Brentwood High School
Volume 1, Issue 1 The Principal’s Desk September 2011
Recognized Teachers
Congratulations to Brentwood High School Teachers for being recognized by various organizations.
The United States Air Force has recognized Dr. H. Joseph Taylor, CMSgt, USAF as Outstanding Instructor of the Year with Merit for 2011. This is Chief’s second Instructor of the Year award in the past three years however; it is the first in which he achieved the “Merit” status. Kudos to Chief Taylor as well as Sgt’s Perez and Lochneras they continue to improve on an already outstanding AFJROTC program.
Congratulations also, to the entire Social Studies Department and in particular the Economic teachers; Mr. Boardman, Mr. Sutch, Ms. Gallo, Ms. Mellor and Mr. Drum for helping our school obtain the coveted W!SE Blue Star Designation for 2011. To earn this award a school must receive a 75% passing rate on W!SE’s test and have either the majority of students on a given grade level take the test OR have the students who took it achieve an average of 80% or higher. This award signifies that our Economic Educators have helped our students to become Certified Financially Literate.
Congratulations to Rebecca Grella for being selected as a New York State Finalist in the 2011 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. As a state-finalist, Ms. Grella’s application will be reviewed by a national selection committee in Washington, D.C. The committee determines the Presidential Awardees in Science from each state. We wish Rebecca good luck as the committee continues to meet.
Sophomore Orientation
Hurricane Irene knocked out power to the high school a week before opening day causing us to move sophomore orientation to September 6th. Since this was the night before the first day of school for kids we were unsure about the turn-out. By about 7:15 in the evening we had over 1000 parents, siblings and students in the building. Thanks to the Administrative Team and to the Teachers and Guidance Counselors who helped out, the evening was an amazing success.
Great Beginnings and Motivational Techniques
As we begin this year’s professional development calendar the Administrative Team along with the Literacy Team led by Patricia Orechovsky and Kris Curran designated September to be Great Beginnings and Motivational Techniquesmonth. The bottom line is Engagement Equals Success, the sooner we can hook students into our lesson the better
Welcome and Welcome Back
Welcome back to Lorie McDermott, Family and Consumer Science, Yvonne Perez, Bill Fick, Nora DeSouza, Bilingual, Stephanie Czimber ESL, William Toro, Mathematics. Welcome to Caryn Calisi, Rachel Ferzola, Maureen Ryan, English, Melissa Farley, Neena Florio, Mathematics. We wish you the best of luck and thank you in advance for all you will do for the High School.
Dates to Remember
September 22nd and 23rd: Ring Orders
September 20th, Period 2 on the football field: Senior Picture
October 11th to 14th: Spirit Week
October 15th: Homecoming
October 17th: Meet the Teacher Night
October 26th: McDonald’s Fundraiser
December 2nd: Green and White Day
December 4th: Gary Mintz Memorial Run/Pancake Breakfast
Great Opening
Despite the many challenges we faced as a result of Hurricane Irene I deeply appreciate how the entire staff worked together to give the students a smooth and safe opening few days.