HDHS Hillcat Newsletter
November 20, 2025
Congratulations to the Following Athletes!
Congratulations to Parker McGinn, Camron Royal, Brennen Klumb, David Rushford, Alex Crowe, Ryan Shortt, Braden Savoy, Aaron Olawuyi, Jahcobi Hibbert, Micah Robidas, Sarah McGranaghan, Keegan Poland, Liana Swirko, Trevor Duchesneau, Jake Iadonisi, Leo Vassar, Owen Boyle, Cooper Gelinas, Gavin Ford, Faith Daley, Lilyana Valley, Penelope Bows, Ali Doyle, Sophie Cuscia, Alyssia Spencer, Tenly Naro, and Abigail St. Laurent for all winning team awards at last night's sports awards!
Congratulations to Robert King for being named the NH Sports Page Division IV football player of the year!
Congratulations to Alex Crowe and Braden Savoy for representing Hillsboro-Deering in the Division III Senior Soccer game on Sunday and to Alex Crowe for making the Division III Second Team All State!!
HDHS Craft Fair and Festival of Trees
HDHS Craft Fair and Festival of Trees is happing on Saturday, December 6th from 10am - 2pm in the Hillsboro-Deering High School gymnasium. There are about 50 vendors scheduled to sell their amazing creations. There will also be concessions being sold to support the class of 2029 as well as raffle tickets being sold for chances to win some incredible baskets!
This event coincides with Hillsboro's Old Fashioned Christmas. It's a great opportunity to showcase your work and get into the holiday spirit. Hope to see you there! Thank you!
Grecian Odyssey Tour
There is still time to sign up for the HDHS Tour to Greece! We’ll be traveling during April vacation of 2026, so you’ll need to sign up in the next few weeks! If you’ve always wanted to view the Parthenon, consult the oracle of Delphi, see Poseidon’s temple at Cape Sounion, test the acoustics in the theater at Epidaurus, race in the stadium at Olympia, marvel at the Lion’s Gate in Mycenae, where Helen of Troy once lived, or take a Greek island cruise, then this is the tour for you! Click on the link to enroll: https://enroll.eftours.com/2842710HR
Any questions? Contact Jeramy Thompson jthompson@hdsd.org
or Michelle Prentiss mprentiss@hdsd.org
Foreign Trips Fundraiser
Interested in supporting HDHS students as they travel to Greece? Need to do a little holiday shopping? Then please consider buying something through our Charleston Wrap fundraiser! We are looking to help offset some of the expenses students will incur in their travels, and we have partnered with Charleston Wrap to offer this holiday fundraiser. Click on the link below to get started with your shopping. We receive 40% of the cost of each item sold and the fundraiser runs through December 8. All orders will be shipped directly to the purchaser. Thank you for supporting our students!
Grand Tour of Italy
Want to experience la dolce vita? In April of 2027, we’ll be taking a Grand Tour of Italy, embarking on a 10 day tour of this beautiful country. We’ll see Milan, take a gondola ride in Venice, view the Duomo in Florence, wander through the medieval streets of Assisi, explore the ruins of Pompeii, relax in the seaside town of Sorrento, and take in the eternal city of Rome. Learn some Italian, appreciate the wonders of the Renaissance, enjoy some gelato, and immerse yourself in Italy. Click on the link to enroll and learn more about the trip: https://www.eftours.com/tour-website/2942105JB
Any questions? Contact Jeramy Thompson jthompson@hdsd.org
or Michelle Prentiss mprentiss@hdsd.org
Creative Writing
Senior-elective Creative Writing students worked for several weeks on Hero Cycle Portfolio books, developing stories with complex hero protagonists that go through a quest or adventure following the hero cycle. Students finalized books with various types of writing and artifacts, binding them together into book form during class. There was an amazing variety of student work with innovative approaches to the task. Pictured are a few pages from Landon Lane's phenomenal project.
Mt Kearsarge Indian Museum
AP Language & Composition Mock Trial
Students in the AP Language & Composition class are preparing for a mock trial of the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat.” After being divided into two teams: prosecution and defense, students on each team play the roles of either lawyers or witnesses in order to ultimately argue one of two perspectives: that the narrator knew exactly what he was doing when he committed the crime–or that he was guilty but mentally insane. The trial will be held Monday, November 24, and students will be showcasing all their argumentative abilities in order to persuade the jury that their side is in the right.
Othello in English 10
What hast thou read? In truth, a Shakespearean play about “the green-eyed monster,” where the two-faced Iago manipulates those who trust him, including the title character of Othello, into a web of deceit, jealousy, and murder. Sophomores are busy studying Shakespeare’s language and analyzing the literary devices in the play, including a characterization assignment on the “Two Faces of Iago.”
Biology
Biology students will be spending the next month visiting the greenhouse with the focus on answering the essential question: "Where does the mass come from when a seed grows into a fully grown plant?". This brings students the hands on opportunity to connect the laws of conservation, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration. All seedlings will go home with students before the long holiday break.
Zoology
Zoology students completed their second dissection of the semester. This time, the organism was a crayfish. This gave students an inside look of the anatomy of these fresh water arthropods. In this course, students learn more than just species classification and animal behavior, but also evolutionary advancements in body systems.
In late October, Mrs. Harnois had the opportunity to bring her Zoology students to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. For some students, it was their first time visiting a zoo! Students took part in an educational program about animal training, hosted by zoo employees. After their up close encounter with a chinchilla and a ball python, students had the freedom to view all of the other animal exhibits. The gorillas were a group favorite!
Honors World History
The Honors World History class worked on their essay writing skills and peer editing recently on the topic of Ancient Chinese Philosophies. The students needed to argue for which philosophy, Legalism or Confucianism, would be better used to solve today’s societal problems. The class essays showed a pretty even split. Which one do you think is better suited? If you are unsure, make sure to ask one of these students and they will give you a solid answer with supporting evidence.
Intro To Foods
The Intro To Foods class has been working all semester improving their cooking skills and this week made homemade pizza dough, sauce, and ceasar dressing this week. They will be working on their final projects in the coming weeks and we can't wait to see what they create!
Haunted Hallway hosted by the HDHS Class of 2026
Members of the senior class of 2026 successfully put on a class fundraiser, hosting a Haunted Hallway. This event was well attended by the local community. Children and parents alike enjoyed the spooky themed games and the haunted walk. Congrats on the seniors' collaboration and fundraising efforts. Thank you to everyone that came out to enjoy the fun and support the class of 2026!
H-DHS DECA Students Publish Financial Literacy Comic Book
Hillsboro, NH – Two students from Hillsboro-Deering High School, as part of the DECA program, published their first comic book on the subject. “The Heroic Adventures of Dollar Doug” was written by senior Penelope Bows and junior Caylee Lugo, who also provided the illustrations.
Bows and Lugo were inspired by their Financial Literacy class at H-DHS and felt that the course information was important enough to share with younger students. They decided to target fifth grade students and customized the message to meet that audience. However, it has an appeal to all. While creating the comic book they constructed different financial situations in the areas of budgeting, credit, needs & wants, organization, and investing, where a character in the book was about to make a poor financial decision. “Chaa-Chingg” this is where the comic’s hero “Dollar Doug” appears to help guide the character into making a better choice.
Bows and Lugo will be doing readings of their comic book to the H-DHS fifth grade classes. They will have copies of their comic book available for those students.
“I thought this was an incredibly clever way to deliver some great basic financial advice to kids. The story is fun and the artwork is great. I am very excited to see them compete with this” said H-DHS DECA Advisor Marc Payeur.
The team will be competing in February at the NH DECA State Conference in the Financial Literacy Project. They hope to take home top prize and qualify for the International competition in late April.
Picture attached is of (left to right) Penelope Bows and Caylee Lugo
Two H-DHS DECA Students Qualify for International Competition
Hillsboro, NH – Competing for ten days against other high schools in a global competition, one team of students from Hillsboro-Deering High School has qualified for the DECA International Conference in late April 2026.
In the Virtual Business Retail Competition, two students, senior Noah Harrington, and Freshman Jahcobi Hibbert finished in the second qualifying spot in the competitive North Atlantic region of DECA and also fourth worldwide. They will join teams from Georgia, Texas, Minnesota, North Dakota, California, and Ontario, Canada.
These first-round competitors will be combined with the winners of the January qualifier into a field of 16 teams competing for top world honors next spring at the International CDC in Atlanta, Georgia.
“The DECA Virtual Business Challenge is one of the most exciting times of the year, and simultaneously the most stressful. Students love competing against and connecting with competitors from around the country and world to do this. The competition is intense, and the students do a great job. Our Fashion team, Restaurant team, Personal Finance team, Hotel Management team, and Sports Management team were all competitive and each of them earned first place in New Hampshire. The fall competition is more time-consuming as it coincides with the end of the fall sport season. So the kids really have to manage their time. I am proud of them all.” said H-D DECA advisor Marc Payeur.
Picture: Noah Harrington and Jahcobi Hibbert