Week 34

Dear MHS,

Welcome back from spring break. Here is a look ahead:

• MHS Athletics (busy week!): Sports Calendar

• Thursday, April 28th: Rally for the Planet (participating students will attend a field trip organized by our MHS Earth Group).

• Saturday, April 30th: Junior Prom: A Black & White Gala (8pm to 12am) at National Life

• May 3rd (Tuesday) 2nd ANNUAL EXHIBITION DAY 
• Students will not have regular school hours on May 3rd. Instead, all 9th and 10th graders will be required to schedule a 30-minute exhibition time with their teacher advisor. Parents/Guardians will be invited and encouraged to attend when possible, as well as anyone else the individual student may wish to invite. 11th and 12th graders participating in AP exams may have exams or additional prep time with their given instructors on May 3rd. Some 30 minute exhibitions may be scheduled after school hours to accommodate individual student and family schedules. This time is dedicated to building purposeful reflection, planning, and showcasing of learning into the high school experience at MHS. 

 

AP EXAM SCHEDULE & ALL STATE MUSIC FESTIVAL

• May 3rd: AP Spanish and Computer Science Exams
• May 4th: AP English Exam
• May 5th: AP Calculus Exam
• May 5th-May 7th: All State Music Festival for qualifying music students
• May 6th: AP U.S. History Exam
• May 7th: (SATs on Saturday)
• May 9th: AP Biology Exam
• May 12th: AP Statistics Exam

Week 33

A Solon Salute to Erin Sullivan, Samantha Murray, Izzy Banse, Brynn Bushey, Evan Lewis, Willow Forbes, Claire Fraser, and Maya Facciolo for representing MHS so well in the recent Teen-Jazz performance.

A Solon Salute to MHS alumnus Sean O'Regan. He took his passion for sports into coaching and was just promoted to Head Basketball Coach at James Madison! (From Mr. Gallagher).

 

The WALLS team owes an enormous, inclusive THANK YOU to all of MHS for the support, energy, flexibility, and resources that everyone gave us. We were running as fast as we could, so when something we hadn't predicted came up we often (REALLY often) had to ask for help from our MHS colleagues. Every single time we asked, people said "Yes!" -- it was remarkable. I am afraid of leaving out a crucial person, and no doubt I will -- but truly -- the whole school deserves a huge round of applause. Special thanks go to Tom Allen and John of the Astoundingly Helpful CleanTeam; Jason Miles and Sam Bromley for huge generosity of time and materials in building the giant cubes; Sue Monmaney for consistent, graceful support and flexibility; Val for her unwavering kindness and help, even when we didn't know what to ask for; Brian Gallagher and Carolyn Kiniry for letting us usurp the gym with no notice; Jen Wall for noticing when I was about to break and lending me her tape dispenser (it saved everything); and BARB, the Artist with the Mostest, every....single.....time.  THAT WOMAN -- a Montpelier treasure, friends. She must never be allowed to retire. I know I've forgotten someone crucial, and the fault is mine. THANK YOU, MHS! Happy, happy vacation! (From Ms. Sarah Squier).

A Solon Salute to Science/Math Teacher, Ms. Anne Watson. Anne is currently on a grant funded (Rowland Foundation) project to build upon Montpelier High School's international student population. This picture was taken of Anne representing MHS in Oslo Norway at an international school/student fair. Thanks for representing MHS so well, we salute you! 

Here is a "salute" from the PoemCity Montpelier Project. Thanks Jason, Barb, Matt, and all participating students!

A Solon Salute to all of the students and all of the adults who pitched in to make the SBAC testing and PLP workshops run smoothly.

• Betty Hammond for providing breakfast for the testing juniors.

• Juniors for sticking it out and giving SBAC their best!

• Freshmen and sophomores working diligently and creatively on their PLPs.

• I started listing the staff who helped, and then realized I'd be listing everyone -- whether organizing the Walls project, administering a test, running a PLP workshop, floating and helping out as needed -- all staff pitched in and helped. Thank you!

• Random acts of helping were also appreciated -- like Mikayla Flynn covering the library desk during an especially busy transition, handling questions with ease and confidence, or students and staff helping to distribute and return laptops and carts. (From Ms. Monmaney).

  

Week 32

• Monday & Tuesday's Special Schedule for SBAC & PLP Workshops (4/11, 4/12).

A Solon Salute to Cathy Butterfield, Katy Chabot, Hilary Goldblatt, Kerrin McCadden, Sarah Squier, Gowri Savoor, Evan Premo, Paul Gambill, Evelyn Glennie, and all of the students that made our Wall's Project a success. Below is a video posted by the Times Argus, special salute to Isabelle Francke, Nadia Scoppettone, and Eleanor Braun for speaking on behalf of MHS students in the video. And another special salute to Amanda Adams, Matt Koucky, Will Rider, Dahria Messina, and Noel Riby-Williams for their poems as well as the speaking parts from Avi Isaacs-Corcoran, and Naomi Pitt. Great job everyone!

Sunday: April 10th, the cubes (walls) and the student orchestra piece will be apart of Evelyn Glennie's performance at the Barre Opera House. 

 

Times Argus Video of the Walls Performance

 

A Solon Salute to Alvaro de Cordoba who was named the Times Argus Boys' Basketball Player of the Year. Thank you for all your hard work. We are proud to call you a Solon! 

A Solon Salute to the Latin students who attended Latin Day at UVM on Friday. They represented their school magno cum honore.  Special thanks to the level 4 students (Greg McKinstry, Elena Papi, Emma Polen, Michael Roach, and Fox Winters) for leading the skit. Thank you to the underclassmen who helped with the skit too! (Mr. Carroll). 

A Solon Salute to Kelsey Golonka, who quickly recruited fellow tennis players, Elizabeth Cossett, Elena Papi, Khylear Imbeau, Lyvia Bashara, & Antonia Bean to help set up the middle school dinner theater after our high school use of the cafeteria on Thursday afternoon. Thank you also to volunteers Charlotte Brace, Emily Corbett-Valade. We appreciate you rising to the occasion on short notice!

A Solon Salute to our Unified Basketball Team who hosted a home game on Thursday afternoon. A great game by all! 

A Solon Salute to Maggie Nowlan who recently presented to leaders from Cabot headquarters and B Corp on her work teaching in schools around the state about what it means to be a Certified B Corp company and the benefits involved. Great job Maggie, we salute you!

A Salute to Barb Austins-Hutchins all of the art students. Thank you for filling our hallways with these masterpieces!

A Solon Salute to Nick Gambill who told his original story, The Tres Leches Cake at a competitive storytelling event this week (extempo) and for all intents and purposes won the night. We salute you! 

A Solon Salute to Kerrin McCadden who was featured in Sunday's edition of the Times Argus. If you haven't had a chance to read the article click here.

A Solon Salute to Team Summit Alumni Meredith Stetter for stepping up and attending the Cultivating Climate Resilience Conference all day Saturday at MHS! Not only did she enjoy the presentations, and the yummy food, but she also helped us present about the district and team's sustainability initiatives in the afternoon. Mr. Taylor and I greatly appreciate you going above and beyond in our community.  You ROCK! (Mrs. K and Mr. Taylor).
 

Week 31

This is a really big week for MHS! 

• Click Here For This Week's Special Schedules (Walls Project, PLP work & SBAC testing)

This week will feature our Walls Project. Teachers Cathy Butterfield, Katy Chabot, Hilary Goldblatt, Kerrin McCadden, and Sarah Squier have be working with ​teaching ​artists ​Gowri Savoor (visual art) and Evan Premo (music composition) ​to provide a one-of-a-kind cross-curricular learning experience for 10th and 12th grade students. As a part of their professional learning with the Creative Schools Initiative, the arts residency is culminating on April 7th in a walking art installation of more than 150 student​-​generated learning cubes that will be used to create temporary walls​ and visual art, accompanied by original student-composed music​. We will have a special schedule in the afternoon of April 7th for all students to participate in learning from the installation and the collaborating artists in residence, including Evelyn Glennie – the internationally renowned percussionist who participated at the launch of the 2015/16 Creative Schools Initiative. Additionally, the students will present the Wall and perform side-by-side with Glennie on April 10, at a 4 p.m. concert at the Barre Opera House. The students and Glennie will be accompanied by the
Community Engagement Lab Festival Orchestra​, under the direction of Paul Gambill. 

Evelyn's Ted Talk from 2003 (3.5 million views!!!):

Evelyn leading the drummers for the London 2012 Olympic's Opening Ceremony:

Here are a few photos from the Walls preparation so far:

A Solon Salute to visiting composer Erik Nielson Orchestra teacher Hilary Goldblatt and the MPS orchestra students! The Montpelier Composition Concert was the culminating event in the VT Arts Council grant that brought Mr. Nielsen to MSMS and MHS. Mr. Nielsen has mentored all of our strings students since January this year. A special solute to Anna Scoppettone who showed excellent leadership and problem solving skills. The MHS Orchestra performed 19 original musical compositions by MSMS students, then three professional string players performed compositions by each MHS Orchestra student. To close, the entire MPS strings program grades 5-12 performed Star Wars together We salute you! 

A Solon Salute to Anders Shenholm, Isabelle Boutin, and January Simpson for their courage in presenting their research to hundreds of people at a public hearing at the State House on Thursday evening. They presented their evidence regarding the pending legislation about legalizing marijuana clearly and with excellent poise. The Representatives seemed to appreciate hearing their perspective and data. We salute you for this act of citizenship! (Anders pictured)

A Solon Salute to Appollonia Tabacco who completed this beautiful painting and then walked this large and heavy piece of art 25 minutes to school! Wow, what a great example of talent and perseverance! We salute you Appollonia!

Announcements:

The Unified Basketball team wants to invite you to come on out and support the team on Tuesday, 4/5 and Thursday, 4/7.

• Tuesday, MHS vs Colchester - 3:30
• Thursday, MHS vs Williamstown/Northfield - 3:30
• Looking ahead to the last home game 4/26, MHS vs CVU - 3:30