Boothbay Region High School

Newsletter

December 7, 2007

Dear Parents and Community Members,

As always, there are many things going on during the academic day and in the hours after school officially closes. This newsletter contains many notes of interest; we hope youπll look it over carefully and pay special attention to those items that pertain to you or your high school student. And please remember, if you have questions, accolades, or comments, we are happy to hear from you. We can be reached at 633-2421, or by email:

Jack Tourtillotte, Principal – jtourtillotte@brhs.boothbay.k12.me.us, or

Joel Austin, Assistant Principal – jaustin@brhs.boothbay.k12.me.us.

From the Desk of the Principal:

Consolidation is not going to be a good thing for our school or community. There, I have taken a stand and shared my opinion. There are multiple reasons why this is a bad idea. However, the one reason that should be a concern to us all is who is actually going to control the schools in a larger district. Decisions that are now made by a locally elected school board of your neighbors will now be made by a larger school board of people, many of whom will not know our kids or our town. Who makes those choices for our school will be lost in a larger system. Are we willing to lose that to consolidation? The questions of efficiency and tax savings cannot be ignored but this question needs to be looked at carefully. To date, the evidence suggests those savings are not there and in fact over a short period of time costs may increase. No one should minimize the cost of education and steps to keep those costs under control; but a study of our taxes and education costs will show that the school district budget has seen less of an increase on average than that of local municipalities over the last several years. Before we jump on the consolidation bandwagon it is my hope that you as parents will take a careful look and reach a conclusion that the proposed dollar savings are not there and certainly not worth the loss of local control.

AYP means Adequately Yearly Progress and is a term used by the federal government to measure how schools are doing at meeting the standards for a quality education. The criteria for measuring AYP are many and often failing to meet the standard in one small area may mean that school does not make AYP. For example each spring all juniors are required to take the SAT and the government requires that 95% show up to take the test or you fail to make AYP. In our case that means of the 60 students in the junior class, 57 have to show up on a Saturday to take the test. There are many other categories used to measure AYP but the point is it is not an easy standard to reach. To our credit we made AYP the last two years, which is a measure of the quality of education students can get here at the high school. The community can be proud of this accomplishment but at the same time should understand that there may well be times when we donπt. When this happens we will take steps to correct those areas that need attention. But you can be certain that for a small public high school we are meeting the needs of our students and will continue to do so.

All are welcome and please feel free to stop by the high school anytime for a visit. Stop in the office for a cup of coffee and see what is going on. If you do, I think that you will be pleasantly surprised at what you see. Most kids are friendly and welcoming and in-spite of those time honored complaints of bad cafeteria food, I donπt like school, and this teacher is to hard, this is a pretty good place to get an education. Thanks.

Jack

"Ronald McDonald Charities" Fund-Raiser

The high school and elementary school had a wonderfully successful drive to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Presently, high school student, Preston Tsang and his mom are using the Ronald McDonald House facilities in New York City while he receives therapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Between both schools a grand total $1350.00 was raised!! Congratulations All!!

Yearbook news - The early sale for the 2008 yearbook has come and gone, but the yearbook is still available and would make for a nice Christmas gift. If you order your yearbook between now and Wednesday, December 19th, we will create a special gift card that you can use to give to your student letting them know that you have reserved a copy of the yearbook for them. The cost for the yearbook is $45, and the year in review video will be an additional $10 if included in a yearbook order ($15 ordered separately). Please contact Mr. Chamberlin if you would like to take advantage of this Christmas special

Sports Photos - Last call for Fall Sports photos! Friday, December 14th will be the last day to order Fall Sports Photos. This will allow us to get the pictures back to you in time for the Christmas vacation. To preview your photos, or to print out an order form, please visit www.schoolunion49.org/sportsphotos. The yearbook team would like to thank you for your support of our new endeavor; we have enjoyed the process so far and hope you have enjoyed the pictures.

Athletic Schedules

We are pleased to announce that our winter sports schedules are available on-line. Log on to the BRHS website – www.boothbayschools.org – and click on the link in the left hand column ≥BRHS Calendar – Athletics≤. This takes you to our window at High School Sports. You can select the next two-day cycle, the current week, or the current month, as well as look ahead by month. Home games are in blue, away games in red. If you click on the link to any away game, you will be taken to MapQuest and directions to the host school. We look forward to seeing you at our sporting events.

Library News by Sharon Babbitt

The library was buzzing with activity in November as students worked on research projects, including African country reports, Hamlet essays, literary criticism of novels and poetry, and biography studies. Students used print reference sources as well as information from databases and select web sites to complete their assignments. The library subscribes to three databases: Opposing Viewpoints, SIRS Researcher, and CultureGrams. In addition, students have free online access to thousands of magazines, newspapers, and reference books through MARVEL, Maineπs Virtual Library http://libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/. Please see Mrs. Babbitt or Ms. Brunell for user id and password information.

Students selected library books for several ≥Book Talk≤ presentations in November. U.S. History II students chose historical fiction and nonfiction books set in 1860-1920 to present to their class. Psychology students choose books relating to family issues, such as adoption, divorce, teen pregnancy, and poverty for class discussion. English 9 classes selected novels for their independent reading ≥Book Talk≤ presentations. These activities are a great way for students to practice their public speaking skills and share what theyπve read with their peers.

Be sure to check out the ≥New Book≤ bookshelves this month. We received a shipment recently, which includes some authors, titles, and series our students requested. These will be useful for SSR (Silent Sustained Reading), Book Talks, and Book Review assignments. We also purchased books to support the curriculum and books on current issues facing teens.

Among the new fiction titles we received are Buried by Edgecomb Eddy School teacher Robin Merrow MaCready, Bridge of Sighs by Maine resident and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. We also acquired young adult novels by Sonya Sones, Anthony Horowitz, and Scott Westerfeld.

Some interesting nonfiction titles we received in November are My Kind of Sad: What Itπs Like to be Young and Depressed by Kate Scowen, The Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat by Megan Carle, and A Different Light: The Big Book of Hanukkah by Noam Zion.

This is an exciting time of year as seniors research colleges and universities online and work on their college applications and essays in the library. Regardless of post graduation plans, students can use the research skills theyπve learned at BRHS throughout their lives.

This note from Hannaford:

≥The 2007 Hannaford Helps Schools program will come to an end on Saturday, December 1. School dollars will not be distributed after this date. The deadline for submitting your collected school dollars is Friday, December 14^th. All collected school dollars must be turned into the Hannaford store your school is registered with. Do not mail your school dollars – this is different from our previous years.≤ Questions? Check with Hannaford at 1800-205-7839.

Holiday Cheer

Two junior advisor-advisee groups (Mrs. McKennaπs and Mrs. Clark's) are in the process of making Christmas stockings and loading them up with goodies for residents at St. Andrews Village. Students will deliver their gifts on December 19th. As our visits in the past have been fun and rewarding, we expect that this one, too, will bring joy to young and old alike.

GUIDANCE OFFICE NEWS

PSATs (10-11^th grade) Test results from Octoberπs PSAT testing are in and will be given back to students through their advisors before December vacation. Information on interpreting the results will be given to students in homeroom and they will be given a flyer to bring home for parents. Shaye Paradis, Guidance Counselor, will be holding an evening presentation for students and parents on making the most of the PSATs- how to interpret and move forward. The presentation will be on January 17^th at 6PM in the High School theatre. Please bring your student score reports.

FAFSA (12^th grade) The Free Application Federal Student Aid will be available after January 1^st, 2008 and should be completed as soon as possible to meet college financial aid deadlines. Seniors and their parents are encouraged to complete this form electronically at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Worksheets are available to assist with electronic filing. Also, students and parents need to apply for an electronic pin, which can be done now at www.pin.ed.gov. If you are unable to file electronically, you need to call 1-800-4-FED-AID to request a paper form.

SAT/PSAT Accommodations (9-11^th grade): Any junior who uses accommodations in his or her regular school programming is eligible to apply for accommodations for the SAT test all juniors will be taking on May 3^rd, 2008. Please contact Shaye Paradis during the month of December to process the appropriate paperwork- the deadline is quickly approaching! Sophomores and Freshmen who may be in need of accommodations for next yearπs PSAT and SAT testing should begin the appropriate paperwork this spring.

College Applications (12^th grade) This is a reminder that studentπs should give the high school guidance office 3 week notice when planning on meeting college deadlines, especially 4 year colleges. We have many students to serve and Mrs. Paradis has multiple evaluations to write for studentsπ Secondary School Reports- a piece of the college application.

Alumni Presentation (11-12^th grade) Alumni from the Class of 2007 will be coming to speak to our current juniors and seniors about their college experience on January 9^th, 2008 during the homeroom period. The event has proven to be a success and we are currently in the midst of planning a repeat from last year.

Career Day (7^th-12^th grade): A committee is working to plan a Career Day for March 26, 2008. We are still welcoming all parents to join the schoolπs career directory. We are in need of individuals willing to visit our classrooms and speak about their jobs. If you are willing to present, please visit the school website and click on the ≥ join career directory≤ link or contact Shaye Paradis. (633-2421 or sparadis@brhs.boothbay.k12.me.us)

Health Center News

The Health Center continues to have a steady flow of students and faculty, with about 25 new billable visits this past month. Winter sports physicals and upper respiratory illnesses again top the list. The CDC in Maine has just announced its first confirmed influenza case, so as we move into flu season, please remember to keep your student home if he or she is ill with a fever, headache and sore throat. Early treatment with retroviral medicines can help, but "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!" and a flu vaccine can prevent the serious consequences of influenza.

And speaking of communicable diseases and immunizations, please be sure to update your young child's immunizations to prevent mumps. College students at USM have now been required to show proof of immunization or get immunized before returning to campus because of the recent outbreaks of mumps.  Remember, the influenza vaccine doesn't protect you from getting normal colds and coughs of the season; nor does it prevent viral gastrointestinal infections that cause nausea and vomiting---what many people call "the flu," or "the 24-hour-flu." Immunizations are available at the School Health Center, and you can be immunized for influenza throughout December, January and February, as our flu season usually gets really going around the end of January.

From the State of Maine Department of Health: ≥Maine is currently experiencing an outbreak of mumps, a highly contagious viral infection spread through respiratory droplets, or through direct contact with infected saliva. The most common symptom is swelling of the cheeks and jaw due to inflammation of one or both of the saliva glands near the ear and back of the jaw (parotitis). If your child has any of these symptoms, please bring them to his/her physician or health care provider.

The Maine CDCπs Immunization Program distributes MMR vaccine free of charge to many pediatric practices in the state. The Maine CDC strongly encourages you to have your child vaccinated with two (2) doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) if your child has not been previously vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. You may access the state law on immunizations in school at http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/rules/05/071/071c126.doc. More information on mumps may be obtained on our website: www.mainepublichealth.gov.

If you have any questions or concerns, please call the Maine CDC at 207-287-3746.≤

The Student Health Center Advisory Board students are focusing this month on AIDS awareness and prevention, in conjunction with World AIDS Day. November's self-esteem focus produced a Girlsπ Group: an after-school group for girls where they can talk about things that matter to them in a non-judgmental environment. Ms. Glenn and Tammy Blackman are helping to facilitate the discussions. We are very excited about this!  Check out the Webzine on the Boothbay schools website to read the latest health-related discussions!  

Please contact Lori Grinnell, School Nurse, for an appointment at the School Health Center, or stop by Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 12, or Fridays from 1:00 to 3:30 to see Anne Barker.  The School Health Center is available for all students and staff, and takes most insurance plans.  We also have a program for students with no insurance that covers all visits for the school year for only $60.  If you would like to sign up for these services, please contact Lori Grinnell at 633-5097, or Anne Barker at 633-7820.