Education

Haverhill Public Schools to Start Middle School Field Hockey in Spring

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Haverhill Public Schools are starting a middle school Field Hockey program next spring. Haverhill High School varsity field hockey Coach Samantha Shea is running the new program. She said they’ll need to determine how many people are interested in playing. If the numbers are high enough, the program will be able to run full games between the different Haverhill middle schools, but if the numbers are too low, the program will run scrimmage matchups instead. Shea said there’s about 21 interested students so far, with most of them being from the Dr. Albert B. Consentino School.

Education

Absent Graduation Requirement, More Haverhill Students Show MCAS Apathy

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Haverhill Public Schools is facing a new challenge in its efforts to raise the district’s MCAS scores: IDK. IDK is texting shorthand for “I don’t know,” in the sense of not caring. Of the 441 Haverhill High School 10th graders who took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test last spring, 103—or 25%—received a zero on the essay portion because they did not attempt to provide a writing sample, Haverhill School Superintendent Margaret Marotta told the School Committee last Thursday. “There were 822 essays. Each one had to write two essays.

Education

Haverhill’s Lemelson-MIT Interns Share Summer Experience at Assembly

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(Additional photograph below.)

When the final group of Haverhill High School students, taking part in an assembly to show off their summer work, prepared to step onto the stage, they realized their “show and tell” prototype had mysteriously gone missing. Turns out, their “enhanced” cardboard box, which students in the Lemelson-MIT internship program hoped to use to explain their efficiency idea for HVAC units, had been scooped up by a too-efficient custodian during a rogue fire alarm minutes earlier. After students and the audience evacuated the space as required, the cleaner grabbed the display, believing it was just another empty cardboard box to be recycled. Students Sophia LaFontaine, Baram Raad and Cassidy Noonan, regrouped and went on to deliver a detailed explanation of their idea using a photograph of their prototype for show and tell. More importantly, they agreed after the event closed, they put into practice a key take-away from their experience: failure is often a part of the industrial design process.

Education

Machado, Murphy and Pelich Join NECC Foundation Board

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Jonathan Machado, Karen Murphy and Joseph Pelich recently joined the Northern Essex Community College Foundation Board, which helps the college and students with additional resources. Machado, of Melrose, is a senior vice president and commercial lending manager at Rockland Trust. As a board and executive committee member of Lawrence Community Works, he has also been actively involved with the Lawrence Partnership and the Lawrence Venture Loan Fund. He has a bachelor’s degree in International Business and Finance from Bryant University and an MBA from Suffolk University. “I have always been impressed by the school’s commitment to its students and community.

Education

Northern Essex Uses Closed Haverhill Operating Rooms to Launch Surgical Tech Program

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Northern Essex Community College launched a new degree program for the fall semester aimed at helping students earn a degree while gaining hands-on, paid experience in a hospital operating room. The Associate of Applied Science in Surgical Technology program is offered in partnership with Merrimack Health Haverhill Hospital through an apprenticeship supported by a Massachusetts Skills Capital Grant and contributions from the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation and Accelerate the Future. “Surgical technologists are in high demand across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, but training pipelines have been limited, especially in the Merrimack Valley,” said Northern Essex Dean of Health Professions Kathy Hudson. “NECC’s Surgical Technology program was built to close that gap—and in a striking, concrete way: Merrimack Health–Haverhill contributed its closed operating rooms to become classrooms and labs for the program. That’s a rare kind of investment/opportunity—a hospital repurposing its own clinical space so the next generation of surgical techs can train in an environment that looks and functions like a real OR, not a simulated one.”

Students develop the knowledge and technical skills needed to provide safe, effective patient care before, during and after surgical procedures while eventually working alongside healthcare professionals.

Education

Professional BMX Bikers Take Over Whittier Tech’s Gym

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The gymnasium at Whittier Regional Vocational School turned into a BMX bike skate park Wednesday when five professional bicycle trick athletes entertained students while offering an important message on how to deal with bullies and to find that all important life passion. The ASA Entertainment No Hate Tour came to Whittier with a mission to show the teens that ordinary kids like them once were targets of bullies but grew into professional athletes living their childhood dreams. Sprinkled in was the importance of not just talent but a positive attitude. Master of Ceremonies Zack Newman encouraged students. “Stick with it. Find that thing you love and never quit.

Education

Haverhill Offers Nonprofits School Facility Rental Fee Relief

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The Haverhill School Committee took a second looks at its rental fee schedule last week, voting unanimously to give local nonprofits that enter long-term rental agreements some relief. In his presentation at Thursday’s meeting, Chief Financial Officer Clancy Main asked for permission to negotiate separate agreements with any Haverhill nonprofit organization that serves 85% of the community and agrees to at least an eight-week rental agreement. The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill already has a separate long-term contract to run after school programs in several schools which brings the district $100,000 annually, Main said. The Boys & Girls Club would not be affected by the fee increases, Main added. “All really I am looking to try to do here is just with the Haverhill nonprofit lines just cover our cost and then, obviously, on the for-profits, cover our costs and then build up this fund a little bit more,” Main explained.

Education

Haverhill Considers Steps to Tackle Students Evading E-Bike Rules

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Haverhill’s school year has gone smoothly so far, but the administration told the School Committee last week some students have found a way around restrictions on electric bicycles and scooters. Superintendent Margaret Marotta said the opening of the new school year has gone smoothly with few unanticipated incidents. She said most students are abiding by new safety restrictions, but some students are riding the so-called micromobility devices to school, but parking them just off campus. Marotta said she is working with the Haverhill Police Department to form a solution. Haverhill Police Lt. Kevin Lynch told WHAV after the meeting his department is aware of the student “workaround” and warned that if the devices are chained to a tree or pole on public land, they could be confiscated.