The Newtown Board of Education (BOE) conducted an online meeting, on February 16, where Newtown High School (NHS) seniors Rushil Jerfy and Jillian Clure gave their student representative reports.

Rushil started off by talking about clubs at NHS and reported that they are “going great.”

Some clubs are finding it easier to meet online, since the new schedule allows students to be home for their last period, while other clubs have plans to meet in person.

“It all just really depends on what works best for the club members,” Rushil summarized.

Another topic he brought up was that the World Language Department is offering the National AAPPL Biliteracy Test.

He explained, “That’s a test offered to students in Spanish or French 5 and Italian or Latin 4. Students who pass this test receive seals on their diplomas… this is an extremely exciting opportunity for those students who have been taking a language throughout their high school career.”

Rushil also informed the BOE that students he has spoken with have expressed happiness that school is “getting back to normal” and there is the possibility of regular senior events.

Jillian agreed with his remarks and added that she believes students are enjoying being back at school, now that it has been almost a month of nearly all in-person schooling.

“I never thought I’d be grateful for going back to the rotating eight-day schedule, but I definitely like the variety more than the hybrid,” Jillian said. “That aspect I really appreciate, and also the fact that I think having the majority of your classmates in class with you is a very important part to classes to keeping them going and keeping students engaged.”

She also spoke about congestion at NHS and reported that, from a senior’s perspective, she sees people are more focused on getting to where they need to be and not crowding the lobby like in previous years.

“Students do have to go to the lobby to get their lunch, but other than that most of us are in a rush to get out and away from the lobby. It’s definitely not bad,” Jillian said.

She added that teachers have been good at continuing to remind students to clean their desks with the provided sanitizing wipes to stop the spread of germs from class to class.

Jillian then discussed the free lunch program currently going on.

“It is available for students who go to school every day, and remote students can pick it up earlier in the day before 11 am. It couldn’t be any more convenient for us — the lunch staff make signs of what’s available each day. There [are] usually four options,” she said.

As for NHS sports, Jillian informed the board that winter sports teams started their games last week, including boys’ and girls’ basketball, gymnastics, ice hockey, and boys’ swim and dive. Both basketball teams had their senior nights, and the other winter sports plan to have their senior nights soon.

Jillian also gave an update about different ways students and parents can stay up to date on the school’s different schedules.

“I talked with some students and parents about ways that [are] easy for us to stay updated on the schedules and what time our remote classes started, and I wanted to share a couple of the ways that they responded,” she said.

One way was to download the school’s messenger app and keep notifications on. Jillian explained that letters from Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue and NHS Principal Dr Kimberly Longobucco’s offices are sent there, as well as the free lunch sign up, bullying survey, and early dismissal notifications, making everything accessible in one place.

Another popular way to stay up to date is for students to use Powerschool.

“They have a new function, if you update the app. There’s a schedule, which is constantly updated with our Newtown High School schedule. So it tells you exactly what time each period starts, what time the lunch period is over, what time you have to log back in,” Jillian said.

She explained that the program updates the schedule at the beginning of each week, but it will also update to show when an early dismissal has been announced.

Lastly, Jillian said, if people do not want to download either of those apps they can follow the NHS Twitter page to see the schedule posted at the beginning of each week. She also said the athletic page posts sports cancellations and practices.

Jillian informed the BOE that planning has begun for senior events.

“It looks definitely a lot different this year, but an e-mail was sent out to all senior students and parents about the possible events we can have if planning goes well and COVID doesn’t interfere more than it already has,” she said.

While junior prom was canceled, she reported that students are remaining hopeful the senior prom and other events will go on, but be later in the year.

She said a prom survey was sent out to gauge if students were interested in going or not.

Concluding her report, Jillian said, “A lot of the students at school are very happy that things aren’t completely back to normal, but every week it seems that we’re getting that much closer to having in-person club meetings and more sports games. It’s raising our hopes a little more than hybrid and all-remote was. I’m very grateful and it seems like it’s going well as long as we keep the same protocols, desk wiping, and all of that going on.”

For more information about upcoming Board of Education meetings, visit newtown-ct.gov/board-education.