Bellringer Newsletter
January 8, 2024
Principal's Message
Good morning. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and was able to dig out from our first snowstorm of the year. 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, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at everner@easthamptonct.org.
Important Dates and Reminders
- January 10--Tri-M Concert--6:30
- January 15--No School--MLK Day
- January 18, 19, 22, and 23---Mid-Year Exams
- January 24--3rd Quarter/2nd semester begins
- February 15--EHHS Winter Concert
- February 16--No School--Professional Development
- February 17--February 20--Winter "Break"
- March 20 and 21--Early Dismissal--Parent Teacher Conferences
- March 22--24---EHHS Drama--Spring Musical
- March 25--28--EHPS Art Show
- March 27--Music Department Cabaret Evening--6:30
- March 28--Early Release--Professional Development
- March 29--Good Friday--No School
- April 3--SAT School Day Testing---11th Grade Students
- April 4--EHHS Senior Capstone Expo
- April 6--EHHS Bellringer Invitational Track Meet
- April 8--April 12---April Vacation
Athletic Department Updates
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DECA Trivia Night
School Counseling News
Gap Year Fair:
Gapyearassociation.com defines a Gap Year as “An intentional period of time devoted to personal growth and exploration through experiential learning opportunities.” Conard High School, in West Hartford, is hosting a Gap Year Fair on January 16, 2024 from 6-8:30pm. This fair gives students and parents the opportunity to learn everything they need to know about taking a gap year, including the best gap year scholarships to apply for this year! This is a free event, but students must register HERE to attend.
Semester 2 Add/Drop:
Semester 2 is scheduled to start on Wednesday, January 24th. Students interested in making changes to semester 2 courses should reach out via email to their school counselor by Tuesday, January 30th at 11:00am.
- Mrs. Rodowicz: mrodowicz@easthamptonps.org
- Mrs. McCormack: jmccormack@easthamptonps.org
- Mr. Staples: cstaples@easthamptonps.org
College Fair Opportunity:
Xavier and Mercy High Schools would like to extend an invitation to our students and their parents to attend their annual college fair on Thursday, April 4, 2024, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. This event will be held at Xavier High School in Middletown and admission is free. A list of participating colleges and universities will be shared in the upcoming months.
EHHS Bellringer Pre-School
Our new independent study position, the "Curriculum Specialist" demonstrated an entire preschool day to our high school students with the assistance of the four other independent study students. We practiced the classroom routines, the timed schedule, and classroom management alongside appropriate language and discipline to use with preschool aged students.
East Hampton Arts & Culture Commission
The East Hampton Arts & Culture Commission is accepting applications from East Hampton High School Juniors and Seniors for two, $200 grants to support two East Hampton High School Capstone Projects.
The grants will help support student's proposed Capstone Project, a multifaceted assignment that serves as a culminating academic and intellectual experience for students. Capstone projects may take a wide variety of forms including a long-term investigative project that culminates in a final product, presentation, or performance.
Applicants for the EHACC Capstone Grant will be invited to present his/her Capstone Project idea to commission members during an agreed upon commission meeting. Deadline to apply is Feb. 1, 2024 to arts@easthamtponct.org or mail or drop off at the town manager's office at the East Hampton Town Hall, 1 Community Road, East Hampton, CT 06424
Www.artsforeasthamptonct.org for an application
School Nutrition Announcements
School Nutrition Announcements December 2023
Please welcome our new Nutrition Director, Kate Caselli. Kate, a local resident with two students enrolled in our elementary schools, is excited to continue the progress in our school cafeterias. She brings experience from leading the nearby Regional Schools at RHAM and additional years in managing prestigious commercial restaurant operations. If you have any questions about meals in our cafeterias, please reach out to Kate at kcaselli@easthamptonct.org.
Important reminders:
School breakfast is a great way for students to start their school day and its FREE to everyone!
Please review your student(s)’s available balance for any lunch purchases at our secure “e-Funds for Schools” portal: https://payments.efundsforschools.com/v3/districts/56523 Funds should be added on an as needed basis to ensure the account balance covers all purchases.
Communications to families about your meal account come directly from the payment portal. Please be alert to these emails and remove from your “junk” status the following addresses:
EHHS PTO News
Thank you to all the bakers, volunteers and Interact members who helped with our Election Day Bake Sale. It was a very successful event!
Thank you to everyone who donated time, funds and food for the November teacher conference dinner. It’s a very long day into evening for our teachers and we were very happy to show our appreciation by providing dinner.
We will resume our monthly meetings in January. Please join us at our next EHHS PTO / Principal’s Advisory Meeting to say hello and learn more about how you can help.
Thursday, January 11th at 5:30pm in the EHHS library
The funds we raise as a PTO support senior scholarships, advisory activities, teacher / staff appreciation meals, field trips and teacher mini grants.
We look forward to seeing you!
EHHS PTO
Project Graduation
EHHS Project Graduation, what we do and who we are.
Thanks
Cyndi Buchan
Chair, EHHS Project Graduation
EHHS Yearbook Information
Yearbooks are now available for purchase at www.jostens.com. Ordering your yearbook now ensures a copy is reserved for your child. Please visit the website to preorder!
Senior portraits are still happening through September and October. If you haven't been photographed yet, please call the company to make an appointment; we're running out of time!
Please don't hesitate to reach out to either company or to Mrs. Flannery cflannery@easthamptonct.org if you have any questions.
EHHS After School LMC
Profile of the Graduate Digital Portfolios
The Profile of the Graduate Portfolio process has begun for the classes of 2025, 2026, and, 2027. 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.
SBHC----School Based Health Care at EHHS
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.
Student Drop-Off and Pick-Up
Attendance Updates
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.
TIP LINE
EHHS Bellringer Spirit Wear
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
Reminder of policy regarding the use of Police Dogs
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
New Jersey v T.L.O., 53 U.S.L.W. 4083 (1985)
Message to the EHHS Community regarding THC
Parents are asked to join our schools and speak to children about marijuana edibles. While legal for purchase by adults in CT, please note that the psychoactive ingredient, THC, is still considered a controlled substance in school.
We have had recent incidents at the High School of students consuming THC gummy candies - with and without knowing what they contain.
The school district treats consumption and distribution of a controlled substance very seriously. Students who ingest or bring gummies to school will face consequences up to and including 10-days of suspension. Those who distribute gummies on school grounds will face consequences up to and including expulsion from school.
Student Attendance and Dismissal Reminders
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.
Safety and Security Enhancements
- 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.
- 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.
- 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/
Board of Education Statement on School Safety
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.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement of the East Hampton Public Schools
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.
Nondiscrimination Statement of the East Hampton Public Schools
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.
East Hampton High School
Email: everner@easthamptonct.org
Website: www.easthamptonps.org
Location: 15 North Maple Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4030
Twitter: @EH_CTPrincipal
