Principal's Corner: Oct 10, 2026

Hello South High Families,

Our staff will soon be scheduling parent-teacher conferences and look forward to meeting with you. These conferences provide an important opportunity to connect with your child's teachers and discuss their progress in school.

During conferences, South staff can share information about attendance, assignment completion, goal setting, classroom learning, and academic proficiency. We believe that strong partnerships between families and educators are essential to student success. When parents and teachers work together, students are more likely to thrive both academically and socially.

We encourage all families to participate and take advantage of this valuable opportunity to support your child's learning and growth.

Conferences will be held at the following times:

• Tuesday, October 13: 4:00pm - 8:00pm (South High)
• Wednesday, October 14: 8:00am-12:00pm (South High)
• Wednesday, October 14: 12:30pm-4:00pm (virtual)

To sign up for virtual conferences on Wednesday afternoon, please connect directly with your students' teachers. for available times. If you are looking for virtual sign-up, check out this LINK:

https://www.myconferencetime.com/shstigers/

-Principal FitzGerald

Using the QR Code or the https://bit.ly/3UQYDsz LINK, please provide our team with feedback, questions, concerns and celebrations to help make South High the best school in the city!!

Thank you for your partnership.

We have previously shared our expectations regarding student attendance and punctuality. The school day at South High begins at 8:30 a.m., and our doors open at 8:10 a.m. to provide students with time to enter the building, connect with peers, and enjoy breakfast before classes begin.

Each day, approximately 1,000 students arrive at school and make it to class on time. We continue to work closely with approximately 150 students who are still developing consistent routines for arriving on time. The good news is that we have seen tremendous improvement. At the beginning of the school year, the morning check-in line stretched around the block near 32nd Street and 19th Avenue. This past week, that line is significantly shorter, and students are generally cleared to attend class by 8:45 a.m.

Students who arrive after 8:31 a.m. are asked to report to our attendance room, where they complete a brief reflection and meet with a member of our attendance team. These conversations focus on goal setting, problem solving, and identifying strategies to help students arrive a few minutes earlier each day. Once students are checked in, our attendance team communicates with caregivers regarding the tardy and asks families to partner with us in supporting on-time arrival.

We are incredibly proud of the progress our students and families have made so far this school year. Our goal is to continue building on this momentum by reducing the number of daily tardies to double digits by October 19 and to single digits by the start of second quarter. Consistent attendance and punctuality are essential to student success, and we appreciate your ongoing partnership in helping every student begin the day ready to learn.

The PSAT exam will take place in the South library at 8:00am on Wednesday, October 28. Students should arrive 30 minutes earlier to check in. Please note - this start time is *before* regular school hours. The PSAT is a practice test for the SAT college entrance exam. As such, it is optional and has no bearing on college acceptance; however, for 11th graders it IS the qualifying exam for the National Merit Scholarship. 9th, 10th, and 11th graders can register, but only 11th grade scores are considered for the scholarship.

Registration is open from now until the end of day Friday, October 19. Families can register their students online at tinyurl.com/PSATsouth. Please note, there is a $25 fee (families on the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch program can request a fee waiver).

Please contact testing coordinator Fred Cheng with questions at 612-668-4355 or fred.cheng@mpls.k12.mn.us.

Get Your South High Lawns

Get a South High lawn sign to show our South High Pride throughout Minneapolis.

Here's the link if you'd like to get one!

https://forms.gle/JPPGyUNdVyyHMTd69

Save the Date!! We will be celebrating Latine Heritage Month. We invite all South High families to join us for a night of food, fun and dance on Oct. 20, 2026. We will update future newsletters with further details.

Attention Students & Families!

Please check out this week's CCC Newsletter, LINKED HERE.

-Kelsey & Katie

We had a great turnout for our October Site Council meeting. You can expect updated meeting notes in our next newsletter. Save the date for the next meeting, November 12, 2026