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WINDHAM HIGH: One Year of Excellence
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By Anum Hussain
New Hampshire Herald
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Gearing up for back-to-school, Windham High School is hoping to continue a
theme that carried the school during its first year as an institution: student
motivation.
“There’s a real growing ethos in the building that kids are about their business,”
said Superintendent Frank Bass. “You walk around the building and see student
generated activities and interest.”
Bass highlighted a new student leadership group that will address the board on
September 7. He said the students have various prongs of the program they are
seeking to develop, all thought-out and created by the students.
“If you’d ask me last year what we’d have for after-school activities, the list I would
have generated would have been very different,” said Bass. “I can’t think of what
the kids are going to come up with and what the faculty is going to come up with.
And that’s what we have to do, allow the school to be itself and create it’s own
identity.”
After a year of teaching, the school’s faculty has faced some changes. While
some teachers met the curriculum, others didn’t fit and had to be let go. However,
Bass said he is pleased with the new group coming in as some positions are
replaced and added.
But the new school brought some difficult changes as the entire sophomore class
endured two major transitions. First, they graduated the eighth grade from
Windham Middle School and spent their freshman year at Salem High School, a
neighboring town where Windham students previously attended. But as Windham
was greeted with its first high school, students went back to school in their
hometown.
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“For the sophomore class I think it was very difficult,” said Bass. “Salem is huge
and has a lot going on. Kids are like ‘wow this is really great, I can re-identify
myself, find new friends...’ it was a real boom for them, going from a student
body of about 2,000 to a student body of around 400.”
Lindsey Wolfe was one of the students to go through this transition. She said it
was an upgrade as each student was welcomed with a MacBook. The laptops
were integrated into the curriculum, pushing aside textbooks and notebooks.
“It turned out better than we planned,” said Bass. “The laptops provided a whole
new vista for the kids in terms of their ability to use information, tap into what the
teacher was saying in a conducive manner, and get a very thoughtful broad
range answer.” To ensure efficiency, teachers dedicated 90 minutes weekly with
a specialist to discuss the technology.
The school also endured 60 percent participation in all three sports seasons.
WHS started with junior varsity teams, but is now looking forward to adding
varsity to almost every sport, making the change easier for athletes coming from
Salem. Wolfe, who plays field hockey and track, said the Windham team was
undefeated all season making it difficult to improve their level of play. But this
year has already seen changes with the addition of varsity.
“We played Salem and tied 3-3,” said Wolfe. “It was incredible, even though we
only have juniors and below, we put our hearts into it and did really well.”
Now the school looks forward to embracing a third class, offering Advanced
Placement courses for the first time. Bass said the administration is looking into
extended learning opportunities through virtual education, classes at various
universities, and other possibilities to get students to follow through with their
interests. WHS students are able to participate in the Career and Technical
Education courses offered at Salem, Pinkerton Academy, and Hudson High
School.
Bass adds that current WHS principal Tom Murphy has contacted someone at
Harvard Medical School to create a liaison with Windham kids to show them the
diverse opportunities available in allied health.
“So many opportunities are presented to you,” said Wolfe. “We can do so many
different things and have all these doors open to you. People need to take
opportunities like that and just seize them.”
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