QHS Presidents Bulletin - 4.24
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Quincy High School Students and Families,
As we enter into the spring months, we are extremely proud of the progress we are making as a school community. Our tenth grade students impressed us with their outstanding attendance and maturity during our ELA test session, we celebrated the Credit for Life Fair, Engineering Presentations, and numerous music and arts events where our students excelled. The spring musical was absolutely amazing, student scheduling is well underway the 24-25 school year, and spring spirit week is off to a great start!
After April break, we look forward to our first in-school SAT test session, the Junior Prom, and celebrating the many accomplishments of the QHS Class of 2024 starting with Salute to Seniors April 29-May 3.
Our students and staff laid a strong foundation of creating a welcoming, safe, respectful environment for all who enter our building and we continue to be effective, efficient, and equitable in our practice.
Thank you for all that you do to support our students at QHS!
Keith Ford, Principal @qhsprincipalford
Ed Smith, Assistant Principal @qhsapsmith
On Saturday, April 6, the Quincy High Poetry Club won first place at the Brookrhymes Slam Poetry competition hosted by the Brookline Slam Poetry Team at the Brookline Teen Center. Quincy was represented by all three members of the club's executive board; Marah Neil, Vi Tran, and Sage Gillespie. Each poet performed one solo poem, and the team then performed a group poem. All poems were original and had to be performed from memory. Our students competed against very talented poets from Brookline High, Newton North High, and Westborough High.
39 Advanced Applied Biotechnology students in Ms. Meltzer's class went on a field trip to Novartis on Thursday, March 28th and Tuesday, April 2nd. They explored one of the many processes Novartis undergoes whenever developing a new drug candidate by utilizing polymerization to develop slow time release capsules for medications and then measured their effectiveness using spectrophotometry. Students then got the chance to meet several professionals in the field. They were able to learn a lot about each professional's scientific journey and their current projects at Novartis.
Senior Night Out is June 7th-8th and we will need your help!
What is Senior Night Out (SNO)?
Senior Night Out is Quincy High’s all-night after prom party. It’s an opportunity for all of our 400 seniors to have fun and make amazing post-prom memories in a safe and secure environment. There’s music, games, entertainment, prizes, tons of food, an iced coffee bar, and dancing ALL NIGHT until 5am!
SNO requires A LOT of planning, organization, and volunteers. The financial cost of an event of this magnitude is approximately $40,000. The QHS PAC fundraises year-round for SNO, and we rely heavily on community donations to help make this event possible.
How can I help?
1) The biggest way to help is to volunteer to work the event. Watch for an email with more information and a link to sign up in the coming weeks!
2) If you can’t work the event, you can still help. We go through AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT of beverages, snacks, and dessert items that are donated every year. Anything you can send in will be GREATLY APPRECIATED! We will send out a sign-up with information on how and what to donate soon, too!
Do you need to be a parent/caregiver of a senior to help? No. ALL parents/caregivers of any age student are invited and encouraged to get involved. In fact, we need parents/guardians of younger students to participate so they know how to run the event and can keep it going when parents/guardians of current seniors move on after graduation!
The PAC will be scheduling a SNO Planning meeting in early May, we hope to see you there!
Questions? Contact qhspac@gmail.com
The PAC Board: Lisa Dunn, President, Courtney Perdios, Co-Vice President, Amy Sorensen-Alawad, Co-Vice President, Ann Ross, Treasurer, Carly Bridden, Secretary
Criminal Justice Career Fair
On Thursday March 21st, junior and senior students of the Criminal Justice 2 and 3 program, met with representatives from the following institutions, to learn more about some of the career pathways and qualifications needed for policing, fire science, emergency services, dispatching, jails/prisons, and law firms. Thank you to: Quincy Police Department, U.S. Marshalls, Quincy Fire Department, Brewster Ambulance, State 911 Department, Norfolk District Attorney's Office, Norfolk County Sheriff's Office, Department of Corrections, Law Office of Sarah Westra, Law Office of Patrick Foley, Law Office of Baker, Braverman, & Barbadoro
QFD Fire Academy Field Trip
Criminal Justice 3 students got an inside look into some of the training elements for becoming a fire fighter in Massachusetts, as firefighters demonstrated training and equipment. Students will get more experience with the hiring process, when they experience The Massachusetts Physical Abilities Test, for both police and fire, on April 3.
On March 18th, QHS hosted its annual Career Day for students interested in the trades. This event was located in the library and our juniors and seniors had the chance to network with trade representatives from the local unions and learn about the career opportunities if they decide to pursue the trades after high school.
Trades that participated in this Career Day were: IBEW Local 103, Ironworkers Local 7, Sheet Metal Workers Local 17, Plumbers and Gas Fitters Local 12, Pipefitters Local 537, IBEW Local 104, North Atlantic States Carpenters Union Local 327, Millwrights Union Local 1121, Laborers Local 133, MBTA
On March 11 2024, QHS Senior Fashion Students, were invited to take a tour of the J Jill, brand corporate headquarters, located in Quincy. Students got a first hand look at the day to day operations to produce a line of clothing including, fabric creation, concept design, technical design, garment fit, accessories and merchandising, They got to preview the J Jill 2024 fall line that will soon go into production and be in stores late summer. Students ended the day, at the on site J Jill mock store where this summers line is being laid out.
On Saturday, March 16, the QNQ Jazz Ensemble performed in their first ever MAJE state finals at Norwood High School and brought home GOLD! An outstanding musicianship award was given to sophomore tenor saxophonist Nathan Aronoff. The group will be featured at the MAJE gold medal showcase on May 5th at the hat shell in Boston. Congratulations QNQ Jazz! 💙♥️♥️🎶”
The weekend of March 30th, the QNQ Winter Colorguard had a strong performance at their last regular season show. They tied for 3rd place with a score of 88.58 out of 6 competing groups in the Scholastic Regional A-White division at the NEBSA competition at Salem High School.
Featured in photo: Emma Holiday (QHS), Laura Zhu-Captain (NQHS), Renee Su(NQHS), Vicky Chen(NQHS), Jenny Wong(QHS), Kelly Chan(QHS), Janice Lin(NQHS) & Xuexin Zhao(QHS)
The weekend of April 6-7, the QNQ Winter Colorguard competed at the New England Scholastic Band Association (NESBA) Winterguard Finals at Salem High School and Place 3rd 🥉. The group competed in the SRAW division and achieved a season high score of 92.78. Congratulations on an incredible season QNQ Colorguard!
The 16th annual Quincy Credit Union - Credit for Life Fair was held on March 28, 2024 from 9:00-12:00 at The Tirrell Room, Quincy. Over 100 Seniors attended the annual financial literacy event. Students select an occupation, and with the support of our community partners, simulate making monthly ends meet and balancing their personal budget. Students learn to make financial choices similar to those they'll make in the not so distant future.
Attendance in school for the entire day is extremely important for student success and while parents and guardians always have the right to dismiss students, we strongly encourage all students to remain in school and attend classes until the end of each and every school day.
In order to minimize disruptions and provide a welcoming, safe, and respectful learning environment for all Quincy High School students, call-out dismissals will not be allowed on certain dates listed below. On these dates, students who need to be dismissed for any reason must turn in a valid note prior to that day and or a Parent/Guardian must be present at the school to sign them out.
More information on dismissals can be found here: QHS Student Dismissal Information
Listed below are the dates for the remainder of the year that call out dismissals will not be allowed at Quincy High School. Thank you for your attention to this important, updated, policy.
April 12 - Friday before vacation
April 26 - Junior Prom
May 21 and 22 - Math MCAS
May 24 - Friday before Memorial Day
Jun 4 and 5 - Biology MCAS
Spring Sports Programs:
● Baseball ● Softball ● Girls Golf ● Boys Lacrosse ● Girls Lacrosse ● Sailing, ● Spring Track ● Boys Tennis ● Girls Tennis ● Boys Volleyball ● Rugby (Club)
Also, if you’re looking to add some swagger to your game day gear collection and help support QHS and QNQ Athletics please be sure to go check out our team stores at: https://teamlocker.squadlocker.com/#/organizations/quincy-high-school-614542
QHS students have been helping out the younger students in our district this month! We had many 9th graders work as tutors at South West Middle School between January and the end of March. We also sent students to all the middle school STEM fairs as judges and to help out. Many of our athletes have also assisted the middle school sports programs. Students who still need hours should save the date for Cleaner Greener Quincy! On May 4 there will be events all over the city planting flowers, cleaning up litter, and making our city more beautiful!
We encourage everyone to look for opportunities to get more involved in community service. See Ms. Matthews in D219 or the Google Classrooms for opportunities and information!
Our Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams have been looking into modern instructional technology and ways that it can impact and improve instruction. We explored several resources, many of which were introduced to the staff as part of our district-wide professional development.
First, we discussed Desmos software, which our math department uses to teach our Algebra 1 curriculum. The free version of the platform is useful in any discipline as a tool for building interactive classroom experiences and the chat feature allows students to provide real-time questions and answers.
We also engaged with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ “Art Finders” resources. These provide images of artworks from the MFA’s gallery that are curated to fit within academic disciplines. They also have staff available to create custom slide decks for teachers upon request.
Lastly, we explored the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT with an eye on ways in which it could be helpful to us as teachers for generating content and improving our own creativity.
