Posted on 6/10/09
Recently the Career & Technical Education Center at BOCES recognized the following junior and senior students at their awards ceremony for Academic Achievement, Growth in Achievement and for being Outstanding Students.  Congratulations!

• Shelby Betts

• Karl Connor

• Ryan DiMaria

• Ashley Dorch

• Shelby Grayson

• Rob Guido

• Christopher Horn

• John Kuscik

• Aaron Latchford

• Paige Lewis

• Ashley Matthews

• Andrew Meierdiercks

• Joe Pipino

• Robert Twiss

• Tania Uber

Posted on 6/10/09
To coincide with prom and graduation the Shenendehowa High School Graphic Design Class teamed up with Lamar Outdoor Advertising to create a billboard design confronting the issue of drunk driving.  The 69 High School students in Sallie Way's class each came up with their own design. The designs were presented to Lamar Advertising. 

A group of Lamar employees, along with Linda Campion from the Campion foundation, judged the work and chose the one they felt was the most effective. The chosen design was installed on Route 9, south of Route 146 in the Old Mackie's Auto parking lot. This year's design was created by Leah Snyder, a senior at Shenendehowa High School. The design features a photograph by the student of a broken bottle with the message in the bottle being “Drunk Driving Kills”. The students did not know whose design was chosen until it was slowly revealed as the billboard was unfolded.  Leah is planning to go the The College of Saint Rose next year to major in Graphic Design.

Posted on 6/10/09
Students in Freshman Seminar researched and developed a video about service organizations such as the Red Cross during their seminar class. These students worked in a group competing with other seminar groups for money donated to the program through the Time to Shine Character Education program at High School West.

Ms. Tavarez explained to the students that this money along with other donations is raised in preparation for an emergency allowing services to be disbursed as soon as possible.  Teachers in the Freshman Seminar program include Rob Rider, Seminar teacher as well as Jenny Pfaffenbach and Megan Mahoney, Global History teachers.

Students in Freshman Seminar presented a check for $300 to Kimberly Taverez, Development Associate for American Red Cross of Northeastern New York. Click here for pictures of the project and the check presentation.

Posted on 6/2/09
In an effort to promote recycling, the Shenendehowa Green Committee will be setting up recycling stations during the end of the year clean out of student lockers on June 5, 8 ,9,10 and 11.  The committee will set up four stations located throughout the high school. Boxes for recycling will be labled:

Books (reading books, work books, etc.) Pencils, pens and school supplies Notebooks and good paper Clothes for donation Cans and bottles

Class of 2012 April Newsletter - Click here for important information for the Class of 2012.

Posted on 5/29/09
Shenendehowa High School FIRST Robotics Team requests your participation in our Small Electronics Drive.  They are joining the Shenendehowa Environment Team and doing their part to give small electronics a second life rather than ending up in a land fill. Devices can be brought into the high school main office and placed in the collection box during the month of June. Memory on all devices will be cleared three times. No large electronics such as computer components will be collected at this time.  A large electronic component drive is being organized for the summer. Team 20 is working with 2nd Solutions, A nationally recognized company that specializes in collecting, refurbishing, and distributing electronics globally.

Items to be collected:

• Cell phones,

• PDAs

• Blackberries

• Calculators

• Flash Drives

• Personal Audio Devices

• Wireless Cards (a.k.a Air Cards)

• Cell phone batteries*

• Laptop batteries*

• Mice

• SIM cards

* Please no non--rechargeable batteries

Posted on 5/28/09
SPANISH CLASSES TALK LIVE WITH STUDENTS IN ECUADOR - Last week Mrs. Clarkin’s Spanish 10 classes connected via Google video-conferencing with students from Padre Luis Lopez High School in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Our Shenendehowa students had a unique opportunity to speak with the students from Ecuador in Spanish. They also responded in English to the questions that the Ecuadorian students asked in order to provide both High Schools with the opportunity to use their second language skills.

Mrs. Clarkin met the Principal of the high school, Sra. Angela Criollo, on the Shen trip in February to Quito and the Galapagos Islands with LOTE Academic Administrator Greg Schaefer and HSW LOTE teacher Ms. Carla Gordon.  It was there they decided to begin this video-conferencing project to connect the two schools. 

Although the two schools are different in many ways (one a private school where students wear uniforms vs. our large public high school) the students were able to easily connect with the emerging technology and being in the same time zone.  Mrs. Clarkin is very enthusiastic about continuing the school connections next year.

Posted on 5/22/09
Math students at Shenendehowa annually compete in the American Mathematics Contest (AMC).   There are two levels of competition; the AMC 12 for 11^th and 12^th graders and the AMC 10 for grades 10 and under.  The highest score by a Shenendehowa student on the AMC 12 was Brian Bishop with a 91.5. He was followed by Kadaba Vikaran (90.0) and Michael Gao (85.5). The average Shenendehowa score was 66.7. The highest score on the AMC 10 was 135.0 by Felix Sun.  This score placed Felix in the prestigious American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME) contest.

Felix scored a 70 on the AIME (each question is worth ten points). This gave him a combine two test score of 205.   This was just short of the score 215 to be eligible for the prestigious United States Mathematics Olympiad. 

The math club at Shenendehowa High school competes in two math leagues. They are the American Scholastic Mathematics Association (A.S.M.A.) and the New York Mathematics League.  The competitions are conducted under the guidance of Mr. Glen Clements and Ms. Jenna Hafter advisors of the High School Math Club.  Students meet routinely to tackle creative problems published by the two contest leaders. The club placed 21st out of all competing schools in the A.S.M.A. contests. This awarded Shenendehowa in First division honors nationwide.  The highest point achiever for the Shen team on these competitions was Felix Sun (40 points).  On the New York Math League competition the team finished first in completion with Saratoga County schools. The highest point achiever for the Shenendehowa Math Team was Eric Wang (33 points).

The Math Club also entered a team in the national Moody’s Mega Math Challenge.  This was a five person team that needed to solve a complex problem and submit their solution over the course of one weekend without any adult assistance.  The team was comprised of Eric Wang, Inge Chen, Cindy Wong, Jenny Xie and Felix Sun.

This year the High School held the Fourth Annual Pi Day math celebration. Each year the festival’s insignia comes from student submissions. A special committee selects the design from these submissions. This year’s design winner was Annie Ouyang from West High School.

Two special contests were held on Pi day day: the PI Digit recitation Contest and a Rubric Cube contest.  The Pi Digit Recitation winner was Liam Morris who correctly reeled of 10,011 digits of the number Pi.

The finalists for the Rubric Cube Contest were Noor Ahmed, Sean Conroy and William Cheuk. The contestants had to solve the cube three times. Will Cheuk won the contest with an average time of 1 minute and 32 seconds.

Posted on 5/13/09
Shenendehowa High School is pleased to announce that Cassandra Whitford and Mitchell Urbanowicz have been named the valedictorian and salutatorian for the 2008-2009 school year.

During her time at Shenendehowa, Cassandra Whitford (valedictorian) has been active in the Shenendehowa music program and is a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society.  She is also a member of Key Club and the National Honor Society.  She has volunteered for CAPTAIN Youth and Family Services as a Teen Talk responder and has volunteered for the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park.  Cassandra is a student-athlete and was named to the Suburban Council All-Star team and Exceptional Seniors game in volleyball.  Cassandra will attend the University of Buffalo to study chemical engineering.

Mitchell Urbanowicz (salutatorian) is fluent in three languages other than English and has been a member of Latin Club, Speech and Debate and is the Vice President of Peer Tutoring.  Mitchell has also been a Teen Talk responder for CAPTAIN and has earned the USAA National Mathematics Award and plans to attend Colgate University to study Pre-med or Biochemistry.

• Inge Chen: 1st in Marketing; 2nd in Business Math; 3rd in Intro. to Bus Communications
• Vivian Chen: 1st in Personal Finance; 3rd in Ms. Future Business Leader
• Eric Wang: 1st in Business Calculations; 2nd in Economics
• Alyssa Dalrymple: 4th in Business Law

Posted on 4/24/09
Peace French Student Exchange Program This past October Shen welcomed visitors from Lycee and College Genevoix in Montrouge, France, our exchange schools just outside Paris.  For two weeks families in our community hosted the students and teachers who are accompanying them. Freshman in High School West hosted thirty-three ninth grade students, and juniors and seniors in High School East hosted thirty-one seniors.  Our guests attended classes at Shen and explored our region and the Northeast on Field trips.

The PEACE program completed the exchange when representatives from Shen visited France for two weeks from April 3 – April 16, 2009.

Twenty one students and from High School East and fifteen students from High School West and chaperones stayed with our host families in Montrouge.  We attended classes at their school and saw the sites of Paris and Normandy. (See attached itinerary and John Choi’s blog for details on the trip www.johnchoi.wordpress.com) We focused on the language, culture and history of France and the knowledge we gained by actually staying with French families during our visit.

The advisors for the Peace (Partners in Education and Cultural Exchange) Program are Carla Gordon (LOTE teacher) for HSW and Karen Bonventre (Social Studies teacher) for HSE.  Other chaperones on the trip to France were John Choi, Math teacher; Lisa Kissinger, Academic Administrator for Social Studies; Erica Miller, Art teacher; and Gretchen Akbay, Math teacher.

Since 1995, the year the exchange between the two schools began, these multicultural experiences have increased our understanding of different cultures. We dedicated this trip to Gale Munson, LOTE teacher, who unexpectedly passed away in December.  Gale was an advisor to the Peace Program for many years, impacting the lives of many Shen students and making deep connections with our host teachers and schools in France.

Posted on 4/24/09
Shen High School teacher, Carrie Yecies, was selected as Teacher of the Year by the Albany Chapter of Sigma Xi, the National Research Honor Society. This award recognizes the important contributions Middle and High School Science and Math teachers make to the future of research in this country. She was selected from a pool of nominees based on her teaching and work in developing the MST Academy at Shenendehowa.  Based on this award she has been nominated to be an Associate member of Sigma Xi. The award also includes a framed certificate and a monetary award.

Posted on 4/24/09
In April, the High School East Choraliers and Mostly A Cappella choral groups were adjudicated at the New York State School Music Association, major organization festival.  Both Mostly A Cappella (level 6 - highest level) and Choraliers (level 5)  received a gold with distinction rating!   Congratulations to our choral program, students and staff, and the ensembles' director, Mrs. Diane Warner.

Posted 4/23/09
The March Madness program is designed to highlight students’ positive behavior during the month of March.  Each high school staff member has been given ten March Madness coupons to distribute to students who live out the characteristics of the Profile of a Shen Graduate or the values and beliefs of the school community.  Students then enter their coupon for a weekly raffle of prizes on Fridays during March that include movie and play tickets, t-shirts, travel coffee mugs, and gift cards, among other things.  The prizes are donations or are purchased through monetary donations by staff, faculty and administration.  Click here for a complete listing of winners.

Posted on 4/3/09
Shenendehowa Trade School EXPO will be held on April 30^th, 2009 during lunch periods 4,5,6,7 and an evening presentation 6:30-8:30 in the High School East – Gym 2. Come explore the many opportunities the Capital Region has to offer students for post high school education and/or training. Shenendehowa will be hosting over 20 local Trade Schools, and certificate programs from community colleges. There will be giveaways, and prizes raffled throughout the day. For a complete list of participating programs click here.click here or E-mail Kristi Drinkwater (drinkris@shenet.org) with questions/problems/concerns.

• Novice - Gold Medalist
• Scholastic Regional A - Silver Medalist
• Scholastic A2 - Silver Medalist
• World - Gold Medalist

Shenendehowa Colorguard has been in existence since 1991.  Each year they perform at halftime during home Varsity football games and during the winter months they compete across the state against other schools.  There are 4 levels of competing groups at Shen.  Novice, Scholastic Regional A, Scholastic A2 and World.  Students entering 6th thru 12th grade in the fall of 2009 may join the program this coming May. Congratulations to all of the students on a great season

Posted on 3/30/09
On Saturday, March 28th, students from Shenendehowa High School took part in the Capital Region History Day Competition. Several hundred students from schools around the Capital District participated. Students whose entries placed first or second now go on to compete in New York State History Day in Cooperstown on May 1st.

Shenendehowa High School winners include:

• James Schuessler  received a silver medal for an Individual Documentary

• Marcel Garbos received a gold medal for an Individual Website

• Josh Heidke received a gold medal for an Individual Performance

• Elyse Burke received a silver medal for an Individual Exhibit

• Alyssa Nealon received a bronze medal for an Individual Exhibit

• Michelle De Salvatore & Seema Teymouri received a gold medal for a Group Exhibit

• Erin Student & Lara Rose received a bronz medal for a Group Exhibit

• Brian Lockhart received a special NYS Museum Award for Science in History       

Posted 3/17/09
Congratulations to the Shenendehowa girls' indoor track team who broke a pair of Section II records this past weekend at the Nike Indoor Track Nationals at Boston.   The team of Danika Simonson, Kathleen Klein, Alex Burtnick and Lizzie Predmore finished second at the Nationals while breaking the Section II mark with a time of 11:46.05.  This time was also the seventh fastest time in US High School Indoor Track history.  In the two-mile relay, Simonson, Predmore, Burtnick and Cara Janeczko finished fifth with a sectional record time of 9:09.34  Congrats to our girls and Coach Rob Cloutier on this outstanding achievement!!

Posted 3/13/09
LOTE FEST '09 IS COMING!! Each year HSE & HSW celebrate languages & cultures as part of National Foreign Language Week. Student performances and projects will be highlighted as we recognize and promote the richness of cultural and language diversity in today's world. (March 20 in HSW & March 26 in HSE). As part of the celebration a T shirt design contest was held. The winner was Meghan Patenaude, a Latin 11 student of Brenda Sugarman, and 500 T shirts with Meghan's design have been sold. All profits from the T shirt sale are going towards the creation of a scholarship for a student studying French, in honor of our esteemed colleague, Gale Munson, who passed away suddenly in December. LOTE '09  ...  MANY HANDS, MANY VOICES --ONE WORLD!!

Posted 3/2/09
Lauren Ottaviano, 17, of Clifton Park has been honored for her exemplary volunteer service with a President’s Volunteer Service Award. The award, which recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country, was presented by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program on behalf of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.  Lauren participated in the Spirit of Community program this year as a representative of Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, NY, where she is a student. Lauren earned her award by serving as a volunteer since 2004 in the Challenger Basketball League where she coaches disabled athletes.  She has also been instrumental in the effort to locate athletic facilities for use by disabled athletes at Shenendehowa High School, Lauren is a member of the Senior Class Council and Key Club.  “Lauren is an outstanding young woman who is a great role model for our students and staff,” according to high school principal, Donald Flynt.  Sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program recognizes young people across America for outstanding community service activities.  More than 250,000 young people across America have been considered for this award since the program began 1995.

Posted 2/4/08
Sallie Way's "Graphic Design"  class at the high school operates under a "School to Work" model where they use real life clients and address their graphic design needs. The class was selected to design the cover of a soon-to-be-released book.

This project was started through initial contact with Linda Singer who began "Liza's Legacy" in memory of a friend who lost her life due to domestic violence. Linda has close ties with Kate Carlson, the author of a book to soon be released book called "Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Recognizing the warning signs of an unhealthy relationship."  Linda and Kate came to the class to present the project and talk about the organization in early October. The students were given a deadline of five weeks. After that time Kate (who lives in Minnesota and flew here for the presentation) and Linda, got to hear and see all of the students present their ideas. Kate took them all back with her to Minnesota and after much ado and many focus groups, chose one design for the front, one for the back, and one for the cover of the next book! She unveiled the winning design to the class via webcam and "Skype."  On the big day all the students gathered in the art computer lab. Kate was able to talk to the kids directly and even hear their comments.  It all worked beautifully and the kids were very excited to be able to hear Kate in person. She was able to speak directly to the students and ask them more specifically about their designs. It was a great way to make the best use of technology in the classroom.

Posted 10/23/08
Congratulations….. to the following students who have been selected to represent the Shenendehowa Music Department and participate in the 2008 :

• Area All-State Music Festival to be held November 21–22 at Saratoga Springs High School: Emily Hensler, Jon Keefner, Kevin Malinoski, Kyle Poore, Dylan Schmaling, Brendon Wilkins, Meghan Flaim, Matthew Maguire, Lyndsay Moore, Brendan O’Connor, Andrew Sutton, Oleksandra Verzole, Steven Rosenzweig, Justin Siemian, Joe Valenti, Alex Lessard, Katrina Boyton, Laura Duclos, and Michael Goo.

• New York State School Music Association Winter Conference to be held in Rochester, New York December 4-7, 2008: Sarah Golley and Esteban Del Castillo.

All students were selected based upon their outstanding high results at last year’s spring NYSSMA Solo Evaluation Festival!

Posted 10/20/08
The Shen Crew Varsity Girls won a prestigious race this weekend in Boston, the first-ever “Head of the Charles” title. The boat of Abby Knight, Stephanie Dandaraw, Rachel Boudreau, Lauren Boudreau and coxswain Lindsay Blake covered the 3-mile serpentine course in 19 minutes, 16 seconds. Shenendehowa's second entry, (the 'B' boat, finished in 46th place out of 65 boats entered (Amanda Labbe, Taryn Wilson, Laura Neely, Zahra Zavery and Tim Brousseau).

The Boys varsity finished 51st out of 70 teams (Ian Fisher, Chris Ehler, Steve Gemmetti, Jared Benway, Victoria Allers). And the Boys varsity 2 man placed 29th out of 35 (Connor Hartman and Chris Seidl).

Posted 9/16/08
Vivian Chen, a member of the Class of 2009, has been identified as a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship competition. Vivian is among more than 1.2 million students attending some 20,000 high schools throughout the nation and includes less than one percent of each state’s high school graduating class. The next step for a Semifinalist is to fulfill requirements for advancement to Finalist standing, a prerequisite to consideration for a Merit Scholarship award.  They must have an outstanding high school academic record, be endorsed and recommended by their school principal, and submit SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance.  About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to meet the high standards required to become Finalists.

• High School Principal's August Newsletter
• Fingertip facts for students entering 9th grade
• Welcome brochure for the class of 2012
• Student Service Team for the Class of 2012
• Military Recruitment - No Child Left Behind Letter

HIGH SCHOOL SCHEDULING CHANGES BEGINNING 2008-2009 - This year there will be a change related to scheduling.  This change was created after the printing of the Program of Studies and is therefore not listed in it.  However these changes will be implemented beginning with the 2008-2009 school year. Students must remain in a semester or full year course for a minimum of five weeks.  The process for initiating level changes and course drops is outlined below.

1. Students wishing to drop or make a level change in a full year course must initiate the change working with their school counselor no sooner than the 6th week of the course and no later than the end of the 10th week. The drop must be completed by the end of the 12th week. The student's transcript will reflect a WP or WF to indicate that the student was passing (P) or failing (F) at the time of the change. 

2. Students wishing to drop or make a level change in a semester course must work through their school counselor to initiate the change in the 6th week of the course. The transcript will reflect the change with a WP or WF to indicate that the student was passing (P) or failing (F) at the time of the change.

3. Transcripts of students who make a level change will also reflect whether the student was passing (P) or failing (F) at the time of the change. 

Posted 4/28/08
Student in the Class of 2009: Senior Privileges

Students in the Class of 2009 will be eligible for senior privileges in September if they are in good academic standing, adhere to the Code of Conduct, and do not have unpaid financial obligations.  To earn senior privileges for next year as a senior, during 4^th quarter of junior year students are expected to show maturity and responsibility by satisfying all of the listed criteria:

1. Having acceptable grades: Not failing any class in the 4^th quarter.

2. Showing responsibility in class: Not having a 5 in effort/conduct in any course for 4^th quarter.

3. Being on time to school and classes: Not exceed 3 illegal tardies to school for the 4^th quarter

4. Exhibiting school citizenship by following the Student Code of Conduct

5. Being responsible to pay school financial obligations: No book fines, overdue library books, etc.  (See Mrs. Grzeskowiak in the West Main Office to resolve financial issues)

**(Cutting a class in the 4^th quarter will result in loss of privileges for the 1^st quarter of next year)**

 **(School Administration reserves the opportunity  to review any student application)**

In June, the high school administration will assess juniors according to the list of criteria. Eligible students will receive a letter during the summer inviting them to apply for parking privileges.  Once school starts, eligible students will be permitted to apply for early release or late arrival if their schedule permits.  Students who do not meet the criteria may be eligible to apply after the first quarter interim reports are issued.  All students are assessed at the end of each academic quarter to determine their eligibility for senior privileges.

The privileges available to seniors who meet the criteria are:

1. Senior parking (after completed valid application and available space)
2. Late arrival (as allowed by student’s schedule)
3. Early release (as allowed by student’s schedule)
4. Unassigned periods (as identified on student’s schedule)

*Monday April 21st is the starting date for monitoring Senior Privilege evaluation*

REQUESTING A TRANSCRIPT

• your name
• the year you graduated
• your social security number
• your date of birth
• the name and address of where you want the transcript sent

There is a $2.00 fee per copy of your transcript (if paying by check make it payable to Shenendehowa Central School District).

Make the request in person or mail to:
Shenendehowa High School East Building
Attention: Guidance Records
970 Route 146
Clifton Park, NY 12065

STUDENT PARKING – SENIORS ONLY

Senior privileges-Class of 2009

Senior privileges - Class of 2010

Parking on campus for seniors is an ongoing privilege and not an entitlement. The continuation of parking privileges throughout the school year will be contingent on good attendance in all classes (including HR), passing grades in all classes, and compliance to good behavior expectations as defined and outlined in the student handbook.

DRIVER EDUCATION