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Back to SCHOOL; Students Get to Know Their New School; High School Hosts Three-Day Orientation for Ninth-Graders

Posted on: Wednesday, 31 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

The Patriot Ledger

Note to Weymouth High School seniors: The freshmen know there isn't a swimming pool on the third floor.

To ease their transition into a new, much-larger high school, incoming ninth-graders are being welcomed with a three-day orientation this week.

Students are getting to know each other, teachers and a building that takes a solid 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other.

They will also receive a freshman survival guide, which lists contact information for school departments. Inside the guide is a map. The map doesn't include a swimming pool.

"There are at least a dozen school leaders from other grade levels working with them," Superintendent Joseph Rull said about orientation.

Meanwhile, the staff at the high school is in the final preparatory stages for an accreditation visit this fall.

Every 10 years, the state accrediting agency visits the high school to make sure the building structure and the academics inside it are up to standards.

"We will have a team visit in November," Rull said. "They will be spending four days with us, so obviously there is a lot of preparation for that visit and the high school is actively engaged in that regard."

Just as freshmen need orientation, so do freshman teachers. The almost 60 new teachers coming to the Weymouth school system this year have had their own orientation program this week.

Most of the new hires fill positions vacated by retired teachers.

Rull said they span all grades, and about one-third of them will be teaching for the first time.

Some students in lower grades will return to new principals and administrators. James Lucia, former housemaster at Adams Middle School, is now principal of Academy Avenue Primary School, and Victoria Silberstein, former administrator of special education, is the first full-time principal of Johnson Early Childhood Center.

Both are replacing Anne Lane, who retired this year after 36 years in the system.

Ellen Varnerin of East Sandwich is replacing Silberstein as special education administrator, and Michael Mahar of Cohasset, who previously taught in Pembroke, is taking over for Lucia.

Two other additions include Michael Lovecchio, who is the new 12th-grade student dean, and Judy Wolcott, the new director for the high school alternative program.

Mark Fontecchio may be reached at mfontecchio@ledger.com.

Source: Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.

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