By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Thomas More Prep-Marian Junior-Senior High School in Hays will host its annual Monarch For a Day on Jan. 5.
Ellis County fifth through eighth graders are invited to attend the free event, said Chad Meitner, TMP-M High School principal.
"It's a natural transition. If you're a fifth grader, you're going to be going to the middle school," Meitner said. "If you're an eighth grader, you'll be going into high school. It's a perfect time for families to check it out."
Meitner said it's an opportunity to see what it would be like to be a TMP student.
"It's a chance to see what the small class sizes would be like, that individual attention. ... Until you sit in that environment, you don't really realize how cool it is," he said.
Participants will also get a taste of the school's traditional values, Meitner said, such as the Catholic faith and Christian values practiced in the classroom.
Potential students will also meet the teachers they would have as well as classmates.
"They'll rotate through about eight stations during the morning. You'll sit through shortened versions of what those classes would be like," Meitner said. "You get there at eight o'clock and see what it's like to start the day and then finish with lunch."
Holy Family Elementary School students are already scheduled to participate in Monarch For a Day.
Interested families with students at public elementary schools in Hays, Victoria or Ellis should register on the TMP-M website to attend or contact Melissa Schoepf, junior high principal, at [email protected].