Lawrence High School

At Lawrence High School students and staff from LEAP worked with Heather Drew-Clark, our Kitchen Manager, and hosted a community supper on Thursday, December 14th in the Jr. High Cafeteria. It was in collaboration with our Farm & Sea to School program we are involved with for this year in an effort to showcase locally grown foods. The menu is pictured below. The food was fabulous! A special thanks to three of our students for helping to serve the meals last week: Ashley Rockwell, Alina Rodrigue-Butler, and Elijah Cormier. The service was as good as the meal! Heather Drew-Clark did a fabulous job preparing the meal, as well! Also, last week, the High School and Jr. High Bands hosted their Holiday Concert on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, in the Williamson Performing Arts Center. It provided a bit of holiday cheer and music for all in attendance! The high school band also performed for the high school during our Community Homeroom held on the same day. Some pictures from the concert are below.

Mrs. Grenier’s Geometry classes completed a coding Mini Golf activity in the library to celebrate Hour of Code; all the while practicing their math skills & perseverance. The National Honor Society members set aside some time Wednesday afternoon to wrap holiday presents and perform other tasks to help alleviate some of the workload at the North Pole. Their efforts will help to brighten the holiday season for many! (Their work area was a restricted area so there were no photos allowed.) The Band program hosted their Winter Concert on Wednesday evening. The concert featured the Lawrence Marching Band, the Junior High School Band, the High School Symphonic Band, and the Lawrence Jazz Band. The combined Jazz Band (7-12) is pictured. The Choral Concert will be held on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 6:30 PM in the Williamson Performing Arts Center. A reminder to all that Progress Reports will be posted on Infinite Campus on Friday, December 15, 2023. Students will have three weeks remaining in the quarter before Finals Week, the week of January 16, 2024.

The Lawrence Theatre Company will be presenting the play Once Upon a Mattress this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Times for the play are 7:00 PM on Thursday and Friday with a 3:00 PM matinee on Saturday. On Wednesday they gave a brief performance to the student body during our Community Homeroom. We hope you will make it out to one of the performances this week! Our Lawrence EMPOWER club is practicing for their upcoming puppet shows for all Pre-K, K, 1,2, and 3rd graders later this month. The shows teach positive choices and are an evidence based program that is very popular with the elementary students. The high school students who participate in EMPOWER are students who advocate living life free of substance use/abuse and help to bring awareness of healthy choices and mentoring to their peers and the younger students across the district. With the holidays upon us, we want to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. I’d like to remind folks that are taking a planned vacation which will impact school attendance, we have Planned Absence Forms outside of the Main Office for your child to fill out and get signed and turned back into the Main Office before they leave on a trip. Parents sign off as well as your child’s teacher. This gives them a chance to provide work and/or plan for makeup when they return to school. A final reminder that Progress Reports for Q2, marking the midway point of the quarter, will be available for viewing on Friday, December 15, 2023. Upcoming calendar events: December 13, 2023 the Jr. High and High School Band, Marching Band, and Jazz Band will be hosting their Holiday Concert in the Williamson Center. After the break the Jr. High and High School Choral Programs will host their Winter Holiday concert on Wednesday, January 10, 2023 starting at 6:30 PM in the Williamson Center. Please come out to support our students and enjoy the music they will share with you on those evenings!

Congratulations to the Lawrence High School football team for their victory last Saturday over Cony to win the Northern Maine Class B Championship. They will be playing in the State Championship game on Saturday at 2:30 PM at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland against Kennebunk High School! Go Bulldogs! Please come out and support our team! Tickets are electronic and on sale through the QR code below. This is a Maine Principals’ Association event and they manage all ticket sales and pricing. You can also purchase tickets by going online to the MPA site.

The members of the National Honor Society (NHS) were involved in baking cookies for the students of Lewiston High School, Edward Little HS, and Winthrop HS as a show of support and healing as they were all directly affected by the October 25th shootings in Lewiston. Mrs. Hebert, NHS Advisor and English teacher, delivered them to the three schools on Tuesday. Thank you to all involved in helping to bake cookies over the weekend to contribute to this goodwill effort. The National Honors Society Induction took place Wednesday night with 16 new members being inducted into the Lawrence High School Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS). The new members are: Sophomores - Hannah Carlton, Kiera Day, Brooklyn Ferreira, Arianna Goodwin, Sophia Griffith, and Brock Merrill. Juniors - Michael Hamlin, Madisyn Niles, Taylor Pellerin, Alyssa Welch, and Noah Young. Seniors - Whitney Churchill, Kaylee Elkins, Colby Nadeau, Sophie Rosebush, and Maddox Santone. Congratulations to the students on being recognized for their exemplary scholarship, leadership, service, and character through their induction. In other news, our Football team will be playing in the State Championship game on Saturday at 2:30 PM at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland against Kennebunk High School! Go Bulldogs! Please come out and support our team! Tickets are electronic and on sale through the QR code below. This is a Maine Principals’ Association event and they manage all ticket sales and pricing. You can also purchase tickets by going online to the MPA site.

Elizabeth Holden, a Junior at Lawrence and member of the Golf Team, qualified for the New England golf tournament and played over the weekend finishing 27th overall which was in the top half of the field! She played at the Mohegan Sun Golf Course in CT. Congratulations Liz! A nice article in The Town Line appeared on October 25, 2023, on Nash Corson and a $1,000 scholarship he was eligible for and won for organizing a Blood Drive for the Red Cross. Congratulations Nash! LifeTouch Picture Retakes for the High School and Jr. High will be on Wednesday, November 15, 2023. Mrs. Joler’s 12th-grade English classes went to the Colby Art Museum on Tuesday, October 31st. Students enjoyed the tour with the tour guide and lunch in one of the dining halls on campus. They did an analysis activity on a piece of art that they viewed of their choice. Feedback from students was positive along with comments of wishing to spend more time in the museum. Football will host Gardiner for a rare Saturday game at 1 p.m. this weekend. This is a semifinal game. As a KVAC league event, there is a flat entrance fee of $5 for students and adults. The winner will advance to the regional finals. Go Dogs! The Blood Drive scheduled for this past Friday had to be postponed. At this time, Mr. Pellerin is working on trying to set up another date. The 1st Quarter closes on Friday with teachers’ grades due Monday morning. As such, new quarter classes will start on Monday, November 6, 2023. One quarter down and three to go!

Lawrence just had a successful Homecoming Week capped off by a football victory on Friday night over Messalonskee and the Homecoming Dance held on Saturday night. The dance was well attended and enjoyed by the students. JMG’s Aiden Jackson-Heath (pictured), Alex Johnson and Jayden Burnham-Butler all received a $500 check from JMG for completion of the Maine Career Exploration Badge. All three students completed a 40 hour work experience coupled with an informational interview, career exploration and a reflection as well as a "thank you" letter to the business where they worked. The checks were presented to Aiden, Alex and Jayden on October 12. The first quarter is moving along with only two weeks left! Grades close on Friday, November 3, 2023. For Freshman, this is usually a wakeup call that they need to pass classes in order to gain credit in order to graduate! If your student finds that they’ve failed a quarter class, we have options to help them recover the credit if they’ve failed with a 55 - 69. If they have a semester class, it will behoove them to get some extra help from their teacher so they can progress without falling further behind. Parents are encouraged to reach out to their student’s teachers to have conversations and help make a plan for their students to get caught up. If you can help guide the students into taking some ownership of their fate and speaking with the teacher, that would be a good step in their maturation process. Aside from this year’s graduating class, all classes need to have 30 credits in order to graduate. Any questions regarding your son or daughter’s education, please feel free to reach out to a teacher, administrator, or school counselor.

This Tuesday, Mrs. Misner and the high school orchestrated a fantastic chorus workshop with the esteemed Dr. Rebecca DeWan and Professor Isaac Bray. An enthusiastic turnout of around 160 students from six area schools made this event a resounding success! They were involved with section lessons and working on a piece to do in the afternoon with all groups.

Elizabeth Holden achieved an impressive 2nd place among the girls, and we're proud to say our team secured a commendable 7th place overall at the State Golf Meet on Friday.

At Lawrence High School Mrs. Grenier's AP Computer Science Principles class is engaging in an interactive activity where they simulate a computing network and explore the various pathways packets can take while traveling on the internet. This hands-on exercise is crucial in helping students grasp the intricate workings of computer networks and the internet, enhancing their understanding of this vital technological infrastructure.

The EMPOWER club and Gregory's Disposal teamed up to provide LHS hats to all our teachers for homecoming week.

Students are approaching the midpoint of the quarter with Progress Reports coming out next week on Monday, October 2nd. Parents can view those on Infinite Campus. Our Parent Teacher Conferences are next Wednesday and Thursday, October 4th and 5th. The link to sign up for conferences is here and can be found on the school’s webpage, as well. The image is Girls’ Soccer v. Winslow played on Sept. 12, 2023. Lawrence girls were victorious! Believe it or not, the fall sports season is winding down for Golf and we’re at the midseason point for the other fall sports. Homecoming Week will be the week of October 10th. We have a Homecoming Committee meeting regularly to plan the activities for the week and will get that information out once finalized. We want to pack the bleachers at all the home games that week! This past week we held our Flu Clinic and our Dental Clinic which provided easy access to health services provided for those students who participated. We have three educators participating in a conference in Portland on restorative practices training put on by the State Department of Education. A reminder that we have a Teacher In-Service day a week from Friday, on October 6, 2023, so no school for students on that day heading into the long weekend as we also have Monday, October 9th off for Indigenous People’s Day. From all of us at the high school, have a great week!

Below you will find a picture of the LEAP field trip to Fort Popham and the beach on September 8th. We left Friday morning around 8:45. The students were excited about seeing and experiencing new things. The students had been given assignments for Humanities and STEAM. The Humanities assignment was a choice between: Writing a one page summary on the historical significance and context for Fort Popham. OR Reflections of the trip. What did you see? smell? feel? observe? The STEAM assignment was to read through the printed article: The Gulf of Maine Warming Update: Spring 2023. After reading the article and experiencing Maine's coast the students were asked to list 5 important pieces of information and 5 questions they have regarding the document. Some students started the assignment right there in the middle of the fort. Others chose to wait until after the field trip. The LHS food service staff had packed lunches for us. We were fortunate to have beautiful weather and picnic tables available to eat right outside the fort. We had some great discussions, saw some interesting wildlife and one student was able to touch the ocean for the first time in their life. I think we all came home from this field trip fulfilled. In other news from the high school, candidates for class offices will be giving speeches this week and elections will be held to get student leadership in place for this year. Progress Reports will be out on Monday, October 2, 2023; in time for Parent Teacher Conferences on October 4th and 5th. We are still collecting the Meal Benefit Applications that are confidential and will help the district when it comes to the State allocating funds to the district and ultimately help keep local tax dollars lower. If you have not completed the Meal Benefit Application we encourage you to do so and turn it into the Main Office. If you fill it out electronically there is no need to print off. It will automatically be sent to the Food Services Director. Thank you for your help!

Spotlight is on the girls’ cross country team this week, pictured here at a recent meet. The Cross Country Team, under the Coaching of Eric Brown, has partnered with KVCC to build and host home meets on the KVCC campus. The girls won their first meet that they hosted! Congratulations to them and a thank you to KVCC for partnering with us to provide a different home course. A reminder to all, our Homecoming Week will be the week following Indigenous People’s Day, October 10-13, 2023.

Lawrence High School is buzzing with excitement as our fall activities are in full swing! Our talented marching band has been working diligently to perfect their routine, and all of our fall teams, including football, cheering, golf, field hockey, cross country, and soccer are putting their best foot forward. We invite you to join us in supporting the Bulldogs as they showcase their dedication and passion for excellence. Go Bulldogs!

The Freshmen were involved in a mini rotation of their schedule as well as getting their laptops and participating in some fun activities to get to each other and staff. They had the high school to themselves for the day to acclimate before everyone returns on the 31st.