We recognized the accomplishments of Annie Lee Cooper, Dorothy Height, Matthew Henson, Jessie LeRoy Brown, and Lewis Latimer this week as part of Black History Month! Click on their name to learn more about these incredible Americans!

Resources: Black History Month

We rescheduled the Career Talks for the 23rd as we did not have a large enough response to move forward. However, I am still optimistic. I believe this to be a wonderful opportunity for our parents to share out on their career endeavors and our students to learn about potential career paths following graduation! If interested, please click on the link below and I will contact you with details on the respective event! Thank you very much for your support!

It can be as simple as we just ask questions and you answer or you can have something prepared...whatever works for you!

• Career Talks

The counselors will be meeting with students one-on-one starting on February 28th. The Physical Education teachers will be bringing their classes to the Media Center on the scheduled dates below. All course requests need to be entered via parent portal by February 25th.

Juniors

February 28, 2022; March 1, 2022; and March 2, 2022

Sophomores

March 7, 2022; March 8, 2022; and March 10, 2022

Freshmen

March 28, 2022; March 29, 2022; and March 30, 2022

Congratulations to our musicians for their outstanding performance Thursday evening. Keep up the great work Mr. Miller and Mr. Strohmetz!

Starting on February 28th, juniors will have the opportunity to speak with their guidance counselors regarding their 2022-2023 schedule. Students will be brought to the media center by their Physical Education teacher during assigned periods. Courses must be requested via the parent portal by Feb 25th. The course selection guide is available on the district's curriculum webpage. The registration deadline for the April 2nd ACT is 2/25/2022. Register at www.act.org. Volunteer hours need to be submitted every month. Please drop off your community service card in Guidance. New scholarships are available on the HSE Guidance website. Check out the multitude of new scholarships recently added!

Congratulations to Mrs. McLaughlin, Mrs. Goodall, Ms. Urgola, Mr. Polhemus, and Mrs. Seeland for being selected for this week's Month of Love winners! Congratulations also to Harvey Acevedo, Gianna Gullace, Nicholas Marinelli, Ayden Quin and Christen Xenakis for being selected for various prizes from our student population! Thank you again to all of our kind donors for recognizing our students and staff!

Our students and staff participated in our monthly Activity Day Friday morning. The objective was to further our January goal setting activity by creating specific targeted strategies to improve the body, mind, soul, and social. Students watched a video and created a plan to accomplish their personal goals. Teachers and students were asked to engage in discussions to problem solve obstacles and to share out on successes. Our Leaders Committee developed targeted strategies for each goal as a point of reference. Great job to Mrs. Jennifer Fazzini and Mrs. Katie Koenigstein for all of their hard work!

Great job to Ms. Jamie Blondina for all her hard work to raise awareness for heart disease. Through her efforts and the generosity of our student body, we were able to raise approximately $1,200 for the American Heart Association!

I met with our Hispanic Club members on Thursday to discuss the college application process. I highlighted the importance of doing your best every day with integrity. We discussed the importance of developing a diversified portfolio of skills and being involved. I wanted to make sure our students appreciated what colleges and employers were looking for in potential applicants and how the letter of recommendation process works. Special thanks to Mrs. Rodriguez for her continued commitment to the well-being of her students!

Special thank you to Mr. Jay McKelvey for his support in providing staff with finance and retirement planning information during our monthly Conference-Conference meetings. Mr. McKelvey shared out on topics related to: Financial order of operations, Types of investing accounts, S&P 500, Roth IRA benefits, Power of compounding interest, Pension formula, Benefits, Rule of 55 and other relevant information. The conferences were well attended. The objective of the conference was to educate staff on the retirement program and to invest in one or more of the various saving programs. We appreciated your expertise Mr. McKelvey!

Great job to East representatives, Brielle Bullock and Kira Jacobus, for their support at our Super Safe meeting Thursday evening. Brielle and Kira were accompanied by PTO members, Mrs. Laurie Rose and Mrs. Diane Harz. Our East students and staff participated in mental health and school safety discussions and represented East with pride! Great job everyone!

Congratulations to Charlie Cunningham, Emanuel Vargas and Luciana Escobar for being recognized as Respectful Raiders this week! All three students demonstrated acts of kindness and we appreciate them for being proud representatives of our school community!