Duxbury High School SUMMER LETTER

August 2013 Duxbury High School

SUMMER LETTER

Web site: HUwww.duxbury.k12.ma.usUH 130 Saint George Street, Duxbury, MA 02332 phone: 781.934.7650

MARK THESE DATES

August 12 Important upcoming events: Student schedules available on the portal • August 12, 2013: Student schedules will be available on the student portal. See

August 26 the DHS Guidance Twitter (@DuxGuidance) for the most up-to-date information. Staff Convocation o Please note that this are a work in progress, as we are continuing to resolve schedule conflicts and are balancing class sizes. Guidance counselors will be LINK CREW – DHS available for appointments during the week before the start of school (August 19- Cafeteria 7:50am- 23). Beginning on August 12, 2013 Guidance department is open to make 12:30pm appointments for scheduling conflicts and new registrations only at 781-934- 7662. New Parent Orientation DHS Auditorium 6:30pm – • Monday, August 26, 2013: Our annual Link Crew Freshman Orientation will be 7:30pm held from 7:50am-12:30pm in the DHS Cafeteria. Their respective Link Leader will contact all incoming students on Friday, August 23, 2013. Students must be August 27 at the high school in comfortable clothing and footwear by 7:50am (please see Professional below for LINK CREW flyer). Development Day

August 28 • Monday, August 26, 2013 from 6:30-7:30pm (DHS Auditorium): We would like First day of school for to invite the parents of all new students to DHS for an orientation evening in the students high school auditorium. The purpose of this evening is to give an overview of the

Senior Photos for High School program. Yearbook due in Main o The PTO will be present for orientation and I ask that you strongly Office consider becoming involved in this important organization (please see below and go to the PTO site on the DHS Website in the Organizations September 6 Tab). School Council Parent Rep. Letters of Interest Due • Wednesday, August 28, 2013: o First day of school for students. September 17 o Senior photos for the yearbook due in the main office. PD ½ Day

September 24 • Friday, September 6, 2013: Due date for letters of interest for parents interested DHS OPEN HOUSE in serving on the DHS School Council. 6:30pm - 9:00pm • Tuesday, September 24, 2013: The DHS Open House will be held beginning at

6:30pm.

August, 2013 Dear Parent/Guardian,

I hope that your family has been able to enjoy a restful and relaxing summer! I am very excited to begin the new school year at Duxbury High School and wanted to share with you some general information and announcements:

School Council Survey: Last year, the DHS School Council administered a parent survey that sought the input and feedback of parents on a number of topics. We received 212 responses (which is a good number) and will continue to examine the feedback in our School Council meetings this Fall. One consistent area of feedback we received from you had to do with the inconsistent level of portal access parents had to view their son’s/daughter’s grades and assignments. This issue was addressed in the recent contract negotiations, where both sides came to agreement to now require that all DMS/DHS teachers make public and update their grades every two weeks on the portal. We will be giving you the dates for these updates on the semester planner. As a result of this expectation, it will no longer be necessary to issue quarterly Progress Reports. A last note on the survey is that, overall, 91% of respondents reported being satisfied with their son’s/daughter’s educational experience at DHS, which speaks to the hard work put in by our teachers to connect with our students and to promote meaningful learning experiences with them.

Handbooks: All relevant information is available on the Duxbury Schools System Website at www.duxbury.k12.ma.us The 2013-2014 DHS Student Handbook, Program of Studies, Semester Planner, and Bell Schedules are located on the DHS school website. Please note that we will not be distributing printed student handbooks to grade 10-12 students. We will have some hard copies of the handbook available in the Main Office.

Handbook changes: Please scroll down for a summary of important changes that were made to the Student Handbook for this upcoming year. Also please review an important informational letter on the topic of ‘sexting.’ Two particular changes of note (with the pages in the handbook) are:

MIDYEAR AND FINAL EXAMS (see p. 15)

• Only students with an excused absence are allowed to make up exams. Students and parents are strongly urged to understand what constitutes an excused absence and what does not. Please see page 38 for a complete explanation of excused absences.

NOTE: Vacations are not excused absences. Any exams missed due to unexcused absences cannot be made up after the requisite exam periods. I strongly urge parents to keep this in mind at Mid Year (Jan. 14-17, 2014) and Final Exam (June 11-16, 2014) time. I also want to note that parents should not plan vacations or other unexcused absences for the week after midterms and finals, as snow days may have to be utilized. We utilized four of those days this year, which moved the exam schedule entirely.

TARDINESS (see pp. 41-42)

• Documentation required to excuse a tardy must be submitted with 24 hours of the tardy.

• Tardiness after 9:15 is considered “extreme tardiness” and requires parental verification. Verification can come in the form of a note (written and signed by parent) or a phone call. Students will remain in the main office until such verification can be made.

Parent/Student Portal: Student schedules will be available on the portal for your review using your existing user name and password on Monday, August 12, 2013. Please note that these are a work in progress, as we are continuing to resolve schedule conflicts and are balancing class sizes. Guidance counselors will be available for appointments during the week before the start of school (August 19-23). Beginning on August 12, 2013 Guidance department is open to make appointments for scheduling conflicts and new registrations only at 781-934-7662. If you have forgotten your X2 Parent Portal login information, you will need to come personally into the Main Office with a valid identification.

As noted above, all teaches will update student grades on the portal every two weeks. The dates by which teachers will need to post updated grades will be added to the Semester Planner.

Please Note: Two weeks were agreed upon for updating because it takes time for teachers to correct and provide meaningful feedback on student work. Parents should not expect that tests and quizzes, essays, and other student work can be corrected immediately after being collected. Building Project: The building project is in full swing. This summer, the Athletic facility behind DHS was completed and turned over to the schools. Across the street, they are putting drywall up in the new school and are on target for completion in the summer of 2014. With school opening, safety is our priority and your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Students should check with coaches and co-curricular advisers about location and parking for after school activities. Use of the bus and carpooling with legal drivers is strongly encouraged for the duration of the construction project.

Parking: At this point, we have assigned numbered parking spaces to seniors and juniors who submitted a parking form and a copy of their license and registration last spring. The spaces were prioritized based on tardy records from last year. Remaining parking spaces will be apportioned to as many seniors and juniors as possible who submit paperwork after receiving their respective driver’s license.

Traffic: As with last year, all traffic coming into the school must enter through the school entrance closest to Lover’s Lane. This will be an ENTRANCE ONLY during school hours. There will be a parent drop-off lane next to the awning in the front of the school. Parents dropping off need to move as far down the drop-off lane as possible to avoid back- ups. All traffic will exit through the opening directly across from the Wright Building, near the school sign. This will be an EXIT ONLY during school hours. Students with parking permits will park in front of the building and on the Pine Hill Avenue side of the high school. A map of the traffic and parking plan is below.

Bus Drop-Off: In order to better facilitate parent drop-off and parking on the DHS side, buses will drop-off and pick up all students at DMS. Thus, no buses will be coming over to the high school in the morning or afternoon. **If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the DHS Main Office**

Strategic Plan: In June of last school year, the School Committee approved the 2012-2017 Duxbury Public Schools Strategic Plan. The plan has four overarching goals:

1. Give academics a higher status

2. Foster and support a curriculum that is robust, innovative, rigorous, and relevant for all students

3. Forge new ways to provide authentic collaborative experiences and opportunities for our students to become college and career ready and globally astute upon graduation from high school

4. Strengthen communication and partnerships with the community.

Over the course of the year, we will continue to implement some of the action goals/data measures that are tied to these overarching goals. The Strategic Plan in its entirety will be available on the DPS Website.

School Goals: This year we will work on:

• Developing and implementing more Project-Based Learning (PBL) opportunities for students

• Integrating instructional technology and technology tools into the classroom – specifically this will entail teachers learning about technology tools and exploring content specific applications of 1:1 computers in the classroom

• Developing content-specific literacy strategies, with a focus on informational and non-fiction reading/text

• Implementing the changes in the teacher evaluation system that will take place during the 2013-2014 school year

--this includes the individual evaluation process and the development of departmental District Determined Measures (DDM’s).

**Additionally, we will continue to:

• Integrate Common Core Standards into existing curriculum maps and UbD unit templates • Develop, refine, and analyze common assessments and other assessment data.

• Examine and utilize the core values and school wide rubrics across content areas.

This coming school year, we will continue our dual enrollment relationship with Syracuse University through their Project Advance program.

NEASC: As you may know, we had a very successful accreditation visit last fall. As a continuing part of the process, we will need to review the recommendations and convene a group that will help to produce the two-year report. Further, we will need to review our Core Values and Learning Expectations, as well as our school wide rubrics in the next year.

Overview of Summer work: The technology and maintenance departments have worked extremely hard this summer to get the building ready for the upcoming year and deserve our appreciation. Additionally, our secretaries and assistants have been hard at work preparing us for the upcoming year.

We have had a number of faculty members who have worked this summer on co-teaching planning, curriculum and/or common assessment development, technology training, and specific coursework sponsored by the Duxbury Public Schools. Much has been accomplished in terms of professional development and I commend those teachers who worked so hard during the summer!

Student Council Parent Representatives: The DHS School Council will be in need of one parent representative. Any interested parents needs to submit a letter of interest and information to the principal at [email protected] by Friday, September 6, 2013. If more candidates exist than available spots, the PTO will oversee the distribution and counting of election ballots during the DHS Open House that is scheduled for September 24, 2013.

School Councils were established in compliance with the Education Reform Act of 1993 for the purpose of advising the principal in identifying the educational needs of students, formulating a school improvement plan based upon school and system goals, and participating in a review of the annual school budget proposal. The Council meets at least once a month, and there may be occasional subcommittee meetings to work on specific action items. The School Council is charged with preparing and implementing an annual School Improvement Plan. The parent members of the Council serve for a term of up to three years. The only prerequisite for election and membership to the Council is to be the parent of a student in that school.

PSAT: This year, all sophomores and juniors will be required to take the PSAT on October 16, 2013 during school from roughly 8:20-11:00am. The school will be paying for the cost of the tests. The data is very clear that students who take the PSAT improve their SAT scores significantly.

MCAS 2013: I am very pleased to let you know that our freshmen and sophomores performed extremely well on the Biology, ELA, and Mathematics assessments this past year both in our regular education and special education populations!! Most impressive are the increased numbers of our students who achieved advanced status.

Prom Contract: This coming Spring, the Parent Connection and DHS will be hosting a program for all parents of students who will be attending the DHS Prom in May. If your son or daughter attends Duxbury High School and is planning to attend the Junior Prom, his or her parent/guardian must sign the prom contract after the presentation. More information will be forthcoming as the year progresses. As this is the last prom with the old building, the junior class has decided to have it here at DHS. After this year, the prom will be off-site.

New Faculty at DHS: As you may know, we had five retirements at the end of last year and were able to increase our staffing to meet the increased student population for this coming year. As a result, we have hired sixteen very qualified teachers and three support staff personnel, who I am very pleased to introduce:

English:

Denise Burnham has twice been a long-term substitute English teacher at DHS and we are happy to have her at DHS as a full time ELA teacher who has earned her spot with the full time staff. Ms. Burnham earned a B.S. in English and a M.A.T. for Secondary English from Northeastern University. Guidance: We have added two new Guidance Counselors to our staff to replace retired counselor Bruce Hamilton and Carolyn Malone who is on extended maternity leave.

John Cucinatto comes to Duxbury after earning a B.A. in Communications and a M.Ed. in School Guidance from Bridgewater State University. Mr. Cucinatto spent his Guidance internship at Silver Lake Regional High School and also covered a long-term substitute counselor position at Cohasset High School.

Elizabeth Walsh joins the full time DHS Counseling staff after very effectively covering Carolyn Malone’s maternity leave here as a long-term substitute counselor. Ms. Walsh was a graduate from UMASS Amherst with a bachelor's degree in psychology and education. She has just completed her M.Ed. in School Counseling at the University of Massachusetts and is also the swim coach at Scituate and Braintree High Schools.

Mathematics: With the retirement of Mary Stadelmann and Cathy Donahue and with Janet Pelorossi and Cathy Grote moving on as well, we have four new mathematics teachers to welcome:

Jared Chivers comes to DHS after teaching mathematics for three years at Waconah Regional High School. He earned a B.S. in Mathematics from UMASS Amherst and is currently working toward his masters in education. Mr. Chivers also played football while at UMASS and will be joining our coaching staff this fall.

Aggie Coleman will be a full time mathematics teacher after completing two long-term substitute stints at DHS last year. Ms. Coleman earned a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from the US Naval Academy and degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Engineering from M.I.T. Prior to coming to Duxbury, Ms. Coleman was a substitute teacher in the Silver Lake District and a math and science tutor. This followed a successful career as a U.S. Navy Project Manager.

Kelly Gill comes to Duxbury with a B.S. in Mathematics from Bridgewater State University. Ms. Gill student taught at Plymouth South High School and was also a long-term math substitute at Braintree High School. She is well prepared and eager to begin her full time teaching career at DHS.

Brandon Josselyn earned a B.A. in Humanities from Yale University. After completing a stint with the Seattle Mariners organization and working at State Street Bank, Mr. Josselyn earned his mathematics certification. He completed very successful long-term substitute mathematics teaching stints at Whitman-Hanson High School and Braintree South Middle School.

World Language: As you may know, ASL teacher Jutta Rossano and French teacher Lynn Perekslis have retired. We have also increased our Spanish and French teaching staff and welcome the following teachers to the World Language department:

Kaytlyn Affane will join the DHS staff as a part time French teacher. She will also be teaching at DMS as well. Ms. Affane graduated from UMASS Dartmouth with a B.A. in French and most recently was a long-term substitute in Fall River.

Nicole Corbett will be coming to DHS as a full-time French teacher after a successful year at DMS. Before coming to Duxbury, she was a long time French teacher at Hanover High School. She is very excited to be coming to the high school this coming year.

Jennifer Crowley joins our World Language Department as a .8 Spanish teacher this year. She is a graduate of UNH with B.A’s in Spanish and Psychology and earned an M.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from Middlebury College. Ms. Crowley has been a successful Spanish teacher since 1993 at North Andover and Danvers High Schools.

Christine Robertson will be our new American Sign Language (ASL) teacher this year. Ms. Robertson earned a B.A. from Assumption College in Social and Rehabilitation Services with a minor in Deaf Studies. She further studied and pursued ASL certification from Mt. Wachusett College, George Brown College, and Gallaudet University. Ms. Robertson has extensive interpretive experience and, since 2007, has been an ASL teacher in the Marshfield Public Schools.

Social Studies: Jack Kennedy has decided to return to full time teaching after a very successful turn as the 9-12 Social Studies Department chair. I have truly enjoyed working with Jack in that capacity for the past six years and thank him for his service both to the department and to the school. Andy Hoey will begin this year in the newly created grade 6-12 Social Studies Subject Supervisor position. Mr. Hoey earned dual B.A. degrees from Dartmouth College in History and Drama. From Fitchburg State University he earned a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Teaching (History concentration) and a C.A.G.S. in Educational Leadership and Management. Prior to coming to Duxbury, Mr. Hoey was a successful and highly qualified teacher and leader at Hingham Middle and High Schools. We are happy to have him join us as leader of the grade 6-12 Social Studies Department.

Katherine Tracey, who very ably covered two long-term substitute teaching roles in the Social Studies Department will be joining the DHS staff as a part time Social Studies teacher. Ms. Tracey earned a B.A. History from Northeastern University and a M.Ed. from UMASS Amherst. Ms. Tracey comes to DHS with four years of additional teaching experience at Marshfield High School.

Special Education:

Matt Landolfi will be a Special Education teacher at DHS this year in our newly created Partnership Program. Mr. Landolfi graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.S. in Economics. After a successful career as a financial analyst, he has earned his Special Education certification and is working toward his masters in Special Education at Bridgewater State University. Mr. Landolfi has been active in coaching youth sports in Duxbury and has also been an Assistant Coach on the DHS football team.

Deb Perez joins the Special Education Department this year, replacing Christine Todd. Ms. Perez worked for 17 years at DHS as a very capable Instructional Assistant and MCAS tutor (math). After earning her Special Education certification, Ms. Perez worked as a Special Education teacher at Norwood High School before returning to DHS. Ms. Perez received a B.S. in Marketing from UMASS Amherst.

Science: This was a big year in the Science Department, as the Computer Science Department has been revived at DHS!

John Drugan joins the Science department as a computer science teacher this year. Mr. Drugan earned a B.S. and his Masters in Computer Science from Boston University. After working as a Technical Trainer, Mr. Drugan became an adjunct professor of Computer Science at Quincy College. He also completed a successful Computer Science long-term substitute teaching position at Notre Dame Academy.

Support staff: We have a few new support staff members joining us this year:

Jessica Barbieri and Abigail Saulnier will be joining us as Instructional Assistants to replace longtime aides Carol Canty and Linda Begley, who both retired during the school year. Ms. Barbieri is a former ELA teacher returning to education after taking time off of her to raise her children. Ms. Saulneir is a DHS graduate who has worked as an Academic Counselor with the Student Union for the past two years.

AnnMarie Fahey will be the DMS/DHS Nurse’s Assistant, replacing Debbie Boehm who retired after last year. Ms. Fahey has worked in a few capacities in the Duxbury School System and is a welcome addition to our staff.

Communication: We want to maintain an open line of communication and will continue to be utilizing a weekly online newsletter, Connect-Ed phone messages, the school's web page to keep you informed of upcoming events, and DHS Twitter feeds (see website for links). If you are interested in receiving any online communications like the weekly newsletter and/or PTO announcements please register online at the Duxbury Public School's Main Page at http://www.duxbury.k12.ma.us. All newsletter registration is being conducted online at this address. Please also peruse the school's website for updated Guidance (e.g. Program of Studies) and Athletic information. If you have any issues, questions, or positive words of praise, please feel free to contact the Assistant Principals or me. Thank you and enjoy the rest of the summer!!!

Sincerely,

Andrew G. Stephens - Principal

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Dear Parents and Families,

At the end of last year, much time was spent investigating allegations of ‘sexting’ between students in both the middle school and the high school. We would like to share with you some of what we have found and our plans to address it within the school.

The Nature of the Problem: We have learned that it has becoming increasingly common for our students to engage in sexting with other students. Sexting is broadly defined as the creation and/or dissemination of images whose content contains the exhibition of a minor in a sexually explicit manor. Massachusetts does not currently have any laws that deal with sexting directly. As a result, sexting falls under Massachusetts General Laws and Statues for child pornography.

We have found that these images are most commonly created using a cell phone application called Snapchat. Snapchat advertises itself as an app that allows the users to send photos to each other that disappear after a period of seconds. Snapchat does note however, that it is possible to take a screenshot of the image that has been sent to them. Many of our students have told us that they feel safe creating and sharing images of themselves through this application and do so with great frequency. Unfortunately, our students are almost entirely unaware of how easy it is for these images to be captured and shared with anyone. They are also not cognizant of the legal ramifications that they face under the felony statue of Massachusetts if the images are of a sexually explicit manor.

Image Storage and Sharing: We have learned that students share these captured screenshots through a variety of new applications on their cell phones and social media platforms. Our students are very knowledgeable about the capacity and capabilities of these differing platforms (Skype, Facebook Messenger, Kick and various instant messaging applications.) We have learned that images can be stored and shared through conversations between users and not stored in a photo album.

In addition, there are now applications that are “secret” applications. For example, there were a number of students that had a calculator application that looked just like the stock calculator that comes with the phone. Although it is a fully functioning calculator, when a sequence of numbers is input into the application a secret photo and video library is opened. The images contained in this application are not visible in other albums on the device.

What Duxbury High School is Doing About It: Our practice has been and will remain, that in every case of sexting both the parents of the student involved and the Duxbury Police Department are immediately notified. The welfare and safety our all of our students is our paramount concern. School consequences are a matter of student confidentially and will not be addressed in a public manner. However, new language is being introduced in all of our student handbooks for the 2013-2014 school year to address this concern. We will be preparing programing for our students and families and hope that you can use the above information to begin some very important conversations with your son or daughter over the summer.

Sincerely, Andrew Stephens, Marc Talbot, and Jim Donovan

Important Handbook Changes

2013-2014

After convening several times during the spring of 2013, the Handbook Review Committee, which was made up of students, teachers, administrators, and parents, put forward the following changes in the DHS Student Handbook which were adopted by the DHS School Council and the School Committee.

PROGRESS REPORTS (see p. 15)

• Beginning with the 2013-14 school year, teachers are required to make their grades public and update their online grade books every two weeks. Thus, quarterly progress reports will no longer be posted to the portal.

MIDYEAR AND FINAL EXAMS (see p. 15)

BREATHALIZER (see p. 28 “Alcohol and Other Drugs” and p. 29 “Dances”)

• New language has been added explaining the use of breathalyzers at school functions.

CELL PHONE/PED USE (see p. 28)

• Students can use these devices during passing time between classes and during lunch. • At all other times, the devices should be turned off and stored away, unless a teacher has given explicit permission for the use of the devices for an educational purpose. • Student-parent contact (and vice-versa) should be made through the phone in the main office, not with personal devices. • Please note the distinction between passing time between classes and hallway time during classes. Cell phones/PEDs are not allowed during the latter.

DANCES (see pp. 29-30)

• New language has been added to address appropriate dancing at school dances.

DRESS (see p. 30)

• Students should remove all hoods once they have entered the building. This is a security measure, as the hood often makes student identification difficult.

EXCUSED ABSENCES (see p. 38)

• Documentation required to excuse an absence must be submitted within 5 days upon return to school.

TARDINESS (see pp. 41-42)

• Documentation required to excuse a tardy must be submitted with 24 hours of the tardy. • Tardiness after 9:15 is considered “extreme tardiness” and requires parental verification. Verification can come in the form of a note (written and signed by parent) or a phone call. Students will remain in the main office until such verification can be made.

DHS PTO...... Supporting Tomorrow’s Leaders

August 2013

Dear DHS Community:

As I look ahead to an exciting new school year I would like to welcome all students and families, especially the freshmen (class of 2017) and our seniors (class of 2014) as they begin and end their journey at Duxbury High School.

As your PTO President, I would like to encourage you to join the PTO so that together we can continue to support the many programs our students enjoy throughout the school year. As the PTO has done in the past, we rely solely on the membership dues and calendar sales to support the following programs: Guest Speakers, Welcome Back Teacher Lunch, Link Crew, National Honor Society, Homecoming, Teacher Appreciation Week, Senior Awards, Graduation and many more. Your $15 membership dues will assure that we are able to contribute to these! Last year we were also able to provide special funding requests such as Teacher Mini Grants and GradNite and would like to continue to do so with your membership dollars. Your donation will help the PTO continue to work behind the scenes to make the high school experience the very best it can be for our students.

The PTO will have a table at Open House for membership and calendar sales. Also check us out on the DHS website. Membership forms with payment options, volunteer opportunities and much more can be handled online for your convenience.

The first PTO meeting will be Monday, September 9th at 7:00 pm in the High School library. Hope you can join us.

Thank you in advance for joining and supporting the PTO!

Sincerely,

Patty Guilfoile President, DHS PTO

The Students & Faculty of DUXBURY HIGH SCHOOL Invite the Class of 2017 to the LINK CREW 9th GRADE ORIENTATION

Monday, August 26, 2013 7:50 am – 12:30 pm DHS Cafeteria

The purpose of this orientation is to make the transition from middle school to high school a positive one. Link Leaders consisting of Seniors and Juniors will be serving as mentors to the incoming 9th grade class. Large and small group activities have been designed to address student’s needs and concerns in an enjoyable manner. Wear comfortable clothes – there is no need to bring any of your school stuff. Also, lunch will be provided. If you have any questions please contact one of our Link Coordinators:

Lisa Dembowski Jim Donovan Michael Bagshaw [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]