Stowe High School
Week in Review
“The word ‘why’ not only taught me to ask, but also to think. And thinking has never hurt anyone. On the contrary, it does us all a world of good.” -Anne Frank
November 20th, 2020
Another week has passed and we continue to be grateful for how well our students and faculty are doing despite the increase in COVID cases all around us. As we near the November break, we encourage students and families to contact the school if your student is sick and staying home or if they may have been in contact with someone who is positive and needs to quarantine. This information helps us better plan for your student’s absence.
This week we were able to induct 17 new students into the National Honor Society. Although we needed to adjust our plans based on new restrictions put in place by the state, we were still able to host a ceremony and provide a recording to all of the inductees’ families. We are very proud of their accomplishments given the various challenges that have endured over the past 9 months.
Another event that happened this week was our school counselors hosted a virtual Junior Night to discuss post-secondary planning. They discussed what juniors should be doing now, resources for getting started on post-secondary planning, how to begin the college search, the latest college admissions statistics, financial aid and scholarships. Juniors should schedule their junior meeting with their counselor. In addition, this week the school counseling team is meeting with ninth grade students to review the following learning objectives:
1 - Students will be informed about the many ways to utilize school counseling services.
2 - Students will become familiar with how to set up an appointment with their school counselor.
3 - Students will become familiar with SHS’s graduation requirements.
4 - Students will develop a better understanding of how to prepare for their post-high school goals.
5 - Students will recognize a SHS transcript and understand how it is used for post-secondary planning
We are so grateful for our fantastic school counselors, Patti Tomashot and Abbey Allen.
Lastly, today we sent home quarter 1 mastery reports. Along with mastery reports we also included some resources and reminders regarding remote learning for students.
We do hope everyone has a restful and safe break.
Upcoming Events:
Friday, November 20- Quarter 1 Mastery Reports
Wednesday, November 25-Friday, November 27: School Break
Student Announcements:
This year our Student Leadership group is creating student announcement videos for all students. These videos are shared with advisories each Wednesday. Watch the most recent videos below.
September 30 Video October 7 Video October 21 Video October 28 Video
More Student News: Virtual College Tour Opportunities CLICK HERE
Stowe High School's Gay Straight Alliance:
On Tuesday, November 11 the Stowe High GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) hosted its first book club event. Twenty people, both staff and students, read titles featuring LGBTQ+ characters. The titles included The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin, The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater, The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Students discussed issues related to gender expression, society's need for gender labels and norms, challenges that members of the LGBTQ community face, and how these topics connect to the school environment at Stowe High. It was a lively conversation filled with many ideas about action steps that could be taken to make SHS a more welcoming safe space for those who identify differently from mainstream expectations. Are you interested in learning more or borrowing a book? Please contact jennifer.childress@lsuu.org.
Snow Days will be School Days:
As the colder weather approaches and we already saw snow this week, we need to plan for the possibility of school closings due to inclement weather and unsafe road conditions. In the event we need to call for a snow day, we have developed a remote learning plan so that students can continue with their coursework. When we have a snow day, we will follow our current schedule . For example, if we need to call a snow day on a Tuesday, the students that were scheduled for in-person will have their classes remotely via Google Meet. Students who were already scheduled for a remote day will continue with the plan that was outlined by their teachers for remote learning.
Students giving back to our community: Nathan Kessler and Anders Holterman have been baking bread on the weekends and donating them to the Lamoille County Food Shelf. Check out this clip on CNN.
Congratulations to the new members of the Stowe High School National Honor Society.
We are excited to have a trained peer educator in our school. Kate Lewton joined our health classes this week to engage our students in learning key health topics such as STI's. She did an excellent job!
QR Code for Health Screening
Health screening stations in the main lobby.
Numbered parking spaces outside
Technology News:
*This year (2020-2021) we are using a new content filter for student devices. The product is called Securly. Securly is designed to block sites and content that are not suitable for school. The biggest difference students and families will see this year is since the filter is on the device, the content filtering that we use in our buildings is now applied to our devices when they are at home. Also, Securly has parental controls that we will enable and communicate more about later in the year. At this point, there is nothing parents need to do. If you have questions, please reach out to our SMHS technology manager Jake Goss (stowetech@lsuu.org). If your student experiences any technology based issues related to Securly, you can submit a ticket to our ticket system by emailing lsuutech@lsuu.org.
Family Resources:
*Please help the Health Department spread the word about the new video, "How Contact Tracing Slows the Spread of COVID-19." The brief video (1 minute, 42 seconds) is to help educate people about how contact tracing works, why it’s an important tool to slow the spread of COVID-19, and to encourage people to answer the call if they are called by a contact tracer.
*Assistance for overdue utility bills information
*Suicide Prevention Information from our school counselors
*Flu Shots
Now is the time to get your flu shot. Local pharmacies and primary care physicians are providing flu shots. The Community Health Team through CHSLV can help people navigate the medical system, including transportation to flu shots. Call 888-6017 or email cht@chslv.org.