ARHS PGO Parent News

From Julian Bellak, 11th grade: Did you know that idling your car can produce harmful carbon emissions that contribute to air pollution and climate change? Not only that, but idling is also a waste of fuel and money. Fortunately, there are easy steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and save money. Instead of idling, turn off your engine when you’re parked for more than 10 seconds. If you’re waiting for someone or something, consider turning off your engine and stepping outside to enjoy the fresh air. By reducing your idling time, you’ll not only help protect the environment and reduce your carbon footprint, but you’ll also save money on fuel costs. So let’s all do our part to make our community a healthier and more sustainable place to live.

For more information, check out Massachusetts State Law, the Town of Wellesley example policy, and an eye-opening demo on Twitter.

9th grader Finnley Chambers recently won 2nd place in the Sleep Research Society’s Infographic contest. Click here to see Finnley’s winning infographic with scientifically-backed sleep advice for teens!

May 7: AAPI Heritage Month Celebration
May 10: Early release
May 10: NHS deadline for juniors
May 15: Dine to Donate at Texas Roadhouse
May 21: AEF mini-golf
May 29: Memorial Day, no school

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The PGO will host an in-person Coffee with Principal Sadiq from 6:30-7:30 pm on Thursday, May 4 in the ARHS library. The topic for discussion will be the Block Schedule. The PGO will provide refreshments; all parents and guardians are welcome!

Deadline to apply to the National Honor Society has been extended to May 10th. Juniors with a GPA of 3.0 and up are elegible to apply. They all got an invitation on their email. For questions please contact me at brenas@arps.org

The Amherst Regional High School Chorale will be performing their annual Spring Concert on Tuesday, May 2nd at 7:00 at South Congregational Church in South Amherst. They will sing a wide variety of music they learned this semester, including songs they will be performing during an upcoming trip to Cleveland, Ohio. The concert is free and open to the public, though a free-will offering will be graciously accepted at the door.

Map link: https://goo.gl/maps/A6dLBdqAMpqkFVgX7

Come one and all to the 2023 ARHS student-produced play directed by Cameron Gray-Lee: The 39 Steps! Only the wackiest high jinks ensue in this epic comedy/murder mystery/action comedy/espionage/spy thriller comedy for the ages. Showtimes are April 27-29 at 7pm, and April 29 at 2pm. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for adults, and $2 for the reduced lunch rate. There are stage dives, tenor saxophones, and lightsabers involved!

It’s time to begin celebrating our Senior class of 2023! Order your lawn signs and/or donate a sign for another graduating student. $14 per sign. Orders due Friday, May 5th. Signs will be available for pickup at the Class of ’23 fundraiser dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Monday, May 15, or by arrangement. 

Please use this form to order a lawn sign for your senior!

Please come out and support the class of 2023 on Monday, May 15th at the Texas Roadhouse from 3pm to 8pm. The Texas Roadhouse will be donating 10% of your total food purchases to the Class of 2023!

All ARHS community members are invited to the Summer Kick-off Party and Fundraiser at Easthampton Savings Bank on Thursday, May 4. Click here for a detailed flyer.

The Multilingual Parent Advisory Council is selling t-shirts to raise money for scholarships for two graduating seniors who have earned the Seal of Biliteracy. Click here for a flyer with information about how to order a t-shirt and contribute.

Saturday’s Linguistic Heritage Celebration is being moved to Fort River (formerly on the Town Common) because of the rain. We have a great program lined up from 2:30-5:30.  Please come join us! 

Please join the Amherst Education Foundation (AEF) on Sunday, May 21st from 10am-1pm for a fun event that will also have raffles and refreshments. All proceeds will go towards funding valuable education grants to public school teachers and staff in Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury. Come play and support our schools!

Register at bit.ly/minigolf2023

Please follow this link for a flier with further details and to see a list of all the local businesses and organizations that have helped us make this event possible. To learn more about our grants visit amhersteducationfoundation.org/grants

The ARHS PGO is requesting KINDERGARTEN photos of students in the Senior Class of 2023. The photos will be featured at the Pasta Dinner for the Senior class on Monday, June 5th. Please send a KINDERGARTEN or early elementary photo of your Senior to Susan Wells: susanenrightwells@gmail.com or upload your photo here: Senior Class of 2023 Kindergarten Photos
Please submit all photos by Tuesday, May 30th so photos can be printed in time for the dinner.

April 27-29: 39 Steps theater production
April 29: Linguistic Heritage Celebration
April 29-30: Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament
May 2: Chorale Spring Concert
May 4: Coffee with the Principal
May 4: Hurricane Boosters Summer Kick-off
May 10: NHS deadline for juniors
May 15: Dine to Donate at Texas Roadhouse
May 21: AEF mini-golf

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Hello Families & Friends of ARHS,

I hope this message finds you all in good health and spirits. Spring is finally here, even though it feels more like summer right now. Our hope is that everyone can enjoy the weather and a nice change of pace during Spring Break. We also know that there are members of our community who are struggling. That’s why I wanted to share some resources with you. Please do not hesitate to access them if you need assistance with any urgent mental health matters during the break. Our School Counselors and other members of our Mental Health team will also be on a well deserved break. And you will most likely not be able to reach any of them for support next week. The high school building will be closed to all students during the April Break, and very few adults will be here. If you have a concern that doesn’t quite raise to the crisis level, you can call the district office to report it. This is the best number to dial in those situations, 413-362-1810. For more serious concerns please use the resources listed below. 

Community Support Options (CSO) 24/7 Crisis Hotline at 413-586-5555 (Franklin, Hampshire County) https://www.csoinc.org/emergency-crisis-stabilization-services
Your local Pediatrician’s Office
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA’s) National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. tel:1-800-662-4357
National Parenting Helpline: 1-855-427-2736
National Alliance on Mental Health Helpline: 1-800-950-6264
Suicide Prevention Helpline: 1-800-273-8255

Take care,
Talib Sadiq, Principal

If you have not already done so, please use the links in the 2024 Junior Life After ARHS Overview document to set up a meeting with us. These meetings are available until May 26th.

The Multilingual Parent Advisory Council is selling t-shirts to raise money for scholarships for two graduating seniors who have earned the Seal of Biliteracy. Click here for a flyer with information about how to order a t-shirt and contribute.

The 30th Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament, the longest running tournament in the country, will take place at MacDuffie School in Granby, MA on April 29 to 30, 2023. This highly anticipated event will bring together thirty high school teams and over 600 athletes from the Northeast, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and more. Games will begin at 9:00 am, and admission is free for everyone, with concessions available for purchase.

This year’s Amherst Invitational is a qualifying tournament for the 2023 High School National Invite (HSNI). This presents an exciting opportunity for teams to secure their spot in HSNI earlier in the season. The winners from the highly competitive Amherst Invite Gx Division 1 and Open Division 1 will receive an invitation to participate in the prestigious 2023 HSNI. Don’t miss out on this chance to witness top-tier high school ultimate competition and be a part of this event!

The PGO will host an in-person Coffee with Principal Sadiq from 6:30-7:30 pm on Thursday, May 4 in the ARHS library. The topic for discussion will be the Block Schedule. The PGO will provide refreshments; all parents and guardians are welcome!

April 17-21: Spring break
April 29-30: Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament
May 4: Coffee with the Principal

Pelham Players is a free one-month youth theater program open to everyone in the area. This summer ages 9-18 will be performing You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and ages 5-8 a separate show tbd. For more information about this summer’s program, e-mail elyssa.eek@gmail.com. Registration will open in late spring. 

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If your rising 9th grader has not yet registered for classes please be sure they do this weekend.  The deadline is April 10th!!! Here is the letter that went to all families on Wednesday, March 8th and includes the links to the Program of Studies and the Registration Portal:Course Registration Letter for Incoming 9th Grade (English, Spanish).

The ARHS PGO is pleased to announce that Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in Amherst is sponsoring Dine to Donate on Tuesday, April 11. Dine at Garcia’s (or order takeout) and present this flyer, and they will donate 20% of the proceeds to the ARHS PGO. The PGO uses this money to fund community-building and enhancement activities in the school all year long. Support your students and our teachers and staff, and enjoy a night off from cooking!

This Tuesday, April 11, The International Students Club will be hosting Culture Night in the ARHS Cafeteria from 5-8pm. There will be food from various cultures, music, art-based activities, and performances! Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students, and $5 for children 10 and under. We will be raising funds for a school trip to New York City. Tickets will be sold at the door. If you’re able to, please come! 

The PGO will host an in-person Coffee with Principal Sadiq from 6:30-7:30 pm on Thursday, May 4 in the ARHS library. The topic for discussion will be the Block Schedule. The PGO will provide refreshments; all parents and guardians are welcome!

The Class of 2024 Student Council is excited to announce the upcoming Penny Wars at ARHS! Each grade will have a collection jar where students can add pennies or paper bills to gain points. Adding silver coins and checks made out to ‘Class of 2024 Student Council’ to other grade’s jars will lower their totals. The class with the most points at the end of the duration wins.

We would like to invite ARHS parents to participate by dropping coins, bills, and checks at the office during school hours any time before April 14! All proceeds will be donated to the Dakin Humane Society.

April 7: No school
April 7: Last day of EAC textile drive
April 7: Last day to sign up for May 6 SAT
April 11: Dine to Donate at Garcia’s
April 11: Culture Night
April 12: MPAC Meeting
April 17-21: Spring break

Join us from anywhere for two spring nature programs by Mass Audubon, brought to you by the Jones Library via Zoom.

The Nature of Spring with the Mass Audubon:  Thursday, April 20 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm Springtime in Massachusetts is filled with unique seasonal wonders and mysteries. What animals are making noises in the evenings and why? Who is migrating back or waking from their winter slumbers? What kind of wildflowers are popping up near the sidewalks and woodland trails? This online program will introduce the seasonal dynamics of nature in spring, and provide ideas and resources for observing, appreciating, and supporting wildlife near home during this season. This program will be presented by Tia Pinney, a Biologist, Lead Naturalist, and educator at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln.

Singing Frogs with the Mass Audubon:  Thursday, May 18 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm One sure sign of spring is the sound of singing frogs. Why do frogs sing, and how can we identify their calls? Frogs can be very sensitive to pollution and climate change and can be a strong indicator of how healthy an environment is. Learn the different frogs found in Massachusetts, as well as how to identify them by their calls. This program will be led by Alex Dohan, Statewide Education Department Coordinator at Mass Audubon.

Please register for these Zoom events separately.  Visit the Jones Library website at www.joneslibrary.org to learn more and register.  Registrants will receive links to the recordings within 48 hours of the presentation.

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The ARHS PGO is pleased to announce that Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in Amherst is sponsoring Dine to Donate on Tuesday, April 11. Dine at Garcia’s (or order takeout) and present this flyer, and they will donate 20% of the proceeds to the ARHS PGO. The PGO uses this money to fund community-building and enhancement activities in the school all year long. Support your students and our teachers and staff, and enjoy a night off from cooking!

The Multilingual Parent Advisory Council (MPAC) is holding its next meeting on April 12.

Important Links:

• Meeting Agenda
• Zoom meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84240050169, Meeting ID: 842 4005 0169
• Meeting Flyer link        
• Please click this link to RSVP and let us know if you need an interpreter for the meeting               

The EAC is sponsoring a competition between classes to benefit the PGO and to reduce textile waste among students at the school. Textiles are a massive environmental problem worldwide, so the EAC decided to address it locally. We hope to continue to reduce food, plastic, paper and textile waste at our school even further. Send any unwanted textiles to school with your student and help the PGO raise money to support school activities.

Dates for standardized tests (SATs, ACT) can be found on the last pages of the Junior Handbook that was sent to families of juniors in January/February. The following are upcoming dates (signup deadline in parentheses):

May 6: SAT, not offered at ARHS (April 7)
June 3: SAT at ARHS (May 4)
June 10: ACT, not offered at ARHS (May 5)
July 15: ACT, not offered at ARHS (June 16)
August 26: SAT and Subject Tests at ARHS

The Sene-Gambian Scholars Program is forming a new cohort of scholars, currently in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades, who will travel to Senegal and The Gambia in the winter of 2024 and host their peers from those countries in the spring of that year. The program is accepting preliminary applications to become a part of that cohort and engage in the preparation work that will occur during the spring of this school year and the fall of 2023. We are seeking eight motivated students to join those who are already part of the program. The application is available online at https://tinyurl.com/SGS-app. For more information, e-mail pennimanb@arps.org.

On April 1st, ARHS will host the Local Vocal Chord Bowl, an acapella singing showcase. It is a fundraiser for the Amherst and Northampton music programs. It will be hosted by the Green Street Brew, which is directed by AHS’s choral teacher Todd Fruth and features high school teachers Geoff Friedman and Lee Larcheveque in the bass section. Click here for a flyer with all the details.

April 1: Local Vocal Chord Bowl
April 7: No school
April 7: Last day of EAC textile drive
April 7: Last day to sign up for May 6 SAT
April 11: Dine to Donate at Garcia’s
April 12: MPAC Meeting
April 17-21: Spring break

The Leveret Trails Committee is looking for youth volunteers to join their committee and/or help out with trail maintenance. Interested students can contact Annaliese Bischoff.

Love playing with words and finding new ways to express yourself? On Saturdays from 4-5 pm in April, students from the Amherst College Poetry Club will lead a weekly poetry workshop for middle and high school students. This series that will culminate in a spoken word performance at Amherst College. Please email teens@joneslibrary.org for more information and to register.

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ARHS will be administering MCAS on Tuesday, March 28th and Wednesday, March 29th for all 10th graders.  This means that 9th, 11th and 12th grade students will have a 2.5 hour delay on those days. The first period class will begin at 11:30am on both days.  

Students who have tenth-grade English this term will have access to an MCAS review in your current English class. For 10th graders who are NOT in English this semester, here is an MCAS PREP FOR 2023/ELA slide show that includes a summary of what’s on the test, a description of the kinds of essays (Narrative, Argumentative, Informative) on the test, a PRACTICE TEST,and student essay samples (see slide show to access these).

It will help students a lot to click on the practice test link and look at the first two articles to get a feel for what the test looks like BEFORE looking at the sample essays written by real students in MA a few years ago (and based on information they get from reading those articles earlier in the test). 

The ARHS PGO is pleased to announce that Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in Amherst is sponsoring Dine to Donate on Tuesday, April 11. Dine at Garcia’s (or order takeout) and present this flyer, and they will donate 20% of the proceeds to the ARHS PGO. The PGO uses this money to fund community-building and enhancement activities in the school all year long. Support your students and our teachers and staff, and enjoy a night off from cooking!

Amherst Regional High School is hosting an evening meeting for families of rising 9th graders to learn about course registration on Thursday, March 30th.  Here is the letter that went to all families on Wednesday, March 8th:Course Registration Letter for Incoming 9th Grade (English, Spanish) to the 8th grade families

The Sene-Gambian Scholars Program is forming a new cohort of scholars, currently in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades, who will travel to Senegal and The Gambia in the winter of 2024 and host their peers from those countries in the spring of that year. The program is accepting preliminary applications to become a part of that cohort and engage in the preparation work that will occur during the spring of this school year and the fall of 2023. We are seeking eight motivated students to join those who are already part of the program. The application is available online at https://tinyurl.com/SGS-app. For more information, e-mail pennimanb@arps.org.

ARHS Orchestra at Wesley United Church
Friday, March 24th
Call at 5:30 pm, Concert at 7pmWesley United Methodist Church, Hadley

ARPS Grades 7-12 Rescheduled Spring Choir Concert
Tuesday, March 28th
Call at 6pm, Concert at 7pmARHS Auditorium

For the downloadable calendar of student performances in 2022-2023 from the Friends of Performing Arts and maps, please click http://amherstfpa.org/events/.

If you would like to help with any Spring events as a volunteer parent or guardian, please feel free use our signup genius form at https://bit.ly/3mrCiRm.