Quincy High School Students and Families,

We are please to share the Quincy School Committee approved this year's Quincy High School Improvement Plan on December 6. This plan has been developed in conjunction with the NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) Collaborative Conference Team recommendations from the December 2022 NEASC visit as well as Quincy High School's Self-Reflection report.

The plan outlines three priority areas of growth which include developing a Vision of the Graduate, Curriculum Planning, and formal Tiered Monitoring System. In addition to the NEASC focus areas, each department developed goals and action steps to maximize the full learning potential of our students so they can excel both academically and socially. We hope you will review the full Improvement Plan which is linked below.

Thank you to all those who attended our Parent Conferences on November 30 and December 4 and we hope to see you one of our many upcoming events including the Band Winter Concert December 14 and Choir Winter Concert December 19. Please note: quarter two interim progress reports will be posted Friday, December 15th on Aspen.

Thanks for your continued support,

Keith Ford, Principal

Ed Smith, Assistant Principal

The 2023 fall spirit week was a huge success! It was great to see the spirit and pride of QHS throughout the halls to showcase how special Quincy High School is.

We had over 800 students attend our Homecoming Dance on November 17 thanks to countless staff and volunteers including Student Council Advisors Christine Powers and Madison Davis, our Deans, Security, Parent Advisory Council, Custodians, School Resource Officers, Homecoming Royals Interview Committee, and members of the Student Council for all their behind the scenes work.

Congratulations to Victor Pereira and Maia Popa for being recognized as our 2023 Homecoming Royals!

Five QHS Seniors: Katherine Bardwell, Emma Bateman, Gaetano Belfort, Sonia Dijkstra, and Stanley Tran have been named Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program. A letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, has been presented to these scholastically talented seniors.

Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise and placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the competition by taking the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

We are extremely proud of these students and their accomplishments. The recognition as a Commended Scholar is a tremendous recognition and a sign of academic potential, we cannot wait to see what the future holds for these amazing students.

Congratulations to 64 Quincy High School seniors who were awarded the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship on Wednesday, November 29!

The John and Abigail Adams Scholarship is an amazing accomplishment as it honors students who achieved high levels on the ELA, Math, and/or Biology MCAS exams for Massachusetts and have maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. We applaud our students for their hard work all through high school!

We are excited to celebrate the achievement of 886 QHS students for excelling in the classroom and making the term 1 honor roll. Congratulations on your well-deserved success! Student list linked here:

During the 2023-2024 school year, QHS has introduced an advisory period into our new schedule. On each Early Release day this year, students will return to their homerooms during the second period of the day for Advisory. The Culture and Climate Committee is providing all homeroom teachers with materials for each of these advisory periods throughout the school year. Our focus during the December Advisory is on Substance Abuse Awareness.

Future Advisory Period topics include:

January 10: Study Habits

January 24: Community Building Focus

February 14: Black History Month

March 13: Women's History Month

April 10: Arab American Heritage Month

May 8: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Student ID's have now been delivered for all students who had their pictures taken this year. We now ask that all students carry their QHS Student ID with them at all times and/or have a picture of it on their phone. We will be using the student ID barcode to sign students in and out of school. Previous year's ID barcodes work so if you have your old QHS student ID, please start carrying it now!

This fall, QHS student athletes visited SouthWest Middle School to help tutor 5th and 6th grade students!

Quincy High School students recently competed and excelled at their first DECA district competition. Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) is a high school and college program for students interested in business. The organization prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.

Congratulations to the following students:

Austin Berry - 1st place - Accounting- Blue Role Play

Isabella Guerreiro - 1st Place - Business Management White Role Play, 2nd Place Business Management Blue Role Play. Highest Exam Score - Qualified and moving on to the State Competition!!

Abigail Saintvil - 1st place Business Management Blue Role Play.

The Drama Department performed Shakespeare’s classic love story The Tempest Novemebr 16-19. Over 45 students participated in aspects of performance, scenic construction, costume design and special effects. Music Director Joanna Compitiello helped students find their voice and put Shakespeare’s words to music. Senior Devereux Fuller and Senior Josh Velasquez collaborated to bring the character Ariel’s ephemeral tune to life for the production.

Quincy High School is a proud participant of the MA Seal of Biliteracy program and will again recognize high school seniors who have studied and attained a high level of proficiency in two or more languages by awarding the 2024 Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy. The QHS fall test administration was December 6-8 and 40 juniors and seniors took a proficiency exam in 11 different languages.

This honor is awarded to students who receive a qualifying score on the ELA MCAS, demonstrate at least a high intermediate level of proficiency in another language, and complete all graduation requirements. Students were tested in the domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking for their respective languages.

We are so proud of the December test-takers and look forward to our spring test administration this coming April. If you are a junior or senior and think you may qualify to take the exams, please see Ms. Boynton in D304. It is an exciting opportunity and an excellent chance to showcase your language skills to potential colleges and employers.

A delegation of QHS students traveled to New Haven, CT, last weekend to participate in Yale Model Congress (YMC) 2023 and our entire group is to be commended for their participation! Four students received coveted recognition from YMC: Congratulations to Nathan Feldman, Olivia King, and Frank Walsh for “Best Legislation” within their respective committees, and Ciara Golden for honorable mention for “Best Delegate!”

Left to right, front row: James Walsh, Nathan Feldman, Alex Cala, Mollie Smith Gaeta, Ciara Golden, Jack Reilly, Emma Bateman, Abigail Driscoll. Left to right, second row: Olivia King, Layla Belfaid, Salma Oubtrou, Martina Thomas, Marcus Pham, Eddie Giza, Francis Walsh, Robert Mbrice.

The QHS Athletic Department would like to give a special thank you to everyone that was involved in fall sports this year; the student athletes, coaches, administrative staff, and the many volunteers that we have had! Great work this year to all of our fall sports programs and we look forward to next year.

Congrats to our girls' volleyball team who qualified for the MIAA Division 1 State Tournament and went on to win their home preliminary round match vs. Malden. The girls’ soccer team was awarded the overall Team Sportsmanship Award for the Fisher Division of the Patriot League. We would like to recognize our 9 Patriot League All Stars selected for this season:

Football: Kevin Gray and Gabe Rodrigues

Boys Soccer: Declan Rogers

Girls Soccer: Grace Connor

Girls Cross Country: Salma Boukhtam - Salma placed 4th in the MIAA Division 1B Cross Country race and 38/183 participants at the Division 1 MIAA State Championship Meet! Salma was also named Patriot Fisher Division MVP.

Boys Cross Country: Ryan Aitsaid and David Schmidt

Girls Volleyball: Paige Mann

Boys Golf: Jack Dunn - Jack qualified as an individual golfer at the MIAA Division 1 South Sectional and finished 23rd out of 100 golfers!

We are looking forward to a very chilly winter sports season, but we know our teams will be putting out some heat to warm things up at QHS!

Schedules and Scores: View the schedules and scores for all of our teams

Live Streaming: Watch our home games live on our YouTube channel

Register for Athletics: Register for athletics in the upcoming season.

QHS Athletics Team Store: Shop online to support your favorite Presidents' teams!

QHS students in all grades have been busy this fall making a difference! Our students have mentored young athletes at basketball clinics, soccer matches, and more. Quincy High students have sorted food for the hungry, and collected warm clothing for those in need. We also had many students participate in the Quincy Christmas Parade. They marched with the band and other groups and helped to construct the float.

Reminder: all current students are required to complete community service for graduation.

See Ms. Matthews in D219 with any questions.

Did you know Quincy High School has Interdisciplinary Teams of teachers that meet and collaborate throughout the school year…? Our Interdisciplinary Teams offer QHS teachers an opportunity to work together on school improvement initiatives and take ownership of their own professional development in a way that is uncommon in most public high schools.

We take pride in the fact that we have this formal program embedded within the regular school day where teachers can find support, connection, resources for improvement, and a platform from which to effect change both in their own practice and in our school community.

Our Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams recently began a unit on special education and how to best support our students who have an IEP or 504 plan. Special Education Department Chair, Rich McAllister, visited and shared resources with each of our teams and provided an overview of the program and services they provide to our students. He also offered clarification as to how teachers can best communicate student progress and what types of supports might be helpful in a general sense. We are currently in the process of dialoguing around specific disabilities and relevant accommodations in the classroom. Our next step will be moving toward the creation or revision of lessons specific to our own curricula with a focus on making these experiences more accessible to students with these challenges.

Please see the below message from the QHS Yearbook advisors. The full message was sent directly to the Senior Class and is also linked below.

Our goal is to capture the memories and cherished times shared at Quincy High over the last four years. The time honored tradition of capturing a senior portrait is a way for our community to celebrate the milestone of graduating. We want everyone to look their best and feel confident in their portrait selection.

We hope your students will set up a time with LEGACY STUDIOS for a session with a $25 deposit. Unless that student is buying pictures in bulk, LEGACY will return the $25 deposit. In the event that they have an existing portrait that they’d prefer to use, please send them to the QHS Yearbook Google Classroom (class code being mwdydww). Keep in mind that if you do not wish to work with LEGACY STUDIOS, this is the only way you can submit a different portrait. If you have submitted your photos to our work emails, please resubmit to that classroom. Students can also submit candids and photos from school events to that account as well.

Any questions or concerns feel free to contact us directly.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kimmell and Mr. Doucette

Yearbook 2024 Supervisors

austinkimmell@quincypublicschools.com

thomasdoucette@quincypublicschools.com

Wondering how you can support your teen while their brain is continuing to develop? To continue in the effort to engage and educate our families in social emotional wellness, our school psychologist, Amy Finlay, discusses the adolescent brain and explains the biology of why our teens sometimes make the decisions they do. Watch this video to learn more about how to support your teen during this period of development.

Congratulations to the QHS Math Team for hosting a local math competition for the first time ever! QHS took home second place against participating schools including: Abington, Arch Bishop Williams, Braintree, Randolph, and Stoughton.

On November 8, juniors and seniors from QHS attended the Girls in Trades event at Local 103 IBEW. Our students had the chance to listen to a few motivational speakers as well as attend the Career Fair that was offered. Students were able to check out the different tables and network with business agents from all the local trade unions in the Greater Boston area.

Quincy High School is filled with before and after school clubs and activities and we hope your student will get involved! Below is a sample of all that is already happening at QHS this fall. Here is a list of the QHS Clubs and Activities for 2023-2024.