ARHS Monthly Newsletter-- December 2008

From the Principal

Dear ARHS Parents and Guardians:

Effective Monday, January 5. 2008, I will begin a month long leave of absence from my position as principal of Amherst Regional High School.

The reason for the leave is to care for my brother who has a serious illness. My siblings have taken leaves from their jobs throughout the fall to assist my parents in providing care. My time to take a turn in this rotation has arrived.

In my absence, Ms. Annie Leonard, a current ARHS assistant principal, will assume the position of acting high school principal. The high school will also receive support from central office administrators on an as needed basis.

I will remain in continuous contact with the other high school administrators via phone and email. In matters of school-wide significance, I will retain responsibility for all final decisions.

My immediate responsibilities have been distributed to the other high school administrators. The main office secretaries are prepared to refer your concerns to the appropriate administrators.

Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

Thanks,

Mark Jackson

Principal

Cap and Gown Measurements

University Cap and Gown will be at Amherst Regional High School on January 9th during all lunch periods in room 13 to measure seniors for their graduation cap & gown. This is a makeup day from December 2008. The cost of this year’s program is $16.00. Payment should be made when the measurements are taken to ensure a properly fitting gown. Checks should be made directly to “University Cap & Gown,” but cash is also accepted. This is the last time that University Cap & Gown will be here, so mark the dates, come and get measured, and avoid incurring late fees!

Call for Cameras

This is Monica Rabinowitz, Photography teacher in the ARHS Art Department. Our photo classes remain as popular as ever, here at the high school - we have over fifty students this trimester, many of whom do not own their own cameras and need to borrow one from us. We have a limited supply and would love to provide each student with their own camera for the term. Do you have any manual 35 mm single lens reflex cameras sitting around, collecting dust as you click away with your new digital and cell phone cameras? If so, we would love to take them off your hands and put them to good use. We can only use 35 mm manual cameras that work properly, have an internal light meter, and are problem-free. We are especially partial to the Pentax K1000 or other similar models. We appreciate your donation and support in our endeavor to provide a quality photographic education for all of our students. Thank you!

Tutors Needed

The Amherst Pelham Schools’ English Language Education Program is urgently seeking bilingual language tutors who speak English and one or more of the following languages:

Arabic Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Moldavian/Romanian, Pashtu, Portuguese, Turkish.

Tutorial positions supporting student access to learning pay $10 an hour. You can apply for a bilingual tutoring position on line at schoolspring.com or email Mildred Martinez at martinezm2@arps.org or call 362-1859.

Please contact us immediately to express your interest. We look forward to hearing from you at this time.

Art Dept. Needs Your Help

We are in the process of planning a large scale exhibit of artwork produced by ARHS students. The idea is to raise awareness, importance and appreciation for the amazing work that is produced by our students by organizing a large scale exhibit that would culminate with an opening reception. The exhibit and opening event are scheduled to take place in the 3rd trimester and will include student artwork from in all three trimesters. At this time, we are looking for parents who can contribute the following:

~ Organizational/Planning skills.

~ Light carpentry/building skills.

~ Donation of materials/money.

~ Donation of food/beverages.

If you are interested in helping with this exciting event, please contact one of the teachers in the Art Department:

Hannah Hartl hartlh@arps.org

Monica Rabinowitz rabinowitzm@arps.org

Ben Sears searsb@arps.org

Jeff Stauder stauderj@arps.org

Fall Sports 2008 - Season Highlights

Once again our fall sports teams had very successful seasons. The following is a brief summary of their accomplishments:

Records

Boys Cross Country --9-0 League Champions. Won PVIAC Championship and the Western Mass. Championship. They finished 4th at the State meet.

PVIAC All Stars: Ray Dannenhauer, Michael Lawlor, Atticus Brigham, Barry Elkinton, Aidan Dumont-McCaffrey

Girls Cross Country -- 9-0 League Champions. Won PVIAC Championship and won Western Mass. Championships, finished 4th in the State Championship. Recipient of the Ted Dutkiewicz Team Cross Country Award.

PVIAC All Stars: Maya Nair Noonan, Leah Haake, Keri Lambert, Chloe Zimmerman, Lisa Rising, Audrey Gould, Martina Rotea

Field Hockey -- Record: Qualified for MIAA tournament and defeated Minnechaug 1-0 in the first round. Lost 3-0 in the Western Mass. Semifinals to Longmeadow.

Football -- Record 1-10

Notes: The team will move to the Suburban Division next year and will have a larger senior and junior class participating than in past years.

Golf -- Record: 10-7. The team made it to the State Championship for the first time as a team.

Boys Soccer --Record: 12-3-3 League champions. Qualified for MIAA tournament, lost in the WMASS final 1-0 to Ludlow.

PVIAC All Stars: Ian Waldron, Scott Jenkins, Evan Hazelett, Gene Buonaccorsi

Girls Soccer --A good season, almost qualifying for the tournament.

PVIAC All Stars: Alyssa Leonard, Akua Murray-Adoboe

Volleyball -- Record 16-4 Lost in the WMASS semifinal to East Longmeadow

PVIAC All Stars: Heather Mears, Jenn Mears, Laura Carraker

Messages and Deliveries to Students

The Administration has asked office staff members to respect the classroom environment by avoiding interruptions and helping students focus their work time on tasks involved in school. Office secretaries may deliver messages to students during the day only if the message is related to a medical situation or family emergency. Items brought to school by parents can be held in the Main Office for students, and the students will be called before the lunch periods start (at 9:58 am) and at the beginning of the last class of the day (usually 1:20 pm). If your child has forgotten lunch, money, or an assignment, they may check for it when they can. Thank you for your cooperation.

ARHS Students Win National Business Competition

In the month of November, a group of Amherst Regional High School students participated in an online business simulation sponsored by Deloitte and Touche. Out of over 2305 teams, Amherst Team 2, comprised of Ben Breger, Nick Mone, Viet Nguyen, and Derek Osborne finished first in the nationwide competition.

The Deloitte Virtual Team Challenge is an online business simulation, in which teams of four are asked to hire vendors and complete side missions to raise the most money to clean up an oil spill in New City. The real goal of the challenge is to teach and implement business and ethical concepts learned in the classroom. In addition to business and ethical concepts, math and environmental knowledge are also quizzed in the game. With the detail oriented nature of the game, it stresses the importance of careful research and time management, not impulsive decisions. The Virtual Team Challenge allows students to view Accounting and Business in a new light, different than simply crunching numbers. The Virtual Team Challenge emphasizes the importance of that throughout.

Throughout the simulation the students utilized their knowledge of business to help them succeed. All the players are in either Accounting II or III and have taken a variety of business classes throughout their high school careers. In the simulation they used business tools to make decisions based on business ethics and used business vocabulary to help succeed. The students have all taken many business classes and although the classes may have changed, the teacher has stayed the same. Ms. Shea has been the cornerstone of learning. Although she could not assist the students in the simulation, their victory is as much hers as it is theirs. Without her guidance, they would not have had the knowledge of business that helped them to succeed.

The key to winning the Virtual Challenge for Amherst was team work and collaboration to solve dilemmas in the simulation. Before solving a problem or hiring a vendor, the Amherst team would get together and talk about what their objective was and how it could be solved. One player never went ahead in the simulation unless they talked about their decision and got approval from another teammate. Since each of the players had an assigned responsibility each player had to research on their own. Once each player did their research, they would then present their synopsis to the other team members. Before a final decision, each team member had to agree with each other before moving on to the next step of the simulation. All four players knew that in order to generate a high score they could not work as an individual on the project and had to use joint effort. Teamwork is not only necessary in business, but a tool needed to create leadership, responsibility, and success in life.

All School Indoor Tag Sale

When: Saturday, January 31, 2009 - 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

(snow date Saturday, Feb. 7) (Set up Friday, January 30 from 6-9 p.m.)

Where: ARHS Cafeteria

What: a flea market-type tag sale, with lots of used items, raffle tickets, ARHS gear, food and other stuff for sale

Why: to help ARHS teams and clubs raise money to fund their various activities. Because it will be FUN!!!!!

Who: all ARHS student groups are invited to sell (you must have a student activities account to participate)

Organized by: Tiina Booth, teacher and coach; Pam White, Student Activities treasurer

More info: Applications available in the front office or in the AD’s office. We only have space for 20 groups, so reserve your space now! For more information, contact Ms. Booth at bootht@arps.org