Good morning. I am the principal at Scott High School, which has an enrollment of approximately 550 students and is located in Madison, West Virginia. Our rural county for the past several years has been devastated by the drug epidemic, specifically the spread of the opioid crisis, and a struggling economy, specifically the decline of the coal industry. Although we have a long way to go, it seems we are starting to make headway in solving both problems and reviving our communities.

Educationally, Boone County Schools has implemented the AVID program — AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination — to help create a college- and career-ready culture for all students in all grades. Our goal is for all of our students to graduate with a plan and a path for post-secondary education and success.

A strategy that has proven effective in other AVID schools nationwide is the use of visual stimuli to produce a college-going culture, specifically something that reinforces the mission and renews the vision each day. An example of this is displaying college pennants, which is why I am writing this post today.

I contacted all of the major conferences in college sports this week and asked them to donate standard-sized pennants for all of their member schools to help us create a college- and career-ready commons area in our school, where all of the pennants will be displayed along with inspirational quotes and murals.

We are a low-socioeconomic school. It would cost us thousands of dollars to purchase a pennant for every school from every conference. We simply cannot afford to do that, which is why I humbly requested that the conferences donate the pennants to us free of charge. However, most of them declined my request or did not respond at all. That is why I am turning to the fanbases from each conference to see if there would be a person or a group of people from each school that would be willing to donate a pennant to our project. As I told the conferences in my emails to them, I know that is a big request, but I also know it will be an even bigger investment in our students and their futures, and I promise you the return on your investment will be well worth it.

I will post photos of the final product on social media (we hope to complete the project during the 2022-2023 school year), and I will publicly recognize and thank everyone who donated.

If you are willing to donate a pennant to our project, please contact me at mjmesser@k12.wv.us.

Thank you all for your consideration and, hopefully, your contributions.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jacob Messer

I like that your school is working to solve some of these problems. With the conference realignment going on, each of our schools has some sort of flag or banner for each of the other schools in the conference flying/hanging in most of our venues. They are larger than pennants, but I suspect most will end up in the trash somewhere if nobody else claims them. If you can use something that size writing the Athletic Director at each school might help.

When my wife taught, one of her principals required each teacher to hang their college diplomas in their classrooms for the same reason you are doing this. Good plan. Good luck.

Yall, I would like to get something going for this Principal. I can buy the pennants,
https://www.collegeflagsandbanners.com/c..._prd1.html
but I am wondering if there are any volunteers that would like to buy a flag from their respective schools and send it to Dr. Messer. If thats too much, maybe we can get some type of fund going. Yall let me know.

clt says don’t forget trades! No student debt!

(06-24-2022 04:56 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt says don’t forget trades! No student debt!

Yes, we emphasize four-year colleges, two-year colleges, trade schools, apprenticeships, military, et cetera.

I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

(06-24-2022 06:10 PM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

(06-24-2022 06:20 PM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:10 PM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

Sent a Tech pennant to your home address via Amazon Prime. It's supposed to be there Thursday.

(06-24-2022 08:56 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:20 PM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:10 PM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

Sent a Tech pennant to your home address via Amazon Prime. It's supposed to be there Thursday.

Thank you so much! I appreciate you all!

(06-25-2022 06:53 AM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 08:56 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:20 PM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:10 PM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

Sent a Tech pennant to your home address via Amazon Prime. It's supposed to be there Thursday.

Thank you so much! I appreciate you all!

Same re: Rice

(06-25-2022 02:10 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(06-25-2022 06:53 AM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 08:56 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:20 PM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:10 PM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

Sent a Tech pennant to your home address via Amazon Prime. It's supposed to be there Thursday.

Thank you so much! I appreciate you all!

Same re: Rice

Thank you Westside…

And re: Rice, the two things I hear most often from parents whose kids might want to attend:
1. Isn’t it hard to get in?
2. We could never afford it.

The great news on the second point is our new program called The Rice Investment. It pays full room and board for any admitted student who’s family income is under a fairly generous minimum threshold. Based on the description of your community, I’d guess the vast majority of your students would qualify.

As for the first point… well… better study hard, keep those grades and test scores up!

But money alone should never keep a kid out of Rice.

clt says you should set up Scott’s tots

(06-25-2022 02:10 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(06-25-2022 06:53 AM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 08:56 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:20 PM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:10 PM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'll be sending his school district a few UNT pennants and posters. I love that he is committed to fostering the continuation of his students' learning. I wish other school districts would follow his lead.

Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

Sent a Tech pennant to your home address via Amazon Prime. It's supposed to be there Thursday.

Thank you so much! I appreciate you all!

Same re: Rice

Sent Middle Tennessee via Amazon.

(06-27-2022 01:30 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  

(06-25-2022 02:10 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(06-25-2022 06:53 AM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 08:56 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  

(06-24-2022 06:20 PM)Jacob Messer Wrote:  Thank you very much!

If you mail it before July 21, please send it to my home address at PO Box 541, Madison, WV 25130.

If you mail it after July 21, when I return from summer break, please send it to my attention at the school address at Scott High School, #1 Skyhawk Place, Madison, WV 25130.

Sent a Tech pennant to your home address via Amazon Prime. It's supposed to be there Thursday.

Thank you so much! I appreciate you all!

Same re: Rice

Sent Middle Tennessee via Amazon.

Fantastic! Thanks!

(06-25-2022 06:09 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt says you should set up Scott’s tots

I LOL'd

(06-28-2022 11:42 AM)Hop45 Wrote:  

(06-25-2022 06:09 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt says you should set up Scott’s tots

I LOL'd

clt is glad someone got that one