February 16: WHS PTSO meeting (see details below)

February 21-25: No school

The next WHS PTSO meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 from 9:30 to 11:00 am. This will be the second installment in our course selection series, with additional departments presenting about courses available for the 2022-2023 school year. Here is a link to the meeting agenda.

The meeting will be conducted virtually as a Zoom webinar and will be recorded. The recording of the meeting, together with a Q&A log, will be shared with the community after the meeting. Advance registration is required using this link. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions in advance through the webinar registration form.

Please remember to check out the recording and materials from our last PTSO meeting, which also covered course selection.

Here is a link to the meeting recording, with key time points and links to the slideshows below:

Here is a link to the Q&A log from the meeting.

On March 15 from 7:00 - 8:00 pm, the WHS PTSO is hosting an in-person workshop led by Evren Gunduz from Enjoy Life Education. This exciting event will take place in the WHS library. The focus will be on helping parents understand the teen mindset and sharing tools for fostering leadership and self-worth at home. Advance registration will be required. More details to come!

Please use this link to sign up to bring in a box (or two!) of snacks so the Nursing Office may continue to offer snacks to students who visit the office during the school day. The Nursing Office is always a busy place at WHS but especially this school year. Due to the overwhelming demand for snacks during the first half of the school year, donations of snacks are needed to get the office through the rest of the school year. Suggestions include granola bars, pretzels, gluten-free snacks, goldfish and crackers. Please put donations in the collection bin labeled "Nursing Office Donations" in the front vestibule at the high school next to the bookshelf.

All student-athletes are required to have a current physical examination on file in the Nurse’s Office before a student can try out, practice or participate in a sport as required by the MIAA guidelines. 

On behalf of Wellesley High School's Student Congress, we want to extend an invitation to participate in this year's Seminar Day on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. We are looking for new or returning seminar day speakers to provide our students with an opportunity to explore exciting and engaging subjects outside of our curriculum!

Each seminar block will be held in person for one full hour, and volunteers can speak for one, two or all three blocks. Health and safety considerations such as masking, distancing and capacity limits are guiding our planning to reflect our current reality.

Schedule for Seminar Day 2022:

Advisory: 8:00 - 8:15 am

Block A: 8:20 - 9:20 am

Block B: 9:25 - 10:25 am

Block C: 10:30 - 11:30 am

We would love to have guest speakers present during Seminar Day. If you know of anyone interested in sharing a passion or activity with the high school, please direct them to the Seminar Day Speaker Form at this link or put them in contact with us! For those willing and able to volunteer your time, we encourage speakers to sign up for more than one Block. Our deadline for seminar day speaker sign-ups is Friday, February 18.

If you have any questions about his year's Seminar Day, please do not hesitate to send us an email (ericksons@wellesleyps.org and lukitosaris@wellesleyps.org) and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Erickson and Condro Lukitosari, Faculty Advisors for Student Congress

With the recent changes to the WPS Covid testing program, volunteers are needed from the WHS community on an ongoing basis to help collect and distribute test kits for the WHS staff and student community. The next test kit distribution day will be the first week of March.

Volunteers will meet at Fiske School, collect the number of kits needed for WHS staff and students who opted in to the testing program and then deliver the test kits to WHS. Another set of volunteers will then help to distribute kits at the school.

If you have any interest in helping, please email whsptsopres@gmail.com with your name, email address and cell phone number and you will be added to the list of volunteers. This does not require you to be available for every test distribution date. We will reach out to all volunteers prior to each test distribution date to confirm who is available for the next distribution date.

Have the holidays left you bursting at the seams with more "stuff' than you need? With the RDF Take It Or Leave It/Reusables Area closed for the season, it can be hard to find homes for items you no longer need but are too good to chuck in a landfill. Among many, three phenomenal Facebook sites have become sustainable superheroes: Buy Nothing Wellesley, Wellesley Give & Take, or Greater Boston Give & Take. The first two are restricted to Wellesley neighbors, while the last group comprises nearby suburbs. Expect fun, generous, and caring folks that delight in offering items they no longer need and seeing these items appreciated and re-homed. In search of something – a folding table or the Magic Tree House books? Post an “In Search Of” (ISO) request -- you might be surprised to see what the community comes up with! You no longer need that vintage bed, holiday décor, or SAT review books? Post an “Offer”. You don't have to do anything else on FB if you don't want to, but joining these groups is worth the cyber trip! Similar off-Facebook groups, such as Freecycle, exist as well. These “gifting” groups build community and help us lean towards being green! Plan errands around the area where you might pick up your “gift”. The State of Massachusetts’ gives a thorough list of entities that will gladly take and reuse furniture, building materials, and much more that go to the needy — and organizations will pick up!  And next time you think about buying something, ask yourself, “Do I/we truly need this?”, “Is this sustainably made?”, and “Can I find one for FREE on one of the gifting groups?” It’s easy being GREEN!