Daniel Prince
Dena Addis takes the reigns at Monarch following retirement of Mickey Connolly
Monarch Elementary School has had a busy start to their school year. In a series of releases last week, the school highlighted some of its activities. Monarch has a new principal this year, as Dena Addis replaces Mickey Connoly, who retired at the end of last year. Addis is in her 27th year in education. As a child, she attended Monarch, and she said she is happy to be back home. Addis has been a classroom teacher, reading coach, and assistant principal in the years leading up to her being named principal at Monarch. She hosted an event back on August 1 called Popsicles with the Principal and invited families to come to the school and meet her. During the first week of school, Addis visited every classroom in the school to introduce herself and to read a book aloud to the students. She explained the schoolwide theme to the classes, as well. The theme this year is TEAM MONARCH—Together Everyone Achieves More. All the family engagement events this year will have a sports theme, including its Open House event, which was held back on August 30. It had a football theme. Students visited four football-themed stations, where they researched their favorite athlete, made a football catapult, practiced football problem-solving, and designed their own pennant, jersey, or helmet. They earned prizes for completing all the stations. They visited a photo booth, where they had their picture taken with the Sims and Union County High School cheerleaders, and parents learned about resources available through the Union County Library System thanks to Annie Jones of the library. The school thanked the families for coming out and supporting the school and their children.