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New law changes legal age to buy tobacco products
Songs of the summer timeline for music lovers
Declassified freshman survival guide
Kiss ‘The Kissing Booth’ goodbye, see something else
Football team scores new helmets to improve safely
news
sports
HARBINGER The Student Newspaper of Algonquin Regional High School
the
review
opinion
A&E
August 2018
79 Bartlett Street, Northborough, MA 01532
arhsharbinger.com
. VOL. 31 NO. 1
PHOTO CONNOR LAWLESS
Students on the cross country team get ready for another season of running at a summer captains’ practice. See the back cover for more pre-season sports photos.
Back to school: what you need to know Freshmen will have:
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assistant principal for all four years due to looping
GPA
calculated with a new grading scale including A+ & D-
UNLEVELED
HISTORY for their first year
ELISSA GORMAN & MAGGIE DEL RE Editors-in-Chief
With an exciting and busy school year ahead, Principal Dr. Sara Pragluski Walsh has plenty of updates about school policy and events. Looping The assistant principals will be starting a new administrative technique called looping this year in order to build positive connections and maintain relationships with students, according to Walsh. “Looping is when an administrator or teacher goes with their students,” Walsh said. “So [Assistant Principal Michele] Tontodonato had the twelfth graders last year, so this year she moves back down and has the freshman. She’ll have four years with them.” Looping will help administrators get to know their students better, and it also helps students become acquainted with their assistant principal early in their school career. “If you had Mr. McGowan as a principal last year as a junior, you know what to expect,” Walsh said. “You’re not going to have all these crazy surprises. You know where to find him, you know where he stands during lunches, all those little things that are important.”
Grading Scale A new grading scale goes into effect this fall. Students can now earn an “A+” (97-100) and a “D-” (60-62). A “D-” will now count as a passing grade. Until this year, any grade below a 65 was failing. All other grade ranges will remain the
same. While this system will be used for everyone’s report cards, this grading scale will affect GPA calculation only for the class of 2022. Other classes will continue with the previous GPA calculations. See pages 22-23 of the Student Handbook located on the Algonquin website for more information.
Class Rank The class of 2019 will be the first class not to receive rank, according to Walsh. In previous years, students would receive a number informing them of where they stood in relation to their peers. However, class rank has been abolished by administration in an effort to encourage a holistic transcript reading by colleges. “Colleges do way more than look at a number,” Walsh said. “They realize that a child is more than what we would say, rank, or GPA. They have learned to read transcripts, understand what courses mean, understand the diversity in courses, the level in courses that a student has taken.” According to Walsh, not having rank forces colleges to learn more about its applicants, ultimately benefiting the students. “Now colleges have to know our Algonquin children,” Walsh said. “They have to know what it means to earn a THawk diploma.”
Parking Starting this year, only faculty members can park in the library and rotunda parking lots in order to make parking easier and create more student parking spaces, according to Walsh. “We were able to expand the number of parking permits to include some of our sophomore students based on when they age up,” Walsh said.
In the past, only juniors and seniors could buy parking permits “So now, faculty will park in the rotunda lot and the library lot and leave the rest of the spaces for the students,” Walsh said. “So students won’t be driving around rows to try to find a spot when they come or go. They know ‘there is a spot in this lot, I can find it,’ based on the numbers.” Walsh is happy with teacher cooperation in implementing this change. “I know that it’s difficult for the faculty to move the parking to just one or two lots, and I am so appreciative that they are so supportive in putting students’ needs first,” Walsh said.
History Curriculum The history department will be unrolling their reformed US History curriculum for the freshman class. This new course will be unleveled and will aim to promote skill development. “What the teachers have done is create a diverse, inclusive environment where all children can shine,” Walsh said. “It takes a lot of work to meet 24 students’ individual needs in a classroom, and they’ve been working all summer - on their own time - and all of last year, and they’re ready to go this year.” History teachers have been collaborating through the creation of a professional learning community, which has allowed them to meet at the same time every day. Through their work together, they have come up with unique plans for each unit to put critical thinking skills into practice, according to history teacher Brian Kellett. All students will take the course at the College Prep level.
‘BACK TO SCHOOL’ CONTINUED P. 4