Dear SHS Community,

This week marked the celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week at Secaucus High School, a time dedicated to honoring and expressing gratitude for the dedicated educators who play such an important role in shaping the minds and futures of students. Our students provided staff with heartfelt messages of appreciation as they entered the doors Monday morning along with a wonderful token of gratitude in the form of ceramic magnets created by our ceramics students.

Attention Grade 11 students: Mark your calendars for the NJSLA-Science exams scheduled on Wednesday, May 15 and Thursday, May 16. Similarly, Grade 9 students, your NJSLA-ELA & NJSLA-Math assessments are slated from May 20 to May 23. To ensure smooth testing sessions and optimal performance, it's crucial that all participating students get a good night's sleep, arrive equipped with a fully-charged Chromebook, and headphones/AirPods each day. Should you have any inquiries or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to Mrs. Wiswesser at cwiswesser@sboe.org.

Marking period 4 Progress Reports will be open to view on the Parent Portal beginning May 13th. Parents and students are encouraged to review their progress together and to contact our school counseling department with questions or concerns.

On May 1st, the Secaucus High School Art teachers Kim Lindner, Emily Jiminez, and Treena Guevara hosted the Art Department's annual Art Show! Exhibited this year was a combination of our students best ceramics, drawings, fiber art, graphic design, and paintings. This exhibition highlighted over 200 individual student artworks. Overall the event was a great success with a great turn out. We are so proud to have showcased our students' immense talents and hard work, and we are excited to see how the exhibition grows next year!

From May 6th to May 13, a selection of students' art was chosen to exhibit in this year's Hudson County Teen Arts Festival! This festival highlights our county's most talented teen artists across the disciplines.

The Hudson County Alliance of Teen Artists hosted an awards ceremony on Thursday evening, and the following students were recognized for their incredible talent.

The following student artworks have been selected to receive Judges' Awards:

1. Sofia Soler

2. Emma Chan

3. Carine Rocha

4. Justyn Lopez

5. Destinee Salinas

Ava Korres received Top Honors from our district. This artwork will be exhibited at the NJ State Teen Arts Festival.

Congratulations to all the students whose work was exhibited and to those students who won awards!

Secaucus High School came out victorious in the 2024 Scholastic Art Awards with 4 Gold Keys, 1 Silver Key, and 5 Honorable Mentions at the Regional Level. These awards are given to artworks that exhibit excellence in skill, originality, and emergence of personal vision. The Gold Key artworks are now advanced to National Judging in New York City where creative leaders around the country will award National medals to the top artworks. National awards will be announced on June 12th at artandwriting.org. Congrats to all of our winners and our art teachers, Mrs. Jimenez and Ms. Lindner, on the big win!

Gold Key Winners:

Jake Salvatore

Jadan Toribio

Jason Leppin

Justyn Lopez

Silver Key Winner:

Nicole Marin

Honorable Mentions:

Angelina Gomez

Nick Penaherrera Tobar

Dominic Vargas

Rayan Hamrane

Jadan Toribio

Congratulations are in order for SHS Smash Bros Crew that includes Kirollos Naklah, Daniel Zou, Kevin Corales, and Juan Carlos Quintero! Last week, they made it to the Grand Finals in this season of the EGF eSports League (for Smash Bros.) and on Tuesday, they competed for the Atlantic Regional title and won first place! It was an incredibly exciting match and our students deserve a huge round of applause for their hard earned success! They’re now automatically invited to compete in Nationals so stay tuned for more info about what that entails! Once again, congratulations to our first place winners!

The Science Club, under the direction of science teacher Denise Edmunds, received a donation from the Mayor and the Secaucus Environmental Department of 3 new wooden birdhouses to complement the birdhouses we received last year. This year, students chose to paint the boxes to protect them from the weather. Muted shades of blue, gray, and tan were chosen to attract the birds to the houses. After painting, the Science Club had the houses mounted on poles and placed in the front of the high school and new tenants have already moved into the houses! The club also participated in a campus clean up with Ms. Kimberly McCleary from the Environmental Department. Ms. McCleary gave a presentation about solid waste to the club before the clean up took place. Several bags of trash were collected.

Attention Seniors! If you are planning on attending this year's Senior Prom, completed paperwork and payment is due to class advisors no later than Wednesday, May 15th! Please be sure to complete all of the required forms located on the Class of 2024 Google Classroom page. Seniors are encouraged to see class advisors as soon as possible with any questions or concerns. May 15th is a firm deadline; no paperwork will be accepted after this date.

Attention Senior Athletes!

We are currently working on the Senior Athletic Awards and want to make sure all information is correct. Please email your information to Mrs. Scheiner as soon as possible to CAScheiner@sboe.org .

Please note that only years during which you participated on a Varsity team should be included; this excludes Freshman, JV, or Middle School years. For Fall sports, indicate the following years: 2020 (9th grade); 2021 (10th grade); 2022 (11th grade); 2023 (12th grade). For Winter/Spring sports, specify the following years: 2021 (9th grade); 2022 (10th grade); 2023 (11th grade); 2024 (12th grade).

The College Board SAT will be offered at Secaucus High School on June 1, 2024 and the deadline to register is May 16th. This administration is ideal for juniors to start their college process. Registration can be found on https://www.collegeboard.org. Keep in mind, the SAT is now digital, so students must come with their Chromebook fully-charged and the Blue Book app downloaded on their device. Students can see their counselor with any questions.

As we approach the end of this school year, we have many events planned for the senior class! Please review all information for these events which can be found on the Class of 2024 Google Classroom. Students can collect paper copies of any of these forms from class advisors. Each permission slip has a separate due date, so please review them carefully. Students are encouraged to see class advisors with any questions.

As always, please reach out to me with any questions.

Best regards,

Steve Viggiani

Secaucus High School Principal