We are looking forward to the start of school. The building has been prepped for the new school year and looks great. We are in our first week of sports, our guidance staff is back and working on student schedules, and staff will be in on Friday.
We have a few new administrators that we would like to introduce and welcome.
Malissa Northup, our new interim Associate Principal, has been a teacher in the district for 17 years in the science department where she became a teacher leader. Malissa has also supported the high school in many capacities over the years as a mentor teacher, a lead teacher, data coach, PD facilitator, academy chair and capstone chair.
Samuel DePina, our new CTE Director, comes to us from Boston Public Schools, where he was a program director and educator in the Radio and Television Broadcasting program. He is dedicated to fostering an inclusive learning environment that embraces diversity and equips students for the ever-evolving job market.
Matthew Bernstein, our new dean of the senior class, comes to us from Brockton Public Schools where he has been teaching/coaching students with and without disabilities since 2008. His mindset focuses on what a student can do rather than what a student is currently unable to do. Matt believes it is important to have high/realistic expectations for all students.
Malika Jamal, our new dean of the freshman class, is returning to Weymouth Public Schools after 2 years with the Department of Youth Services. Her area of expertise is mental health counseling with a focus in Families, Substance Abuse and Trauma Studies. She has dedicated most of her career to supporting at- risk youth and families with a focus on education and juvenile justice.
Community is very important to us all as it provides a sense of belonging. We will continue to focus on building relationships to grow and build a stronger community. We all have a shared responsibility to build a community that we are all proud to belong to.
We want our students to be responsible, show initiative, be creative, understand and relate to various cultures and backgrounds, be able to resolve conflicts and problems, be able to think critically and learn from mistakes and to be contributing citizens of the WHS community and the world. To foster this development, we will continue our efforts to build and maintain a collaborative environment distinguished by mutual respect.
We will continue to focus on consistency as it provides students with common expectations from class to class and within larger common areas in the building. We will share these expectations throughout the first few days with all students. One of the expectations we will continue with is cell phone use in the classroom. We will be making our classrooms a cell phone free space to improve teaching and learning to facilitate an engaged learning environment. We believe that this will absolutely be in the best interest of our students' education, health and safety, which is the basis for all of our decisions. The handbook already has policy language supporting this expectation. Each classroom and common space will have a cell phone holder and upon entering the class, students will put their cell phone in this holder for the duration of class and retrieve it at the end of the period. All students will have access to use their phone during passing, study periods, and lunch. Our students have access to technology through their chromebook and not having cell phones as a distraction creates an environment where students can fully engage in learning while building the skills of in person, face to face communications.
For all students and families returning to Weymouth High School, welcome back! For those new to Weymouth High School, we welcome you into a community that will celebrate you as an individual, a participant in our community and take you to the next level in your education.
Enjoy the last week of summer and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Karen Monahan
Principal
Malissa Northup
Interim Associate Principal
