SPOTLIGHT

March 2024, Volume 14, Issue 6

• March 29th - SCHOOLS CLOSED (Good Friday)
• March 31st - Easter Sunday
• April 3rd - Paraprofessional Appreciation Day
• April 5th - Townwide PTO Spirit Day | Crazy Sock Day
• April 8th - National Assistant Principals Week
• April 15-19 - SCHOOLS CLOSED - Spring Break
• April 22nd - Passover Begins
• June 15th at 10am - NMHS Graduation
  

The mission of the New Milford Public Schools, a collaborative partnership of students, educators, family and community, is to prepare each and every student to compete and excel in an ever-changing world, embrace challenges with vigor, respect and appreciate the worth of every human being, and contribute to society by providing effective instruction and dynamic curriculum, offering a wide range of valuable experiences, and inspiring students to pursue their dreams and aspirations.

860-350-6647

Mr. Raymond Manka, Principal

Mr. Kevin Best, Assistant Principal

Dr. Megan Dwyer, Assistant Principal

Mr. Anthony Blake, Assistant Principal

860-354-2204
Ms. Linda Scoralick, Principal
Mr. Michael Boucher, Assistant Principal

Ms. Shannon Surreira, Assistant Principal SMS/NES

Mr. Nicholas Manciero, Interim Assistant Principal

860-210-4020
Mrs. Anne Bilko, Principal
Mrs. Jennifer Chmielewski, Assistant Principal

Mrs. Jennifer Meyers, Assistant Principal

860-354-5430
Mrs. Catherine Calabrese, Principal

Mrs. Kerri Adakonis, Assistant Principal

860-355-3713

Mrs. Gwen Gallagher, Principal

Ms. Shannon Surreira, Assistant Principal SMS/NES

On March 11th, the Key Club presented St. Baldrick’s “Green Wave Braves the Shave”. Many staff and students came out to show their support. All money will go to support research for childhood cancer through the St. Baldrick’s foundation.

NMHS Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) made a showing in their spiffy business attire at the CT state competition! Junior Taylor Bramhall won second place in the Business Law event and sophomore Alex Dorosh won second place in Parliamentary Procedures! President Emily Robitaille and Treasurer Ahmed Afifi represented New Milford as voting delegates and members spent time networking with local business owners, entrepreneurs and fellow students in workshops. Enjoy some pics of our fun-filled, yet business-appropriate day.

On March 13th, Mr. Jussila's Finance 2 students visited the New York Federal Reserve. After a tour of the Gold Vault, the students enjoyed lunch at the South Street Seaport.

NMHS hosted The Little Mermaid Character breakfast on March 9th at SNIS.

The musical this year was put on by more than 100 students in the cast, crew, and pit orchestra. Students and staff have been working tirelessly since December to bring this massive Disney show to life and it's been a wonderful experience sharing the magic with the New Milford community. Thank you to all who supported NMHS Theatre and journeyed Under the Sea with us!

Mrs. O'Neill's Bigs Club went to SNIS to work with Mr. McKay's class to create Leprechaun traps on Friday, March 15th.

New Milford's National Honor Society had a busy March. In what has become a recent tradition, 20 leprechauns are hung around the school and students who find all 20 will be entered into a raffle to win a $20 Dunkin Donuts gift card. It's a fun way to get students to compete, meet some new teachers and celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

The Band Show required lots of hands on deck and numerous NHS members volunteered in many different capacities to help make the weekend go smoothly.

Finally, to fundraise for the NHS, members sold bouquets at the high school musical to raise money for their scholarship. This provides a convenient and affordable way to honor a crew or cast member and the bouquets are hand delivered to recipients after the shows with a personal message.

Throughout the month, NHS members tutor in the LLC every day for every subject. In addition, several NHS tutors have been assisting teachers in SRBI classes as well as after school with ESL students. Look for a fun dodgeball event coming in April as well as a health and hygiene drive.

Sophomore student Jireh Vazquez practiced performing an endotracheal intubation on the training manikin.

On March 8, Mrs. Benson’s Allied Health classes attended an in-school presentation on Emergency Medical Services. Arne Meis, a local paramedic, talked to students on being an EMT and Paramedic. After his presentation, he demonstrated skills and allowed students to practice skills on the training equipment. Not only did students gain knowledge and skills, but they also gained a greater appreciation for EMS Personnel.

Congratulations to the NMHS Winter Guard and Percussion for their performance at the Musical Arts Conference competition at Bunnell High School on Saturday, March 16th. Both groups placed first in their class and were SWC Champions!

On March 6th, thirty DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) members traveled to the Aqua Turf for the Connecticut State Competition. DECA consists of business students who compete on the state and National level to demonstrate their skills on business topics.

The members that participated competed with over 1,000 students from around the state. Of the thirty members that participated, 9 students placed in the following events:

Business Services Operations Research

Principles of Hospitality and Tourism

Apparel and Accessories Marketing Series

Hospitality Services

Marketing Communication Series

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series

Principles of Business Management

Business Services and Administration

Business Services Marketing Series

This has been an exciting year for the New Milford High School Chorus! Earlier this year they auditioned and were accepted to sing the national anthem at the May 3rd Yankees vs Tigers game! We are incredibly proud of them for earning this accomplishment!

There are a limited amount of tickets; they are $50 each and include a ticket to the game (seats with the chorus in the 400 section) and a $15 meal voucher. Transportation is not provided by NMHS so be sure to plan appropriately. If you are interested in attending the game, please complete this form and submit payment by April 2nd (date has been extended!).

On February 28th SMS welcomed students and families for the Student versus Staff Basketball Game. There were three staff versus student games held, and one game that featured staff and students playing on the same teams. In each of the first three games, a team from each grade level took on members of the staff. The games were officiated by staff and student officials. The energy in the gym was amazing!

In 8th grade ELA classes, students worked to create timelines for their literary nonfiction books to aid in their creation of infographics. The topics of their infographic books are connected to what they are learning in Social Studies and, in most cases, in support to Black History Month focusing on slavery in the United States, and The Civil Rights Movement.

Meanwhile in Social Studies classes students have been learning about different American reform movements including the Abolitionist Movement and the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Students researched and created different Twitter profiles for Abolitionists and Suffragettes from American history detailing their lives, how they helped their respective movements, and then turned that information into tweets acting as if those reformers were alive in the modern day!

Recently in Social Studies classes across the building, students have been taking part in a variety of creative, hands-on activities, to help create stronger connections to Social Studies and improve critical thinking skills.

In 6th grade, students have been working hard to create political cartoons, posters, or documentaries to show what they have been learning about the Cold War. Students independently researched topics such as the Space Race, the Arms Race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Fallout Shelters, the Berlin Wall and others to use as inspiration for their projects!

7th graders have recently been learning all about the region of South Asia with a close emphasis on the religions and how they have created and molded the culture of the region. Students have learned about and looked at both Hinduism and Buddhism, focusing closely on analyzing their differences. Some classes even created their own gods and goddesses inspired by those of Hinduism and created myths to go along with them!

During a recent unit titled “Journey to Mars” students used their knowledge of where celestial objects are in the solar system to chart a path to Mars. The purpose of this was to ensure that a space craft would be able to successfully make the journey to Mars without crashing into moons and asteroids during the journey. Part of this work was to use a model of the Earth-Sun-Moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses, and seasons. As part of the process of making their models, students used Oreo cookies to model the phases of the moon!

This was a very busy month, our 4th grade students attended the Women's History Assembly. They heard of important female historical figures and were able to ask questions of them as well.

For the first time ever, we were able to take our entire school for a preview of the NMHS The Little Mermaid. For some students this was their first time being in a theater for a live performance. Our students had an amazing time and were in awe of and inspired by the high school cast and crew.

We enjoyed our annual visit from Mr. Henkel, the bagpiper for St. Patrick’s Day. Students were greeted with Bagpiping as they arrived and then Mr. Henkel did a quick parade through our

Hallways.

SNIS hosted Glow Read a Book on March 21st. It was a big success, and everyone had a wonderful time!

March is here and warmer spring weather seems to be on the horizon! At NES we are plugging along, getting ready for our end of the year activities and continuing to learn and grow!

We were excited to welcome Doreen Cronin the author of "Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type" on March 19th! Thank you to the PTO for funding this amazing, fun, and informative event.

Thanks to the Facilities Department, we received a new water fountain with a water bottle filling feature.

The Scholastic Book Fair was held during the first week of March. Students love shopping for new books! Thanks again, PTO!

Friday, March 1st was Townwide Spirit Day and we had fun dressing in camouflage. It was also Read Across America Day and we enjoyed visits from our local small business owners as well as Mayor Pete Bass, and Officer Jake who read to our classes.

Teachers chose one student from each grade to represent NES Ideal Students at the Board of Education meeting on March 19th. The students wrote pieces on why they love Northville School. Before the meeting took place, they practiced reading their writing to the office staff.

• Hudson in 2nd grade
• Nora in 1st grade
• Milo in Kindergarten

In many classes, students had lots of fun designing leprechaun traps in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. They used math and science skills, along with creativity and critical thinking to build their structures.

2024 - 2025 Kindergarten registration is now open for any family with a child turning 5 by September 1, 2024- please visit this link. Learn more about registration from this letter. There is a new age requirement from the State of Connecticut; please view our website here.

HPS kicked off the month with our 1st nighttime online reading event! We had up to 75 participants, most staying on for the 12 stories that were read by 9 staff members. We will aim for more participants next year!

This event was to get everyone excited for Read Across America celebrations in the school. Thing 1 and Thing 2 had fun doing morning announcements joining Hill and Plain and Northville School! Many classes had theme days.

Community members such as: Mayor, Pete Bass, Superintendent, Dr. Parlato; Assistant Superintendent, Holly Hollander; Board of Education Chairperson, Wendy Faulenbach; The Police Chief; Many Firefighters (the Fire Marshall); Representative Buckbee; a Pilot, Mr. Orletski; Sue Ford, our Children's Librarian, and Brian Hembrook from the Youth Agency visited classes throughout the day to read to them. (pictured below)

Thank you to our most wonderful PTO, for passing out little frogs on Leap Day, organizing an Apple Bar for staff during conferences, planning for the community readers, the Annual READ-A-THON and the Book Fair!

The PTO also helped to get both visiting authors, Bob Shea and Laurie Keller to present to our students and staff. This exposes our children to literature and inspires them to become an author and/or illustrator. It shows that reading is fun! Without our PTO, HPS would only be able to do some of what we do. Thank you to the PTO for all the fun things you do for us at HPS!!

Kindergarten, first, and second-grade classrooms received books from the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) and this organization hosted a Master Class around the Science of Reading. CAPSS sought out donations from Perma-Bound, Scholastic, and Mackin. The books are in students’ hands and very much appreciated.

Three Hill & Plain students were recognized by the Board of Education as Ideal Students on March 19th. Congratulations to all of you!

Congratulations to Ricci Fernandez and Jack Balzi on being honored at the Walter Camp Breakfast of Champions.

Ricci Fernandez | 2nd Team Walter Camp Defense

Jack Balzi | 2-time SWC Player of the Week

Congratulations to the NMHS Green Wave Football players 2024 Lifting Champions! Pictured below is Aiden Watson and Coach Mason Flynn.

On March 22nd, New Milford HS FBLA held their first fundraiser, a volleyball tournament with the Green Wave Girls volleyball team vs. the football team. The girls won 3-0!

Click below for the entire NMHS Spring Sports schedule.

During the month of March the Food and Nutrition Department featured a new menu item: Mini Chicken Waffle Sliders, which, not to our surprise, were a huge hit! These sliders were served with roasted local beets from Fort Hill Farm. On March 19th, we welcomed the first day of Spring by serving delicious Dutch waffles. At the end of this month we will commemorate the opening day of baseball by having hot dogs on the menu along with baked beans and popcorn!