Student Representative Report to the School Committee – March 23, 2016
Student Representative Bridget Carl, SHS Class of 2017, read the following report to the School Committee at its meeting of March 9, 2016.
FORESTDALE
Some exciting things have been under discussion over the past few weeks that will translate into some great new opportunities for the students at Forestdale. Some of those items include:
- In a multi-tiered project involving Heritage Museum and Gardens, the SHS Key Club and a local landscape designer (Chris Kolb) we will be redesigning the space inside the bus loop beginning this Spring. The design changes include improvements to our school garden, the creation of a outdoor classroom space and the creation of a small nature/learning trail.
- The landscape designer has also volunteered his support to revitalize some nature/walking trails that exist on the school property behind the athletic fields. He will be working with us to lead a trail clearing project and plant identification. The long term plan is to make an educational nature trail that will serve as an extension to our science curriculum.
- Our PTA last year generously donated some additional fitness equipment to help enhance one of our recess areas. Those items are set to be installed this Spring/Summer. This will help to enhance our outdoor recess space and provide students with more options for physical exercise during their recess period.
- We are looking to expand our popular BOKS program for next year to include more students. Currently, we are able to accommodate nearly 50 students each session. Next year, we are looking to expand that number to allow for 80 students per session.
OAK RIDGE
Oak Ridge is Gaga for Gaga. The Oak Ridge playground committee achieved an important milestone in adding more age appropriate recess materials to the Oak Ridge School in the form of 2 Gaga Pits. For those of you not familiar with the game, Gaga is Israeli Dodgeball. Players hop, scoot and jump in an octagonal structure in this fast paced game as the ball is pushed from players both inside and outside the “pit”.
Students learned the rules and different variations of the game in Wellness class and are now able to enjoy this great game.
Thank you to Barb Noble and Jen O’Neil for all of their hardwork and to all of the members of the playground committee, volunteers who participated in the community build and to the PTA for bringing this together.
We’d also like to thank the PTA for another highly successful Ice Cream Social and Book Fair. The family night was well attended and made the Book Fair a huge success. Thank you to all of the volunteers both faculty and parents who made this happen.
This Thursday we host the 5/6 Karaoke Social Night at 7pm.
Next week we begin MCAS testing. Parents are asked to make every effort to have students arrive rested, with a good breakfast and on time during testing. The testing schedule can be found on the Oak Ridge School’s website.
STEM
Several STEM Academy students presented their projects at the Science on the Street conference at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History on Saturday. Projects included the Water for South Sudan, the robotics club, and the science astronomy museum kits. The students will also be presenting at the Cape Cod Regional STEM conference at the Cape Cod Community College on April 2.
The Sandwich STEM Academy is sponsoring an ROV scrimmage this Saturday at the swimming pool for those schools participating in the May 7 Regional ROV competition.
The STEM student council is running a clothing drive for the week of March 28-April 3to benefit children in need. Collecting bins and boxes are available throughout STEM, the high school and the Oak Ridge school.
The STEM Parents Group is sponsoring the next Dessert and Discussion on March 30 at 7:00 in the library. The topic is “Celebrating Art in STEM” and presentations by Ms. Mills and Mrs. Ganju, along with student work, will be given.
The STEM Exploration and Discovery Day is scheduled for April 6. Students will be selecting four workshops to attend from a total of 34 offered in science, engineering, art, math, business, and humanities.
SHS
This is is busy time at SHS. Sophomores took ELA MCAS this week.
The entire school is excited about opening night of Into the Woods when the curtain goes up on April 1!
Spring sports try outs begin this week. In spite of a snowy start, students are eager and excited to get outside and begin what promises to be a great season.
Next week, over 80 sophomores will be interviewed for the SHS Student Leadership team. SHS student leaders are taking an active role in the upcoming We are 2020 Day planned for March 31 when the current 8th graders will spend a half day at the high school working with student leaders and learning about exciting opportunities in arts, academics, and athletics.
SHS counselors begin their one to one meetings with students as they finalize their schedules for the 2016-2017 school year.
