Thursday, February 11, 2016

ACT offered to 11th grade students at no cost

All 11th grade students (third year of high school) are being offered the opportunity to take the ACT at their high school during the regular school week at no cost, based on action by the S.C. General Assembly. However, students must sign up in advance in order to take the ACT. Horry County high school students will take the ACT at their school on Tuesday, April 19.  

In order to participate in ACT testing, your child must be signed up at the school by March 1, 2016.  To sign up for the test, you may contact your child’s guidance counselor, your child may sign up in the guidance department, or your child may complete a form that will be sent to him/her through his/her school email address. 

The ACT will provide the scores to colleges as their college entrance exam. If your child has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) requiring accommodations for testing, the high school will assist him/her in applying for accommodations.  Only those accommodations approved by ACT will result in college reportable scores. Accommodations that can be approved for this administration are the same as the accommodations for ACT national administrations.  If your child is under age 18, you, as parent or guardian, must authorize the school to release that information to ACT for the purpose of applying for accommodations.

If you have any questions regarding the ACT and your student, please call the guidance office at your high school. 

Read more about the ACT at ACTstudent.org

Monday, February 8, 2016

Update on technology and online services interruption

What happened?
Monday morning our computer systems were found to be infected with a virus. While there are many types of malware and viruses, this particular version infects a computer system and uses a high-level encryption to lock up your data then requires a key to unlock the data. We shut down our servers and systems to stop the virus from spreading further which meant interrupting our online services such as PowerSchool.

How this happens:
Computer viruses, malware, adware, etc... are unfortunately, extremely prevalent and constantly changing. Once on a computer a virus tends to replicate and spread to other connected computers. In a system with many servers and computers, this can happen very quickly. HCS was not targeted by any person or organization trying to gain access to our data. While we maintain and monitor our systems routinely and diligently, it is difficult to remain completely unsusceptible to new viruses.

What this means for our data and computer systems:
Nothing has been stolen or taken off of our servers. Student and staff information is safe and remains on our servers. Our data is backed up and the HCS technology department is currently restoring servers to eliminate the locked data. Due to the size of our infrastructure, this will take time though are hoping to have our system fully functional by the end of the week.

What this means for our classrooms:
While we pride ourselves on the use of technology in our classrooms, our educators are resilient, creative, and will continue to adapt to teaching with the best tools they have on hand. There are many technology tools teachers are able to use that were not impacted by the virus.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

2016 Graduation Ceremonies and Senior Celebrations

 Graduation Ceremonies 2016
SchoolDateTimePlace
Aynor High
Thursday, June 27:00 PMAHS Auditorium
Carolina Forest HighThursday, June 27:00 PMCFHS Auditorium
Conway HighWednesday, June 17:00 PMTBD
Green Sea Floyds HighThursday, June 26:00 PMGSFHS Auditorium
Loris HighWednesday, June 16:00 PMLHS Auditorium
Myrtle Beach HighWednesday, June 16:00 PMMBHS Auditorium
North Myrtle Beach HighThursday, June 23:00 PMAlabama Theatre
Socastee HighWednesday, June 13:00 PMMB Convention Center
St. James HighFriday, June 31:30 PMPalace Theatre
Early College HighTuesday, May 316:00 PMTBD
Adult EducationThursday, May 267:00 PMAAST

 Senior Celebrations 2016

AAST
Tetatively
Saturday, May 21
11:00 AMAlabama Theatre
ATAWednesday, May 186:00 PMATA
Scholars AcademyTuesday, May 246:00 PMWheelwright Auditorium