High School October Newsletter (22–23)

Dear High School Families,

Can you believe we are already in the fall season? We certainly experienced the cooler weather during our first Hawk Day. Students were still able to have a blast, though! Now that we are officially back into the routine of being in school, I plan to meet with each student to go over their journey at ECHS. For our juniors, this will include graduation requirements, pathways, their graduation project, and most importantly, their future plans. For sophomores, this will include Keystone requirements, ensuring they have knowledge of the ECHS pathways and a brief introduction to graduation requirements. Lastly, for our freshmen, it will include an overview of all courses offered within ECHS, how they align with our pathways, and Keystone requirements. I would love to have parents present at these meetings (in-person or virtual), so if you would like to join, please reach out to me!

We hope to see each of you during our Back to School Night which will take place on Oct. 13 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the High School. Our staff is planning a very informative session that we hope you will enjoy.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me!

Kari Vissichelli
High School Principal

What's new at the High School?

Student Government
Student Government is an organization conducted by students and supervised by adults. The purpose of the student government is to give students an opportunity to develop leadership skills by organizing and carrying out school activities and service projects. In addition to planning events that contribute to school spirit and community welfare, the student government is the voice of the student body. They help share student ideas, interests, and concerns with the school wide community. The function of the student government is based upon parliamentary procedures. Ideas are presented, voted upon, and confirmed by the student body president. Any student that is interested in leadership, organizational behavior, event planning, or becoming more involved in the school are welcome to get involved. Elections will take place in the coming weeks.

Student Services News

School Based Mental Health Services: The Children’s Institute (CI)
ECS is excited to partner with CI to offer space for outpatient mental health services to occur within the school setting. This service can include traditional talk therapy and/or optional medication management, and is billed through your insurance. Enrolled students meet with their CI therapist during the school day. CI accepts a wide range of insurance providers! If you are interested in connecting your child with an outpatient therapist, reach out to your building based school social worker for more information.

Sleep Resources
Daylight savings time starts Sunday, Nov. 6. General guidelines suggest school aged children should be getting 9-12 hours of sleep each night and teens should be getting 8-10 hours. Wondering if your child is getting enough? Check out this article.

PAAR Family Information
ECS has continued our partnership with the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR) to provide our students with important lessons around boundaries and consent. High School lessons started in September.

Join us for a virtual parent meeting on October 6, 2022 at 6:30 pm to hear what they will be talking about with your students! Click here to join the Zoom (passcode: ecs).

This Month’s Cultural Celebrations

LGBT History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney Wilson. LGBT History Month provides role models, builds community, and represents a civil rights statement about the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community. We will celebrate LGBT History Month by recognizing a different pioneer during Morning Meeting each day. Feel free to join in by following this link.

In Case You Missed It

Open Gym
The open gym provides students with the opportunity to try a variety of sports to learn what they’re most interested in. It will occur from September 19th through October 25th from 3:30-5 p.m. If interested, please reach out to our newly hired Athletic Director, Robert Van Rheenan at robert.vanrheenan@ecspgh.org.

High School Hawk Highlights

Our first Hawk Day took place on Friday, September 23rd and was a huge success. Students were split amongst four colored teams and utilized our four character traits, empathetic, collaborative, honorable, and scholarly, to compete in a variety of activities.