On Tuesday, April 24th from 5:00-6:30 in the Sun Theater, Kenneth Griffin, middle school history teacher, is holding an eighth grade parent night. Teachers and administrators have noticed a pattern of high-achieving eighth graders leaving after middle school to attend other high schools.

To try to combat this, Griffin has been implementing a series of student engagement activities and panels over the past two months, the first of which included an opportunity to meet and question different artists from the community. There was a chef, cosmetologist, a tattoo artist, and a painter. So far, he has received a lot of positive feedback, but won’t know about any solid results until the end of the year.

“The culmination of these [events] is the parent night that takes place this Tuesday. I’ve spent the past two months engaging the kids, and now it’s time to impress the parents. The purpose is to remind parents why they brought their kids to this school in the first place: arts, strong faculty, performances,” Griffin said. The activities for the evening include speeches from a high school counselor, Gina Bell-Moore, high school principal, and Brandon Riley, theater teacher.

Additionally, there will be a small performance from the dance department and a documentary with some student interviews.