Summer News

Hope this finds everyone doing well and getting ready for the start of another year. We have had a busy but productive summer filling all of our openings, doing the usual updates, and polishing up for a new year.

First Days

Our first day together will be Thursday, August 29. A full agenda will be forthcoming as to times we will spend as a district, school, and department, as well as individually for setup as needed.

Because some people have been asking - and we will review this on August 29 - we will have homeroom on September 3 and 4 for the purpose of distributing and collecting some paperwork. Homeroom will also be the go-to for the emergency procedure on the tennis courts, should we evacuate, and we may convene homerooms periodically should they be needed.

September 3 will follow a Day 1 schedule with homeroom extended and the periods shortened so all seven classes meet (day 1 plus G block from Day 2). September 4 will follow a Day 1 schedule with a brief homeroom for the collection of paperwork; that said, the periods are all about the same amount of time. There is no school on September 5, and on September 6 we will follow a Day 2 schedule, with no homeroom, and the students reporting directly to their B block class.


Student Handbook

The Student-Handbook link for 2013-14 is not yet active on the school website, which is being reconfigured. To access the Handbook, as well as some other resources that we will include with it, you can click here.  If you have ideas for other materials to include for students, feel free to email them. Also, there is a tab in that binder where you can see only the updates for this year.

New Staff

We have a number of new faces in the building this year, so we hope you will make them all feel welcome. They will all bring Medway some fresh ideas and will contribute to what is already a terrific faculty. They are, in alphabetical order:

Chris Borden, social studies
Stephanie Feinberg, Spanish
Tracy Isman, Math
Steven Janczura, TV/video
Erin Kim, Long term sub science
Lisa LaPlante, English
David Lark, Long-term sub History
Gui LaRoche, French
Brandon Lemos, social studies
Kendra Nutting, Music
Dominique Ross, Guidance
Shayla Rothman, Social Worker/LINKS

We also welcome Luis Torres, who has transferred from the middle school, to our foreign language department; Ann Jacobs, who has transferred from the elementary school, to our counseling staff; Ellen Hester, who will be here as a speech and language pathologist; and Christine Babicz, who will be our school nurse, moving here from Memorial School.




Schedules

You will be hearing more about this next week, but we will have some changes to some of the non-instructional/duty periods, most of which have been made to accommodate the need for common planning time. We are fortunate that, on average, we have 150 fewer students in study each day! In fact, despite a 3% decrease in the population of our students, we have a reduction of 27% in our total number of study halls. All in all, the master schedule does provide for some opportunities for both staff and students that everyone will hear more about next week.

If you have any questions, let us know, but with only an exception or two - which have been communicated to those teachers - the schedule as it stood when we had our departmental meetings in June remains intact.

Many thanks to our counselors who have done an exemplary job of satisfying the few glitches that remained after scheduling concluded last June.

Academic Success Center

The Academic Success Center will be piloted this year as an opportunity for some targeted interventions for students, utilizing National Honor Society tutors, teaching staff, and community volunteers.

It  will provide opportunity for students to proactively maintain or improve their academic performance.  While it is recommended that students seek out their academic teachers first for assistance and for questions, the Academic Success Center provides an additional layer  of support. 

Students will be encouraged to seek assistance on their own but may be referred for service by counselors and  teachers. The Instructional  Support Team, upon review of student performance, may also arrange for students to receive assistance.

To arrange to go to the Academic Success Center:

• Students may ask for a pass from  study halls
• Students may request a regular pass for ongoing tutorial sessions
• Students are responsible for reporting for scheduled sessions.
• Students may drop in with a pass from study for assistance, but should be aware  that tutoring in every subject may not  be available every period.  
• Students seeking help in a specific subject  may be asked to schedule a specific time/day for tutoring.
• Drop in for occasional academic assistance
• Receive regular tutorial assistance  during study hall or during after school sessions
• Study with a group
• Get assistance with organization, study skills or with a specific paper or assignment

If a teacher wishes to request covering the Academic Success Center as a duty, please email Mike and Dot and that coverage will be arranged. Teachers covering may provide directed support on their content area, but the support may be on organizational, study, research, writing, or planning skills - all things we all do for students. Teachers may also triage the Center to direct the incoming student to the appropriate NHS tutor. We imagine this duty being similar to Computer Lab in that some periods may be more active than others, particularly after the year begins.

Again, if interested in participating or having this period as a duty, email Mike and Dot, and we will make sure that people who want this duty have it.

See you all next week - if you have specific questions, just ask!