Superintendent Gormley recently published an update to her November email blast. These are thorough bulletins in which the Superintendent apprises the public of school events, achievements, developments, and initiatives. Following are some highlights from her update of November 20th. You can find the full text of the update here.

Ms. Gormely lauded the efforst of staff and students to help out the Milton Food Pantry:

• Brian Macinaw and his students will be spending several hours loading and unloading deliveries for the Food Pantry.
• Jeanne Mattaliano, in our business office, contacted her brother-in-law George Lambert of Lambert’s Rainbow Fruit, who donated enough squash and carrots for 170 families.
• Mary Ann Donnelly, advisor to the Key Club, sent an appeal to her fellow teachers to help organize food donation boxes at Milton High School.
• More than 40 teachers encouraged their students to donate, which resulted in a massive collection of food items from our high school.

from School Committee Meeting of Tuesday, November 17th, Ms. Gormley notes:

• Ms. Sheridan, Chairman of the School Committee, discussed the School Committee goals for the 2009-2010 school year, which include:

1. Maintain the high level of communication with parents initiated in the past year
2. Maintain a high level of communication with inter-town committees
3. Explore the possibility of consolidating evening activities
4. Review student achievement
5. Design yearly fundraising goals by the end of the previous year
6. Engage school site councils with school committee efforts
7. Reactivate academic review teams
8. Review programs that might be moved to club status
9. Review world language program
10. Review sustainability on a number of programs offered by MPS

from School Committee Meeting of Tuesday, November 3rd, Ms. Gormley noted:

• We recognized a group of Milton High School students who were named Commended Students by the National Merit College Plans reporting service. These students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who took the 2008 PSAT and represent some of the most academically talented students in the country.
• Congratulations to David Corbett, Charlie Rosmarin, Samuel Shepard, John Shields and Graham Strang. Another MHS student, Jacqueline James, was honored by the National Achievement Scholarship Program for academic success. We are proud of these students for their hard work and accomplishments.
• We congratulate the following students, who achieved a perfect score on the last spring’s MCAS tests: Milton High Math: Madeleine Brown, Jonathan Ingraham, Tucker Kibbee, Mairead Kiernan. Biology: Caeleigh MacNeil. Pierce Middle School Math: Liana Masey-Greene, Peter Timmons, Ellen Chow, Peter DeLuca, John Keally, Claire Mahoney, Jack Radley, Katherine Rosner, Andrew Siu, Tansy Massey-Green, Katherine Gioioso, Victoria Hansbury, Shannon MacLeod, William Hess and Emma Pred-Sosa. English Language Arts: Emily Lenane, Kimberly Herbert, Elizabeth Magnuson, Jack Radley, Emma Chinman, Kate Stockbridge Elementary Schools Math: John McGrath, Nolan Carvahlo, Mary Corcoran, Sadie Marcus, Michael O’Hanlon, Zachary Fischer, Edward Callahan and Allison Reed. English Language Arts: Danielle Dumais, John Lenane, Julian Miller, Cole O’Flaherty, Alexis Belash, Shannon Fitzgerald, Meaghan McDougall, Julia Neelon, Allegra Denooyer, Parker Hall, Joshua Kery, Sadie Marcus, Sarah Monderer, Joseph Quinn, Tyler Volpe-Knock, Collette Nourie, and Maggie O’Hanlon.
• Another piece of good news coming out of Milton High School is the formation of a Debate Team. English teacher Nick Fitzgerald and long-term substitute Phil Tedesco are the team’s talented advisors. After forming the first team in several years at MHS, these teachers have already taken the group on the road for competitions. Our students have completed four rounds of two-on-two competition and Milton High had two teams each earn first place. We hope to send six students to compete in December, as part of the Mass Forensics League, which consists of 30 schools across the state. (www.massforensics.org) The Debate Team season runs from October to February and they are still welcoming new members. We would like to thank our friends at the Council on Aging, who allowed us the use of their van in order to transport our students to the debate competitions. Great job, everyone!

Misc

• We are pleased to announce that our World Language Review Committee has been formed. The Committee, convened at the request of the school committee, will make their recommendations in February of 2010. The members are: Andrew Cantillon and Courtney Affanato from Collicot; Mary Ann Rull and Marietta Surrette from Cunningham; Raju Pathak and Margaret Eberhardt from Glover; Rachel Schewe and Rachel Shanor from Tucker. In addition, the following teachers are also on the committee Janice Gordon (FLES teacher), Veronica Watson and Fatima Bourass-Elzein (French teachers) and Erin Power and John Doyle.