Hi All;
Welcome back from our February break. I am hopeful that all of you had a restful break, and have built up a
reserve of energy to be used over this long stretch until the April break. The Welches enjoyed some sledding
and skiing over the break with plenty of skating thrown in too. We have also enjoyed watching the winter
Olympics. I am particularly looking forward to watching the women’s aerials later this week, as the US’s top
competitor Emily Cook was a student of mine back in the mid-90’s when I was teaching Physics at Belmont
High School. I vividly recall her coming in one Monday morning and announcing that she landed on her head
trying to do a double back flip over the weekend. She is now 30 years old and finished fifth during the
preliminary rounds in Vancouver, and I’ll be rooting for her during the finals when I sense she’ll be landing
on her skiis rather than her head!

As happens every winter about this time, the Framingham High School Drama Company is pleased to
announce the upcoming production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. This will be FHS’s
entry into the Mass High School Drama Festival on Feb. 27 at the Preliminary Round to be held at FHS. The
Drama Company’s annual benefit performance for the drama festival is scheduled for Friday Feb 26 at 7PM
in the FHS theater. Tickets will be available during all three lunches and are also available on line at
www.ticketstage.com . As always, the students would appreciate your support and attendance.

Do you Remember Your Senior Year of high school? Of Course You Do! The Class of 2010 would like to
give you the opportunity to re-live these perhaps unforgettable memories with a Parents Night Out benefit
event for the senior class. Senior Parents: Come help us to make the class of 2010’s Senior Year “The Best
There’s Ever Been”. Please join us on Saturday March 6th from 7-11 at the Framingham Elks Club for
an evening of snacks, DJ, dancing, cash bar, and good times. Tickets are $20 and they can be purchased at
the grade 12 office at the high school or at he door. There will be door prizes available including Senior Prom
tickets, Senior Cruise tickets, tuxedo rentals, hair styling gift certificates, etc…This is sure to be an evening
that will be talked about for the next six months!

How many of you were aware that FHS had a ballroom dance team? The FHS Ballroom Dance Team
(sponsored by Mrs. Medina of the World Language Dept) compteted at the Ninth Annual Boston University
Terrier Dancesport Competition on Sunday, February 14th, at Boston University. Competing students
were Paige Hornor with Curtis Brooks, and Kristina Lando with Rich Wilkins. Unfortunately, Mia Lin and
Harry Meltzer had to drop out of the competition due to injury. The group’s student instructors are Nicola
Richard and Alexa Rabin. Please give them a pat on the back if you see them this week!

FHS guidance counselors will be meeting with sophomores and juniors in small groups of 5-8 students
from March 2 through March 26. Meetings will occur at 9am and 10am each day, with a make-up/noshows'
meeting at 1pm. Counselors will deliver appointment notices to homerooms. This process allows
counselors to see each of their students in a timely fashion, and it enables them to target those who need more
intensive service. Juniors will go over transcripts, GPA’s, graduation requirements, and preparations for postsecondary
education. Sophomores will receive info on PSAT/SAT testing, and upcoming MCAS tests in
addition to appropriate course selections for the next two years. Thanks for your support of these important
appointments. For seniors and their parents, please check out the latest update to the scholarship listings. The
update is available on the Guidance website here:
(http://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/fhs/Scholarships%202010%20-%201st%20Update.pdf ), and hard copies
are available in Guidance, the College and Career Center, and the Grade 12 office

I recently learned that several of FHS’s AP US History students participated in a national essay contest by
the Bill Of Rights Institute. This prestigious contest asked students to answer the question of “What civic
value do you believe is most essential to being an American?” These students were mentored and advised by
History teacher Christine Chu and submitted their essays for this competition back in November. I have just
received word that Joshua Herzberg, one of our sophomore students, won Honorable Mention along with a
monetary award for the New England region. This year, 50,000 students applied for this contest and less than
2% were recognized with prizes. Congratulations to Josh and Ms. Chu for this honor! Both Josh and
Framingham High School are listed online at the Institute’s website at:
http://www.beinganamerican.org/about_the_contest/10winners.html

Congratulations are in order for FHS World Language teachers Heidi Islas and Mary-Carmen Medina
Zamorra. These two Spanish teachers delivered a presentation at the Massachussetts Foreign Language
Association's conference in October that was picked by the MaFLA Board as the Best of MaFLA, Fall
Conference 2009. They were then invited to present their winning session at the Northeast Conference in New
York City in March. In addition, just before break the WL Department held its first WL Honor Society
induction ceremony for 35 talented language students on Wednesday, February 3, 20010. These students have
taken four straight years of World Language study at FHS and have received no grades lower than B+.
Thanks go to Mrs. Goldfarb and members of the WL department for their work with these students and this
initiative. Congratulations to parents and students for their support and achievement.

Congratulations are also due to Peter Erbland, Cynthia Villanueva, Greg Patterson, and Matthew Corcoran
from our Science Department. They participated in a materials workshop over break sponsored by the Natick
Labs. You can read more about it from the MetroWest Daily news article here:
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x487486922/Natick-Labs-program-turns-teachers-into-students

The regular season for winter sports has concluded, and a number of teams have qualified or completed
their post season. The Flyers Gymnastics Team, coached by Sandy Maier, placed 3rd at the Bay State
Competition just before the February break. Sophomore Cora Lincoln was recognized as a league All Around
All Star and Freshman Shay McKinney was recognized as the league’s Beam All Star. At the Division 1
individual wrestling championships this weekend, Nick Flannery won the 130 lb division, while Jeremy Rees
and John Coukos finished second in their respective weight classes. Ben Lewis finished third in the 300-
meter run at the Division 1 indoor Track Championships, while Amanda Egesi did well in the long jump and
55-meter sprint. Both the boys and girls hockey squads will be competing in post-season tournaments this
week.

We have seven weeks of fairly uninterrupted class time until the next week long break in April, and this is the
time that we take advantage of some of the best learning opportunities of the year. Make sure you are planned
through this time and taking advantage of this consistency. We’ll have a few disruptions due to MCAS and
MEPA testing, with the majority of this from March 22-24 for the ELA test for all sophomores. Next week
we’ll be managing through the MCAS re-tests also. Pace yourself but approach this stretch with conviction!