Windham High School Eagle News March 2018 IMPORTANT DATES

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1 Windham High School Eagle News March 2018 IMPORTANT DATES March 2 March 2-12 March 7 March 15 March 16 March 30 Progress Reports Available in Infinite Campus Japanese Foreign Exchange Students Visit WHS Early Release Parent / Teacher Conferences No School, Teacher in Service Day End of 3 rd Quarter

2 Dear Parents and Guardians, The last couple of warm days have been a great reminder that spring is just around the corner. With the coming of spring, the number of activities that will be occurring at Windham High School will certainly be on the increase. The months of March, April, and May are busy months at Windham High School. Please take some time to review all of the dates listed in the newsletter this month. National School Walkout There has been quite a bit of press lately about a National School Walkout on March 14 th at 10:00. The walkout is in response to the recent mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. The organizers of the walkout say the purpose of the event is to demand Congress pass legislation to keep us from safe from gun violence at our schools, on our streets, and in our homes and places of worship. The walkout is supposed to last for a period of 17 minutes. One minute for each individual who was killed in Florida. Over the past couple of weeks, I have received s and have had conversations with both students and parents about whether or not we will be allowing students and staff to participate in this event during school time. As an administrative team for our district, we have made the decision to pause school for 17 minutes on the 14 th so that students and staff can lend their voices to this issue. It is important to note that this event is not school sponsored. If a student does not feel comfortable participating, they will be given a safe space in the building to be during the event. My greatest concern in this event is having students exiting our building at a time and date that is known to everyone in the community. Additionally, I have concerns about members of the public wanting to participate with our students in this historical event. To ensure that this event happens in a safe and respectful manner, we will be instituting a safety plan for this event. For the first part of the plan, public safety will be closing the high school campus to all traffic in and out starting at 9:45 on the 14 th. Traffic and visitors will be allowed to resume at 10:45. Second, we will be directing participants in the walkout to a safe location on campus during the walkout time. Members of the public will not be allowed to interact with students during this event. At the conclusion of the walk-out, students will return to advisory and classes for the day will resume as scheduled. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns about this event. Accreditation Windham High School will be hosting a visiting team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges will be conducting an accreditation visit from April 29 th to May 3 rd. In preparation for their visit, the staff of the high school has spent the past year working to collect evidence, prepare resources, and write a final report to share with the committee. While the visiting committee is here, they will review the report, shadow students, meet with building and district staff, tour the facility, and meet with parents. We are looking for parents who would be willing to meet with the visiting team during the afternoon of Sunday, April 29 th. If you might be interested in participating in this meeting, please send Noelle Fone an at nfone@rsu14.org. Once we have a parent group established, we will contact you with the specifics for this meeting.

3 SAT Testing The State of Maine will be providing free SAT testing again this year for 3 rd year students. The testing date this year will be April 10th during the school day. The testing will start promptly at 7:30 and is expected to run until roughly 1:00. Juniors taking the exam will be permitted to leave at the conclusion of testing. The free exam is a great opportunity for our students as it can be used for college admission purposes. In addition, all juniors will be taking the Maine High School Assessment for Science on Monday, April 2nd. The Science assessment is part of state accountability testing and takes about two hours to complete. The data is extremely useful as it provides helpful feedback about how we are delivering science curriculum to all students. Vaping Resources Over the past several weeks, we have seen an increase in the number of students who are seeking to use electronic vaping devices during school time. In talking to other high school leaders, I have learned that the increase that we are seeing is not unique to WHS. Many other school are also observing a noticeable increase in student use. These devices called, vape pens, e-cigarettes, JUULS, or dab pens can be used to vaporize flavored water, nicotine, or concentrations of THC which is the active component of marijuana. All of these devices and all of the substances that they vaporize can pose a significant risk to the students in our community. The danger in these devices is that no one knows the long term impact on health that these devices have. Included in the newsletter this month is a link to an article on vaping and an informational resource that was created by Opportunity Alliance. If you have any questions about any of the resources provided, please feel free to reach out to one of the administrators or Officer Fournier with any questions that you might have. Christopher Howell, Principal Teenagers Embrace JUUL, Saying It s Discreet Enough to Vape In Class Also included with this month s Eagle News is information on E-Cigarettes, Juuls and Vaping.

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5 Parent Teacher Conferences The Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 15, from 3:30 to 8:00PM. Please see the instructions below regarding how to log in to the conference sign-up site to request a conference with your child s teacher. Registering for the conferences is easy to do online: Begin by going to the web page At the website, select from a list of all teacher conferences. When you click on a teacher s name you are given the opportunity to pick an available appointment slot for that conference (after entering and confirming an address). Attendance When notifying the school of your child s absence, please give us the reason for the absence. You can report absences anytime, day or night, by calling press 1 for attendance. The Prom is May 5th! In the next few weeks, our winter clothes rack and mitten and hat clothesline will transfer into a prom dress center. We have had several donations of prom dresses that any student may try on and take for free. If you have any dresses that you would like to donate, please get them to Ms. McAfee and they will be put out on display. Again, this is at no cost but if you would like a slip to make this a tax free donation, please let Ms. McAfee know and will send that to you. Adult Education Please see the attached flyer for our 2-day Word workshop coming up on March 23 & 30th. Be on the lookout for future announcements about summer classes that will be starting on July 9 th. Attention seniors and parents, there are still 121 seniors who have not completed their community service hours needed for graduation. Please encourage your child to get their documented hours into student services!

6 England France and Spain April 2019 *Open to all students* London Paris- Chartres- Chenonceau Bordeaux Biarritz- Pamplona- Barcelona Big Ben Eiffel Tower- Cathedrals Castles Vineyards Beaches Bulls Flamenco Visit our tour website See Ms. Stowell or Ms. Dresnok for more info!

7 Windham High School Library Food For Fines If your student has fines for overdue library books, they should look for an announcement from the library soon! In April, we will be hosting Food for Fines week. Students who bring in non-perishable items for our Feeding Friendz food pantry during this week can have all of their overdue fines waived. Have your student check with the librarians to see if they owe any fines! (This does not count toward lost or damaged items.)