Weekly Announcements

Hello All,

I have three items this week. 

1. An opportunity to help a few families from Afghanistan.
2. Dinner Table Smack Down topic #2. Social media strikes again and AP-Liz Murray’s shares her letter.
3. The schedule for the next two weeks.

#1 

We have an opportunity to help resettle families from Afghanistan into the Upper Valley and to welcome some of them into our school. Divya Mishra, a medical student at Dartmouth, is working with Seeds of Peace and other organizations to help in this humanitarian effort. She approached me last week along with Graziella Parati, a professor from Dartmouth to ask for our help. 

Finding people who want to help in this community is easy. We are so lucky to be surrounded by all of you. The hard part is being able to help resettle fairly large families who would like to stay together. They don't mind being split up if they can stay in the same area, but it would be nice to keep them in the same house/apartment together. Do we have housing in our area that we could offer to these families? 

I am reaching out to gather information on the feasibility of this project. If you have any solutions, please let me know. I think we would be a great community for these families and we would benefit by having them join us as members of this Upper Valley family.

1. Family 1 (already in the US at a TX military facility)

   1. Single mother, speaks no English
   2. daughter, mid 20s, applicant to Dartmouth MA program
   3. 4 year old granddaughter
   4. son, 24 years old, speaks English + knows how to drive
   5. daughter, 18 years old, speaks English, finished high school, needs to take SAT
   6. daughter, 15 years old, speaks limited English

2. Family 2 (in Kabul)

   1. Both parents, English proficiency unknown
   2. daughter, age 19 but in 12th grade, speaks limited English
   3. daughter, 10th grade, limited English
   4. daughter, 9th grade
   5. daughter, 7th grade
   6. daughter, 5th grade
   7. son, kindergarten

3. Family 3 (in Kabul)

   1. Both parents, English unknown
   2. 24 year old child, fluent English and has done nonprofit work with US org
   3. daughter, 9th grade, proficient in English
   4. son, 7th grade
   5. son, 1st grade

4. Family 4 (in Kabul, worked for Afghan president so risk for persecution)

   1. Both parents, father fluent in English + affiliated with US nonprofit
   2. son, 7th grade, fluent English
   3. son, 6th grade, fluent English
   4. son, 2nd grade
   5. son, age 4, nursery

5. Single 19-year-old (Kabul)

   1. Female, was supposed to start 12th grade this fall but education disrupted, family killed or separated, belongs to the persecuted Hazara community and is taking shelter in a neighbor's home. Hopes to continue her education.

#2

To Hanover Crush-

I want to take a minute to talk to you about your actions and your choices. This is to all of the people who have sent anonymous messages, those who have commented and to the administrators of the account. 

Words matter. Your choices to say what you have said and to decide what was posted and what was not, hurt people and your community. All of last year, surviving a pandemic, our motto was kindness and community. This year our motto is what can you do for the greater good. None of what is on Hanover Crush meets either of these mottos. 

I could go into the legal ramifications of bullying and harassment, but instead I want to ask you something. Why? Why allow posts that hurt your classmates, your school mates and the adults in your life? Why send a post that you knew would cause harm? Did you think it was funny? Did you think it wouldn't matter? Because it does matter. 

If you are someone who has posted to Hanover Crush I am asking you to stop and consider apologizing to the person or people you wrote about. If you are someone who liked or commented on a post, I am asking you to stop and disengage with this page. If you are one of the administrators of the page, I know that it has been suspended or taken down. And even more, do not start another page. You missed the mark on the spirit of what the page was supposed to be and you do not have the responsibility to administrate a page like this. 

To the whole Hanover High School community- I'm asking you to unplug from social media this weekend. Take a break and reset. Spend time with your family and friends face to face (but socially distanced). Let’s start the week next week embracing kindness and community

#3

Week of October 4th

Week of October 11th

Table of Contents

Counseling News

Volunteer News - Student Tutoring Program

Volunteer News - Volunteer Sign Up

Interested in Subbing at one of our 4 schools?

Council Update

Counseling News

Attention juniors: you have all been signed up to take the PSAT on Wednesday, October 13th here at HHS. If you do not want to take the test, please let your counselor know. 

AP Test Registration is open, and the deadline to sign up is November 5th. 

There are three steps that must be taken:

Questions? Please see your counselor.

Volunteer News - Student Tutoring Program

• Is your child interested in tutoring fellow students at HHS or RMS?
• Would your child benefit from some peer tutoring?
• This is a popular program and we are in need of students to sign up. Math is in high demand. I am still waiting for my contact at Dartmouth to provide a list of tutors.  

Please be advised that all minors, and either their parents or legal guardians, are required to complete & sign a Parent Consent Form for in-person & on-line tutoring. 

The RMS library is available to tutors and students on Mon, Tue, & Thu, from 3:00pm to 4:00pm and high schoolers can catch the school bus over to the middle school. There will be 1 supervising teacher in the library. Please note that they will NOT be 'teaching'. 

Volunteer News - Volunteer Sign Up

SAU70 requires that anyone volunteering in the district completes the Volunteer Application Form. The following link will direct you to the form, and details the Volunteer Background Check Process. 

Volunteer's CLICK HERE

We are hopeful that at some point during this school year, we will be able to allow volunteers back into our schools. Please be aware that there may be background checks needed, depending what level of volunteering you are able to offer. In the meantime, opportunities may arise that don't involve being in the schools or with the students. 

Interested in Subbing at one of our 4 schools?

Would you like a taste of the best job in the world? We would love to have you join us occasionally in the school. If you are interested in being a substitute teacher, you can apply for the role on the SAU70 Job Listings. 

Council Update

This week in Council, two allocations were brought by Riley McGuire on behalf of HHS UNICEF Club and Principal Stevenson, respectively. $250 was allocated to UNICEF Club to be spent on supplies and materials to kickstart their yearly fundraisers, while $2500 was allocated to the Scholarship Fund to support students taking Driver’s Ed who need financial assistance. Both motions were passed following lively and conscientious question sessions, which you can find detailed in the minutes below. At the end of the meeting, we continued our discussion of the new schedule, proposing various alternatives to “Study Flex” (a mandatory 40-minute period for students to get homework done) and talking about the impact of athletic dismissals on instructional time. Read more in the agenda/minutes from the meeting. The "Bitesize" section on the second page contains an easy-to-read, condensed version if you're in a rush.

We are still looking for 3 super enthusiastic community members to join our body as community representatives. We would like passionate community members who are able to attend all of the Council meetings - participation and different perspectives are paramount in a democracy. We meet from 11 am to 11:50 am every Wednesday in the HHS Auditorium (vaccinated community members are encouraged to attend). More information is detailed on the second page of the agenda and minutes. If you'd like to learn more about Council and its role at HHS, explore our recently updated website. We can't wait to hear from you!

Saia Patel (Council Secretary)