Schools/Sports

May Rotary Student of the Month

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Congratulations to James “Jimmy” Casella who is our Rotary Student of the Month for May. James is a senior at Suffield High School who has challenged himself throughout his four years with many AP and Honors courses. Jimmy is planning to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the fall to study robotics engineering and develop robotic technologies. Jimmy is very active at Suffield High School. He has been a member of our SWAT Support Team for the last three years.

Schools/Sports

April Rotary Student of the Month

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Congratulations to Joseph LaValla, who was chosen as the Rotary Student of the Month for April. Joseph is currently a senior at Suffield High School and has been very active through his four years here at Suffield High School. Joseph has been on our cross-country and indoor/outdoor track team for the past four years. This year he was chosen as the captain of the team for indoor and outdoor track. Joseph has maintained honors or high honors every quarter throughout his high school years.

Organizations

KML Features Springfield Photographer’s Spring Collection

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The Suffield Arts Council is proud to present a fantastic display of photographs by Bill Ferro, a Springfield resident, formerly of New York City. Introduced at an early age to photography by his uncle, Bill dabbled in the field for many years while traveling the country. Since moving to Western Massachusetts many years ago, Bill has been photographing the coast from Maine to Florida. The Pinney Gallery of Suffield’s Kent Memorial Library will feature many examples of his portfolio, which includes vivid images of seascapes, wildlife, florals, and landscapes. Excited by the capabilities of new technology, Bill entered the digital field, and produces his photos on gallery wrapped stretch canvas and metal plates.

Schools/Sports

Good Friend Honored

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Several of these Suffield High School seniors, pictured on May 8, said they were the ones who created this heartfelt memorial in the school parking lot to honor Brianna Mailloux, their popular classmate and star athlete who was killed walking on I-91 in Windsor on April 19.

Schools/Sports

World Language Student

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The World Languages Department at Suffield High School is honoring Gabrielle Stevens as its Student of the Month for May. Gabby is currently a student in the Honors Level French 4 class at Suffield High School, where she consistently performs at an extremely advanced level in this course. Gabby is descriptive, imaginative and accurate in her writing, and she speaks comfortably in French in class. When describing her daily activities or discussing conversation topics in class, she regularly inquires about new words or expressions and then integrates them into her speaking. Her class has many dynamic speakers and strong communicators in French, and Gabby helps to elevate this strong level of engagement and involvement in the group.

Schools/Sports

French and Spanish Honor Societies Induct Members

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On April 26, the World Language Honor Society at Suffield High School held its annual induction ceremony for new members of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica and Société Honoraire de Français. Members inducted demonstrated high academic rigor and achievement in the study of either French or Spanish. The following students were inducted into the respective societies:

French: Anna Abou-Francis, Paige Anderson, Faith Connors, Liam Duffy, Allison Gambrel, Tori Grano, Alexa Greco, Jewel Hazlett, Lucie Kieffer, Yuriy Mishtal, Mallory Mitzel, Eva Nick, Shavais Oswecki, Stephen Sattan, Nora Shanks, and Gabrielle Stevens. Spanish: Sheralyn Burke, Michaela Conway, Sophia D’Addario, Stephanie Gibson, Millicent Kochman-Sabbatino, Evan Mankouski, Olivia Murphy, Elizabeth Leighton, Madeline Lightle, Megan O’Connell, Vansh Patel, Joseph Puia, Savannah Price, Matthew Raine, Paityn Salerno, Abigail Sperazza, Nicholas Stomper, Jenna Sun, Gabriella Santaniello, Renee Tautic, and Meghan Voisine. The World Language Honor Society at Suffield High School is a prestigious society whose goal is to promote language study and to recognize the diverse cultures throughout the school and community.

Schools/Sports

Aces High Are CT Champs

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In this year’s “Power Up” FIRST Robotics Championship, Team 176, Aces High, a Suffield-Windsor Locks cooperative, had an excellent season. Participating in five big tournaments on weekends from March to May against from 24 to 66 teams, they were finalists twice and overall winners twice, including the Waterbury District championship and the Connecticut State Championship. Qualified to attend the world championship event in Detroit in late April with 67 teams from all over the world, they reached the semi-final two-out-of-three-matches round and won the first match. But a broken chain in the second match rendered the Aces High robot’s manipulator mechanism useless, yielding losses in the second and third match. Of the 67 teams, Aces High was ranked fourth overall.

Schools/Sports

Suffield Summer Music Camp

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Suffield band directors Amy Wilson and Corey Killian are excited to announce the dates of the second annual Suffield Summer Music Camp! This summer’s two-week camp session will occur July 9-July 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at Suffield High School. Instrumental and/or vocal music students entering grades 5-10 are invited to participate in this exciting, yet educational camp focusing on music making and having fun (no experience necessary)! The camp will also hold a free concert open to the public at 6 p.m. on July 19 in the Suffield High School auditorium. To enroll your child in camp, please fill out an application as soon as possible by visiting the Suffield Music Department website, www.suffieldmusic.org.

Schools/Sports

SHS Teacher Named 2018 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow

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Justin Kaput from Suffield High School has been selected as one of this year’s Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellows in recognition of his commitment to geographic education. The 2018 Fellows, a group of 40 highly respected educators from the USA and Canada, will embark on global expeditions on board various Lindblad Expedition and  National Geographic ships for a hands-on professional development experience. This year marks the 12th year of the Grosvenor  Program, established to honor former National Geographic Society (NGS) Chairman Gilbert M. Grosvenor’s lifetime commitment to geographic education. The program began with two Fellows in 2007 and has grown each year. The expeditions were donated in perpetuity by Sven-Olof Lindblad and Lindblad Expeditions to mark Grosvenor’s 75th birthday in 2006 and honor his service to the enhancement of geographic education.

Schools/Sports

Career Day at SMS

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Every year Suffield Middle School gives its eighth-grade students the opportunity to hear about a wide variety of careers. Typically, the invited speakers are Suffield residents, many of them volunteered by their children or nieces and nephews. Students can select from a list of what careers are being described and attend several sessions during the day. On April 20 this year, 22 people were scheduled to speak, representing careers from certified public accountant to several kinds of engineer to financial executive and more. Many careers were in the health or medical fields, others were military, several were town offices.

Schools/Sports

SHS Valedictorian and Salutatorian

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Congratulations to Joseph Longo, son of Lisa Longo, who has been named Valedictorian for the Class of 2018. Joseph has been very active at Suffield High School throughout his four years here. Along with attending Suffield High School, Joseph also attends the Greater Hartford Academy of Mathematics and Science. Joseph has been a member of student council for four years, where he has been the Treasurer for two years and is currently the Student Senate President. Joseph has been a member of the National Honor Society for two years, where he is also the Treasurer.

Schools/Sports

We Know Our Students at McAlister

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Administrators, teachers, and staff at McAlister Intermediate School have been working hard to live and breathe the Suffield Public School District’s mantra this year of “Know Your Students.” My colleagues and I are inspired by the Responsive Classroom philosophy and how many opportunities it provides us with creating a classroom community and getting to know our students. Every single day students are greeted as they enter our classrooms, participate in a community building morning meeting to set the tone for the day, and are provided closure and reflection during Closing Circle at the end of the day. Even specialists and service providers join classrooms for Morning Meeting daily in an effort to connect with the students within our school, even if they don’t have the privilege of working directly with them. Once a month certified staff is participating in a faculty meeting utilizing the Morning Meeting model to help build our own professional community and to improve our school climate by supporting the idea that “it takes a village” and we are all in this together. Various staff members take turns leading this Morning Meeting and sharing ideas that can be immediately implemented in our classrooms.

Staff members K-12 were invited to participate in a book club facilitated by our Director of Special Services Natalie Donais and high school psychologist Kelli Conroy focusing on the book, Lost in School by Dr. Ross Greene.

Schools/Sports

Superintendent’s Update

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On April 24 I was honored to participate as a panelist in the 2018 Special Education in Connecticut Summit sponsored by the Klebanoff Institute and the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education. The keynote speaker, Dr. Renee Bradley, Deputy Division Director, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, presented “Equal Access to Opportunity: Do We Have What It Takes?” She asked questions of us that I often ask. Why are we doing what we are doing? Some of our problems in public education have been here for decades. What are we currently doing to address the problems?