Whittier Wire

• June 12: Grade 8 Field Trip
  
• June 12: Grade 7 Community Day
• June 13: Grade 8 Promotion Ceremony 6:00pm
• June 14: Last Day - Dismissal at 11:00

RSU 16 Budget Validation Referendum

June 11, 2024

Polls open 8AM - 8PM

Town Voting Locations

Please vote!

We are very excited that Alicia Starbird and Scarlett Quimi will be heading to the National History Day Competition this weekend to represent Whittier and the state of Maine. They will be meeting kids from around the country as they prepare to present their projects to their judges on Monday. Alicia has a website about the 19th Amendment and Scarlett has an exhibit about the Women's Suffrage Movement. They will be traveling with their families and get some time to explore museums, monuments and government buildings in Washington D.C. as well. They will both have the opportunity to meet and take a photo with Senator Susan Collins and Senator Angus King. Good luck Alicia and Scarlett! We are so proud of you!

Don't let the middle school students fool you! We are still at work at Whittier. Some students still owe assessments and need to wrap those up immediately. Here is what you and your student(s) can expect this week at school.

• Monday - We are in a regular Blue Day schedule. All classes will meet.
• Tuesday - We are in a regular Silver Day schedule. All classes will meet. Laptops will be returned to IT in the morning. Band and chorus will meet for the last time.
• Wednesday - Grade 8 will go to Camp Connor and return to school around 3:30. If you would like to volunteer on the trip or make a snack donation, please reach out to Kelly Adams at kadams@rsu16.org. Grade 7 will participate in community service activities in the morning and return for some fun games together.

• Thursday - We are in a regular Silver Day schedule. All Grade 7 classes will meet. Grade 8 will practice the Promotion Ceremony after lunch. The Promotion Ceremony is at 6:00pm on the PRHS football field. See details below.

• Friday - The Final Assembly is at 8:15am. We will give out some awards, the chorus will perform, and we will share a slideshow. Afterward, students may choose to participate in a variety of activities.

The Grade 8 Promotion Celebration will take place on Thursday, June 13th at 6:00pm on the PRHS football field.

The program is an opportunity to recognize our students before they move on to high school. Students will enter the field with their Roundtable groups. There will be some brief remarks from student representatives and staff, and all students will receive certificates. We will close out the program with final remarks from a student and then ice cream will be available at the snack shack. The program is usually about an hour long.

Students will be seated on the field. Please make sure they arrive by 5:45pm. Families will sit in the bleachers. Many also choose to stand along the outside of the fence.

Students may choose to dress up or wear casual clothing. We understand that some students do not feel comfortable participating in this sort of ceremony. It is certainly up to you and your family if you wish to have them participate, but it is very low key and has been a very nice time together in the past.

The weather is looking good!

• Laptops will be returned on Tuesday morning. Students must return all items that they were issued. Missing items will incur a charge.
• This is just a reminder that all library books are now due back to the library! With only one more week of school, we need to get all library materials returned! Thanks for your help with this!
  
• As students are returning school items, please remind them to return any calculators they may have. We are missing a bunch of them.
  
• Encourage your child to check Lost & Found. We have a number of items and would like to send them home with their owners.
• Yearbooks are sold out.

We had the opportunity to send a group of twenty 8th grade girls to the Trades for ME hands-on conference at Lewiston Regional Technical Center. The goals are to help students learn about high-paying jobs that are in demand, explore great jobs available here in Maine, and set themselves up to earn good pay in a field that welcomes them. School Counselor Julie Martin and Restorative Teacher Andrea Forbush chaperoned the trip and reported that it was a great experience and our girls were excellent representatives for our school.

The Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Career and Technical Education/MaineDOE (utilizing federal Carl D. Perkins funds), and community businesses and sponsors fund this program.

The MidKnight FireSlayers are pleased to announce that after a delicious and VERY close cook-off, the FireSlayers brought the golden spoon back to Whittier! A special thank you to our Old School competitors: Mrs. Goss, Mrs. Patenaude, and Ms. Adler, the staff at the PRFD, as well as our judges who helped to make this event fun and special for all involved.

Mrs. Shanning and Mrs. Wight would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the staff at the PRFD who have worked tirelessly to provide educational opportunities to our students at the station since 2011. During our time working together they have provided valuable lessons and activities (including first-aid and CPR certification), to more than 180 Whittier Middle School Students! In addition to this, they have supported our students both inside and outside of the classroom and helped us in our efforts to secure funding for an AED for our Middle School. Thank you for all that you do to educate our students and keep our community safe.

7th graders have been working on designing and building solar-powered cars. Each car must use the same standard motor and solar panel, and carry cargo (an empty soda can) from the start to the finish (straight track).

Here are some photos and video of preliminary heats. The finals will be this week!

Now that we’ve finished the final summative in Math, Mrs Lachapelle’s students must complete one final escape room! They will have to use all of their previous learning and work together to escape grade 8!

For our current 8th graders, we will have a meeting at school as an 8th Grade Athlete Step-Up Day this week. The purpose will be to give our upcoming student athletes information about what to anticipate. There are summer programs for kids.

Outside the Athletic Office is a table with handouts for summer activities. Our Football team will move the weightroom on Thursday 6/14, and begin early morning weight training the week of 6/17. The following sports will have summer programming: Ice Hockey, Football, Cross Country, Cheer, Girls and Boys Basketball, Field Hockey, and Girls and Boys Soccer. In addition, there is also information about a Speed and Agility program held on the fEL turf by Prime 360.

Several spring athletes have not returned uniforms. Please return them so that we have uniforms for next season.

Email: svincent@rsu16.org
Website: https://www.rsu16.org/bwms
Location: 1457 Maine Street, Poland, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 998-3462
Facebook: facebook.com/WhittierMidknights