IMPORTANT DATES

January 1, 2024 – No School New Years Day

January 2, 2024 – Schools Reopen

January 15, 2024 – No School MLK Day

 

January 19, 2024 – HHS Marks Close – Term 2

January 24, 2024 – Early Release -All Students

STUFF THE BUS

We are so amazed by how generous our Community is! We are blessed to say the First Annual Stuff the Bus was a BIG success. We couldn’t have done it without our community partners, NRT, Whitson Food Services, Joe Armenti, and Ms. Lenihan’s Art Class at Consentino Middle School for making the bus banners. Our volunteers extended their time to spread the holiday cheer; some even went incognito! Don’t worry, we stopped the Grinch from stealing the presents! Once again, THANK YOU HAVERHILL!!!

District is adding text messaging (SMS) to SchoolMessenger Communicate

The District is adding text messaging (SMS) capability to SchoolMessenger Communicate, the system we now use for phone calls and emails.

Over the following weeks, families can opt-in to receive text messages from SchoolMessenger texting Y to number 67587.

  • If they opt-in before January 2, 2024, they will be preapproved to receive text messages from Haverhill Public Schools.
  • If they do not opt-in before January 2, 2024, they will receive a mass communication from SchoolMessenger to their cell phone number on file in SchoolBrains asking for their permission.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation as we work to keep important communication open and transparent with all HPS families and staff.

Visit our website and read about how you can opt-in!

Haverhill High School Football

Congratulations to Devin Carneiro, who was named to the MVC Football All-Conference First Team!
#HillieProud

Haverhill High School Ice Hockey Alumni

Haverhill High School hockey will celebrate its 50th season this year with a special event on February 17. Alumni interested in attending should contact Spike Sprague at richsprg@aol.com

Attendance Campaign with DESE

Recently, Superintendent of Haverhill Public Schools, Margaret Marotta, Ed.D. joined forces with Jeffrey Riley, Commissioner of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to address attendance in schools. To view the letter and translations, visit our website.

Haverhill High School Football

Hillies earn All-Conference Honors!

Congratulations, James, Ariel, Gabe, Brian, and Stavy! We are #HillieProud

We are Hiring!!

NHRA Youth & Education Services Program

The 2024 NHRA Youth & Education Services Program is a FREE program that focuses on the importance of goals and continued education; additionally, it allows students to learn about and explore various career opportunities. Students are presented with career, educational, and scholarship opportunities from our official NHRA YES Program Partners: FORD, Gerber Collision & Glass, Mac Tools, and The Air Force.

All students, teachers, parents, and chaperones are invited to receive a free race ticket for the NHRA New England Nationals event held in Epping, New Hampshire, at New England Dragway on Friday, May 31, 2024. This ticket will allow students to observe the same real-world scenarios discussed in the videos applied live and in person. For more information, visit their website:

https://form.jotform.com/202325532601139

Haverhill Lions Club Speech Contest

Congratulations to the Lions Club Youth Speech Contest Winners. Rebecca Morin, an HHS math teacher, alumni, and former winner was one of the judges in the contest. Three HHS students competed and gave well-researched and thought-provoking speeches. The winners were:

1st Place: Maya Ismail
2nd Place: David Martinez
3rd Place: Dehkontee Cooper

 

Health & Wellness Department

All staff at HHS will receive an Anchor box designed for Hillie staff by the Wellness Department. Cara LaBelle, Dean of Wellness, applied and received a grant from Monogram Foods to support the boxes. They are filled with activities, resources, and reminders to be hopeful and healthy.

Tilton Elementary School

Tilton Elementary School held its Annual Jingle Bell Hop! Students and families visited the Tilton Neighborhood to sing holiday songs for neighbors. Everyone returned to Tilton for raffles, cookies, and hot cocoa!

CTE Technology and Engineering

Exciting day at UMass for the CTE Technology and Engineering students! Jason Stone, vice president of site and stadium operations for Kraft Sport, discussed sustainability at Gillette Stadium. One of our lucky students even won a Patriots football with their correct answer! Plus, students got to try on a championship ring! We also had the chance to explore UML’s engineering labs and enjoyed lunch with staff and students. A big thanks to Jeff Gerson for organizing this fantastic learning opportunity! For more information about Work-Based Learning in HHS CTE programs, contact Lisa Hunt at lhunt@haverhill-ps.org.

Attendance Matters Winners

“Attendance is important because you listen to your good principal and come to school to get good grades” – Hamida, Walnut Square

“If we don’t come to school we won’t know what to do” – Joel Tacuri Quizhpi, Tilton

“We need to come to school so we can learn and get smarter” – Jalayla, Tilton

“It’s important to come to school everyday so that we can read and learn new things” – Wilder Mutty

“It’s important to come everyday so that we can learn” – Lorena Aybar 

“Attendance is important because it helps us get better grades and it makes my parents happy” “We love winning some awesome prizes” – Juanivel De La Cruz Saldivar and Isaiah Matias, Nettle

“Attendance is important because you can learn more and answer questions easier” – Andrew, Bradford

“Can learn more when she is in school” – Aria, Bradford 

“Attendance is so important because if you miss school you will get behind and not really know what is going on and I don’t have any reason not to be at school. It helps me keep track of time. In the summer I didn’t know what day or month it was until I could go back to school.” – Avery Marshall

“Attendance is so important because learning is so important.” – Gabriel Hernandez

“It’s important to come to school every day to learn new things.” – Brandon Potter, Golden Hill

“It’s important to get as much learning time as you need.” Emily O’Donnell, Golden Hill

“Attendance matters because if you have a test then you will miss all the work  and not be prepared”, “My parents would be very very upset with me and wouldn’t allow me to stay home”, “To keep your grades up”, “It gives me an opportunity to  become smarter each and every day” – Seaia Feliciano, Jakob Mitchison, Jacob Agudelo, Alison Sanchez – Nettle

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Career Technical Education

HHS senior Mariah Vega (CTE Health Occupations) presented her capstone project to Mrs. Maggiacomo’s Grade 4 class at Tilton. Supervised by Meg Arivella, District Wellness Coach, they provided students with a lesson on cyber safety, which included tiered vocabulary, instruction on how to protect yourself and make positive choices, and watched a read-aloud called “Technology Tail ”. It is an excellent opportunity for our young students!

Tilton Elementary School

Tilton Tigers staff and students put on a fantastic holiday performance !! This school community BELIEVES !!!

Career Technical Education

CTE Freshmen in the Computer Science & Web Development and Information Technology programs learned about the game design industry from Emily Treat Czar, our recent guest speaker. Emily shared topics such as the various roles within the field, how she was able to travel the world as a game designer, and what it’s like to be a female in the tech industry. We appreciate the time she took out of her day to spend with our students. Thanks, Emily!

Food Service Department

We are pleased to announce that Mercedes Infante and Guillermo Martinez-Bido have been selected as our employees of the month for our department!

 Mercedes’s work ethic and dedication to the students and the Haverhill community inspire us all! Mercedes’ is always willing to take on additional responsibilities and helps support our department for community events whenever possible. She is an incredibly hard-working, thoughtful, and caring employee who goes above and beyond for the students, ensuring their few minutes of going through the lunch line are enjoyable. And students can always count on Mercedes to be the highlight of their day on National Dominican Republic Independence Day!

 Guillermo, or “G,” as many of us know him, is a true ray of sunshine and positivity. Many of us across the district have the pleasure of seeing G daily, greeted with a smile as he makes his many rounds as an integral part of our department as one of our drivers. G is almost always willing to take on additional stops, deliveries, or help with various tasks around the kitchen. G radiates gratitude, understanding, and patience daily, and we could not be luckier to have him on our team!

 Congrats!

 

JGWDrama Auditions for Decendents

Winter Wellness
Megan Arivella, District Coach of Health & Wellness

High School Happenings

YWCA- Students HHS participated in a workshop with Health I classes on Building Healthy Relationships and Health II on Toxic Relationships with YWCA’s resources. 

Our Department is working on adjusting the Program of Studies to include new electives for Health & PE. 

Swim Unit-Opt-out notification letters will be given to students during their first week of PE1 of the Semester 2 session. We encourage all students to participate in the four-week swim unit; however, if opt-out is necessary, please complete all the requested information. Data showed that in Semester 1, 61% of PE1 students elected to participate in swimming.

Substance Abuse Student Survey HHS/SBIRT Survey– Massachusetts General Hospital and HPS aims to discover what makes a young person particularly vulnerable to substance use. The information your student provided in the voluntary survey taken in grades 9-12 in December will be invaluable in not only improving our understanding of adolescent mental health and substance use but also in helping the Mass General team and Haverhill Public Schools to develop more effective intervention, prevention, and education programs to help students and families. In addition, students in Grade 10 will receive a brief intervention screening for substance abuse beginning in January (opt-out letters will be provided) and additional surveys. We also benefit from a Wellness Interventionist, Gina Albano, who has been trained in many platforms and programs our high school utilizes. She will be an asset to our student population.

Middle School & Elementary Happenings

4th Graders at Bradford Elementary and Silver Hill & 5th Grade at John Greenleaf Whittier attended a field trip to the Tsongas Arena on the campus of UMass Lowell to participate in a fitness and health expo and experience a women’s college basketball game ULowell vs. Maine. They had a fantastic time being exposed to a college campus and arena and participating in wellness exercises, dancing, and vendors. Students in Grade 4 will continue to receive lessons this year on vaping. Physical Education teachers have participated in additional training with Stanford University to provide two more lessons from the You and Me Together Vape Free curriculum.

Middle School students will participate in the Attitudes & Behavior survey in March; more info will follow later. 

Grade 7: A new lesson added to the curriculum this year from the 3 R’s curriculum: Rights, Respect, Responsibility on Be the Change You Want to See in the World: promoting advocacy, dignity, and respect for all individuals.

Grade 8: Students will receive a new lesson from the 3 R’s curriculum: Rights, Respect, Responsibility on Healthy & Unhealthy Relationships: adopting healthy behaviors when choosing relationships and deciding whether they are healthy. 

Wellness Groups- “Strides to Wellness,” 5th-grade wellness groups are now up and running at JGW, Consentino, and Nettle. Students can participate in this after-school club that includes lessons on nutrition, healthy relationships, yoga and meditation, exercise, and socialization in a safe and supportive environment. There will be two sessions running from January to June. See your school counselor for more information.

Mental Health Collaborative completed its two-year partnership with HPS to bring a two-part training program to Health Teachers/Counselors. The training will provide instruction and prevention on a foundational level to 8th Graders in Health classes on identifying mental illness, reducing stigma, and a proactive approach to receiving help. Please check out their Caregiver Series PowerPoint from November, found on the Wellness district webpage.

For those parents and students who may still need to attend the information evening held in January, here is a link to the information regarding high school Wellness classes and requirements. Parent Night 7th & 8th Grade HHS Wellness

Money Smart Program- we are partnering with the Bank of New England to provide introductory lessons about financial literacy (a new and necessary focus for our young students!) for Grade 5 students and students at Gateway. This will be a program that we hope to bring to all middle schools starting this year into next.  The standards-aligned curriculum series empowers educators with engaging activities to integrate financial education instruction into subjects such as math, English, and social studies.

New Frameworks- The Wellness Department has been taking time to delve into the latest frameworks during curriculum days to collaborate and review what we teach, how to develop and incorporate more lessons to include new standards, and update our scope and sequence to follow the practices. It’s a new way of thinking, not a new way of teaching. However, this allows us to gain more professional knowledge, develop and provide additional lessons on specific areas, reorganize tasks, and provide more inclusive practices. 

Health Frameworks PreK-12

Physical Education Frameworks PreK-12

The Department continues to work with many resources and organizations during professional development days: 

  • Eammon’s Heart/Brigham & Women’s Hospital
  • Lighthouse Health Education Consulting
  • Mental Health Collaborative
  • Partners in Sex Education
  • Michele Grenier, Adaptive PE education
  • PLT4M (physical education and health online platform
  • Advocates for Education

Stanford University- All of their newest drug education and prevention curriculums, updates, media features, resources, and more can be viewed & accessed here.

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

Bradford Elementary

We have had A LOT of Holiday Spirit in our hallways this week! At Bradford Elementary, “The Elf Squad” was busy “elfing” around this morning and taking “sELFies”

Career Technical Education

HHS CTE Biomedical Science Freshmen had the opportunity to hear about careers in histology, the study of the microscopic structure of tissues. Melissa Drew-DeFrank works as a histotechnologist at Holy Family Hospital and explained the process from receiving biopsies and organs for dissection to slicing and dying them for analysis. Students were able to view samples she brought through microscopes in the classroom. For more information about CTE work-based learning opportunities, contact Lisa Hunt at lhunt@haverhill-ps.org.

Consentino Middle School

The hallways at Consentino Middle School were filled with the songs of Holidays! There was a full house as parents and families came together to listen to the Concert featuring the Consentino Chorus, Beginner Band, Advanced Band, and the Middle School Jazz Band.

Health & Wellness

A new addition to the Health curriculum in middle school! Students in Grade 5 will be exposed to lessons in financial literacy. The Bank of New England started at Mrs. Curry’s Hunking health class. Students enjoyed learning about different types of careers and making essential choices around income, education, training, and interests and abilities. Students completed worksheets about their interests and future aspirations and participated in a fun game of headbands to guess their careers without saying the word!

Haverhill High School MCJROTC

Santa’s elves have been busy this year! They dropped a sleigh full of toys at Haverhill High School! Thankfully, our MCJROTC Cadets were on hand to help divide the bounty and distribute it to schools! Thank you to the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program and MCJROTC!

Multilingual Learners Department

Last night, our Multilingual Learner Department graduated its first class! These parents of HPS Students have spent the previous six weeks in our program learning English! Taking classes two nights a week while maintaining a family and working full-time is difficult at times, but they persevered. Their children were part of the celebration, creating a video to tell their parents how proud they were of them! We couldn’t agree more!

MassHealth Redeterminations

Starting April 1, 2023, MassHealth will begin the eligibility redetermination process, renewing all 2.3M members over the following 12 months. This will generally be the first-time members are at risk of losing their coverage since February 2020. In preparation for this effort, MassHealth has increased staffing significantly to handle a greater volume of calls and applications, improved our systems to automatically renew as many members’ coverage as possible, and is working in close collaboration with health plans, providers, and other stakeholders. Even with this preparation, we understand this may be difficult for members. We’re asking for your support as part of our outreach strategy. Visit their website or contact Tiffany Bell, HPS Family Engagement Nurse, @ tiffany.bell@haverhill-ps.org (APPT ONLY). For Spanish call 978-475-5521, for Portuguese email katia.morris@haverhill-ps.org

MassHealth redeterminations, for more information, visit our website.

Career Technical Education

HHS Career Technical Education Healthcare Occupations and Biomedical Science Juniors and Seniors were fortunate to attend Body Worlds: The Anatomy of Happiness exhibit. The exhibition teaches (through real human bodies) what parts of the anatomy are involved in happiness and how positive and negative emotions can affect the entire body. What an amazing and unique learning opportunity! For more information about work-based learning opportunities in the HHS CTE programs, contact Lisa Hunt at lhunt@haverhill-ps.org.

Registration Department

The Registration Department will have Holiday Hours during Winter Break. They are closed December 25th-27th, and January 1. December 28th and 29th they will be open from 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Regular office hours will resume on January 2, 2024!

Qustodio

At Haverhill Public Schools, we’re committed to providing a learning experience that allows your child to grow and flourish with technology.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with a student safety and digital wellbeing platform that is now protecting the devices your child uses at school, ensuring they stay safe and secure.

For more information and translations, visit our website.

Haverhill High School MCJROTC

Our Officers and Cadets in the HHS MCJROTC Program have been busy this month! Check out their newsletter!

Happy Holidays

From Career Technical Education

Women in Technology Club

Women in Technology Club would like to wish you all Happy Holidays!

Moody Developmental Playgroup

Bradford Elementary

Bradford Elementary had a “GRINCHY” visitor….we hope he wasn’t looking for presents!

Family Resource Center

The Family Resource Center at Burnham School hosted a Door Decorating contest. Congratulations to the Transportation Department who were the winners of the contest!

Bradford Elementary

Recently, students at Bradford Elementary received tickets to the Polar Express!

“Why, to the North Pole, of course! This is the Polar Express!” -The Conductor

Big thanks to those who donated time and magic to make this event such an experience for the kids. Shoutout to BES for letting the PTO join in the fun.

OUR SCHOOLS

Bartlett School & Assessment Center,  Grades K-12.
978-469-8735

Bradford Elementary, Grades K-4
978-374-2443

Caleb Dustin Hunking, Grades K-8
978-374-5787

Consentino Middle School, Grades 5-8
978-374-5775

Gateway Academy, Grades 7-12
978-374-3473

Golden Hill, Grades K-4
978-374-5794

Greenleaf Academy, Grades 5-12
978-374-3487

Haverhill High School, Grades 9-12
978-374-5700

J.G. Whittier, Grades 5-8
978-374-5782

Moody PreSchool, Grades Pre-K – K
978-374-3459

Moody PreSchool Ext., Grades Pre-K
978-420-1901

Nettle Middle School, Grades 5-8
978-374-5792

Pentucket Lake Elementary, Grades K-5
978-374-2421

Silver Hill Elementary, Grades K-5
978-374-3448

Tilton Elementary, Grades K-3
978-374-3475

Walnut Square, Grades Pre-K-2
978-374-3471

HAVERHILL SCHOOL COMMITTEE


Regular meetings of the School Committee are held at 7:00 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month in the Theodore A. Pelosi, Jr. Council Chambers, 4 Summer Street in Haverhill. Citizens of Haverhill who wish to submit items  for a meeting agenda, should email the agenda item to the School Committee Office, Attn: Beverly McGillicuddy, Secretary to the Haverhill School Committee beverly.mcgillicuddy@haverhill-ps.org with a copy to both the Superintendent of Schools and the Mayor no later than the seven (7) days  prior to a Committee meeting is held.

For additional information please visit the School Committee Department on our website. 

PLEASE NOTE: The Inauguration of New School Committee Members is coming in January

Mayor, James J. Fiorentini, Chairperson
mayor@cityofhaverhill.com

Ms. Maura Ryan-Ciardiello, Vice Chairperson
mryan-ciardiello@haverhill-ps.org

Ms. Toni Sapienza Donais
tdonais@haverhill-ps.org

Mr. Scott Wood, Jr.
swood@haverhill-ps.org

Attorney Paul Magliocchetti
pmagliocchetti@haverhill-ps.org

Ms. Gail Sullivan
gail.sullivan@haverhill-ps.org

Attorney Richard Rosa
richard.rosa@haverhill-ps.org