Bellringer Newsletter

Good morning. We are now in the home stretch of the school 2022-23 school year. The mid-point of 4th quarter is this Friday and students will be preparing for Final Exams in a few short weeks. As always, EHHS is a busy place for our students and staff. Information regarding Final Exams and year end events will be sent out this week. Please continue to check the Important Dates and Reminders section of the Bellringer Newsletter for a schedule of upcoming events. If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact me directly at everner@easthamptonct.org.

• May 8---May 12--Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 17--NHS Talent Show (6:30)
• May 20--Interact--Relay for Life
• May 25--EHHS Academic Awards Ceremony (6:00)
• May 26--Senior Class Picnic---Lake Compounce
• May 26--Sophomore Class Trip--Holiday Hill
• May 29--Memorial Day--No School EHHS
• June 1--EHHS Spring Concert--6:30
• June 2---EHHS Junior-Senior Prom
• June 5--Top 10 Celebration (Town Hall)
• June 8--Senior Scholarship Evening
• June 9---EHHS Graduation--6:00
• June 13--Last Day of School--Early Dismissal

Good morning, the PTO is asking for your help for their Teacher Appreciation Luncheon on May 11th. Please click on the link below to sign up.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090E4DAEA92DA1F58-staff1

Graduation for the Class of 2023 will be held on Friday, June 9, 2023 at 6:00 P.M. with a Rain Date of Saturday, June 10 at 10:00 A.M.

The EHHS Environmental Club added the second round of artificial wetlands / floating islands to Christopher Brook. The students will be monitoring the growth of vegetation planted within the islands and testing the water quality for the absorption of phosphorus before entering Lake Pocotopaug. They will also be monitoring the development of zooplankton around the islands to benefit the lake.

Location of islands: the Jim Morris bridge by Happy Paddler, facing west.

Three of the ten islands were launched in the fall of 2022 and survived the winter.

This year’s club has 25 active members.

Career Expo

On Thursday, April 27th, the School Counseling Department took sophomore students on a field trip to the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce Annual Career Expo at Wesleyan University. This event featured over 50 various careers and gave students the opportunity to interact and ask questions to experts in a potential field of interest.

Varsity Baseball was defeated by Coginchaug 1-11, was defeated by Lyme-Old Lyme 7-9 and defeated Hale-Ray 15-3. Their current regular season record is 4-7. They are scheduled to play Valley Regional on Monday, at Cromwell on Wednesday and at North Branford on Friday.

Junior Varsity Baseball did not play last week. Their current regular season record is 2-3. They are scheduled to play at Valley Regional on Tuesday and at home vs North Branford on Saturday.

Varsity Softball was defeated by Coginchaug 3-7, Lyme-Old Lyme 0-12 and Hale-Ray 3-11. Their current regular season record is 4-4. They are scheduled to play at Valley Regional on Monday, at home vs Cromwell on Wednesday and at home vs North Branford on Friday.

Varsity Boys Tennis defeated Old Saybrook 4-1 and was defeated by Coginchaug 1-4. Their current regular season record is 1-8. They are scheduled to play at home vs Lyme-Old Lyme on Monday, at Coginchaug on Wednesday and at home vs HK on Friday.

Varsity Girls Tennis was defeated by Old Saybrook 0-7 and Coginchaug 1-6. Their current regular season record is 2-8. They are scheduled to play at Lyme-Old Lyme on Monday and at home vs Coginchaug on Wednesday.

Varsity Golf was defeated by Middletown and Old Saybrook and defeated Lyme-Old Lyme. Their current regular season record is 1-4. They are scheduled to play at HK on Monday, at home vs Coginchaug on Thursday and at Hale-Ray on Friday.

Varsity Track teams competed vs HK and North Branford on Tuesday and at the Ellington Invitational on Saturday. They are scheduled to compete on Tuesday at home vs Hale-Ray and Old Saybrook on Senior Day and on Friday and Saturday at the Blue Dragon Invitational in Middletown.

All athletic schedules, directions and results may be found at CIACSPORTS.com.

This past week, the Spanish and French clubs organized a school wide celebration of World Language Week. Throughout the week, many students contributed to make the event educational and enjoyable for their EHHS peers. A special thanks goes to Delaney Russell, Eshani Karkun and Valentina Morales for chairing the week’s events. On Monday, the Spanish club hosted an international flag scavenger hunt organized by Daniel Lopes and Bobby Buccheri. On Tuesday, students learned how to dance salsa, merengue, and bachata in a dance workshop lead by Valentina Morales. On Wednesday, students participated in an interactive world travel map, created by Charlotte Minnick. Students throughout the school had the chance to become “Cultural Trivia Eggsperts” on Thursday thanks to Jackie Russell and Maya Korczak, and also had the opportunity to put their Spanish skills the test at the Language Flyswatter competition, organized by Delaney Russell and Anthony Miro. Enja Barry was named the official Flyswatter tournament champion. On Friday, Ephraim and Lilah Butson taught students how to make traditional Latkes after school. During the week, homeroom students from all grades came together for the International Door Decorating contest to create a door representing the country of their choice. Congratulations to Mr. Lucas’ homeroom on winning the competition with their door representing Poland! Finally, students learned about different countries by reading an educational bulletin board display on global cultures, thanks to the creativity and hard work of Anthony Miro. The Spanish and French clubs would like to thank everyone who supported and participated in World Language Week.

The Profile of the Graduate Portfolio process has begun for the classes of 2025 and 2026. Students are developing a Google Site that they will use over the course of their high school career to provide students an opportunity to demonstrate their growth and development of the five attributes in the East Hampton Public Schools: compassion, innovation, perseverance, collaboration, and active learning. This portfolio will display various achievements, projects, and activities over the course of the high school experience that will show attainment of skills, broadening of horizons, and pursuit of passions. Students will reflect on experiences, strengths, and abilities to confidently approach challenges. During XBlock students used a template developed by the Portfolio Committee, wrote a brief autobiography and are crafting their paragraphs explaining their understanding of the core values. By the end of the school year, students will have written about each of the values and uploaded examples of their work. Ultimately, this work will become part of their Senior Capstone beginning with the Class of 2025.

The Bellringer's Guide to Good Food

This fundraiser is the East Hampton High School Culinary Arts digital cookbook. Included in this guide are secret family recipes provided by students and community members that cannot be found anywhere else but here. The idea of this fundraiser is to sell this digital cookbook as a yearly subscription, and every year you can renew your subscription and gain access to the new culinary arts class's secret family recipes.

Your generous contributions to this site help our program grow and provide unique culinary related learning experiences, specialized ingredients, and professional equipment for our students. You can purchase your access to the fundraiser with the link provided at the suggested donation price of $10 https://payments.efundsforschools.com/v3/districts/56523.

Thank you for your contributions.

The East Hampton Public Schools is proud to introduce School Based Health Centers in each of our schools. Soon, enrolled students will be able to receive behavioral health services during the school day. The School-Based Health Care (SBHC) staff are licensed health care providers, who are able to deliver behavioral health services to students during the school day. They work in conjunction with the student’s primary care providers to support their social, emotional, and behavioral health care needs. SBHC is proud to serve over 17,000 students throughout Connecticut.

EHHS Project Graduation need your help!!!!

We are looking for parents to help support our programming.

Next Meeting--May 3--6:30 in the EHHS LMC

ehhsctprojgrad@gmail.com

Please e-mail our group if you are interested in the following:

• Secretary – take notes at meetings. Send them out. Attend every meeting
• Treasurer – count. Mange spreadsheet of finances
• Social Media/website - promote group/events on Facebook and website
• Find corporate donations (work) -matching donations (United way)

During student drop-off in the moring and pick-up in the afternoon, please refrain from using the Bus Lane. At these times (7:00--7:25 and 2:00--2:25) cars are not allowed in the Bus Lane as vehicles block the busses and present a safety hazard to students. Thank you in advance for your cooperation in keeping our students safe.

Please review the EHHS Attendance Policy and Student Handbook as they contain important information.

Per the East Hampton Board of Education’s Attendance Policy and Connecticut statute, parents and guardians may only approve the first 9 absences of the school year with a parent note. Absences 10 and above can only be excused with further documentation and under specific circumstances.

In addition, if a student has four unexcused absences in one month or 10 unexcused absences in a year they are classified as truant. If a child misses 18 or more days in a school year – excused or unexcused absences – the student is classified as chronically absent.

Access to the East Hampton attendance policy is available HERE

It is also necessary for a student to be present at least half of the school day for the student to be recorded as present. When a student arrives after the mid-day point or leaves before it, the day cannot be counted for that student. Building principals will share the specific times in their communications with families.

A student is considered to be “in attendance” if present at his/her assigned school, or an activity.

sponsored by the school (e.g., field trip), for at least half of the regular school day.

At East Hampton High School, half of the regular school day arrives at 10:55 a.m. This means that if a student arrives after 10:55, even with a note, the student will be marked Tardy Absent. If a student dismisses prior to 10:55 and does not return to school, the student will be marked Early Dismissal Absent. Please contact the school with any questions regarding our attendance policies.

To increase the ease of reporting an absence and documenting parent approval of the absence for a student’s first 9 absences, the East Hampton Public Schools has created email addresses that parents can use to contact their student’s school and report an absence. Effectively immediately, the following email addresses can be used by parents to report and document their approval of an absence:

EHHS_Attendance@easthamptonct.org

If you have successfully emailed the school, you will receive an autoreply that notifies you that the absence communication has been received and recorded. This process is effective for your student’s first 9 absences. After your student has more than 9 absences, additional documentation or communication will be required to excuse the absence. Please use the email to continue to notify the school that your child will not attend. You may call your child’s school at any time to report an absence, as well.

Students, parents, and community members will have access to an anonymous tip line on the front page of the school district website to report self-concerns, mental health concerns of a friend, or concerns of violence. Please view the front page of the website at https://www.easthamptonps.org

We are excited to launch our new Bellringer Sideline Store! The store is available 24/7 and ships directly to you!!!

Please see the link below to grab your Bellringer gear

https://sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/connecticut/easthampton/east-hampton-high-school

Students who are being dismissed due to illness, MUST FIRST see the School Nurse. Additionally, we ask that parents familiarize themselves with our attendance policy which is in the EHHS Student Handbook. Some of the main policies/procedures that we are mut be followed are listed below:

• EARLY DISMISSALS: A written request (no phone calls) from a parent or guardian must be presented to the main office before school begins so student may obtain an early dismissal slip. Students will wait in the main office for their parent/guardian to call the office and we will send your child out to meet you after they sign-out.
• NURSE DISMISSALS: In case of illness during school, dismissal will be arranged through the school nurse, or in her absence, through the office. Students feeling ill should report directly to the nurse's office. Students should not be texting or calling home when not feeling well.

Please note that having a parent’s written request before the start of the day allows the students name to appear on the Daily Attendance sheet so their teachers will be aware that they may not be in class on that day. This also eliminates the office staff from calling in and disrupting a classroom to dismiss the student. We do realize that there may be occasions when you may need to unexpectedly pick your child up early. In those cases we will call the student down when the parent/guardian arrives to the school.

Students that are dismissed from school will not be allowed to return without appropriate documentation from their visit/provider. In the event that doucmentation is not available, a parent will be required to sign their student into the main office upon return.

1. Dropping off on items--the table to drop off items for students has been moved inside the first set of doors. Parents will be able to drop items of for students, but will no longer be admitted to the main lobby.
2. Appointments--for security reasons, parents and visitors who are requesting to meet with a teacher or administration should call in advance to ensure that the requested party is available to meet rather than show up unannounced.
3. Effective immediately, there is an anonymous tip line to enhance a safe environment in our schools. Students, parents, and community members have access to the front page of the website to report self-concerns, mental health concerns of a friend, or concerns of violence. https://www.easthamptonps.org/

The East Hampton Board of Education is committed to a safe and secure learning environment that honors and celebrates the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. The Board of Education in partnership with the school community will not tolerate any threat of violence in the schools or any hate speech that targets any race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. Each student is held to the highest standards of responsible decision making within a culture that is expected to foster compassion, caring, and empathy.

As a reminder to members of our school community, Board Policy #5145.122 allows the schools to work with the East Hampton Police Department to protect the health and safety of students and staff by conducting sweeps of school property by trained sniffing dogs. Please review the policy and procedures below. Our goal is to ensure that the East Hampton Schools are free of illegal substances. Annually, we provide notice of this policy to our school community. Should a sweep be conducted, parents and the Board of Education will be notified upon completion.

Use of Dogs to Sweep School Property

The Board permits the administration to invite law enforcement agencies to sweep school property with dogs trained for the purpose of detecting the presence of illegal substances, when necessary to protect the health and safety of students, employees or property or to detect the presence of illegal substances or contraband, including alcohol and/or drugs. The use of trained canine sniffing dogs and their associated law enforcement personnel is for the purpose of “alerting” on property only, and is subject to the following:

1. Parents and students shall be notified of this policy through its inclusion in the student/ parent handbook and the Superintendent and Principal or their designees, shall explain the policies and procedures followed in sweeps and searches to students and staff on an annual basis. Once notification has been given to parents and students through the handbook and assembly respectively, the school district will have met its obligation to advertise the sweep and search policy and associated procedure. Additional notices need not be given and actual times or dates of planned sweeps need not be released in advance.

2. The Superintendent or designee shall authorize the sweep. Immediately prior to the sweep, an announcement will be made for students and staff to ‘stay put’ in their classrooms while the sweep is taking place. Representatives from school administration shall accompany dogs and handlers while on school premises.

3. The Board shall be informed by the Superintendent of Schools that a sweep has taken place.

4. Parents shall be informed through the school’s mass communication system by the Superintendent of Schools that a sweep has taken place.

5. All school property which students have access to during the day, such as lockers, classrooms, parking areas and storage areas may be swept.

6. Individuals shall not be subjected to a search by dogs.

a. Dogs shall not be used in rooms occupied by persons except for demonstration purposes. The handler and representative from school administration will always be present with the dogs

b. When used for demonstration purposes, the dog may not sniff any student and/or staff.

7. Only the dog’s official handler will determine what constitutes an alert by the dog. If the dog alerts on a particular item or place, that locker or vehicle will be identified for later search. Upon completion of the sweep, the school administration will then search the identified property in the presence of a witness.

8. Searches that disclose evidence of misconduct shall result in disciplinary consequences in accordance with Board policy and may also result in referral to law enforcement agencies.

Legal Reference: Connecticut General Statutes

Policy adopted: March 15, 2016

10-221 Boards of education to prescribe rules.

New Jersey v T.L.O., 53 U.S.L.W. 4083 (1985)

54-33n Search of school lockers and property

The school community of East Hampton is committed to the mission of honoring and celebrating the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. We strive to guide our students to conscious, deliberate, individual and collective actions that cultivate the respect of all races, religions, and social backgrounds. Our school community endeavors to produce graduates who are equipped with a greater understanding of the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The East Hampton Board of Education, in compliance with federal and state law, affirms its policy of equal educational opportunity for all students and equal employment opportunity for all persons. It is the policy of the District to promote nondiscrimination and an environment free of harassment regardless of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability (including but not limited to, intellectual disability, past or present history of mental disorder, physical disability, or learning disability), genetic information, marital status, or age or because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetic information, marital status, or age of any persons with whom the individual associates. The District shall provide to all students without discrimination, course offerings, counseling, assistance, employment, athletics, and extracurricular activities. The District shall provide equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The District shall make reasonable accommodations for identified physical and mental impairments that constitute disabilities, consistent with federal and state statutes and regulations.

Email: everner@easthamptonct.org
Website: www.easthamptonps.org
Location: 15 North Maple Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4030
Twitter: @EH_CTPrincipal