Bellringer Newsletter

Good morning. We are getting closer to the end of the 2022-23 school year and actively planning for the start of the 2023-24 school year. Information regarding Final Exams and year end events was recently sent out to families. 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 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

Freshman Orientation will be held on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. More information will be sent out over the summer.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the Nutmeg Book Awards last month! The highest vote-getter at EHHS was Furia, followed closely by Inheritance Games in second. The House in the Cerulean Sea rounded out the top 3 for our school. Mrs. Tietjen sent all student votes along to the state, and this year’s winning book will be announced sometime this week. Stay tuned.

Also, check out the new display in the library to get to know your 2024 nominees! This list offers a wide variety of books to appeal to lots of readers. Consider picking one (or two or three) to read over the summer. Thanks to Keri Blanda from the public library for joining our “Nutmeg reveal party” here at the high school last week. Titles are available from the school and public libraries. Check out this Padlet for more details.

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.

Senate Page Program

The Senate Page Program offers a unique opportunity for high school juniors to learn in depth how Congress works. Page responsibilities largely consist of delivering correspondence, preparing the Senate chamber for sessions, and delivering bills and amendments to Senate staff. In addition to their work in the Senate, pages attend early morning classes in the fully accredited Page School. Pages live in the Senate Page Dormitory, located just a short walk away from the U.S. Capitol and are paid a small stipend. Deductions from the stipend are taken for taxes, a meal plan, and residence fees. The program takes place this Fall: early-September to first week of January

Requirements:

• Pages must be 16 or 17 years of age during their employment and in their junior year of high school.
• Pages must be U.S. citizens or subject to agreements of the Department of State and have a social security number
• Pages must have a 3.0 minimum GPA
• No student may stay in the program if his/her average falls below a “C” in any class.

• Pages must have a certificate of immunization and be covered by health insurance. If a page does not have health insurance, they will be required to enroll in the Federal Employee health insurance program.
• Students must have all required vaccinations (This includes receiving both Covid-19 vaccine doses at least 2 weeks prior to September 3rd)
• Senate pages are sponsored by a U.S. Senator.

How to Apply:

All page applications must be received by Friday, May 26th at 6pm ET.

Please use the following website to submit your application: https://www.murphy.senate.gov/senate-page-program. If for any reason you have trouble applying online, you are welcome to send the following items to Page_Program@murphy.senate.gov with the subject line “PAGE APPLICATION: Your name”

• Current resume
• Current academic transcript
• One letter of recommendation
• 250 word essay on your favorite President and why

Selection Process:

Please note that Senator Murphy is not guaranteed a page slot each session making this opportunity rather rare. There are typically about 30 page slots for 100 senators. If Senator Murphy is selected to appoint a page, the page program predetermines whether he must select a male or female page in order to have equal numbers and opportunities for young men and women. Our office will reach out after reviewing all applications.

High School Partnership Program:

High School Partnership (HSP) is a Dual Enrollment opportunity where high school students are able to take community college classes on campus, during the school year, for free. Applications for CT State Fall 2023 HSP is now open and can be accessed by visiting the website below. The deadline to apply for Fall 2023 HSP is June 10th.

Application Requirements:

• Junior or Senior with a 2.7 or higher GPA
• May take one or two classes per semester as long as the course is not offered at EHHS and the student meets course prerequisite requirements, which can be found in the course description
• Tuition and fees are waived
• Students must pay for textbook(s) and other required supplies

How to Apply:

1. Complete an application on CT State Community College website
2. Choose a campus location in the application. After "submitting" the application, the student needs to continue to complete the required items as follows:
3. Click "view application"
4. Select the "Review Supplemental Items & Documents" tab
5. Upload a copy of a current High School transcript
6. Send the Counselor Recommendation (link emailed via application)
7. Send the Parent/Guardian Consent (link emailed via application)

Please be sure to see your school counselor if you are planning on taking a HSP course.

Varsity Baseball was defeated by The Morgan School 4-5, H-K 2-14 and Stafford 2-5. Their current regular season record is 6-11. They are scheduled to play at RHAM on Monday, at Portland on Wednesday and at home vs Coventry on Thursday on Senior Day.

Junior Varsity Baseball defeated The Morgan School 15-12 and was defeated by H-K 3-13. Their current regular season record is 3-6. They are scheduled to play at home on Friday vs Hale-Ray.

Varsity Softball was defeated by The Morgan School 5-11 and H-K 2-9 and defeated The Morgan School 9-2. Their current regular season record is 5-9. They are scheduled to play at home vs H-K on Monday, at home vs Stafford on Tuesday which will be senior day, at Portland on Wednesday, at Coventry on Thursday and at home vs East Windsor/SMSA on Friday.

Varsity Boys Tennis was defeated by Cromwell 0-7. Their current regular season record is 1-12. They are scheduled to play at Portland on Tuesday.

Varsity Girls Tennis was defeated by Cromwell 1-6. Their current regular season record is 2-11. They are scheduled to play at HK on Monday and at Portland on Tuesday which will be senior day..

Varsity Golf defeated The Morgan School, was defeated by Portland and defeated Valley Regional . Their current regular season record is 4-6. They are scheduled to play at North Branford on Monday, home vs Cromwell on Tuesday, Home vs Hale-Ray on Wednesday and at Coginchaug on Friday.

Varsity Track teams competed vs Coginchaug and Lyme-Old Lyme on Tuesday and at the Old Saybrook Invitational on Friday. They are scheduled to compete on Tuesday at The Morgan School vs The Morgan School and Coginchaug.

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

I would like to remind families that teachers are continuing to use a tool called the DESSA. The final rating of this school year will take place the week of May 22. This tool asks trained teachers to assess how often a student has demonstrated specific life skills in the past month. The DESSA is sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education and is completed three times a year by a teacher who works with your student on a regular basis. Teachers recently completed the second rating.

Sample DESSA questions include:

• How often did the child keep trying when unsuccessful?

• How often did the child offer to help somebody?

• How often did the child get things done in a timely fashion?

• How often did the child work well in groups?

Based on this rating students may be identified as in need of instruction, demonstrating typical competencies or having certain strengths by competency. This information would be used to design learning opportunities to support or further skill development. If a student is in need of instruction, the teacher would have been asked to complete a longer survey for additional detail. The purpose of the DESSA is to identify which life skills your child has already learned and what skills they might still need to develop. Once our teachers identify the skills their students still need to learn. Our goal is to ensure that your child is continuously developing the skills they need for lifelong success.

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