Good afternoon,
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to anyone who wants to be Irish today! With a French-Canadian last name, my family's understanding was always that we were a good 25% French-Canadian. A few years ago, my wife got me one of those at-home DNA test kits. Surprisingly, my results came back as 95% Irish and 5% Scottish. This led to a bit of intrigue as we couldn’t figure out where “Marcotte” entered the family tree! One would assume it might have been a mistake on my lab results, but we also found out my uncle had a similar revelation - no French Canadian at all! Long story short…whether you are actually Irish, or still wonder about your status (like me), Happy St. Patrick’s Day to us all!
We had a great event for students last Friday afternoon. It was our first in-person Student Council event since January 2020. Our March Madness tournament was a great time and everyone who attended had lots of fun - players and spectators alike. Not only was it a 5-on-5 tournament with games 5 minutes long, the ball we used was smaller than normal and pumped FULL of air. So even our strongest players had a hard time getting into a shooting and scoring rhythm. The highest point total I was able to see before stepping out of the gym was six! It was great to see lots of students come together to do something fun. There was cheering, laughing, and of course, disappointment for the teams as they got knocked out of the competition. As we work on building a joyful, inclusive community, this is a good example of an activity for kids that I hope they will remember fondly.
We couldn’t pull off events like this without adult support. Our student council advisor is Ms. Ahl and she worked closely with her student council members to organize and advertise. We benefited greatly from a group of parents who volunteered to work in the snack area: Shweta Arora, Megan Connor, Hajeera Janibasha, Durga Nirgudkar, Lisa Palaia, and Kelly Sturniolo. We are also super grateful to the families who donated food and drink for the event. We really appreciate your support!
Our Student Council has also been busy setting up a fundraiser for the Sunflower of Peace organization. We are collecting money to donate to this charity which provides medical and humanitarian aid that will be used by the paramedics and doctors in the areas that are affected by the violence in Ukraine. Thank you for your support of this student-led effort.
Finally, for today, a request! We provide each of our students with a school-owned Chromebook for use in and out of school. We have arrived at the point of the year when some students come to school with their Chromebooks not fully charged. We have to turn away students who ask for a loaner for the day due to not having battery power. We have a limited supply of loaners and we give those to students whose devices are broken or malfunctioning. Going forward, if it’s not already a well-established routine for your child, could you please help them make sure their device gets charged every night? Before we enter MCAS next week, I’ll send a more specific email about this to all of our families. We appreciate your help with this request.
Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:
-Monday, March 21: Parent Portal opens for current 8th grade families re: ABRHS courses
-Monday, March 21: Early Release, 1 pm
-Thursday, March 24: 8th grade team community building day
-Thursday, March 24: Parent Portal opens for current 7th grade families re: RJG courses
-Thursday, March 24: Trimester 2 Report Cards emailed
-Friday, March 25: 7th grade team community building day
-Monday, March 28: 8th grade ELA MCAS
-Tuesday, March 29: 8th grade ELA MCAS
-Thursday, March 31: 7th grade ELA MCAS
-Thursday, March 31: Student trivia event after school
-Friday, April 1: 7th grade ELA MCAS
Take care,
Jim Marcotte