player one year. She was the leading scorer and rebounder for two years while at MHS and was voted the MVP Offensive Player during the 2019-20 basketball season.

Magnolia High will soon be opening Panther Pantry for students to get food and toiletries whenever they need them. We're starting with a special request for current, trendy prom dresses. If you have a recent special occasion dress you no longer need, consider donating it for a high school student to shop through and possibly wear to prom. We are also asking for local businesses to donate gift certificates for things like hair, nails, makeup, tux rentals, flowers, etc. If you're interested in making someone's prom dreams come true, email PantherPantry@magnoliaschools.net. Formals can be dropped off at the Freshman Academy front office. Ask for Norma Smith.

It’s GAME DAY Panther fans Magnolia goes up against Morrilton today at 1:00pm in the semi-finals of the State Basketball Championship! #BRINGEMOUT Watch LIVE on PanthersTV! https://youtu.be/VxSrgByTRmE

Our Panthers are headed to the State Tournament Semi-Finals! The game will be Saturday, March 13th @1:00pm in Morrilton, AR To purchase tickets for Thursday’s game click the link below: https://gofan.co/app/events/248341# Due to COVID tickets are limited, so order today. There are 575 tickets allotted for Magnolia at the above link. Unsold tickets will be available to the public around 3PM the day before the game. If you're planning on going, I'd go ahead and get tickets NOW as they are likely to sell fast! #PANTHERNATION

Magnolia School District 2021-2022 School Calendar

MHS FRESHMAN ACADEMY HOLDS 9TH GRADE SCIENCE FAIR The first annual Magnolia High School Freshman Academy Science Fair was held on March 3, 2021. Prior to grade reconfiguration, this 9th grade science fair was held for decades on the campus of Magnolia Junior High School. The 2021 Overall Winner was Chloe Kelley with her project, “Clean Environment“. Chloe is the daughter of Tracey and Andrew Woolfley. The Overall Runner-up Winner was Landon Chandler with his project, “Covid Vaccine Side Effects“. Landon is the son of Anna and Brandon Chandler. All category-winning students will be eligible for the Regional Science Fair held at Southern Arkansas University on March 12. Category Winners Include Biology 1st – Jacqueline Padron 2nd – Brianna Cottrell 3rd – Jaleigh Wylie Medicine and Health 1st – Landon Chandler 2nd – Tiffany Lopez 3rd – Kenysiah Lambert Physical Science 1st – Zoe Taylor 2nd – Kelsey McKamie 3rd – Cameron Click 3rd – Stacie Pate Math and Engineering 1st – Landry Carter 2nd – Shakyria Thompson 3rd – Elaina Reeves Earth and Environmental 1st – Chloe Kelley 2nd – Connor McWilliams 3rd – Ja’Quavious Ross Team 1st – Ashley Sanner and Angela Baxley 2nd – Carlie Dixon and Ava McWilliams 3rd – Jer’Miracle Joiner and Samya Williams