The Hills Chronicle - December 2006
Message from Dr. Frances C. Stromsland, Superintendent of Schools, Watchung Hills Regional High School
On November 4, 2006, the gala opening celebration for the Performing Arts Center at Watchung Hills Regional High School marked a milestone in our district’s history. Opening a new addition to our school that incorporates a Performing Arts Center is a vision that many have worked hard to accomplish and is now a reality. We would not be in this wonderful place in time in the life of our school community if not for the support of the residents of our region, who so generously gave us the resources to make this vision a reality for our students. We have a long history of dedication and commitment from the regional community in our work to provide top quality educational and athletic programs here at the Hills. Your children, our students, are our future. We are grateful everyday for that trust. We are now able to showcase in this new venue the plethora of student talents that thrive in this school environment. As the months go by, you will see and hear our students growing and flourishing in the arts because of your trust, and the ability of our teachers, to provide direction for their experiences.
Each day, we continue to celebrate not only the arts, but all of the exciting opportunities in science, athletics and health, language arts, literature, history, world language, special education and mathematics, that have been made possible by the upgrades and expansion of our school facilities. We are thankful to you all for making this transformation possible. We are confident that students today and those that may follow, will savor the richness of experiences that are uniquely part of Watchung Hills.
Let me take this opportunity to encourage you to visit our district website, www.whrhs.org, and read the State of the District report that I presented at the November 6, 2006 Board of Education Meeting. Watchung Hills Regional High School is committed to improvement across the board and every year we strive to find new ways to enhance education for our students. How can we make this a better place to learn, to work, to be? This is the question that, as the educational leader of the district, I focus on daily.
I believe that with the majority of the emphasis on construction behind us, we can focus more of our time and talent in making connections between and among curricular areas, and continuing to develop internal consistency in the courses we offer in each department. Our curriculum mapping program has been an effective tool in making this process effective and efficient. Budget development and planning is also in progress in order to accommodate our continued growth and needs in using our new spaces.
We have seen a physical transformation of our facility over the last three years, we work hard everyday to bring together the systemic initiatives that will help our students flourish and achieve any goal that is their dream.