May 21, 2021

Good afternoon-

We are excited that MCAS is now complete. Thank you to the sophomores and juniors who worked hard and gave it their best. Members of the Class of 2024 who are currently enrolled in biology will take that test on June 8 (note date correction). 

Now we are ready to move on to celebrating the class of 2021! We hope the community will once again line the streets to cheer on our seniors as they follow a route past all APS schools. This year's car parade will happen immediately after graduation on Sunday, June 6. We anticipate the parade will start by 11:45am. The procession route is attached here. 

All guests at graduation must be pre-registered. Each graduate can have no more than 6 guests, who are members of their immediate household. Please register here.

Thank you to Decisions at Every Turn who put together an amazing folder of resources regarding health and safety around graduation:

DAET- Supporting Your Graduate resources

May 14, 2021

Good afternoon and happy Friday-

Thank you to all AHS students and families who helped us to successfully administer the ELA MCAS to the Classes of 2022 and 2023. We appreciate you patience and flexibility as we navigate assessing more than one class at a time while limiting the impact on all classes. We would not have had space to put all of our students were working hard past the allotted 3 hours had we had our other classes in the building.

We will follow a similar plan this coming week, May 20-21, while we administer the math MCAS. Please remember the sophomore and junior classes are occurring in person after the students complete testing and students are expected to be in the building for classes or they will be marked absent. Freshmen and senior classes will again be asynchronous and held remotely. 

Academic Awards Night! will be held virtually on Wednesday, May 19. WACA will broadcast the virtual awards at 7pm and students will receive their certificates in school over the course of the following week. 

Senior parents have received communication regarding graduation through Blackboard Mass Communications. Please look for registration information for graduation as well as other end of the year activities this weekend. All members of the community are invited to line the streets for the graduation parade on Sunday, June 6 beginning approximately at 11:30am. A map of the parade route will be shared in the coming week or two. 

 Class Officer Elections:

The election process for the 2021-2022 class officers has begun!  Any student interested in running for a class officer or elected Student Council representative position should read through all the information here.  All nominations and administrator endorsements are due to Mr. Wiczer by Friday, May 28th, at 3pm.

School Committee Advisory Council:

We need to elect a five-person "School Committee Advisory Council" that meets regularly with the School Committee to update them on what's going on at AHS.  In addition, one member of this group will be chosen to be the official "student representative" on the School Committee, attending all meetings and offering suggestions from the perspective of an AHS student.  To learn more and learn about the election process, please read through all of the information here.   All nominations and administrator endorsements are due to Mr. Wiczer by Friday, May 28th, at 3pm.

Any questions?  Contact Mr. Wiczer at jwiczer@ashland.k12.ma.us

May 7, 2021

Good afternoon-

We are through week one of AP testing and MCAS tests start next week. As a reminder, all 10th and 11th grade students are scheduled to take the ELA MCAS on May 12-13. The test is scheduled for the first two periods of each day. 

•     Students in grade 9 & 12 will have asynchronous work assigned during those periods.
•     Students in grade 10 & 11 will report to class for the last two periods of the day.
•     Classes will be synchronous or asynchronous for grades 9 & 12 for the last two periods.
•     Teachers will notify their classes of expectations.
•     Students in grade 11 who have opted out of MCAS are encouraged to attend in-person for the last two periods of the day.

Tuesday pool testing- Thanks to all of the students athletes and activity members who registered for pool testing. This week students waited in the lobby to test. This was solely because we were avoiding making announcements during AP testing. We do not have any more Tuesday morning tests so we will return to calling students down in small groups. This will limit missed class time to only a few minutes. Students are still able to come in right at 8:20am and do their pool test before going to class. 

Lunch: Thank you to those who have expressed concern about changes to lunch seating. As I am sure you can understand, keeping 175+ students socially distant at lunch was just not feasible when all students were outside. We found it has worked well to keep three grades inside and allow one class to go outside a day. Seniors will be allowed outside for two days and each other class will have one day. This is a necessity for management and safety of all students.

Senior Assassin: We have a received some parent concerns about the safety of this game. We share the concerns. This is NOT a school sponsored event. Students who are caught with any water gun, etc. at school have it confiscated. 

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there.