Weekly Announcements

06.05.20

 Principal's Weekly

Dear HHS Community,

I would like to encourage all members of our community to read the update (found immediately below) from the Hanover High School Equity Committee. Additionally, I would like to thank the staff, students and community members who are part of this incredibly valuable work.  

Thank you in advance for your time in reading the update (again, found below),

Please Read - Update from HHS Equity Committee:

Dear HHS Community,

We hope this message finds you and yours healthy and safe. Against the backdrop of both the global COVID crisis and the most recent incidents of racial injustice and violence, we write to share what is happening at the high school around the urgent issues of equity and racial injustice. 

This work at the high school is only beginning, but we have made substantive progress in the last two years. During the 2018-2019 school year, staff members noted the need for professional development and attention to the issue of equity. A group of staff members began meeting to study together the history of racial injustice, examine our own biases, and begin to plan action steps to increase antiracism at the high school. 

This year, the group has grown to 30+ staff members who met monthly to do personal identity work and conduct equity-related action research projects. Our attention to equity this fall prepared our staff to better recognize and address the disparities in students' circumstances and access to education during the remote learning period: concerns around equity was at the heart of our staff-wide support for a Credit/No Credit grading scale for this spring semester.

In addition to the staff small group, HHS invited the other district schools to partner in this work. At the start of this school year, we formed the SAU 70 Equity Committee, made up of representation from each of our four schools. We partnered with Mid Atlantic Equity Consortium to conduct a district-wide Equity Audit to examine issues of equity in our district. Going into this audit, we established our long-term goal: students’ identities cannot be used to predict their experience in the district or educational outcomes. Now more than ever, we hold this goal in highest esteem.

The district committee has continued this work during the remote learning period. As part of the Equity Audit, our community (staff, students, and families) completed school climate surveys in mid-April. We also welcomed 5 parents to the committee to help us make sense of the data and Equity Audit report from MAEC, and to determine next steps. We are in the midst of this work right now and will continue into the summer. We hope to soon share findings of the audit and recommendations with the staff at each school, the district’s strategic planning committee, and other stakeholders.

Preliminary analysis of our data revealed the importance of staff professional development as an essential next step. We are in the process of developing an equity-focused professional development program for Dresden School District staff for the 2020-2021 school year. 

Concurrent with the beginning of the staff equity small group in Spring of 2019, we also acted upon student requests to start an affinity group for HHS students of color. The students quickly took the lead with this group and chose to organize the Diversity Club at the start of this school year. This is a club, open to all students, that has met with the goals of making and ensuring an inclusive community at HHS and learning and educating about racial literacy and diversity.

This outstanding group developed and lead this year’s MLK Assembly and Exploring Whiteness and Anti-Racist Activism March Intensive. The Diversity Club also just issued a survey to our school community, seeking stories of injustice and resilience, with the goal of sharing these stories as tools for peer-to-peer teaching, reflection, and connection. If you are a student or a staff member reading this, we encourage you to share your stories here.

During Wednesday's Council Meeting, the entirety of the discussion focused on how Council could be more active in advocating for racial justice. Council voted to form the Anti-Racism and Inclusivity Ad-Hoc Committee, with the goal of amplifying the efforts already going on in our school and to help translate those to Council legislation.

The concentration of whiteness and wealth in our community is symptomatic of the systemic racism that has shaped our nation’s history and current reality. The privilege in our district presents us with both responsibility and opportunity. We must apply our significant resources to ensure that all students have equitable access to an inclusive, empowering high school experience. We must listen to and support our Black students and all students of color. We also must equip white students and staff to examine their own privilege and use their power to work towards a more just world. We believe that Hanover High School can and must do better.

If you would like to be involved in this important work, we want to hear from you! Please reach out to us to express your interest.

Sincerely,

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Drop Off of School Materials

Materials drop off and yearbook pick up will be held June 9th and 10th. All students should have received a time frame to arrive. If not, please email the help desk.  Don’t forget your chargers!!

 

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Summer Reading!

Please see this letter for information about the required summer reading.  Enjoy!

 

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Council News

On June 3rd, 2020, Council created the Anti-Racism and Inclusivity Ad Hoc Committee to address the ever-present issues of racism and inequality that have been highlighted by recent events. This committee will work with other student/staff groups to facilitate widespread change throughout our school regarding race and inclusivity, as well as break down biases and harmful societal norms. The goal of this committee is to amplify the efforts already going on in our school and to help translate those to legislation.

This committee will be open to all interested individuals in the Upper Valley, including Hanover High students and staff as well as community members. The committee will begin meeting (virtually) sometime next week, and this meeting will last no more then one hour. 

 

To be included in the committee’s first meeting, please submit your name through this form.

Please direct any specific questions to the interim chairs (Julia Cook, Ellie Stannard, and Reilly Uiterwyk). 

We look forward to working towards a more equitable future. 

Hanover High Council Leadership 2020-2021:

Sage McGinley-Smith - Moderator

Noah Phipps - Assistant Moderator

Ellie Stannard - Secretary 

Reilly Uiterwyk - Treasurer 

Casey McGuire - Dresden School Board Representative 

Ben Wagner - Public Relations Person 

Julia Cook - Committee on Programming and Procedure Representative

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Inde Awards Ceremony

This year's Inde Awards Ceremony! Congrats all on a great year!

This years Past/Present Talent Show!

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Baccalaureate 2020

Baccalaureate is a treasured HHS tradition that has traditionally taken place at Rollins Chapel. It serves as an opportunity to give thanks and to prepare students to move on to their next endeavors. Students, teachers and parents perform music, recite poetry, share sacred texts and personal reflections, and even read an occasional Dr. Seuss story. The ceremony concludes with the lighting of candles that are traditionally passed from student to student.

This year’s event will be held Live via Zoom and on YouTube as a live stream. Students participating live in the ceremony will need to use the Zoom Link. All others can choose either the Zoom platform or the YouTube platform. Should the students use the Zoom Platform, they will be included on screen during group shots, including the candle lighting at the conclusion of the program. If students do not wish to be on screen, we encourage them to use the YouTube Link. Because we have a limit to the number of Zoom participants, we ask that family members (not with their student) and staff not participating in the ceremony, use the YouTube Link. If a student or their family does not have access to one of these platforms, please let us know, and we will assist you in finding a way to join the ceremony. 

Youtube Link

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2020 Steven H. Strogatz Prize

Congratulations to Sophie Usherwood, a junior at HHS, won honorable mention in the 2020 Steven H. Strogatz Prize for Math Communication for a video called “Mathematics: The Surprising Secret of Origami”.

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Virtual Arts Celebration:

The art and music departments present a celebration of student art work from this spring featuring our HHS Jazz Ensemble!

HHS Quarantine Art Show 2020

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Entrepreneurship Pitch Contest sponsored by the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth

The week we held our second annual pitch contest sponsored by the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth. Students pitched their business ideas to the Director of the Magnuson Center Jamie Coughlin, CEO of Videgami Bill Miles, and HHS Alum and the founder of Breve (which started in our classroom last year) Glenn Passow.

This year's winners:

Honorable Mention goes to the following groups:

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Music Department Corner

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HHS UNICEF Club

Collaboration with UNICEF-AK Berlin Club:

While in quarantine, HHS UNICEF Club has reached out to UNICEF clubs across the globe to explore new methods and ideas for virtual collaborations/projects! Last week, the club finished a six-day cultural exchange with UNICEF-AK Berlin Club on Instagram; check out the links below to learn some German games, recipes, and phrases!

Recipe Trio Series:

We hope our recipes encourage you to bake with your family for fun or for the purpose of relieving stress during this difficult time! 

Mental Health Collage + Awareness:

Since May is mental health awareness month, we felt it was crucial that we speak on the topic of mental health. With our Mental Health Collage, we hope to encourage the community to speak up, inspire others, and check up on friends and family during this time! The chosen message was "No one should struggle in silence." Check it out!

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Youth In Action

Thank you SO much to the students (and in many cases their families) who have continued to serve the community. We have more opportunities to cook, sew, chat with seniors here.

 

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Health Office Notes:

Is your CPR/AED Certification up to date?

The School Nurses are offering a HeartSavers CPR/AED Course on Friday, June 26th from

 9 - 11:30 AM. This will be a small, socially distanced class, modified by the American Heart Association to ensure your safety. The class is free. The certification card is $5.

Please contact Kathryn Bonyai.

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Mask challenge!

There’s a fair chance that requirements for returning to school in the fall will include wearing masks while in the building. You have the summer to research your favorite design, find cool materials, create a collection so you have a clean mask every day, and come back sporting your own cool styles. Like to sew and need something to do this summer? Make some designs to donate or sell. Prefer to surf and spend? There are lots of people making and selling masks online. DHMC gives out 400 cloth masks a day and is always looking for donations. Here’s how to donate and their directions for construction of a simple over-the ears cloth mask Find patterns, FAQs, and videos for close-fitting masks here. We can’t wait to see your creations when we’re back in the building!

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Le Grand Concours National French Contest

Congratulations! Félicitations!! HHS has many winners in Le Grand Concours National French contest. 

Please congratulate these winners at the Platinum level. These students earned the top score in the nation in their level/division:

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Physics News

Congratulations to all physics students for a job well done on your final projects!  From Rube Goldberg machines to musical instruments, they have found the physics around them and studied it systematically and well!  We saw lots of creativity and resourcefulness in finding information and materials.  Thanks for continuing to learn!  Here are some links to videos for all to enjoy: