Algonquin Regional High School

School Committee Principal Report

January

Academic – On January 15th, the Southborough Public Schools and Algonquin

Regional High School will be bringing back an exciting concert to our instrumental music program: String-o-rama! The String-O-Rama concert is a vertical, audio snapshot of the instrumental music curriculum. This concert was created to give students and parents/guardians the opportunity to hear the progression of our instrumental music curriculum from grades 3-12. The audience listens to this concert in the same way that a person watches a cartoon sketch by flipping the pages of a notebook. A short performance with quick transitions between grade levels allows the curriculum to unfold in an “auditory” snapshot. The concert will be one hour in length and will feature short performances from each grade level String Orchestra and will conclude with a joint performance by all students, grade 3-12. The concert is at 7 pm in the Trottier Gymnasium. The Science National Honor Society students have been very busy with their peer tutoring hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays hosted in Mrs. Thompson's room D214. All students are welcome to get help for any science class. Thank you to our AWC for their continued tutoring and we are very excited to announce the start of peer to peer tutoring going on in our World Language Honors Society. Our T-Hawks are constantly stepping up to mentor and tutor peers, continuously creating a positive and supportive learning community!

Activities & Clubs – In the third contest of the New England Math League

(NEML) Algonquin scored a 29 out of a possible 30 points. Four Algonquin students had perfect scores in this competition. DECA: The third annual DECA Young Professionals Networking Night was held on December 11th from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. We had 18 business professionals talk with our students and answer their questions about topics such as entrepreneurship, leadership, and the importance of networking. DECA Life Skills competed in the District competition this past week and thank you to our new Student Support Administrator,

Ms. Cameron, for offering to be a judge. The theme this year is Entrepreneurship and the group decided to set up a business. Their first project was a concession stand at the Robotics Tournament at the beginning of December. Their next project was selling holiday ornaments. Knowing that they needed help from others, they reached out to the

Engineering Graphics class to design and make wooden ornaments, and to the Life Skills and NECC program to do the painting. The group then marketed and sold the ornaments in the School Store, the Main Office and at the Holiday Concert. Lots of hands-on learning came from the project and it was a huge success. They are now ready to go to the District competition and shine with all of their new knowledge. The sophomore class held a successful bake sale today and are using the monies raised to continue to support the many planned events including a few different community service projects for the second semester. Their goal is to do at least one project per

town (Northborough, Southborough), plus an additional project. More information to come! Go class of 2021!!! The Class of 2022 turned out in high numbers for the Winter Ball, held on December 14th and had an outstanding time. They are now preparing for their midterms/semester final exams week as they end their 1st semester at Algonquin. The Science Olympiad Team coached by Mr. Wadman and Mr. Largesse received a very generous $500 grant from MathWorks. Our Sachem Magazine, Algonquin's literary and art magazine, has announced that its theme for this year's magazine is ASTRAL. Students are in the midst of gathering submissions of writing and art and hope to get some new tips about layout and design during their trip to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Spring conference in New York City in May.

Athletics – Girls basketball is looking for their first win but have had some close games

vs. Marlboro, Millbury, and Sutton. Both Boys and Girls Basketball played at the TD Garden last weekend in the Good Sports Invitational with both teams putting up an amazing show of sportsmanship and skill! Boys Hockey has taken home both the Boro’s Cup and the Daily News Cup – awesome job! Girl’s Hockey is off to a great start with a 5-2 record. Wrestling competed at St John’s, Marlboro, Quabbin, and the Lowell Invitational Holiday Tournament. Boys and Girls indoor track opened the season with a meet at Wachusett and Shrewsbury, Winter Festival and Distance Classic; many athletes competed in individual and team events with some athletes reaching both school and or personal records. Gymnastics continues with their domination holding a now 2-0 record with wins over Groton-Dunstable and Westboro. Boys and Girls Swimming and Diving are now 4-0 and opened up with wins vs Nashoba, Leominster, Gardner, and Grafton. T-HAWK of the Month Award for winter winners for December are: Lizzie

Meschisen Swim/Dive, Ray Cerro Swim/Dive, Kerryn O’Connell Girls Hockey, Gabriella Clune Girls Track. Our Wrestling Team received new mats which has been a multi-year process finally coming to fruition this year! Thank you to Boosters for their support. Our Weight Room has updated their cardio machines with 4 new treadmills and looking into 4 new bikes and 2 new ellipticals. The weight room is maintained by athletics and Athletic Trainer Mr. Drisko in order to support our athletes, our student support department and our PE & Health department. Thank you to Coach Fedak and our 5 ARHS Swim Team athletes for attending and participating in the MIAA High School Captains Workshop held on December 7th. The workshop talked about leadership, goal setting, and teamwork. Our Athletic Council Student Ambassadors are planning to continue their growth in leadership development by participating in their second workshop – Mid-Wach Leadership/Captains workshop at Marlboro High School in February. Thank you to our Booster Club again for support of our wrestling mats and for their spring project to provide a new scoreboard facing our Softball and JV Football field. Thank you Boosters for your tremendous work on concessions, ticket takers, organizing fundraisers and overall support! As always thank you Central Office and School Committee, Principal Walsh and the Admin team, our facilities and coaching teams, “JTT” our trainer and Ms. Baburins who support our outstanding student-athletes day in and day out! Spring sports registration will open the week of February 15th and close by March 12th. Spring Sports Night is Monday March 4th at 6:30 pm in Auditorium. Our Winter Captain’s Breakfast will be Wednesday Feb 13th. As AD “Moc” says, “See you at the games!”

Department Updates Social Studies – Our Social Studies department is excited to roll out our new World History textbooks with our juniors this month. The new book meets our new state frameworks and will help us as we integrate World History I & II. In two weeks the US History I team will host a visit from the Social Studies team at Brookline High School; they are observing the un-leveled “Big Group” program as a possible model for their own unleveled course. Algonquin’s model of bringing together unleveled freshman history classes in the “Big Group” format is unique and has generated a lot of excitement from other districts. Fine Arts – Good luck, break a leg to the following students, auditioning for the Massachusetts All-State Music Festival! They were recommended to audition after receiving a score in the top 50% of

students accepted in the Massachusetts Central District Music Festival. Should they be accepted into All-States, they will perform a professional level repertoire at Symphony Hall in Boston! Zackary Entwistle, Sydney Rosenthal, Maya Sagarin, Scott Alberti, Jack Dobosh, Andrew Lee, Justin Moyer, Mateo Oyola, Justin Wang, Preston Green, Julia Kardos, Harry Marble, Sravya Tanikella. Art II students recently finished up their projects on Impressionistic Landscapes and Portraits in which they created work in the style

of an artist they studied. The artwork is on display in the C200 hallway. The music department celebrated the Holiday season with the annual Holiday Concert. Continuing in our traditions, alumni of the Choruses and Orchestra were invited to the stage to join in White Christmas for the grand finale. We had a few dozen alums join in!

Science – Dr. Scordi-Bello, Forensic Pathologist for Worcester County, came to speak to our 4 Forensic Science classes on Monday, Dec 10th. Period 1 & 3 students attended during period 6 or 7. She talked about her career path, her daily job doing autopsies and testifying in court, and some of her favorite cases. Detective Bissett also stopped by last month and

this month to help students solve a case and give advice on detective work! Great real life experiences and application for our students. Applied Arts & Technology – Thank you to Ms. Ferreira for hosting a field trip to the local courts in which our students were able to inquire about learned case studies and application of law through real-life experiences. Students build connections for those interested in a career path within the various fields that overlap at the courthouse. Ms. Pappas and Ms. Griffin are pushing their thinking and looking into a new opportunity for next year on how to expand the marketing curriculum through the application of social media and being responsible with social media. This is an ever growing field in marketing and helping our students to explore this aspect within their career path better informs them of what is available to them beyond ARHS! Ms. Muise for childhood development and Ms. Giegucz for culinary curriculum, are also looking into new curriculum and how to continuously build their program within the applied arts for next year! Great work team! The above work continues within the department’s professional learning communities and after-school collaboration. Thank you for the constant push and support of each other! Guidance – Our guidance team is at it again with stellar workshops planned specifically to meet our juniors post-secondary planning needs. We are currently holding over the next few weeks group seminars and workshops. In addition to this in-school work, the team is hosting an admissions panel presentation on Wednesday, Jan 30th for juniors and their parents, this is always a very informative presentation. The event is regularly attended by many of our parents and reported to be a huge success! Thank you to our collaborators, the APTO and Northborough/Southborough Substance Coalition, for helping us in hosting Dr. Ruth Potee as a guest speaker for parents and students. Dr. Potee focuses on adolescent brain development and how it impacts teen behavior as well as risk-taking behaviors. We invite all community members to join us on Jan 31st at 7:00 pm to learn more about what can be done to keep our teens safer, healthier and substance-free through the middle and high school years. Let’s all come together to support our community and our students. Library – As 2018 came to a close, the library was excited to see continued interest in Biblio Speed Dating, research initiatives, and continued collaboration with the Freshman USI PLC. We were delighted to host the annual Faculty Cookie Exchange and welcome a new exhibit of student watercolors. With the help of Brian Calnan, we are looking forward to launching the Library CANVAS page in late January with the aim of providing streamlined access to resources. December Numbers: 52 classes used the classroom, 60 classes used the computer labs, 900+ books circulated, and 7200+ students used the library. Student Support & ESL - Our Unified Singing Club performed outside the auditorium before the Holiday Musical Performance on 12/20/18. We have had a number of our Seniors receive college acceptance letters and several have already received significant college scholarships.

World Language – Our Spanish 4 Honors students read an excerpt Cajas de cartón by Francisco Jiménez depicting the difficulties of farm life as well as watched a movie about Cesar Chavez, who was a civil-rights activist. The students in

Spanish compared and contrasted the characters from both forms of literature in essay format developing both their skills and increasing awareness of various cultures. Spanish 3 Honors students utilized and applied

newly learned materials (preterite, imperfect, Estar+ participle) to create a skit they performed in front of the class. Some of our groups recorded their video productions taking their cross-curricular work to another level.

Physical Education & Health – As our Semester comes to a close Health and Fitness classes finish strong. Freshmen are finishing the semester playing volleyball and developing volleyball sportfolios. Sophomores are looking at family life skills that help cultivate and maintain successful families. Juniors are learning how to save lives as they begin their unit of study on CPR and First Aid. As for our wonderful seniors, they are finishing up their Health and Fitness career at Algonquin and preparing themselves for the real world with self-defense skills and ping-pong. Check out one of our senior classes preparing to spread their wings and fly in just a few months. Math – In Mrs. Perreault and Mrs.

Koumjian’s Advanced Math Functions classes, students used pasta to construct the graphs of sine and cosine by measuring the height of the triangle formed by the different angle measures on the unit circle. This exercise helped to reinforce the relationship between the graphs of sine and cosine and the unit circle. This work is a critical step to establish the fundamentals for additional relationships! Great work team. English – Last week many students celebrated Poetry Out Loud by reciting poems they learned by heart in English classes. Classroom winners will go on to compete in the semifinal round after school this week. Algonquin's annual Poetry Out Loud final competition will take place on Tuesday, February 5th in the auditorium. Teacher facilitators, Lauren Frantz and Seth Czarnecki, are planning for 8 finalists to compete. One winner will be selected to move on to the State competition in February.

Administration – With a new year comes new adventures and new opportunities to share appreciation, gratitude and support for one another. Some say it takes up to 7 times for a message to stick – so here goes ARHS – CHOOSE HAPPINESS! Happiness is infectious and contagious. Spread the cheer and support you have for others, and also with yourself and your family. Thank you for being continually awesome T-hawks! Also, thank you to ARTA, our Department Chairs, and Administration for a wonderful faculty celebration! Great holiday cheer and appreciation for one another! Thank you to our fine arts department and educators for finding a way to host multiple holiday concerts both during school and after school last month! Great way to support and celebrate our students’ talents. Thank you to SEF for the mini-grant award to Dr. Walsh for her “Team Lego Ducks” grant submission in which this

collaborative approach to facilitate teamwork, acceptance, diversity awareness and communication skills development can be applied schoolwide. Fingers crossed that the other two grants submitted by Dr. Walsh are approved as well as the multiple grants submitted by our educators! Thank you for the continued community support!