Making NHS A Wonderful Place

To the Editor:

It is all too often that the members of the high school community who work tirelessly to make sure that, each and every day, students come into a safe, clean, and effective learning environment receive almost no notice for their efforts.

Every morning the custodial staff is there before some students are even awake to make sure no trash is left on the floors, that the bathrooms are clean, the waste bins emptied, and that students walk into a sanitary and comfortable environment. Well before the morning bell, teachers arrive to organize themselves for the day, leaving behind the demands of busy personal lives in order to devote their energies to their students. The administration works tirelessly to ensure that nearly 2,000 teens are safe, happy, and adhering to school policy for almost seven hours every day. The list could go on forever from our wonderful secretaries and effective security team to our school police officer or devoted special education department.

But the point is short. Newtown High School is an excellent institution. It may be not perfect in every way, but the things that we can enjoy as students in such a school outweigh the negatives one hundredfold. Take our annual Poetry Slam, our prize-winning school paper, student-initiated murals, or librarian, who gives her time to paint individual library ceiling tiles with famous art. These are things more important than any small grievances we may have with the school.

This excellence is not due to chance or happenstance, and certainly cannot be attributed to the overwhelming enthusiasm for education in the average American teen. It is because of every person employed by the school to make NHS a wonderful place to be. It is because of their dedication, passion, caring, and professionalism exhibited every day. It is because of their choice to wake up, each and every morning, with the goal of providing us the best chance we can have at succeeding in life.

We on the Senior Class Council extend our gratitude to all of you who make NHS great, and urge our community and peers to think on this message and to appreciate these wonderful individuals. It is our belief that we speak for every student at Newtown High School when we say, thank you.

Most sincerely,

Quinlan Mitchell

Genna Rossi

Patrick Pennarola

Mark Fernandes

Matt Narel

The Senior Class Council

12 Berkshire Road, Sandy Hook                                                                     May 5, 2009