Friday Falcon
Avon High School Newsletter - May 2018 - Volume 1:15
Principal's Newsletter
Dear Students, Parents, Guardians, and Members of the Avon High School Community,
The weeks are flying by and graduation will soon be here (June 19th at 5:30 p.m.). Here are a few updates from the high school.
Security
We have restricted students from leaving campus to only those students that are seniors, have senior privileges, and an “Open”. Next year this privilege will be restricted to periods 1 and 4. We have conducted three lock down drills in coordination with the Avon Police Department. One of these drills, two weeks ago, was conducted during passing time. Despite this, we were able to clear all halls and lock down in less than a minute. We appreciate all students and staff who took this so seriously. We have held fire drills each month, including during passing times and lunch. We continue to have regular meetings with school and town officials to review our drills, our communications, and refine our policies and procedures.
Over the summer new entrance ways will be installed in front and in back, which will be double door systems, and will require a visitor to be buzzed in twice after their identification has been verified.
Cameras will also be installed in both the interior and exterior, enhancing our ability to monitor the safety of our students.
Attendance and Discipline
This year we have really focused on bringing some consistency to the enforcement of discipline at the high school. We reviewed and rewrote our procedures. We have created a discipline matrix to guide our assistant principals in their work. The increasing popularity of vaping remains a challenge. Vaping has led to the greatest number of discipline referrals this year by far.
We are also addressing issues of attendance. Students that have excessive absenteeism have been brought to an attendance committee review, where they can lose credit, lose privileges, and other consequences. The goal is always to get the student to commit to regular attendance. Additionally, we are making a robust effort to give any student who cuts a class a consequence. We are already seeing a decrease in the number of unexcused absences.
Athletics
Each season I meet with all the sports captains and review our expectations. We hold our captains to a higher standard and expect them to model the idea of representing Avon High School in the best possible light. It’s been kind of exciting this year, as many of our teams have been very competitive, including two state championship teams and a runner-up. Our teams have competed around the state, including Trinity and Yale Hockey rinks, Mohegan Sun, and Dunkin Donuts Baseball stadium. The crew team has traveled as far as Boston to compete. Several of our students are currently working on a promotional video for athletics at Avon High School.
In the meantime, many great things are happening at Avon High School. Please read on for further details.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or concerns, at dpeling@avon.k12.ct.us or 860-404-4745.
Best Regards,
David Peling
UpComing Events
- May 21st - Dollars for Scholars - 6pm
- May 22nd - Registrar of Voters (students only) - 10:30am - AHS Cafe
- May 22nd - Career Expo
- May 23rd - AHS Chorus Concert - 7pm
- May 31st - AHS Orchestra Concert - 7pm
- June 1st - Senior Picnic
- June 2nd - AHS Prom
- June 5th - Awards Night - AHS Auditorium
- June 19th - AHS Graduation - 5:30pm
Registrar of Voters Here!
A Note from the Nurse
Season allergies have begun! We are seeing increased numbers of students suffering with itchy eyes, sneezing and nasal congestion. We do NOT have allergy medication in the Nurse's office, so please see that your child takes allergy medication at home before school if they are suffering. There is little that we can do in school to help them feel better. Happy Spring!
Congratulations Due
Congratulations to the winners of the National Latin Exam Awards
Congressional App Challenge Winners Recognized at State Capital
Reminders
PROM!
Internship Poster Presentation
Project Graduation Update
Avon High School Project Graduation 2018 is underway and we need you! Project Graduation is a substance free, safe, and fun event held after Graduation on Tuesday, June 19th, from 10pm to 3:30am at Avon Middle School. It is a fabulous send off for our Seniors and we need many volunteers over several days to make this party a success. We especially need parents of underclassmen to volunteer the afternoon/evening of the 19th while graduation is occurring. There are multiple ways to help and we would appreciate any time you can spare! Below is the link to sign up using Signup Genius. You may need to copy and paste the link into your browser if the link does not work.
Last chance to bid on 2018 Graduation Seats and a Parking Spot!
The AHS Project Graduation committee is auctioning 4 sets of seating/parking packages! All proceeds go directly to making sure that Project Graduation is a success.
Bid on 4 FRONT Row Seats & 1 VIP Parking Spot (2 packages total) and 4 SECOND Row Seats & 1 VIP Parking Spot (2 packages total) by clicking here and emailing your sealed bid to the Project Graduation Auction Chair.
The auction begins Monday, May 14th at 8am and ends Friday, May 25th at 8pm. See attachment for details.
If you have any questions, please email Sue Chadha at auction@ahspto.com . Good luck!!
Project Graduation Invitations have been sent out via snail mail! Please check your mailbox! Join in an evening of fun and surprises as you celebrate your Graduation from Avon High School. Please RSVP ASAP!!
Senior Lawn Signs for Sale
Craft Workshop Update
Mrs. Firestone discussed her writing process (including some tricks of her trade and advice to young writers) and experiences as a writer (constant revision, finding an essential writing community, and how to get published). She fielded student and teacher questions, provided handouts, and directed us to helpful resources. She also offered herself as a mentor for student writers and she hopes to continue to offer workshops to our school community next year.
The workshop flyer below gives a bit more detail about the wonderful event that was held here at Avon High School earlier this week.
Lost and Found
Obligations
Check Out Our Students
LEO Club
CT Halo Awards
Crazy For You 2018
In Our Classrooms
Science Department Pictures at AHS
Choir
On Friday, May 4th, Paul Mealor, renowned British composer and professor at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, visited Avon High School to work with two choral ensembles. Mealor rose to fame when he was commissioned to write a choral piece for the wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton. The Camerata Singers will be performing that piece, entitled Ubi Caritas, on the May 23 choral concert. The Women's Choir will be performing Mealor's piece entitled In My Dreams. It was written for the Military Wives Choir in the UK. The song and the choir was featured on the BBC show The Choir and, as a result, the album it was on reached number #1 on the UK Album Charts. His visit was truly a special event for our school and for our students and Paul was impressed with our students musicianship and overall singing. On his Facebook page, Mealor described his time at AHS as "A wonderful afternoon working with Andrew Brochu and the choirs at Avon High School, Connecticut. A truly enriching day! I was very impressed by their musicianship, singing and heart!"
Advanced Health
Chamber Orchestra
Collaboration with Edward Cumming
Mr. Cumming is the orchestra director at the Hartt School. Previously he was the orchestra director of the Hartford Symphony. Edward was invited to work with the AHS students at the end of April. After working with the students in the Chamber orchestra, he invited the chamber music students to perform with his string students on their final concert for this year. The students had one short rehearsal and performed the same night. The concert was a great success and the students did a wonderful job.
In addition, students from String Ensemble and the Concert Orchestra had a very very good rehearsal with him during which he was able to provide them a different perspective on the music that we were working on.
School Counseling News
- On April 24 - School Counselors meet with all grade 9 and 10 students in small groups to complete Career Inventories in Naviance as we prepare for our Career Day.
- On May 22 - all grade 9 and 10 students will attend a Career Expo hosted in the AHS gymnasium.
- ALL STUDENTS - Please explore the “My Planner Tab” in your Naviance account as there are tasks that we want you to complete. Other great resources to explore in Naviance include “Road Trip Nation”, which can be found under the “Career Tab”.
ALL STUDENTS - With less than one quarter left in the school year, be sure that you are placing your best foot forward in all of your classes. If you are looking for strategies on how to best prepare for class or your final exams, please visit the school counseling website.
SENIORS - With May 1 having recently passed, please remember take five minutes to complete the “Graduation Survey” in your Naviance account. An email with directions is waiting for you in your Avon email account.
SENIORS - Be sure to explore scholarship opportunities posted in your Naviance account and our website.
Fall Sports Registration Opens Mays 15th, 2018
Congrats to Rachel Spivak and Jack Stokesbury, AHS /CIAC Scholar-Athletes for 2018!
Avon High School's Athletics Booster Club
Please click here to see the latest Bulletin from the Booster Club and all of the exciting and informative news they have to share.
Avon Baseball at Dunkin Donuts Yard Goats Stadium in Hartford
F.A.M.E.
Please join F.A.M.E. at our last meeting of the school year to be held on Monday, May 14th at 7 pm in the Choir Room. We will be voting in our Executive Board for the 2018-2019 school year. Any questions? Please contact any of our Board members at fame.aps@gmail.com.
All are welcome. Any questions? Please contact any of our board members:
Robin Lazinsk (rdlazinsk@hotmail.com), President
Gwendolyn Hahn (Gwenhahn64@gmail.com), Vice President
Lynne Zemaitis (lzemaitis1973@gmail.com) and Susan Lybeck (susanlybeck@hotmail.com), Secretaries
Meredith Jobe (the4jobes@gmail.com), Treasurer
Friends of Avon Music Education (F.A.M.E.) is a music and theater booster club at Avon High School which supports each of the music disciplines along with the theater department. Our organization was founded in 1996 by a group of parents who were interested in supporting the AHS music program.
Avon PTO
The AHS PTO introduces Konstella!
Publishing a directory is an extremely labor intensive project and finding volunteers to take it on has been difficult. It is also costly as we have had a decreased numbers of members over the years and our printing costs go up. Other Avon schools have utilized the online directory and have had great success. The concept is growing and we are in the learning stages, so I request your patience in getting this all together. So without further ado...welcome to the world of Konstella...
Konstella is a communication channel for parents of school-aged children. This website/app allows parents to efficiently reach other parents and teachers, and participate in school-wide discussions and activities. Avon High School PTO will have a secure site that can only be accessed by verified members of our school community. We hope to have Konstella used as the vehicle for communication throughout the Avon School District by next year - so sign up today! It will be so efficient to have directory information at your fingertips on your smartphone or tablet as well as on your home computer.
With Konstella, you will be able to:
- Volunteer for PTO committees and events
- Access the online student/family directory (there will be no printed directory this year!)
- Receive communications from the PTO
Steps to sign up for Konstella:
- You will first need to set up your Konstella account via computer, but after you have the account - you can download the Konstella app to your tablet or smartphone
- Type this URL into the address bar https://www.konstella.com/cd/xjg05i
- Enter your email in the provided space.
- You will then be sent an invitation email.
- Follow the directions in the email to complete the registration for Konstella.
Some notes on using Konstella:
- Please add Konstella.com to your email program's safe list..
- Once you are registered, please be sure to customize your privacy settings within Konstella by clicking your NAME, then SETTINGS. You may enter in as much or as little personal information as you prefer. In order to get PTO communications this year, you must include your EMAIL at a minimum.
- Use Konstella online and/or download the app to your tablet or smartphone.
- It is FREE to be listed in the directory, but to access other families' contact information, we request that you please contribute to the AHS PTO membership with a $30 donation by check made payable to AHS PTO.
If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you!
Heather Maguire