Dear NCHS Family,
The New Canaan boys’ swimming and diving team experienced an electrifying evening at the FCIAC Finals yesterday. The 200 Medley relay team comprising Eric Huang, Deacon Mascarinas, Jack Haley, and Oliver Carr clinched victory, smashing the school record by over a second and garnering All-American considerations. Junior Jack Haley won in the 200 IM, shattering another school record previously held by Olympic Trials qualifier Christian Higgins by over a second. Furthermore, on Tuesday, Jack surpassed the school record in the 500 freestyle, previously held by Jake Ritz in 2019.
Senior captain Deacon Mascarinas seized the FCIAC champion titles in both the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, while junior Eric Huang claimed victory in the 100 butterfly.
The accolades continued as Coach Kat Munson was honored with the FCIAC Coach of the Year title. Congratulations to New Canaan Boys’ swim and dive team and Coach on last night’s runner-up finish in the championship!
The NCHS Dance Team recently celebrated Senior Night surrounded by family and friends of the graduating seniors. Congratulations to our seniors and the dance team on a great season!
On Monday, Scarlett, River, Dayzee, and Missy, therapy dogs from Pet Partners, organized by former Music Tech teacher Anna Moody, visited NCHS during the lunch block.
Who says learning isn’t fun?! Students in Mr. Parsons and Mrs. Mahon’s Transitions and Careers class worked on various soft skills such as teamwork, enthusiasm and attitude, communication, and critical thinking.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR NURSES –
CONNECTICUT STATE REQUIREMENT FOR NINTH-GRADE STUDENTS
Connecticut State Law requires ALL students to have a physical exam during ninth grade. The CT Health Assessment form needs to be on file in the nurse’s office by the last day of 9th grade. We accept physicals dated from June 1st, 2023. Here is a link with the required state of CT health assessment record to be completed by your student’s health care provider and a parent/guardian to meet the 9th-grade mandate: Health Assessment Record.
Upon completion of the exam, please send the completed CT health assessment record to the NCHS nurses’ office. Please contact your school nurses, Betsy Imbrogno at elizabeth.imbrogno@ncps-k12.org or Kim McNamara at kimberly.mcnamara@ncsp-k12.org or 203-594-4643 with any questions. Thank you!
The Red Cross Club held its first blood drive on Saturday, January 20, 2024, and helped collect 51 units in total! Their next scheduled blood drive will be at the New Canaan Library on Saturday, March 30, 2024.
From left to right, Naomi Salami, Jaelin Companik, and Siddhi Singhania (president of NCHS’s American Red Cross Club) are in the photo below.
In Mr. Castaldi’s Biology class, students were able to extract DNA from a strawberry.
The Capalbo family is organizing a bone marrow drive at the March 9th Bridgeport Islander game to help others like Charlie. Charlie Capalbo, a 2017 Fairfield Ludlowe HS graduate and ice hockey goalie, bravely battled Lymphoma and Leukemia for five years. Sadly, he passed away on April 24, 2022. Charlie’s doctor, Wallace Bourgeois, the head of oncology at Dana Farber Children’s Hospital, is an NCHS graduate. Attendees aged 18-35 can register as marrow donors. Tickets include admission, free parking, a hat, and discounted concessions, supporting Pediatric Leukemia research at Dana Farber. Capalbo Strong Night!
Join us to discuss food allergies with Dr. Jaime Ruszkowski of Comprehensive Care and Shannon Vallerie of the New Canaan Health Department. Click here to register.
Please consider purchasing a golf ball to help support the New Canaan Scholarship Foundation in providing scholarships to NCHS graduate students. Click here to buy golf balls.
SAVE THE DATE:
DEPARTMENT NEWS:
CTE:
The NCHS Girls’ Basketball team had a state playoff game and beat Guilford in the first round of the state tournament. NCTV streamed the game, and they did a great job with that as well. Also, congrats to the players and team’s coaches – Kim Palmer & Chris Silvestri. This season, they’ve done a tremendous job getting to the FCIAC Championship game for the first time in the teams’ history! Here is the link to watch the game: https://www.youtube.com/live/5_kORURu8Dksi=hWNnjao99vfYvyIX&t=589
ENGLISH:
Writing Center:
The Writing Center is again hosting two college essay workshops with Mindi Trimble from The College Essay Guy on March 20th and April 3rd. The first workshop will help students brainstorm topics for their admissions essay, and the second workshop will help students select an appropriate organizational structure. The workshops will be held over Zoom from 7:00-8:30 pm. The Zoom links for the two events are below:
March 20:
zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86088480814
April 3:
zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82195967431
MATH:
Students in M4 Algebra 2 reviewed Radical Expressions and Functions to prepare for this week’s Unit assessment. Students chose between working on the review packet, working on the whiteboards, creating summary pages, and tiered Mild-Medium-Spicy problems.
In Mrs. Marhefki’s M3 Algebra 2 class, we simplified radical expressions to connect the dots on this fun Do Now assignment.
We reviewed in small groups to prepare for this week’s quiz.
In AP Calculus, we used Differential Equations to show where the Exponential growth equations in Algebra 2 come from.
In Mr. Devine’s Business class, students learned about mortgage amortization and discussed recent housing market issues as an introduction to the unit on finance and budgeting. In financial math, students investigated the stock market. In statistics, students used spreadsheets to calculate standard deviation on large datasets of up to 1000 values. In AP/ECE Statistics, students finished up their unit on hypothesis testing.
SCHOOL COUNSELING:
Course selection is now open. Please click on the class registration icon in the student’s PowerSchool portal to select classes for next year. Create a preliminary list of courses by March 4th and submit them. Counselors will meet with every student in the next two weeks to review their choices, which will be the time to discuss options and make changes as needed. Here is a link to the tutorial on course selection and to view all of the elective options available.
https://www.ncps-k12.org/o/nchs/page/course-selection
Advanced TV Broadcasting:
Busy times as usual for NCTV! TV Broadcasting students produced several streams recently – some by themselves and a few while teaming up with DAF Media. It’s also FCIAC and CIAC playoff time! Check out all the action on NCTV’s YouTube channel. And if you can’t make it to Danbury Ice Rink for the FCIAC Finals, you can watch the game LIVE on NCTV!
- Girls Hockey FCIAC Championship
- Girls Basketball vs Guilford (CIAC First Round)
- Boys Hockey vs Greenwich (FCIAC Semis)
- The Morning Announcements – 2/28/24
- Boys Hockey vs Ridgefield (FCIAC Finals)
VPA:
CONNECTICUT SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS
Sophomore Cara Passios was awarded the Connecticut Arts Administrators Association “Best in Photography” Award at the University of Hartford’s Lincoln Theatre on February 17th, where she was recognized for outstanding landscape, Cows in the Fog.
Congratulations, Cara, on this outstanding achievement!
To see her artwork in person, along with the other Scholastic Art Award entrants, recipients, and a plethora of outstanding student artwork, please visit the NCHS Exhibit:
“Through Our Eyes XII” at the Carriage Barn Arts Center (March 14 – April 1)
CERAMICS
Students in Mrs. Pennoyer’s ceramics classes are in full production! Everything from AP3D, Advanced, Ceramics 2, and Ceramics 1 are represented.
The ART CLUB is completing a mural in Mr. Doyle’s classroom using NCHS-themed colors and a geometric design. Below, Art Club co-coordinator Amy Meng is putting the finishing touches on the wall painting.
NCHS Film Club is putting its screenwriting skills to the test! They are working together to pitch, plan, organize, and write a short film production set in Waveny Park. Caleb Pryor is showcasing his experiments with a VHS film camera as a possible format for the production! Dan Sabo also tests the dark room with Black and White and Super 8 film!
LIBRARY:
NCHSWeeklyUpdate 