Good News Letter April 2008

Good News from Wareham High School April 11, 2008 MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Mr. Clark will be contacting the homes of WHS families, faculty and staff monthly to review the accomplishments and calendar of events at WHS. You can look forward to receiving this reloaded message at the beginning of each month.

WHS as a whole. Laura captained the girls’ soccer team and was the same steady leader on the soccer field as she is for WHS DECA. She attended a National Leadership Academy in Orlando Florida last April and were fortunate enough to watch her leadership in action for the betterment of Wareham High School and its students. She is a pure pleasure to have as a student and part of the Wareham High School community.

TRACK ATHLETES & SCHOLARS

JANUARY STUDENT OF THE MONTH Keyshla Melendez has made amazing progress since she arrived at Wareham High School in September of 2006. Having just arrived from Puerto Rico, Keyshla spoke very little English. Her perseverance and strong work ethic have paid off; she has excelled in all of her classes, including some very challenging honors courses. Keyshla is a member of the National Junior Honor Society and served as co-captain of the girls’ soccer team last fall. This coming summer, she has been chosen to participate in the National Youth Leadership Forum in Boston. Her focus will be medicine, as she hopes to become a surgeon one day.

FEBRUARY STUDENT OF THE MONTH

WHS Winter Track Boys and Girls have earned the MIAA gold and silver awards for highest grade point averages respectively. Keep up the great work in the classroom and on the track

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THE ARTS ARE ALIVE AT WHS Congratulations to Mrs. Dion and her art students for winning the High School Select Exhibition at Gallery X in New Bedford. They won best project for their “Deconstructed Books” project, where students transformed books into three dimensional works of art. Congratulations to Mrs. Dion’s class for this recognition.

Steven Monteiro has been a quiet and vocal leader this year. He leads through the example of work ethic, achievement and integrity. He can always be counted on to do the right thing even when nobody is watching. He was a pleasure to coach; we will look forward to watching him in his life past high school.

MARCH STUDENT OF THE MONTH Laura Doucette is the backbone of our DECA program this year. She is our Chapter President and in a nutshell she does it all. She helps run the school store in the afternoons and she is at constant work during her study period from the school store. She could exercise her senior privileges during that period 5 but instead she uses that time to make sure that Wareham DECA is running effectively. She gives so much of her free time to the DECA program and to

FEBRUARY EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH Mr. Dan Nault and Ms. Lauren Anthony For the past few months, our district and building special educations staffs have been working tirelessly on behalf our some of our neediest students. The emotional and academic support needs of our special education population reached a peak last month. Mr. Nault and Ms. Anthony have been forced outside of their usual roles to help students far beyond their job descriptions. While their

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Good News from Wareham High School April 11, 2008 work together started only in September, they have established a seamless partnership that benefits our students. This is just another example of how professionals can increase their impact of students through collaboration. Mr. Nault and Ms. Anthony show us the impact we can have on student, when the students are constantly reminded that we care about them.

Wareham High School’s National Honor Society is hosting the American Red Cross’s annual blood drive on May 2, 2008 in the gymnasium.

PORTFOLIO PROGRESS

POLITICAL AWARENESS

This spring students, grades 9-11, are beginning to build their comprehensive portfolios. The faculty is helping students select assignments, and projects that are representations of their growth as learners. It is our expectation that students will become active participants and managers of their own education, via the Portfolio Process.

The History/Social Sciences Department, under the leadership of Mr. St. Julien is increasing student political awareness on March 28th. Representatives of the State Republican and Democratic Parties conducted a workshop for seniors to increase political awareness.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT The Foreign Language Department is pleased to welcome Miss Rosario Lovell as a student teacher. She is a graduate from WHS and Bridgewater State College. She is currently working toward her licensure. She will be working with Mrs. Ohman and Mrs. Robillard.

WHS will be having a formal induction ceremony for new members of the National Honor Society in June at the underclassman awards night.

GOOD DECISION MAKING CAMPAIGN Our building wide spring good decision making campaign will kick off Friday, April 4, 2008 with a Mock “Operating While Under the Influence” crash scene in front of the school. Rick Paling, K-12 Health/PE Director, is working in conjunction with the Wareham Fire, and Police Departments, and local agencies to coordinate this program. As we move further into the spring we will have several speakers, events and presentations to help students make good decisions regarding chemical health and destructive decisions.

WHS SCHOOL NURSE Congratulations to Sandy Schutt, our school nurse. She has received the status of NCSN which stands for Nationally Certified School Nurse, a designation shared by less than 3% of school nurses nationwide; as a result of passing the exam for NCSN status she has been granted professional status with the Massachusetts Department of Education. She is also a member of Sigma Theta Tau the national nursing honor society, MSNO the Massachusetts State Nursing Organization an NASN, the National School Nurse Organization. Mrs. Schutt graduated in 1982 from UMASS Dartmouth and has worked at Wareham High School since 1999.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH This years Social Studies Teachers issued extra credit for entering a Poster Assignment Contest for Black History Month. The following students participated in the contest: Robins Patel, Corey Svedine, Karen O’Brien, Jessica Dennis, Matt Crowley, Keyshla Melendez, Karen Fuller, Zahra Melendez, Zachary Murphy, and Bethany Collins. The winner of the contest was Keyshla Melendez. The poster is on display at WHS.

NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY

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Good News from Wareham High School April 11, 2008 presentation mirrored the one that the guidance department conducted in all English 11 classes.

LIVING DEMOCRACY Michael Ryan of the Office of Jury Commissioner spoke to students at Wareham High School February 26. At the invitation of law teacher Mr. Lazarus, Ryan discussed court procedures and deliberation. A law class at Wareham High School buffed up its knowledge of the court system when Mr. Ryan, outreach coordinator for the office, was the guest speaker at a senior honors law class taught by Mr. Lazarus. He walked the students through the court process, explaining the roles of a jury, a judge and other court officers. He then led the students in a mock jury selection, where they learned how to participate in court and plead their case if they are unable to serve on a jury. Mr. Ryan’s visit was one of two enrichment activities Mr. Lazarus organized for Wareham High School students. The other speaker is Diane Flaherty, who works at the Office of the Attorney General. She will discuss the problems of credit and debt in more than a dozen different classes throughout March and early April. Students will learn about consumer rights. Diane Flaherty of the Attorney general’s office offers insight. Flaherty will introduce students to different consumer issues, including personal finance and consumer rights, as well as a discussion on how students should check their credit scores during the year with three different credit bureaus. When the Class of 2008 first steps out of high school and onto a college campus, they can expect to be flooded with enticements to apply for credit cards. With a little help from the New Bedford Office of the Attorney General, many of Wareham’s graduating seniors will be better equipped to understand what they’re being offered and resist the lure of credit cards.

COLLEGE NIGHT On March 25th, fifty parents/guardians of juniors attended the Junior College Planning Night sponsored by the guidance department in conjunction with Steven Briggs, the Director of Admissions at UMass Dartmouth. This

Juniors also participated in group guidance sessions on the SAT registration process in their U.S. History classes. All juniors were instructed on how to fill out the form or register on-line. The SAT will be given at Wareham High School on May 3rd, and again on November 1st. If any junior missed the registration deadline, SATs will be given on June 7th at Tabor Academy. The deadline to register for the June SAT is May 6th.

BOSTON MARATHON

Principal Patrick Clark will be running the Boston Marathon on April 21st to benefit the Special Olympic Athletes of Wareham and the Greater Cape Islands region. If interested in supporting his run, please contact Kristi Prada, Principal’s secretary.

RESULTS ~ BETTER BREAKFAST The results of the Better Breakfast Initiative Survey conducted at WHS during National School Breakfast Week: 52% of the students who responded never eat breakfast at school, while 24% eat sometimes, 11 % eat usually, and 13% always eat breakfast at school. 55% of the students would eat at school more often if they had more time to eat, 20% would like to see different items offered, 15% cannot afford to buy breakfast, and 10% of the students would eat more often if their friends ate breakfast at school too. 58% of the students don’t care if school breakfast is healthy, while 36% want a healthy breakfast at school, and 6% of the students disagree that school breakfast should be healthy. The current breakfast menu items were rated as excellent, good, fair, bad, and very bad. The most popular item rated is Pop Tarts, followed closely by the Egg Muffin Sandwich. Bagels, French Toast Sticks, Sausage Pancake Wraps, and Scrambled Eggs with Bacon followed in order, with cold cereal and burritos tied at the bottom of the list. Healthy foods that the students would like to see offered in the

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Good News from Wareham High School April 11, 2008 future include fruit salad, yogurt, more fresh fruit, and granola bars. The food service department is constantly looking for ways to improve and streamline the breakfast program to accommodate as many students as possible. Students are reminded that if they qualify for free or reduced lunch, they also will receive free or reduced breakfast. Free/reduced meal applications can be filled out at any time during the school year if the household size has gone up or if income has gone down. Remember: students who eat breakfast perform better on tests and have fewer behavior problems in school. People who miss breakfast are four times more likely than others to become obese, they tend to smoke more, and exercise less. Skipping breakfast may lead to increased risk of heart disease, and children are at a higher risk for tooth decay. All good reasons to come to school and start the day off right with a healthy breakfast!

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