For this week's showcase, we spent Wednesday afternoon with the students and staff at Spaulding High School experiencing and learning about Enriching Wednesdays.  New SHS Assistant Principal Becky Busker, SHS Instructional Coach Mya Violette, and many others have been hard at work this fall creating a new approach to building community and providing many different opportunities to support our students' success.  Take a look at some of the highlights of our visit.

It was a great experience listening to students share how well these Wednesday afternoons are working for them!  You will notice here that the goal of Enriching Wednesdays is to support students academically as well as emotionally.  One primary option is to provide a "call back" for students who need support in their classes; teachers can call back students, and students can also ask to be called back.  We saw both focused study groups and specific courses where students were getting small group or 1:1 support.

Those who are not called back can pick from a wide variety of enrichment options that are both student and staff generated based on mutual interest.  Everything is about building strong relationships, and I got to see students see their teachers (and each other) in a different, non-academic setting having great fun together.

This program is still at the beginning stages of development and the SHS team is working incredibly hard with the logistics, but I was very impressed to see how far things have come in just the first quarter of the year!  I think you'll be impressed too.

Thank you for reading, and we hope you have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving break with your loved ones.

The SHS Webpage has recently been updated for the new upcoming school year to reflect the new bell schedules and staff as well as the Student Handbook. You can check out the newly updated pages here:

SHS Staff Directory

New Bell Schedules

SHS Student Handbook

8/30: New Student Orientation Day

8/31: First Day of School for All Students

Our students and school community were honored to participate in this year's Memorial Day Parade this past Tuesday, and it was a powerful learning experience for all.  I had a chance to connect with BTMES, BCEMS, and SHS marching bands to hear their thoughts on participating in the ceremony, and we also go to catch up with the SHS J.R.O.T.C. program.

Command Sgt. Major Arianna Little (Junior, SHS) said it best:  "It's so important to honor those that have served our country and to show our patriotism."  Indeed it is, and all of our students respectfully honored our veterans on this perfect day for a parade!  Many thanks to our Band Directors Bobby Booth (SHS), Ally Tarwater (BTMES), and Angela Garcelon (BCEMS) for providing this opportunity for our students to shine on such an important day.  And of course, thank you to SHS J.R.O.T.C. Instructors Sgt. Danny Boone and Lt. Colonel Paul Stafford for leading our efforts in having our students be such an integral part of these events that honor our veterans.  It was a day to be truly proud of our school community!

SHS Step UP Night For  Incoming Freshmen and new students will be Thursday June 1, 2023, 5:30-7:20 pm. 

We had a great visit with the SHS Interact Club yesterday, and I can promise that you will be impressed with the leadership skills of these Tide students!  Club Advisor and SHS Flexible Pathways Coordinator Margo Austin joined us with four of her club officers to talk about a "Tree Plenish" project they are conducting for the second year in a row.

We are hosting three separate virtual information nights for students who are currently in 8th, 10th, or 11th Grade.  Click the image above for more information!

For this week's School Showcase, we honor and celebrate our SHS Winter Sports teams.  What a fun and incredibly successful season this has been!  I will let you watch and listen to the team captains in the showcase below to hear all of the highlights instead of sharing them here, but many of our teams and athletes are among the top in the state.

Last night we attended the Varsity Boys Basketball game against Hazen and spoke with four students to hear their thoughts on the past two weeks and how proud they are of their community for stepping up and showing their support.

I got to visit SHS Art Teacher Brendan Eaton's Digital Photography class yesterday, and we were able to hear all about some of the studio portraits his students have been working on in recent weeks. These juniors and seniors are combining use of the latest digital technology along with their own artistic skills to create some truly beautiful pieces. Mr. Eaton has allowed for a very collaborative and creative artistic community in his classroom with these students, and I was grateful to be able to share in their work.

For those who don't know, last week was "Computer Science Education Week", and all of our schools are participating in the nationwide Hour of Code event this month!  We got to spend time with all three of our district's Technology Integrationists the last three days as they collaborated with their colleagues to bring basic coding skills into the classroom.  First, BTMES's Jess Van Orman joined band teacher Ally Tarwater and her 6th graders coding "Edison" robots to play their musical pieces.  We then joined SHS's Angelique Fairbrother at the SEA program to hear how she is teaching their students to use Minecraft with their history lessons.  Finally, we joined BCEMS's Mike Martin in the 4th grade classes of Roberta Melnick and Charlotte Murphy to learn how to move Angry Birds through a maze.

It's finally here! Student Council has set up an online store for all of the Spaulding High School merch including hoodies, sweatpants, T-shirts, hats, and more! Not only can you pay with a card at the new shop, but we can ship to your mailing address as well! You can access the store through this link, as well as a QR code on the Student Council Instagram. Please note that if you wish to purchase merchandise before the holidays, you must get your order in before December 12th.

For this week's showcase, we joined SHS J.R.O.T.C. Teacher Sgt. Danny Boone and his cadets.  This showcase really speaks for itself, but I want to recognize SHS Senior Ian Longfellow who has just found out that he has been nominated by Senator Leahy for an appointment to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.

We didn't want to wait until next week to celebrate the start of the fall SHS playoff season, because it will already be underway as you read this!   Our Crimson Tide teams have had an exciting fall season, and the playoff rounds are beginning this afternoon with our girls' soccer team playing Enosburg at the Barre Town Rec Field.  SHS Athletic Director Derek Cipriano and I had a chance to catch up with all of the team captains and some of their teammates this afternoon, and they shared some highlights of their season and what we can look forward to in the days and weeks ahead.