Handwriting Analysis Lecture offered by RHS

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The Rochester Historical Society’s June meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00 pm at the East Rochester Church/Museum, 355 County Road. The program about handwriting analysis will be presented by Sheryl Alexander. Sheryl is a member of several handwriting analysis organizations in Florida and New England and has been the featured speaker at several historical societies, cruise lines and senior centers. She also specializes in jury selection evaluation and legal documentation signature verification. Her lecture will be comparing the similarities and differences in personality characteristics found in Massachusetts historical individuals through their handwriting. You will also learn how to use these traits to examine your personal writing. The public is invited. Refreshments will be served following the program.

Boys’ Lacrosse Makes History with Postseason Win

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Here is a look at the ninth week of scheduled games for Old Rochester Regional High School spring athletics.

Boys’ Tennis: This week, the boys’ tennis team received the No. 2 seed in the Division 3 South state tournament, and started off their postseason right with a huge 5-0 sweep over No. 15 seed Dedham. Thanks to wins from Owen Sughrue (first singles), Alex Bilodeau (second singles), Sam Pasquill (third singles), Josh Lerman and Maxx Wolski (first doubles), and Stephen Burke and Jahn Pothier (second doubles), the Bulldogs advanced to the quarterfinals. The boys did not lose a single set in any match, often winning 6-0, 6-0 to absolutely dominate the Dedham team. ORR will now face off against No. 10 seed Sturgis East in the quarterfinals.

Girls’ Tennis: The Lady Bulldogs received the No. 7 seed in the Division 3 South state tournament, and like the boys, knocked out their opening opponent, No. 10 East Bridgewater, in a clean 5-0 shutout. Old Rochester got wins from Julia Nojeim (first singles), Morgan Middleton (second singles), Olivia Bellefeuille (third singles), Emma Collings and Alexis Parker (first doubles), and Sophie Church and Katelyn Bindas (second doubles). With the win, the girls advance to the quarterfinals, where they will face their toughest competition in No. 2 seed Dover-Sherborn.

Track: This week, several of ORR’s track athletes competed in the All-State Meet, where the best athletes around the state in all divisions gather to compete for individual championships. The highlight for the Bulldogs was senior Kevin Saccone, who rushed straight from graduation to Fitchburg to compete. Saccone placed second in the long jump with a leap of 22’3.75” and placed sixth in the hurdles in 14.74 seconds. Saccone qualified for the New England Championships, held in Saco, Maine, in both events. Other participants for ORR came from Zoe Smith (13th in the 100-meter hurdles, 17th in the high jump) and the girls’ 4×800-meter relay, comprised of Nina Bourgeois, Rachel Scheub, Sam Ball, and Madisen Martin, which placed 21st overall.

Boys’ Lacrosse: The boys’ lacrosse team, who received the No. 2 seed in the Division 3 South state tournament, earned two huge wins this week to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. In their opening round, the Bulldogs handily defeated No. 15 seed Cardinal Spellman 18-10. ORR got goals from Ethan Lizotte (with a team-high 8), Landon Goguen (4), Thomas McIntire (2), Patrick Saltmarsh (2), Taylor Hatch, and Chase Cunningham. The win was also significant as it marked the first boys’ lacrosse tournament win in school history. The boys then went on to defeat No. 10 seed Bourne 12-7 in the quarterfinals. There, the Bulldog defense was at its best, with goalie Gerald Lanagan recording 15 saves in net to squander any offensive momentum Bourne could muster. Offensively, ORR was once again led by Lizotte, who scored six goals in the game. The boys will look to continue their run against No. 3 seed Archbishop Williams.

Girls’ Lacrosse: Like the boys’ lacrosse team, the Lady Bulldogs, who received the No. 4 seed in the Division 2 South state tournament, opened up their postseason run with two big wins to advance to the semifinals. The girls defeated No. 13 seed Sacred Heart in their opening round with a massive 18-2 blowout, thanks largely in part to a balanced offensive effort from the Lady Bulldogs. Fourteen different players scored for ORR, with Bailey Truesdale, Maddie Cooney, Sarah Ryan, and Ali Hulsebosch sharing the top scoring spot with two goals apiece. The girls then advanced to face their SCC rival and No. 5 seed Apponequet, whom they shared the SCC championship with this year. Thanks to a strong second half, the girls opened up their 5-4 lead from halftime to defeat the Lady Lakers 15-9. Truesdale led in scoring with four goals. The girls advance to the semifinals, where they will face No. 1 seed Norwell in what will likely be their toughest game of the tournament.

Below are the overall spring team records, followed by the conference records in wins, losses, and ties as of June 7.

Baseball: (17-3-0) (14-2-0); Softball: (8-10-0) (8-8-0); Boys’ Track: (6-2-0) (6-2-0); Girls’ Track: (8-0-0) (8-0-0); Boys’ Tennis: (19-1-0) (14-0-0); Girls’ Tennis: (15-5-0) (13-3-0); Boys’ Lacrosse: (17-2-0) (7-1-0); Girls’ Lacrosse: (14-5-1) (7-3-0).

By Michael Kassabian

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Students Hope to Send Principal to the Roof

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The night of June 18 could prove to be one heck of a night at Center School for the students and one brave staff member who put a good night’s sleep on the line to alleviate hunger in the community.

The students at Center School and Old Hammondtown have been collecting canned goods for the local food pantry since the beginning of the school year. The two schools combined raised about 2,000 cans by the end of May, making their “Canning Hunger” campaign a success at that point.

But during the first week of June, the trajectory of the fundraiser took an interesting and unexpected turn when Associate Principal Kevin Tavares unveiled his own stash of 480 canned and dry goods. He then challenged the students to collect another 480 to match within a fortnight, promising that, if the students succeeded in beating Tavares’ total, he would spend the night sleeping on the roof of Center School. That, of course, sent the students scurrying for food.

Beth Oleson and Jaime Balsis of the health office came up with the fundraising idea as a way of bringing up the topic of hunger into the schools, while demonstrating how easy it can be to make a difference.

“It’s also a way of giving back to the community,” said Oleson. “The community is very good to us.”

Over the coming weeks, the grade levels started to challenge each other in a competition to see which grade could collect the most cans, and soon students were hanging shamrocks and other symbols on walls and windows representing each student who donated food.

“Everybody kind of took a different spin on it,” said Oleson.

Grade 2 ultimately was the winner, having collected 455 food items for the food pantry shelves.

And meanwhile, staff members were participating in a little challenge of their own. They each contributed a small entry fee of sorts and pooled their money together in a friendly wager to see who could lose the most weight between the end of February vacation and the start of April vacation. The winner would get the pool of money.

Tavares won that competition and he took his winnings to the grocery store and purchased the 480 food items to donate to the food pantry. He presented the food along with his challenge and took the fundraiser to the next level.

“I was humbled,” said Oleson. “He made it fun for the kids.”

Tavares said he thought it would just be a fun way to wrap up the school year. And what is crazier than the possibility of seeing your principal climb out of a window, onto a ledge, with his pajamas and a sleeping bag ready to camp out under the stars on the roof of your school? To an elementary school student, not much.

If the students succeed in beating Tavares’ 480 cans, at the end of the school day on June 18, Tavares will climb onto the roof in front of the entire school and will not come down until he himself can manage to collect enough additional canned goods to match the amount the students raised to beat him at the challenge!

“While I’m up there I’m going to be rallying friends and family members to come and help me raise enough canned goods so I can get down,” said Tavares. “I’ll have to send out my lifelines to get me off the roof.”

Tavares said he took some time trying to come up with the perfect dare, considering ideas he had heard other people did before coming up with the rooftop sleepover idea.

“I wasn’t going to shave my head,” said Tavares.

Tavares said he will likely be up on the rooftop all night long until the next day, the last day of school, until he can match what the students collect – that is, if they can manage to beat him.

As of June 9, the students had only collected half of what they need to send Tavares to his rooftop bed on the 18th. But there is still time. They have until the end of the school day on the 18th to match Tavares’ 480 cans.

“We’re halfway there, so we need a big push,” said Tavares. As of press time, the total was 285 cans.

And who knows, said Tavares. “There might be a secret stash hidden in the bathroom somewhere. They might be creating this false sense of security,” he laughed.

So the students have one last chance at “Canning Hunger in the Community,” as the posters around the school say.

Tell Tavares that you hope he loses, and he will reply, “So do I.”

“Hunger,” said Tavares, “doesn’t get to take a summer vacation.”

By Jean Perry

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Mattapoisett Woman’s Club Scholarships

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Elaine Bothelho, president of the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club presents the 2015 scholarships to Michael Kassabian, Morgan Browning, Victoria Caton and Abigail Rottler at the Mattapoisett Library.

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Committee Adopts School Improvement Plan

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The Mattapoisett School Committee met for the last time in the 2014-2015 school year on June 9 to take care of several end-of-year tasks; primarily, the reorganization of the board, the approval of the School Improvement Plan, and the Teachers Memorandum of Agreement.

The reorganization of the committee is a yearly task that must be done before the 2015-2016 school year meetings begin. Satisfied with their positions on various subcommittees and with the leadership of Chairman James Higgins and Vice-Chairman Patrick Leclair, the committee voted unanimously to approve the same positions as the current year.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the School Improvement Plan presented by Center School Principal Rosemary Bowman. The plan was broken down into four primary strategic goals that Bowman and others hope to accomplish by June 2018.

The first goal surrounds the idea of, as Bowman put it, teaching the whole child. This includes creating a curriculum that not only considers academic growth, but also the social and emotional growth of the students in the Mattapoisett School District.

“There is a strong focus on how to create the best school culture, how to provide services for children to support their social, emotional needs,” Bowman said.

The second goal is focused on developing relationships with all relevant parties across the Tri-Town districts. This includes parties such as school resource officer Matthew McGraw and those who provide grants to the schools such the League of Women Voters.

This goal also encompasses caring for the safety of the students. New lockdown education initiatives will focus more on teaching the students about potential lockdown scenarios, including ‘what-ifs’ and giving students of different ages the opportunity to practice lockdowns.

“This enhanced lockdown will be stressed even more carefully next year, but Matthew McGraw has been an excellent resource to us,” Bowman said.

The third goal stressed the implementation of 21st Century technology further into the classrooms. The technology that has been and will continue to be implemented includes interactive teaching boards and personal Chromebook laptops.

The focus of the goal is not just to provide students with technology, but to help guide children in learning about being online citizens on the Internet, which includes responsible behavior teaching and media literacy.

“If we can start teaching them from an early age, I think it will be helpful,” Bowman said.

The fourth goal looks to examine the current organizational structure and system to make sure that it is the most efficient it can be.

Later in the meeting, the committee voted unanimously to ratify the Teachers Memorandum of Agreement. The memorandum has been developed in concert with the committee and the teachers and was approved at the Tuesday night meeting following little discussion.

Just prior to the end of the meeting, Superintendent Douglas White brought up an issue about the administration of medicine to students who are out on field trips. The plan would train teachers to administer certain medications to students should they need it. This would negate the need for a nurse to go on every field trip allowing her or him to stay at the school. According to White, this is already a practice at other schools in the district.

“Many times our students go on field trips and one of the things that needs to happen is we need to make sure that student medication and the ability to handle any emergencies around an Epi-pen administration takes place,” White said.

Each student would have a box dedicated with her or his name on it, which would contain any medications she or he needs. The committee approved the plan to train teachers with these skills unanimously.

The next Mattapoisett School Committee meeting is scheduled for September 14 at 7:00 pm at the Center School.

By Andrew Roiter

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Claire F. (Rose) Tetreault

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Claire F. (Rose) Tetreault, 90, of Marion, died June 9, 2015 with her daughters by her side. She was married to Arthur H. Tetreault for almost 68 years. They shared an extraordinary marriage. She was the daughter of the late Clarence and Josephine (Spinner) Rose.

Claire lived in Lincoln for many years before moving to Marion.

Survivors include her husband, Arthur H. Tetreault of Marion; children, Thomas H. Tetreault (Ilona Kalisky-Tetreault) of Lincoln; Linda Tetreault (Mark Cohen) of Yarmouth Port, Lois Tetreault (Christie White) and Lauren Tetreault (Patricia Sands) of Maynard; grandchildren Zara and Coltrane Kalisky-Tetreault, Alexandra Puleo (Sebastian Ebarb) and Genevieve Puleo (Brady Eskilson); great-grandchild Dezi, and several nephews and nieces. She was the sister of the late Lois C. Harvey.

Claire was Salutatorian of her graduating class in Johnson City, New York and went on to work as an executive secretary in the School of Education at IBM. Claire and her husband Art ran a residential construction company together. When he contracted polio in 1954, Claire ran the business on her own while raising three young children. From 1966-1991 Claire and Art were proprietors of A.H. Tetreault, Inc., specializing in real estate in the Lincoln area. Claire enjoyed her retirement in Marion with participation in local gardening and travel groups. She organized a book club on Planting Island that still continues.

Claire was a thoughtful and intelligent participant in her community. She had a strong faith in God. She supported advancement in education, particularly through reading. She embraced spouses, partners and children of her children with loving enthusiasm.

Her Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m., June 20, in St. Rita’s Church, 113 Front St., Marion. The family wishes to thank the outstanding caregivers who helped Claire during the last five years. In lieu of flowers, you are invited to purchase books for your local library or make a contribution to the Southcoast VNA, 200 Mill St., Fairhaven, MA 02719.

Academic Achievements

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Emily Roseman, resident of Rochester, graduated from Bates College on May 31 with a bachelor’s degree in politics, magna cum laude.

The largest graduating class in WPI’s history – 1,680 students – received their degrees beneath a large, billowing tent that shielded graduates and well-wishers from the sun that occasionally peeked from behind generally cloudy skies. In all, the Institute awarded 956 bachelor’s degrees, 682 master’s degrees, and 42 PhDs during its 147th Commencement exercises.

The following local residents recently graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI):

– Mary-Lee Barboza of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and biotechnology with high distinction.

– Gregory Kornichuk of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering with high distinction.

– Michael Gifford of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering with high distinction.

– Xiaoyu Wang of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

– Alexander Stylos of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in robotics engineering.

Brenna Maloney, a junior majoring in Health Promotion, from Marion was among approximately 1,800 students at Coastal Carolina University who made the Spring 2015 Dean’s List. To qualify for the Dean’s List, freshmen must earn a 3.25 grade point average and upperclassmen must earn a 3.5 grade point average. To qualify for the President’s List, students must earn a 4.0 grade point average. All students must be enrolled full time.

Kerry Ecker from Mattapoisett graduated from Wake Forest University on May 18.

Cody J. Nadeau of Marion graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from McDaniel College. McDaniel awarded 358 bachelor’s degrees during the 145th Commencement on May 23.

Nathan D’Olympia, a 2005 graduate of Old Rochester Regional High School, was recently awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is currently working as a scientist at Passport Systems in Billerica, MA.

Nasketucket Bird Club

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At the Nasketucket Bird Club’s June meeting, conservationist Brian Bastarache will present “Ecology of the Southeast Massachusetts Pine Barrens.” Come and find out about this globally rare forest of pitch pine and scrub oak and the equally rare creatures and plants that depend on it.

The event will be held at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 25 at the Mattapoisett Public Library, 7 Barstow Street. The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Carolyn Longworth at bvm1290@comcast.net.

Mattapoisett Land Trust Elects Officers

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At their Annual Meeting on May 30, members of the Mattapoisett Land Trust elected Directors and Officers to serve for MLT’s 2015-2016 fiscal year. Directors elected include: Marc Anderson, Skip Bedser, Ray Cebula, Don Cuddy, Ellen Flynn, Sandy Hering, Mike Huguenin, Gary Johnson, Luana Josvold, Paul Osenkowski, Charles Radville, and Jeffrey Sanders. MLT’s Officers will be:

– President: Mike Huguenin

– Vice-President: Skip Bedser

– Treasurer: Gary Johnson

– Assistant Treasurer: Sandy Hering

– Clerk: Luana Josvold

At the meeting, members thanked Gary Johnson for his 13 years of service as MLT’s President, during which time MLT has grown to conserve over 700 acres of land for wildlife habitat and public enjoyment. More information about MLT is available on the organization’s Facebook page or at www.mattlandtrust.org.

Student Tennis Lessons

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The Old Rochester School District will again offer student tennis lessons at the Old Rochester Regional Tennis Complex

The first clinic will run Wednesday through Tuesday, June 24-30, and the second clinic Monday through Friday, August 3-7.

There will be two classes within each clinic: Ages 7-11 and 12-18. Groupings within each class will be based on age and abilities. Each class will last for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Maximum number of students per class is 36 to ensure a 6:1 teaching ratio.

Coach Hohne, long-time ORR tennis coach and former and present tennis player, will conduct the clinic. The cost of the clinic is $96 per student.

For more information, contact Coach Hohne at 508-742-5231 or rhohne@orr.mec.edu.