Trial Period of Potential New Schedule 4/2-5/4

Dear Members of the EGHS Community;

For over a year now members of the EGHS faculty and administration have been working to respond to some of the shortcomings of the current EGHS schedule. Specifically, many faculty, staff and students have expressed frustration with the schedule’s unpredictability, seemingly irregular class meeting patterns, and a shortage of time designated for students to meet with teachers, advisors, counselors, and administration during the school day. In an attempt to resolve these and other issues, a scheduling committee of faculty engaged with students, fellow faculty, staff, and both school and district administration to create a new framework and a potential new schedule for East Greenwich High School.

In keeping with the iterative process that led to this schedule’s design, last week the majority of EGHS faculty voted to support a trial period of the proposed schedule. We believe that a trial of this schedule has the potential to benefit all of EGHS before decisions are made and final votes are cast. Through this trial period all stakeholders will have a prolonged sample of what the new day-to-day operations will consist of. It will also allow us multiple opportunities to find any hidden costs or flaws that would need to be addressed before potentially moving forward with this schedule in totality for SY 18-19.

The trial of the schedule is set to begin on Monday April 2nd and run until Friday May 4th. During the trial window the daily schedule rotation at East Greenwich High School will run as follows:

We will continue to use the same start and end times for each period and for the school day. This includes Wednesday’s early dismissal that has been in effect this academic year.

It is our hope that through this schedule experiment we will verify that we have designed a schedule that has simplified class meeting patterns and rotations, as well as found a way to give students valuable time during the school day to access the supports they need to succeed academically and thrive personally.

As April 2nd approaches we will be sure all students are well prepared and have an accurate understanding of how the trial of this schedule will proceed. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Thank you for your support of East Greenwich High School, our students and our mission.

EGHS Students Uses Senior Project to Travel to the Dominican Republic to Help Others

EGHS Senior Lauren Lake enlisted the help of her classmates and used her Senior Project and February recess to not only travel to the Dominican Republic to help others, but also promote education and engage in service learning. Below are some details of her unique project and experiences. 

We salute Ms. Lake and all those who helped to make this project and experience possible.

Great job Avengers!

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I went to the Dominican Republic along with 11 other EGHS students. The name of the group and the project is called EG-DR. 
For my Senior Project I shadowed a Curriculum developer and created a series of workshops on the importance of education. I then was able to plan this service trip to go along with these lessons. The lessons were taught to the students in a school in the small village of El Pedregal, Dominican Republic.  

I am very proud of all of the EGHS students who changed many lives, and certainly made an empowering difference this past break. Our fundraising even allowed for us to purchase arm braces for a little boy in the village, as well as paint an extra home, which was much more than we had planned-- all due to the hard work and determination of EGHS students. 

EG-DR's Mission: 
Our mission is to ignite interest and advancements in education through projects and workshops within the  community of El Pedregal, Dominican Republic. 

EG-DR's Values:

• Unity- working to not only unite within our own group but with those in the Dominican Republic to carry out our mission and achieve success through many memorable and humbling experiences
• Integrity- upholding the utmost respect and kindness as we work with those in the Dominican Republic so our mission can be carried out in a respectful and effective way
• Community- creating a sense of community not only in our own volunteer group but also with the people of El Pedregal we will be working alongside and teaching
• Empowerment- Using education importance workshops run by Lauren Lake to spread the seriousness and importance of education, also inspiring our volunteers to share their own knowledge meanwhile they will learn from the community of the Dominican Republic.

EGHS Principal's Newsletter 3-5-2018

Principal Michael Podraza’s EGHS Update

3-5-2018

EGHS News and Information!

A newsletter with information about upcoming events related to East Greenwich High School

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Valedictorian and Salutatorian for Class of 2018.
Congratulations go out to the Class of 2018 Valedictorian Ms. Laura Murphy and Salutatorian Mr. Matthew Sommer. Both Laura and Matthew are wonderful exemplars of East Greenwich High School students. Their commitment to excellence has helped them excel both inside and outside of the classroom and achieve these recognitions. We congratulate them, their families and all of the educators and coaches who have helped them achieve this honor. We look forward to hearing them address the EGHS community at this year’s graduation on June 10th at the VETs in Providence.

Exciting Opportunity for Class of 2019: Paid Summer Internships Through PrepareRI Initiative.

The PrepareRI Internship Program provides paid summer internships for rising public high school seniors in Rhode Island. Successful student candidates will be placed in an internship based on preparedness, skill, and interest. To be eligible to apply, you must:

• Be a rising 12th grade student enrolled in a RI public school 
• Be 16 years of age or older (by March 1, 2018) 
• Live in Rhode Island 
• Be eligible to work in the US and have proper documentation 

Complete the online application at https://www.prepare-ri.org/internships

Please click here to read the full PrepareRI flyer. Students can also see their guidance counselor for more details.

Course Selection Sheets Overdue. Need Parent Signature.

The course selection process for the 2018-19 school year has begun. Course selection sheets were collected in Advisory last Wednesday, however many either were not turned in, or lacked a parent/guardian signature. If you have not turned in a course selection sheet, please make sure it is signed and return it to the EGHS guidance office ASAP. For those interested or still in need, here is a link to the 2018-2019 Program of Studies.

EGHS Grab & Go Breakfast Program Expansion

The East Greenwich Schools Health and Wellness Committee along with Aramark recognized that a nutritious breakfast plays an essential role in all aspects of a child’s life, including their ability to learn, grow and thrive in the classroom. Since many children today consume half of their daily calories while at school, we want to ensure the healthy choices are easy to choose for them and their families. With grants provided by the RI Dairy Council, Fuel Up to Play 60, we are able to expand the breakfast program at East Greenwich High School and Cole Middle School by implementing breakfast carts as students come into the school with a Grab and Go concept. These carts will now include smoothies, parfaits, yogurt, hot breakfast options like sandwiches and oatmeal and many other nutritional breakfast options daily. This new Grab and Go breakfast will begin on Monday March 5th at 7:30am. Smoothies will also be an addition to the lunch menus starting on Monday as well.

Parent SurveyWorks Remains Open

Thanks go out to everyone who has already participated in this year’s survey. However, please be aware that it is not too late to participate in this year’s RIDE SurveyWorks survey. To participate, please go to surveys.panoramaed.com/ride and enter the access code of 09106family . Thank you for your help.

THIS WEEK’S

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Monday 3/5 After school in Auditorium- Talent Show Auditions
• Tuesday 3/6 (Mid-Quarter Mar of Q3) School Committee 7 PM @ Cole
• Wednesday 3/7- Advisory Block: COA Presentation- Hip Hop Dance Troupe Presentation (Optional)
• Thursday 3/8
• International Idol 6:30 @ EGHS
• School Committee 6:30 PM @ Cole
• Friday 3/9 Mid-Quarter Grades Posted by End of School Day

ADVANCED PLANNING

• 3/13 School Committee (Budget Workshops for Elementary and Secondary)
• 3/14 & 3/15 Talent Show @ EGHS
• 3/16 No School- Professional Development Day

***UPDATE: STATE TESTING April 10th SAT (Juniors) and April 11th PSAT (Sophomores). New Science test TBD.***

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

This week’s food for thought is “Adventures in Unveiling: Critical Pedagogy and Imagination”.

“Without imagination, education shrivels to training, which is an occupation without hope, and one which doesn’t even long for hope. Training seeks to maintain the status quo, and assumes that the systems already in place are not only satisfactory, but beyond question. Systems that are, as Freire laments, “ as obvious as that Saturdays precede Sundays.

Education that doesn’t withhold or resist imagination inquires, assumes questionability—and does so benevolently, with the hope that inquiry leads to deeper understanding, to improvement, to equity, and to mending the flaws of systemic bias, discrimination, and disparity.”

I hope that you all managed the power outages safely and that your power has been restored (or will be soon). Have a wonderful week.

East Greenwich High School exists to EMPOWER

We, the EGHS community, strive to empower all members to achieve their full potential as learners, thinkers, and responsible global citizens. We take risks in order to inspire learning and discover passions.

We, the East Greenwich High School community, live our values: 

Respect: Be considerate of others' ideas and opinions while maintaining personal integrity and self- confidence. 

Creativity and Innovation: Embrace flexibility and individuality when explaining and demonstrating knowledge and skills. 

Relevance: Link concepts across subjects and make connections to today's global society. 

Enthusiasm: Generate excitement and curiosity about learning. 

Achievement: Work vigorously to obtain knowledge and skills measured against the highest standards.

We hold ourselves and each other accountable to these values in support of our mission.

East Greenwich High School

300 Avenger Drive, East Greenwich, RI, 02818