Good News from Wareham High School
April 11, 2008
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Mr. Clark will be contacting the homes of WHS families,
faculty and staff monthly to review the accomplishments
and calendar of events at WHS.
You can look forward to receiving this reloaded message at
the beginning of each month.
JANUARY STUDENT OF THE MONTH
Keyshla Melendez has made amazing progress since she
arrived at Wareham High School in September of 2006.
Having just arrived from Puerto Rico, Keyshla spoke very
little English. Her perseverance and strong work ethic have
paid off; she has excelled in all of her classes, including
some very challenging honors courses. Keyshla is a
member of the National Junior Honor Society and served as
co-captain of the girls’ soccer team last fall. This coming
summer, she has been chosen to participate in the National
Youth Leadership Forum in Boston. Her focus will be
medicine, as she hopes to become a surgeon one day.
FEBRUARY STUDENT OF THE
MONTH
Steven Monteiro has been a quiet and vocal leader this
year. He leads through the example of work ethic,
achievement and integrity. He can always be counted on to
do the right thing even when nobody is watching. He was a
pleasure to coach; we will look forward to watching him in
his life past high school.
MARCH STUDENT OF THE MONTH
Laura Doucette is the backbone of our DECA
program this year. She is our Chapter President and
in a nutshell she does it all. She helps run the school
store in the afternoons and she is at constant work
during her study period from the school store. She
could exercise her senior privileges during that period
5 but instead she uses that time to make sure that
Wareham DECA is running effectively. She gives so
much of her free time to the DECA program and to
WHS as a whole. Laura captained the girls’ soccer
team and was the same steady leader on the soccer
field as she is for WHS DECA. She attended a
National Leadership Academy in Orlando Florida last
April and were fortunate enough to watch her
leadership in action for the betterment of Wareham
High School and its students. She is a pure pleasure
to have as a student and part of the Wareham High
School community.
TRACK ATHLETES & SCHOLARS
WHS Winter Track Boys and Girls have earned the MIAA
gold and silver awards for highest grade point averages
respectively. Keep up the great work in the classroom and
on the track
.
THE ARTS ARE ALIVE AT WHS
Congratulations to Mrs. Dion and her art students for
winning the High School Select Exhibition at Gallery X in
New Bedford. They won best project for their
“Deconstructed Books” project, where students
transformed books into three dimensional works of art.
Congratulations to Mrs. Dion’s class for this recognition.
FEBRUARY EMPLOYEES OF THE
MONTH
Mr. Dan Nault and Ms. Lauren Anthony
For the past few months, our district and building special
educations staffs have been working tirelessly on behalf our
some of our neediest students. The emotional and
academic support needs of our special education population
reached a peak last month. Mr. Nault and Ms. Anthony
have been forced outside of their usual roles to help
students far beyond their job descriptions. While their
work together started only in September, they have
established a seamless partnership that benefits our
students. This is just another example of how professionals
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 Good News from Wareham High School
April 11, 2008
can increase their impact of students through collaboration.
Mr. Nault and Ms. Anthony show us the impact we can
have on student, when the students are constantly reminded
that we care about them.
PORTFOLIO PROGRESS
This spring students, grades 9-11, are beginning to build
their comprehensive portfolios. The faculty is helping
students select assignments, and projects that are
representations of their growth as learners. It is our
expectation that students will become active participants
and managers of their own education, via the Portfolio
Process.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
DEPARTMENT
The Foreign Language Department is pleased to welcome
Miss Rosario Lovell as a student teacher. She is a graduate
from WHS and Bridgewater State College. She is currently
working toward her licensure. She will be working with
Mrs. Ohman and Mrs. Robillard.
WHS SCHOOL NURSE
Congratulations to Sandy Schutt, our school nurse. She has
received the status of NCSN which stands for Nationally
Certified School Nurse, a designation shared by less than
3% of school nurses nationwide; as a result of passing the
exam for NCSN status she has been granted professional
status with the Massachusetts Department of Education.
She is also a member of Sigma Theta Tau the national
nursing honor society, MSNO the Massachusetts State
Nursing Organization an NASN, the National School Nurse
Organization. Mrs. Schutt graduated in 1982 from UMASS
Dartmouth and has worked at Wareham High School since
1999.
NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY
Wareham High School’s National Honor Society is hosting
the American Red Cross’s annual blood drive on May 2,
2008 in the gymnasium.
WHS will be having a formal induction ceremony for new
members of the National Honor Society in June at the
underclassman awards night.
POLITICAL AWARENESS
The History/Social Sciences Department, under the
leadership of Mr. St. Julien is increasing student political
awareness on March 28th. Representatives of the State
Republican and Democratic Parties conducted a workshop
for seniors to increase political awareness.
GOOD DECISION MAKING
CAMPAIGN
Our building wide spring good decision making campaign
will kick off Friday, April 4, 2008 with a Mock “Operating
While Under the Influence” crash scene in front of the
school. Rick Paling, K-12 Health/PE Director, is working
in conjunction with the Wareham Fire, and Police
Departments, and local agencies to coordinate this
program.
As we move further into the spring we will have several
speakers, events and presentations to help students make
good decisions regarding chemical health and destructive
decisions.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
This years Social Studies Teachers issued extra credit for
entering a Poster Assignment Contest for Black History
Month. The following students participated in the contest:
Robins Patel, Corey Svedine, Karen O’Brien, Jessica
Dennis, Matt Crowley, Keyshla Melendez, Karen Fuller,
Zahra Melendez, Zachary Murphy, and Bethany Collins.
The winner of the contest was Keyshla Melendez. The
poster is on display at WHS.
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 Good News from Wareham High School
April 11, 2008
LIVING DEMOCRACY
Michael Ryan of the Office of Jury Commissioner spoke to
students at Wareham High School February 26. At the
invitation of law teacher Mr. Lazarus, Ryan discussed court
procedures and deliberation.
A law class at Wareham High School buffed up its
knowledge of the court system when Mr. Ryan, outreach
coordinator for the office, was the guest speaker at a senior
honors law class taught by Mr. Lazarus. He walked the
students through the court process, explaining the roles of a
jury, a judge and other court officers. He then led the
students in a mock jury selection, where they learned how
to participate in court and plead their case if they are unable
to serve on a jury.
Mr. Ryan’s visit was one of two enrichment activities Mr.
Lazarus organized for Wareham High School students.
The other speaker is Diane Flaherty, who works at the
Office of the Attorney General. She will discuss the
problems of credit and debt in more than a dozen different
classes throughout March and early April.
Students will learn about consumer rights. Diane Flaherty
of the Attorney general’s office offers insight. Flaherty
will introduce students to different consumer issues,
including personal finance and consumer rights, as well as
a discussion on how students should check their credit
scores during the year with three different credit bureaus.
When the Class of 2008 first steps out of high school and
onto a college campus, they can expect to be flooded with
enticements to apply for credit cards. With a little help
from the New Bedford Office of the Attorney General,
many of Wareham’s graduating seniors will be better
equipped to understand what they’re being offered and
resist the lure of credit cards.
COLLEGE NIGHT
On March 25th, fifty parents/guardians of juniors attended
the Junior College Planning Night sponsored by the
guidance department in conjunction with Steven Briggs, the
Director of Admissions at UMass Dartmouth. This
presentation mirrored the one that the guidance department
conducted in all English 11 classes.
Juniors also participated in group guidance sessions on the
SAT registration process in their U.S. History classes. All
juniors were instructed on how to fill out the form or
register on-line. The SAT will be given at Wareham High
School on May 3rd, and again on November 1st. If any
junior missed the registration deadline, SATs will be given
on June 7th at Tabor Academy. The deadline to register for
the June SAT is May 6th.
BOSTON MARATHON
Principal Patrick Clark will be running the Boston
Marathon on April 21st to benefit the Special Olympic
Athletes of Wareham and the Greater Cape Islands region.
If interested in supporting his run, please contact Kristi
Prada, Principal’s secretary.
RESULTS ~ BETTER BREAKFAST
The results of the Better Breakfast Initiative Survey
conducted at WHS during National School Breakfast
Week:
52% of the students who responded never eat breakfast at
school, while 24% eat sometimes, 11 % eat usually, and
13% always eat breakfast at school. 55% of the students
would eat at school more often if they had more time to eat,
20% would like to see different items offered, 15% cannot
afford to buy breakfast, and 10% of the students would eat
more often if their friends ate breakfast at school too. 58%
of the students don’t care if school breakfast is healthy,
while 36% want a healthy breakfast at school, and 6% of
the students disagree that school breakfast should be
healthy.
The current breakfast menu items were rated as excellent,
good, fair, bad, and very bad. The most popular item rated
is Pop Tarts, followed closely by the Egg Muffin
Sandwich.
Bagels, French Toast Sticks, Sausage Pancake Wraps, and
Scrambled Eggs with Bacon followed in order, with cold
cereal and burritos tied at the bottom of the list. Healthy
foods that the students would like to see offered in the
future include fruit salad, yogurt, more fresh fruit, and
granola bars.
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 Good News from Wareham High School
April 11, 2008

The food service department is constantly looking for ways

to improve and streamline the breakfast program to
accommodate as many students as possible. Students are
reminded that if they qualify for free or reduced lunch, they
also will receive free or reduced breakfast. Free/reduced
meal applications can be filled out at any time during the
school year if the household size has gone up or if income
has gone down.

Remember: students who eat breakfast perform better on

tests and have fewer behavior problems in school. People
who miss breakfast are four times more likely than others
to become obese, they tend to smoke more, and exercise
less. Skipping breakfast may lead to increased risk of heart
disease, and children are at a higher risk for tooth decay.
All good reasons to come to school and start the day off
right with a healthy breakfast!