Photo courtesy of Mike Moore

Monday, January 29 - B1 Day

Tuesday, January 30 - A2 Day

Wednesday, January 31 - B2 Day

Thursday, February 1 - A1 Day

Friday, February 2 - B1 Day

Coming Up:

Tuesday, February 6 - Early Release 12:05 p.m.

Billerica Memorial High School’s Daily Announcements 



The literary magazine, The Billerica Phoenix, is still accepting submissions in celebration of music appreciation. Poetry, narratives, short stories, and other creative pieces are all wanted! Submit your writing and artwork to Ms. Camasso or Mr. Ciccarelli before February 2nd to be published in the winter issue of the Billerica Phoenix. 

Our Latinos Unidos Club is sponsoring a Pulsera sale in partnership with The Pulsera Project. Pulseras (bracelets) are $5 and bolsitas (hand-woven bags) are $15. They are being sold during all lunches Jan 23rd through Feb. 2nd and after school in room B327. Cash & Venmo accepted. 

February's Book Club book is A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Read the book and join us at the end of February to chat about it and enjoy snacks. All are welcome, even if you don't finish the book. 

Thank you to the members of the Women in Science and Engineering club for hosting a skyscraper challenge event at Billerica Public library on Friday. 

Monday, January 29, 2024 

Poetry Club meets every Monday in C237. 

Tuesday, January 30, 2024 

The next BMHS Coding Club meeting will be Tuesday January 30th in Room B231 after school. 

Wednesday, January 31, 2024 

The STEM Research Team will meet on Wednesday after school in D366. 

Thursday, February 1, 2024 

Key Club is meeting on Thursday and heading to the parker. We will meet in room B229. 

Spanish NHS will be having a meeting on Thursday, February 8th immediately after school in B327. Members, please check google classroom for details. 

Yoga will be held today at 2:15. It takes place in the 1655 room which is in the Learning Commons. No experience necessary, everyone is welcome! 

Friday, February 2, 2024 

The BMHS Pride Alliance will meet Friday after school in room D366. All are welcome! 

Friday, January 26, 2024 marked the final shift of our beloved custodian Walter Silva. Over the last 30 years, Walter has been a constant positive influence in our community. He listened to our students, laughed with our teachers, translated Portuguese for our staff, flirted with our lunch ladies, and most importantly – smiled all day, every day while he was here. Walter may have left on Friday, but his home will always be BMHS. Legends retire, but they are never forgotten.

Mr. Murphy has put together an All-Pinehurst Team for this year's trivia event. Please consider putting in a team to support the Class of 2024 while securing bragging rights for a whole year.

As the first semester drew to a close, Mr. Peterson's culinary classes showcased their work as their peers voted on the best dishes. Congratulations to Robert De Oliveira for taking home the top honors.

Eloise and Sophie Barriault each received verbal commendations in their respective Committees on Saturday at Lexington High School's Invitational MUN Conference.

Thank you to the members of the Women in Science and Engineering club for hosting a skyscraper challenge event at Billerica Public library on Friday.

BMHSAA 

Our winter season is well underway! If you haven’t had a chance to make it to a basketball game, hockey game, wrestling match, we encourage you to come check out these great teams. Our next BMHSAA meeting will be Monday, February 5th at 7 PM in the library. We hope you will join us!

Seasonal Program Book

Design is currently underway for our Seasonal Program Book. Please consider ordering a seasonal program book bundle ($25), which includes a winter sports program book, personalized shout out message from you to your athlete, and a T-shirt. This is open to athletes in all levels and grades. Visit www.BMHSAA.org and select fundraising. It’s a great celebration of the winter season!

Facebook Page 

You may have noticed that our Facebook page has been disabled. We are working to get the page up and running, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen as we have not heard back from Facebook after sending an appeal and numerous emails. Please reach out to your team rep with any questions or email us at bmhsaa01821@gmail.com.

Our Latinos Unidos Club is sponsoring a Pulsera sale in partnership with The Pulsera Project which provides sustainable fair trade employment and funds a wide range of social impact programs that empower people through secondary education, university scholarships, housing programs, healthcare, disability rights advocacy, women & youth leadership, funding for environmental initiatives, and more. Pulseras (bracelets) are $5 and bolsitas (hand-woven bags) are $15. They are being sold during all lunches Jan 23rd through Feb. 2nd and after school in room B327. Cash & Venmo accepted.

Build Season Week 3

Team Operations:

This past week, Team Operations finalized our Hour of Code event. The event will be running from 5PM on Friday, February 9th at Billerica Memorial High School for students in grades 2-5. If you are interested in registering your student for this event, RSVP to team4909@gmail.com with your child’s name and grade. Spots are limited and parents are required to stay for the entirety of the event. Students finalized team banner designs for the 2023-24 season CRESCENDO and completed executive summaries for this year’s Impact Award submission.

​Climber:

This week, the climber subgroup started designing and prototyping. After doing research, they discovered that using extendable boat hooks would be the most space-efficient design to lift the robot up onto the STAGE, which is composed of a fixed chain at the center of the field.

Intake:

This week the Intake group made needed improvements to their Rev1 design to prepare for the manufacturing of our Rev2 robot. We made improvements to our design, making it more practical and compliant with competition rules. This included changing our motor mounts and redesigning parts of our intake to fit inside the frame perimeter. This resulted in us having to shift the intake geometry. In addition to this, one of our main problems from the Rev1 design was that the intake was dragging on the ground, which required slight redesign revisions. Finally, we worked with the shooter group to help finalize our plans on handing off notes between the intake and shooter mechanisms.

Shooter Subsystem

The shooter group tested their first revision and gained a lot of useful information that will help them while designing Rev2. Students tested how note compression will affect the accuracy and distance of shooting notes, which helped determine the final dimensions of the shooter. After testing Rev1, CAD designs for Rev2 began. They worked with the climber group to figure out how the shooter will attach to the arm and power transmission in order to pivot. Due to their poor handoff between the intake to the shooter, they decided to change the feeder to a horizontal orientation instead of vertical one to help center the notes better.

Software:

The software team successfully programmed software to complete two autonomous routines. This allows our robot to complete both a two and four note autonomous run without any driver interaction. The software team also worked on using distance sensors to detect if a note is completely inside the robot and used QR-code like “April Tags” to align with field elements. They also started writing code for the double-jointed arm, which will allow the robot to climb a fixed chain.

Students in Grades 10 - 12 invited to participate in Billerica's program to earn the Seal of Biliteracy. Students who are proficient in English and any other language(s) are eligible to participate. Please see the family letter here for more information.  Tests are available in almost any language, and do incur a cost (starting at $20, though financial support is available for some students). Students should contact Mr. Vennard, World Languages Curriculum Support Specialist, with questions or to sign up for a language test.

The MIAA released their updated power rankings for Winter Sports this past Friday, January 26, 2024.

As we continue to enroll new students I am rerunning this information for everyone.

Most of our communication occurs directly through our App (additional information can be found below). We have three main calendar feeds for BMHS, School, Athletics, and Fine Arts. Each Sunday evening around 8:00 p.m., the App will send out a notification that shares everything happening at BMHS for the upcoming week. The newsletter will also be sent out on Sundays, typically between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (depending upon when the Patriots game is being played).

The App will also send out a daily notification (Monday - Friday) at 6:00 a.m. that provides the daily bell schedule (A1, A2, B1. B2) and any other events occurring that day. The morning announcements are read each day following the Pledge of Allegiance before being posted on Aspen so students and parents can access the daily announcements throughout the day.

Sunday - The Green & White Weekly (emailed and posted on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn), BMHS App (The Week Ahead)

Daily (Monday - Friday) - BMHS App (events occurring that day) 6:00 a.m., Morning Announcements (7:25 a.m.) Aspen (announcements) 7:30 a.m.

If you are not receiving these announcements, please contact my secretary, Mrs. Jenkins, to make sure we have your correct email address.

SAVE THE DATE AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR! 

The School Counseling Department at BMHS will be hosting our 8th Annual College Fair on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 from 6:00-8:00 p.m., to be held in the BMHS Gymnasium. This is a free opportunity and open to students in all grades. We encourage students and their parents/guardians to come and explore the many opportunities available for college and post-secondary education! 

Previously, we have hosted over 65 colleges and post-secondary opportunities during our college fair. Whether you are a junior and exploring your college options, or a freshman looking to know more about what might come next after high school, we expect this to be a tremendous event for our students and families. 

This is a night you won’t want to miss! 

Mark your calendars: The BMHS School Counseling Department will host our Junior College Night on Thursday, March 7, 2024 beginning promptly at 5:00 PM in the BMHS Black Box Theater. Parents are highly encouraged to attend this important event, and students are welcome, too! School counselors will address the following topics:

• School Counselor Google Classroom
• Factors for College Admissions
• Standardized testing
• Developing a college list
• Scattergrams
• College Visits
• Application Types & Deadlines
• Components of an application
• Letters of Recommendation
• Junior Year Action Items



Additional details will be released closer to the presentation date.

Annual Bill of Rights Student Essay Contest Now Open!

The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and Discovering Justice are excited to announce this year's Bill of Rights Month student essay contest, open to all high school students who reside in Massachusetts!

Students will respond to the following question: 

• If you could add an amendment to the Bill of Rights, what right would it protect and why?



A judging committee comprised of federal judges and FBA board members will decide on the top three essays submitted. First, second, and third-place winners will receive a cash prize, as will students with honorable mentions. Finalists will have their essays published on the Court’s website and in both the Massachusetts FBA and Discovering Justice newsletter.

FIRST PLACE: $500

SECOND PLACE: $300

THIRD PLACE: $200

HONORABLE MENTIONS ALSO AWARDED!

See the official event flyer by clicking HERE for full contest and eligibility information. Please share with any eligible students.

Billerica Memorial High School qualified as a Title 1 school this year. This provided us funding to run after school buses to support students involved in academic support programs after school. These buses are also available for students involved in clubs, extra help, or other school sanctioned events.

These buses will run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for the remainder of the school year. The buses will depart the high school at 3:30 p.m. The four buses will service the north, south, east, and west parts of the town. The routes are located in the BMHS App under "Documents."

The BMHS App provides quick access to timely news and upcoming events. It also allows the user to determine how often and what type of notifications they receive. The first page provides 9 options (not all options are available to all users). The "News" option provides a weekly overview of coming events at BMHS. There is also a daily announcement that includes the schedule rotation, meetings and other events occurring that day.

The "Events" option provides access to the BMHS Calendar, Fine Arts Calendar, and Athletics Calendar. Each of these calendars is dynamic and encompasses the entire school year.

The "My ID" is only available to students and staff.

The "Directory" provides access to all Staff emails and, if applicable, phone number.

The "Quicklinks" option provides quick access to Aspen, Athletics, Community Pass, Guidance, Clubs, Nutrition, and the BMHS Library sign up form.

"Documents" provides access to Bus Routes, Lunch Menus, Student Handbook, Program of Studies, Clubs and Athletics, and other documents.

The "Map" option provides driving directions to MVC schools and locations for school functions.

The "Language" icon allows the user to convert the app into one of 42 different languages.

The phone icon on the bottom of the home page will call our Absentee Line (978-528-8710).