Photos from Winter Carnival and the Lunar New Year

Thanks to Mr. Harvey for these great photos.

Happy New Year, Year #4070, The Year of the Ox!

Today at morning meeting, I handed Hao Wen a traditional, red envelope as parents might for their child in China to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Unfortunately for Hao, it did not include money, but it did include the following proclamation that Hao proceeded to read to the rest of the school…

For Men’s Hockey beating Cushing for the first time in 15 years;

For the great job done by all during the Ice Storm and evacuation of 2008;

For the 74 students who achieved High Honors for the first semester;

For Men’s basketball for their compelling victories over Patterson, Edison and Notre Dame in the last eight days;

To Mr. Magay and all if you who have been working hard towards better environmental and recycling practices…with a special thanks to the gorilla recyclers for their dumpster sorting; To all of those who have gotten 3’s in the last two weeks;

For the Winchendon athletes who have a combined record of 12 and 4 over the last 8 days;

For those who have been creating the wonderful work coming out of the Art Building this winter;

To the 14 who earned Merit Category after first semester;

For Women’s Hockey for cleaning up in Canada this past weekend;

For the 25 students who achieved Honor Roll for the first semester; And for the many of us who celebrate the Lunar New Year this week…

As President of the Winchendon Student Body, I hereby issue an order that tonight we will celebrate these great achievements, tomorrow morning we will all sleep in, and tomorrow afternoon we will celebrate some more. Happy New Year!

We are having a terrific year and everyone deserves a little break and celebration. Happy New Year or …


(http://www.jackiechankids.com/images/SiJiPingAn_small.jpg)

The Opportunity To Be Together...

Today we modified our daily schedule so that the whole school could come together to watch the culmination of the democratic process and the inauguration of the country's first multi-racial president. It was a privilege to be able to share this experience with the Winchendon School community. My thanks to all who helped make it happen including the building and grounds team, the dining hall crew who prepared a special meal, those who made sure that the technology worked and all of the students and faculty who did little things to make it a great experience.

Majestic Oak On A Cold Morning

...and sometimes I may just bore you with some of my favorite images of the school. I took this while walking to school yesterday morning.

The champions!

Thanks to Jean Daniel Clément for this great picture of the winners at the recent St. Sebestien's tournament. Great job Winch hockey!

Brrrrr....

The sun is bright, but it is not warming much yet...
Fortunately the warmth of our community sustains us!

Jaffrey Municipal-Silver Ranch Airport
Lat: 42.8 Lon: -72 Elev: 1040
Last Update on Jan 16, 7:52 am EST

Fair with Haze -19°F (-28°C)

Humidity: 77 % Wind Speed: S 5 MPH Barometer: 30.30" (1030.1 mb) Dewpoint: -24°F (-31°C) Wind Chill: -32°F (-36°C) Visibility: 6.00 mi.

Winchendon 2009

Here we go…it’s time to get going. But what will 2009 hold for all of us at Winchendon?

As I write this, there is the part of me that is very focused on the global challenges: Things continue to deteriorate in too many places and for too many people on the African continent; the two-week old hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza have caused over 500 deaths and the displacement of thousands and are an indication of the fragility throughout the region; and further east the multi-faceted tensions involving Afghanistan, Pakistan and India threaten to worsen at any time. Pair these with the widespread economic challenges and loss, and about the only thing that is too exciting beyond Winchendon is the hope for the incoming administration in Washington.

Fortunately, the other part of me is able to focus on Winchendon and all that is exciting here. A rested and refreshed faculty and student body on its own would be enough to look forward to, but all come back to continued improvements on the campus. After the improvements in the library over Thanksgiving, energies were re-focused in other areas over the most recent break. While many were relaxing over the holidays, a crew was hard at work in Ford Hall upgrading bathrooms, Mr. Chretien was overseeing the installation of the new fitness and weight training equipment, and others were working on plans for the performing arts facility improvements that start this month. We also completed the installation of additional digital technology as part of the continuing academic program upgrades.

As we kicked off the first week of classes, the rosters of both those who had made honors and high honors were announced and the first honorees for the year for the highest merit category were announced. We started the week celebrating the men’s hockey team’s winning of the St. Sebastian’s tournament and finished the week with a men’s basketball victory against MCI. Click here for more of a write-up on that.

This first weekend found several of us preparing to welcome our trustees to campus for the winter meeting. A major portion of the meeting was spent working through plans for the continued improvements in Ford Hall, the addition of new tennis courts and the plans for the restoration and the upgrading of the Fine Arts Building scheduled for this coming summer. We finished that meeting with the launching of a strategic planning process that will ultimately involve many in our community. We will be working on setting the strategic vision and creating a plan for the school during a series of meetings and workshops over the next year. I hope that you will contribute your input to this process if you have thoughts.

It is an exciting time to be at Winchendon. While we keep the external challenges in our focus, we are also committed to ensuring that 2009 is our most exciting yet and that our students have an exceptional Winchendon experience.